Flash: Multimedia Story Book

Today we are going to begin putting all of the different techniques together into an Interactive Story Book (similar to the Multimedia Greeting Card but with additional "scenes").  You can come up with an original story or find one that is in the public domain or retell an old fairy tale story in your own words.  Each "scene" will have words, images, and interactivity (mousing over and/or clicking to make something happen).

Some ideas might include a children's story with pictures of your little brother/sister/nephew/niece, a story or poem you have written which you can illustrate in Flash, an educational book (i.e. anatomy, astronomy, chemistry, welding, etc.), or a tutorial / how-to involving step-by-step instructions.

Try to make this a project which is different than a simple "click for the next page" movie -- we could use PowerPoint to do that.  Include something like a button with an "over" or "down" that makes the movie interactive.  Maybe insert a movie clip on one of your frames that animates something.  Just be creative!

You should include the following:

• A custom mouse pointer
• An opening "scene" which stops at a specific keyframe or loops back to the beginning.
• A button which will advance the viewer to the next "scene"
• A "stop" on the next scene so users can view everything
• A button which will allow users to move to the next scene(s) and a "stop" button 
• On the last frame of the last scene, a button which will allow users to start over from the first scene
• Sound and/or music

Some of the ActionScript you will need includes:

/*  Custom Mouse Pointer Code  */
  onClipEvent (load) {
  Mouse.hide();
  startDrag(this, true);
}
onClipEvent(mouseMove){
  updateAfterEvent();
}

/*  Stop Code  */
stop();

/*  Button 'Go To' Code  */
on (release) {
  gotoAndPlay(10);
}

Here are some Step by Step Instructions:

1. Open Adobe Flash
2. Create a new document: FILE > NEW > Flash File (ActionScript 2.0)
3. Create 3 Layers:  Pointer, Buttons, and Background
4. On the background layer, draw a background
5. On the pointer layer, draw a pointer
6. Select the pointer background layer (it will select the pointer)
7. Click Modify > Convert to Symbol > Movie Clip (name it Pointer)
8. Right-click the pointer symbol and select "Actions"
9. Enter the following ActionScript:
   onClipEvent (load) {
     Mouse.hide();
     startDrag(this, true);
   }
   onClipEvent(mouseMove){
        updateAfterEvent();
   }
10. Press CTRL+ENTER to test your movie
11. Draw a button
12. Convert the button to a symbol (a button, obviously)
13. Go out to Frame 10 (for example) and add a keyframe for each layer.
14. Draw a new "scene" on Frame 10
15. Right-click the first keyframe on any layer (black dot) and choose Actions
16. Enter the following ActionScript:  stop();
17. Right-click any layers last keyframe and choose Actions
18. Enter the following ActionScript:  stop();
19. Right-click the button and enter the following ActionScript (if you set the next scenes keyframe at 10):
    on (release) {
            gotoAndPlay(10);
    }
20. Test your movie (CTRL+ENTER)

Once your movie is working (i.e. It opens and stays until you click the button -- and then it goes to the next section and stays) you can begin adding some flair.  Add sound effects, improve your mouse pointer, insert some music, insert pictures, etc.

Note:  I created a template for the Interactive Book (below) if you feel like you need to start with it.

• Interactive Book Template 

Flash: What is Animation?

Traditional animation (Disney cartoons, Spongebob, anime and manga) is an illusion of movement.  You don't actually see things moving -- you see a series of drawings placed one after another [around 24-30 images per second] which makes your brain believe it sees movement.  That phenomenon is called Persistence of Vision.  Traditionally an artist draws/paints 24-30 drawings for every 1 second of animation.  With computers as tools, artists have the luxury of having computers complete the "in-between" frames automatically.  For example, you draw two shapes: a circle in one corner of the screen on frame 1 and then in the opposite corner around 10 seconds later -- and then you tell the computer to figure out the "in-between" (or "tween").

The nice thing about computerized "tweens" is that image one can be a tiny red circle and image 2 can be a large green square, and the computer will gradually morph them from frame to frame.

Here is a sample video:

Over 100 years ago "arcades" were full of machines that people would put coins in and look through the viewfinder as they turned a crank which would flip through a series of photographs on a big spool.  More modern examples of this technology is a "flip book".  Typically these are done by rapidly flipping through images to create the illusion of motion.

Here's a great example of using Post-It notes to create a flip book movie:

Here's an example of animation using a MUCH slower "frame rate":


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=783uWoSqdX0

And another example using variable frame rates -- or just flipping the page when you need the next frame.  :)

Flash: Frame by Frame Animation

Creating Frame-by-Frame Animations:

• Create a new Flash document
• Draw a background (if necessary) and name it "Background" (I recommend locking it, but it's your call)
• Create a new layer for your animated object(s)
• Draw an object that you want to animate
• Notice that there's a • in the framer where you drew your picture.  This indicates a "Keyframe"
• If you Right-Click on the box directly to the right of your Keyframe, you can do "Insert Keyframe" -- or "Insert Blank Keyframe" if you would like to start with a blank frame.
• You may notice that you no longer see a background on your "movie" -- this is okay because it's easy to fix at the end.  You simply right-click in the very last frame on the "Background" layer and choose "Insert Frame".
• Next, save your movie to your Thawspace [as an FLA] and do a CTRL+ENTER to test your movie.