Flash: Beginning Flash

Today we begin Adobe Flash -- a program designed to create graphics, animation and interactivity for the Web.  After exploring the basic tools and menu options, we will be drawing a simple Flash picture.  The finished picture will be saved to Thawspace as an FLA file (Flash Source File) and then we will do a CTRL+ENTER to "Test Movie" -- a step which creates an SWF file (Shockwave Format) with the same name as the FLA file.

FLA files are Flash "editable" files -- really, the only way to open one is to use Flash.  The SWF files are able to be opened without another program, embedded on a web page, etc.  You can also save projects as Animated GIF files, but any interactivity is lost.

There is a folder on your desktop called "Drop Box" which should have a Flash file in it.  Open that file in Adobe Flash.  We will be using that file to learn some basic manipulation with Flash tools.
If that doesn't work, you can find the file here.

 FlashDrawing.fla looks like this.