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Creating Custom Video Controller Skins for the Flash Video Component in Dreamweaver 8


Jen deHaan

Jen deHaan

Flash Authoring QE
Adobe
Jen deHaan's blog
flashthusiast.com
webvideoblogger.com

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Understanding Custom Controllers
  3. Creating a Custom Video Controller
  4. Creating a Small Custom Controller
  5. Adding a Custom Controller to the Website
  6. Where to Go from Here
Created:
12 September 2005
User Level:
Intermediate

The Macromedia Flash Video component in Dreamweaver 8 helps you easily insert and display Flash Video (FLV) files in your websites without using the Macromedia Flash authoring tool. The Flash Video component lets you select from several different playback controllers that visitors use to control the FLV file on your web page.

In addition, you can choose from nine default controller skins (graphic themes) when you insert an FLV file, and the skin you choose dramatically changes the available features in the video controller and how the embedded video looks. If you are a Flash designer, you can also create your own skin using Flash 8 and use the custom skin instead.

This article shows you how to set up a skin file, and use it with the Flash Video component. This offers extra flexibility for Flash designers who also use Dreamweaver to present video on their web pages in addition to other existing methods:

  • Using the FLVPlayback and media components that install with Flash Professional 8.

    Note: The skinning process for the Flash 8 FLVPlayback component is much easier than it was in Flash MX 2004. Check out Dan Carr's article Customizing the FLVPlayback Component for more information.

  • Manually creating video controls in Flash

Note: To learn how to add FLV files to your web pages with the Flash Video feature for Dreamweaver, check out the companion piece to this article: Presenting video with the Flash video component in Dreamweaver CS3.

Requirements

To make the most of this tutorial, you need to install the following software and files:

Dreamweaver 8

Macromedia Flash Professional 8

Tutorials and sample files:


Prerequisite Knowledge

A basic understanding of Flash design and a fundamental understanding of ActionScript. Also, you should be familiar with the article that precedes this one, Presenting video with the Flash video component in Dreamweaver CS3. The first article shows you how to place and play the video on the sample site.

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About the author

Jen deHaan was raised by wolves in the deep woods of the Canadian north. Canada's chief exports include motor vehicles (or their parts), lumber, newsprint, nonmetal materials, and wheat. One overcast day in 2004, Jen left her life as a Flash deseloper (designer/developer) in Canada to write Flash documentation and samples at Macromedia in San Francisco. Aside from her ongoing work at Adobe as an instructional designer for web and video products, Jen runs several community sites for fun, and maintains a blog at www.webvideoblogger.com and weblogs.macromedia.com/dehaan. She believes that _root tends to be evil and misses Tim Horton's coffee.