CartoonSmart Flash Tutorials for Actionscript 3 and Actionscript 2

Actionscript 2 Lessons...

The Basic Actionscript video tutorials teach Jumping to Frames on the Timeline or in a Movieclip, Linking to Webpages and Email Links, Instance Names and Symbol Hierarchy, Navigating with Frame Labels or Frame Numbers , Understanding Button Actions, Creating Variables, and Random eventsvs. Frame Actions, Input, Dynamic Text, and Creating a Password, Simple IF / ELSE statements, Dragging Movieclips around the stage, Controlling, Loading a variable from an HTML into the swf, Movieclip Properties with Actions, Along with the Quicktime Movie is also included a PDF reference file, full of images and code examples. Very handy! The Not-So-Basic Actionscript course teachs Event Handlers, Functions, Determining the Scope of a Movieclip, Event Handlers for Runtime Objects, the Sound Object, Color Transform, Listener Events, Listening for Keypresses, Scripting a Line Drawing Tool, and the Movieclip Loader.

Product Display Techniques... This tutorial teaches how to create a Product Display Interface in Flash. The Actionscript in this lesson is used to click and drag an image, and setup a zoom and pan interface for hovering over a small product image, which will then effect a larger, more detailed product image. This technique can be used for more than just product images though. An ebbok, map, online coming, even .flv could be incorporated into the Flash interface. The Quicktime video for this Flash tutorial is over 2 hours long, and the lesson is compatible with Flash MX, Flash MX 2004, or Flash 8.

Site Map Menu... Program a Flash Based Site Map menu. This is a dynamic menu, using variables to create the menu and submenu's in a Flash document. Fold open or unfold the menu to expand links to different sections of the site.

XML based MP3 Player for Flash. This Flash tutorial teaches how to Load Data from an XML File, Parse Through It with Actionscript 2, then Create an MP3 Player. Here's how the final Flash file from this lesson works... The track titles, artist names, MP3 filenames, and album cover links are all listed in an XML file. This XML file acts as a playlist for the MP3 Player below. It could store data for just one track or for hundreds of tracks. After that data is loaded in and parsed through, the tutorial focuses on scripting all aspects of the player below (volume, track buttons, playing time, etc). This lesson will teach you TONS of Actionscript 2.0. The Quicktime video for this intensive Actionscript course is over 4 Hours.

PHP and Flash to create an Email Form and Password Protected Portion of a Flash Site... The first part of this lesson focuses on the basics of creating Input Text Fields. As an example, I set up two fields, one for a username and the other for a password. The correct password allows access to a hidden portion of the Flash file. One possible use for this could be a Client-only part of your site for updates on a project. The second half of this lesson connects an inquiry form to a PHP file which will then email the data back to you. You will need your own webhost to test out this portion of the tutorial. Also covered, are methods to check the data being sent for valid addresses, and testing whether the PHP successfully sent the data. If not, an error message prompts the user to start over. The PHP file can be modified to include more or less fields than those above.

Program Flash Polls... Learn how to Program an Animated Flash Poll Using a MySQL Database and PHP. 3 hour Video Tutorial. Cool Features... You can create new polls quickly! Open the Flash file, change a few variables and reupload. After the initial setup, you do NOT need to log into your MySQL admin each time you want to create a new poll. If a field doesn't exist in your table for a new poll entry, the PHP file creates one and starts traking results from there. The design is totally up to you. The look of the radio buttons, checkmarks, color, bars, text, etc. are completely your choice. Plus the animated bar results seen after voting, can be increased or decreased according to your needs (or excluded entirely). A PHP session can be used to keep people from voting twice during the same browser visit.

The "Video in Flash" tutorial covers a wide range of topics. Part 1, deals with Importing and Exporting. The main points are... 1. Importing Quicktime Movies, AVI, MPEG, DV, WMF, and ASF into Flash 7 Pro or Flash 8 Pro. 2. Exporting to the Flash Video format (.flv is the extension) 3. Adjusting the file size of the FLV file for optimal playback and download speed in the published .swf file. 4. Playing .FLV files without user interface controls (part 2 teaches the user interface portion) 5. Masking out a specific portion of a video. 6. How to create a PNG image sequence with Alpha Channel from your video in Flash. 7 Importing that PNG sequence into Quicktime Pro, then exporting to FLV and maintaining the Alpha data (just a cool trick to cap off part 1 of the tutorial) Part 2 deals with FLV playback. The main points are 1. Create an FLV file from a longer movie with attention to video and audio quality. 2. Linking to an external video file (so its not embeddeding directly into the swf like in Part 1) 3. Adjusting the basic paramenters of the FLV Playback Component, MediaDisplay, or MediaPlayback Component. 4. Using pre-made Skins for controlling the FLV or the FLV Playback Custom UI. 5. Using your OWN buttons to control the video. 6. Adding Cue Points (teaches you embedding Event and Navigation cues directly into the FLV file ) 7. Using those Cue Points to trigger events in the SWF and Adding an Actionscript Cue Point. Finally Part 3 deals with how to create an FLV Video Playlist. The main points are 1. Creating a video playlist for Flash 7 Professional. 2. In Flash 8, transition FLV files. 3. Swapping depths between two videos. 4. Setting up a playlist of videos. An example is linked here. 5. Adding Chapter Markers. 6. Switching Videos with Transitions. This tutorial package is a total of 3 hours long, recorded as always in high quality Quicktime video.

Cartoonsmart also has many Actionscript 2 and Actionscript 3 lessons in our MYSQL and Flash section.

Actionscript 3 Lessons....

CartoonSmart now teaches tons of Actionscript 3 tutorials. All videos are high quality and in Quicktime Format. Here's a rundown of the Actionscript 3 courses we teach.... Learn the Basics of Actionscript 3.0 using Flash CS3. At a glance, this tutorial teaches... Basic Property Changes, Programming Buttons, Listener Events, Navigate to URL's, Object Scope, Detecting Object Collisions, Using GetChild commands, Motion Tweening with Script, Text Fields and Embedding Fonts, Replacing the Mouse Cursor , Loading External SWF's, JPG's, Gif's, PNG's, Attaching Movieclips at Runtime, Using If Statements, Functions, and Variables, Programmably Moving or Dragging Objects, Using Sprite Objects instead of Movieclips. This tutorial teaches a lot of the most commonly used code so those of you familiar with Actionscript 2 don't have to bang your head against the wall for much longer. And if you've never written Actionscript before, this lesson is perfect for you as well. Excellent for beginners!

How to Program a Flash Rotating Carousel Gallery for and Actionscript 3 -Thumbnail links can be setup to jump to another frame, another URL, or load larger images. -Thumbnail orbit can optionally be tied into the mouse location to create a 3D effect (roll mouse above) -Change the number of thumbnails orbiting PLUS instead of thumbnails, you can use anything! -Thumbnails can be faded or blurred out in the background (optional if using Flash 8 or CS3) -Completely customizeable. Easily change thumb sizes and orbit, scrolling speed, mouse-over areas, colors, etc

Using Actionscript 3, MYSQL, and PHP to create and program an Ecard. Learn to program a Flash Ecard system using Actionscript 3 or Actionscript 2 , and connect to a MySQL database using PHP. This Flash Ecard tutorial teaches how to capture and store input text as well as x and y locations for objects, so the card can be customized using drag and drop methods to "dress up" characters or move around movieclips for other reasons. Also sending the card to an email address is possible, but optional. Cards can be generated without sending to an email address. After creating the card, a URL is displayed for the card location. Capturing a From email address is also possible, but not recommended.

Learn to program a Flash based Mp3 music player using Actionscript 3. The tutorial and features list includes... Dynamically load track locations from a text document (or simply write them in the Flash file). Easily update your player without republishing by simply editing file names (like "track1.mp3" ) in a text document. Use ID3 tags (embedded meta-data) in the MP3 file to display track name, artist, album and year. All this player requires is the location of your MP3 file, you do NOT have to specify the track info yourself. * Change the audio balance by sliding between the left and right speakers. This is the first two types of sliders you'll learn to programm, the volume slider is the second. * Minimize or Maximize the player (using that triangle in the bottom right). Switch the player to a more compact mode while not choosing tracks. You can decide how much you want to mask out. * Spectrum bars animate based on highs and lows of the left and right speakers. Yes finally a player with working spectrum bars. You can adjust the visuals for this to look however you want. * You always have the option to change the visual appearance of the player. Tint it, stretch it, brand it, do whatever you want to the player art. * Drag it! The entire player can be repositioned by dragging the shell.

Learn to program a dynamic scrolling gallery for Flash using Actionscript 3 and Actionscript 2. Thumbnails are loaded dynamically from a folder outside of the .swf file. When viewers click on the thumbnail a larger version of the image is also loaded externally. This Flash tutorial teaches both Actionscript 3 and Actionscript 2. Key features include... -Dynamically load thumbnails and larger-sized images from external folders.Simply tell the Flash file how many files to load, and a base file name (like "universe.jpg") then publish and upload! -Load images (JPG, PNG, GIF ) or other Flash files (.SWF) -Thumbnail links can be setup to jump to another frame, another URL, or load larger images (as above). Each thumbnail link can run a different Action. The example above only loads images, but you can program links to do anything. -Completely customizeable. Easily change thumb sizes, scrolling speed, mouse-over areas, colors, etc.Remember, you're buying training, not just a template. By the end of the videos you'll know exactly how to modify the Flash files.

This two part lesson covers the Drawing API using both Actionscript 3 (in Flash CS3) and Actionscript 2 (in Flash 8). The Drawing API allows you to create shapes using only code. So don't let the word "Drawing" in the title of this lesson confuse you. The traditional Flash drawing tools are totally off limits. Part one covers the basics of creating shapes (circle, squares, etc) and scripted filters (bevels, blurs, glows, etc). Part two teaches various ways to animate them. A note about the code: Most of the line-by-line programming and code explanations will be covered using Actionscript 3. At the end of each example, we'll look at the same code using Actionscript 2. For the most part, its very similar.

Differences between Actionscript 2 and Actionscript 3...

We've listed some key points and benefits to learning each version below. In most cases, you can do the same things with Actionscript 2 and 3, and if you're creating Flash content professionally, you'll probably want to know both to accept as many freelance jobs as possible....

Actionscript 2 Features
- Using Flash CS3, Flash 8, or Flash MX 2004 you can publish Actionscript 2 files. -Actionscript 2 based Flash Files can play in Flash Player 7, 8, or 9. -Actionscript 2 is the basis for Flash Lite 2 and 3 (Flash for mobile phones) -From a freelance perspective, many clients will already have existing AS2 based sites and want them edited/updated quickly without upconverting to Actionscript 3 -In most people's opinion, its a little easier

Actionscript 3 Features
-Using Flash CS3 you can publish Actionscript 3 files. -Actionscript 3 based Flash files can only play in Flash Player 9 (most net users have upgraded though) -Actionscript 3 .swf files can load external .swf files coded with Actionscript 2 -Learning Actionscript 3 in Flash will help you learn Actionscript 3 for Flex -From a freelance perspective, there are fewer Actionscript 3 developers "out there" so learning the newest version can get you a leg up on job applicants or freelance bids.

Will Actionscript 2 files suddenly become incompatible?

No. In fact, Flash Player 9 still plays Flash content that was published 10 years ago with Flash 1! Also keep in mind, your viewers can't tell which Actionscript version your files are published to.