Tutorials

All the latest (and greatest) Tutorials tutorials, components, news, and inspiration collected from all the websites and blogs, gurus and writers, and assembled here for your easy access. Use the toolbar above to filter the tutorials, components, news, and inspiration to a particular topic, or to view all subjects simultaneously.

  • Quick Tip: Create a Basic Google Search App in Flash

    In this Quick Tip, I will show you how to create a basic search application featuring the Google search engine.

    Final Result Preview
    Let’s take a look at the final result we will be working towards:

    Step 1: Brief Overview
    Using a TextField and some Events, we’ll send the search terms to Google and display the result in the browser.

    Step 2: Set Up Your Flash File
    Launch Flash and create a new Flash Document, set the stage size to 320×100px and the background color to #181818.

    Step 3: Interface

    This is the interface we’ll be using, it includes an Input TextField and a button. Set the TextField instance name to searchTerms and the button to searchButton.

    Step 4: ActionScript
    This is the class that carries out all the work, please read the comments in the code to fully understand its behavior.

    package
    {
    import flash.display.Sprite;
    import flash.events.MouseEvent;
    import flash.events.KeyboardEvent;
    import flash.ui.Keyboard;…

  • Test Your Observation Skills With an AS3 Difference Game – Active Premium

    Today, we have another Active Premium tutorial exclusively available to Premium members. If you want to take your ActionScript skills to the next level, then we have an awesome tutorial for you, courtesy of Stephan Meesters.

    Preview
    Test your skills of observation with the demo below!

    This Premium Tutorial is Filled with Creative Tips
    During this tutorial we’ll create the core gameplay of a difference game. This includes all the main functionality and two levels to play around with. After this we will also add a main menu and an ending screen.
    To summarize, we will be using two images: one with a clean background and one with all the differences. We create markers that determine the position and dimension of each difference and use BitmapData operations to copy this on the screen. Randomization will keep the gameplay interesting and increase replayability.

    Professional and Detailed Instructions Inside
    Premium members can…

  • New Video Tutorial on Mobile Web Development

    I just uploaded a new tutorial that shows you how to create a mobile-optimized website using HTML and CSS. The tutorial also highlights the new multi-screen development features of Dreamweaver CS5. It is important to have a strong grasp on standard web technologies as only then can you make an informed decision about when to use Flash.

  • Develop an Age Verification Form Using ActionScript 3

    In this tutorial, we’ll learn how to develop and implement an Age Verification form for use in your websites or applications. Read on to find out more!

    Final Result Preview
    Let’s take a look at the final result we will be working towards:

    Step 1: Overview
    Making use of the Date class we’ll compare the user birthdate to the current date. Firstly though, we’ll pull together a nice looking interface using Flash CS5 and the drawing tools.

    Step 2: Document Settings
    Launch Flash and create a new document. Set the stage size to 600×300px, and the frame rate to 24fps.

    Step 3: Interface

    This is the interface we’ll use, a gradient background with a semi-transparent black panel. This panel contains a series of TextFields that will display feedback to the user and will capture the user input.
    There is also a button to perform the age verification.

    Step 4: Background…

  • 3D Particles Made of Light – AS3 Dynamic Flash Effect

    Thousands of particles which appear to be made
    of light form beautiful revolving surfaces in 3D space.
    We use an additive luminescent effect which creates brighter
    spots where particles are more concentrated. We present four
    examples with variations in color and filter effects.
    Complete source code available for download.

  • Manipulating Particle Motion with Stardust Particle Engine – Part 2

    This is the second part of this tutorial. I’m going to show you how to manipulate particle motion with deflectors.

    Prior knowledge of motion basics and vector fields is required. I highly recommend that you complete the first part of this tutorial before moving on.

    Final Result Preview
    Take a look at the final result we will be working towards. It’s an example of a floor effect, with particles bouncing off the floor.

    Deflectors

    Pretty much like gravity fields, a deflector takes a particle’s current motion data as input. Afterwards, the deflector overwrites the particle’s motion with its output, only that the output now contains velocity data in addition to position data. Thus, in 2D space, a deflector’s output is a 4D vector; the first two components of the 4D vector represent the x- and y-component of the position vector (denoted x and y), respectively, and the last two components represent…

  • Flex and layout mirroring

    • Monday, 26 Jul 2010, 01:00 PDT (3 days ago)
    • By: admin, RIAgora
    Acrobat-8-Arabic-User-interface

    This month, Adobe officially launched Flex 4.1, a minor update with a major feature: layout mirroring. One year ago, I worked on a project for a customer who needed to develop an AIR application and deploy it in 40 countries. Some countries use ‘right to left’ languages such as Arabic or Hebrew, which means that Flex developers use right-to-left locales. What you must realize about RTL (Right to left) is that it targets not only text fields, but the whole user interface. Look at this screenshot of Acrobat 8 (considered by James Ward as the OS of the future) localized in Arabic by my Winsoft friends: menus, lists, combo-boxes, labels… the entire UI is mirrored !!! Notice that vertical scroll bars appear on the left instead of the right, and that for horizontal scrollbars, the thumb appears on the right side of the control instead of the left.

    To support layout mirroring, new…

  • Speaking at the following upcoming Flash events

    screen-shot-2010-07-24-at-71147-am

    I am very excited and privileged to be attending and speaking at the following upcoming Flash events: CFUnited, RIAUnleashed, 360|Flex DC and AdobeMAX. It’s always great to network, meet new friends, as well as hang out with old conference buddies. In addition, it’s great to learn from others and see what people are working on these days.
    CFUnited

    CFUnited has been around the block for the past 12 years and this is the first time that I will be speaking at this event. This will be the last CFUnited and an end of an era. Don’t miss the last chance to attend this event!! It is only few days away and I can’t wait to be part of it. In addition to ColdFusion – CFUnited has many sessions about Flex, AIR, Best Practices for Code, UI Development, databases and much more. This is a real opportunity to extend your knowledge…

  • Reduce complexity from the DisplayList and increase performance

    displaylisttree

    One of the easiest approaches to increase performance in Flash app is to remove any hidden objects from the Flash display list, and use the minimum amount of display objects. The code execution goes through the display list from the top layer, the Stage, and through the main Application class. Flash Player executes code and renders all the children in the display list from top to button until it reaches the display object. A container can be anything that extends the DisplayObjectContainer such as UIComponent, Group or a Sprite.

    Especially with MXML, it’s very easy to nest display objects, however it’s VERY expensive every time we nest display objects, since each display object added to the display list is extending a class that extends a class etc. To understand why it is so expensive to nest. Let’s take a look at the display list class hierarchy.

    ActionScript 3
    When it…

  • Interface Between Two Files Using the LocalConnection Class

    Creating a new AS3 file.

    In this tutorial we will use the AS3 LocalConnection class to send and receive data between two different SWF files. Today we will use this to detect mouse movement in one SWF and mirror it in another.

    Final Result Preview
    Let’s take a look at the final result we will be working towards. Below are two completely different files.

    This tutorial is split into two sections. The first will concentrate on the sending SWF and the second will involve building the receiving SWF. I will also be using the document class throughout this tutorial.

    Section 1: Sending Information

    Step 1: Sending New Flash Document
    Firstly, create a new ActionScript 3.0 file.

    Then, resize the file to 600px × 250px.

    Step 2: Sending Add a Background
    This step is not necessary for functionality, but more for aesthetics. Add your image to the stage and then lock its layer.

    Step 3: Sending…

  • Stopping the timeline in Actionscript 3

    In this post I will show you different scenarios of stopping the timeline in Actionscript 3. Lets suppose you want to stop the timeline in the last frame, you can simply use the stop() method in the…

    Copyright © 2010 ilike2flash.

  • Two Ways to Tint Display Objects in AS3 Flash

    One way is to use fl.motion.Color class and its
    setTint method. Another way is to assign a proper ColorTransform
    to object’s transform.colorTransform property. In this How-To,
    we show and explain both ways.

  • Quick Tip: iPad-Proof Your Flash Website

    In this tutorial you will learn how to use SWFObject script to set up automatic redirection from a Flash website to a non-Flash backup website when it’s viewed on an iPad.

    Final Result Preview
    Here’s a very simple mock-up of a Flash website we’ll be using in this tutorial. If you try to access that page using iPad you won’t be able to see any content.
    And here’s the final result we’ll be working toward. if you access it with iPad you’ll be able to see the animated page.

    Introduction
    When the wind of change blows, some people build walls, others build windmills.
    – Ancient Chinese proverb
    I think iPad is a great device, even though I can understand why the introduction of the Flashless tablet made quite a few people mad. I admit it did make me mad at first: just before iPad appeared in my local Apple store I…

  • Links in text in Actionscript 3

    This is a quick tip where I will show you three methods of adding links to text.

    Method 1 – Static text

    This is probably the easiest and fastest method of adding links to text. Firstly,…

    Copyright © 2010 ilike2flash.

  • Performance Monitor tool to watch internal of the Flash Player during runtime

    screen-shot-2010-07-20-at-81015-am

    My idea was to be able to easily add a performance monitor tool that will allow you to watch the internal of the Flash Player during Runtime. FrameStats will help you determine whether the player is stretching code execution, rendering or both.
    The tool is platform independent and for Pure AS3 project just add the following line of code to your display object container:

    this.addChild( new FrameStats(this) );

    In Flex project you have to wrap it in a UIComponent since the class is a Sprite:

    protected function creationCompleteHandler():void
    {
    var componenent:UIComponent = new UIComponent();
    componenent.addChild( frameStats );
    frameStatsHolder.addElement( componenent );
    }

    <s:Group id="frameStatsHolder" />

    The tools show the following phases:

    Constructor Code - constructor code of display object container and it’s subclasses are executed. This is the time leaped between Event.ENTER_FRAME and Event.FRAME_CONSTRUCTED events
    Frame Actions – code for the display object container and children are being executed. This is the…

  • Ten tips for building better Adobe AIR apps

    Adobe Air

    Flash Magazine published a new article by Christian Cantrell explaining in detail ten tips on how to make better Adobe Air applications, the tips explain memory and CPU issues as well as window-less applications and multi-window apps – an excellent tutorial to have bookmarked for future reference. View it at this link.

  • Create a Full Screen, Scalable Flash Website: Part 3

    In the final part of this tutorial, you’ll learn how to load Featured Work and News from XML files (keeping the site’s content easy to change), allow visitors to email you using a Contact form, add a preloader, and enable Full Screen mode.

    Final Result Preview
    Take a look at the final result we will be working towards. Try it in full screen mode by clicking the button in the top-right corner, and check out all the new changes!

    Section 1: Overview, Understanding XML Structure, and Loading XML

    Don’t like ads? Download the screencast, or subscribe to Activetuts+ screencasts via iTunes!

    The XMLLoader class is available in the Source download.

    Section 2: Building the “Featured Work” Page

    Don’t like ads? Download the screencast, or subscribe to Activetuts+ screencasts via iTunes!

    Section 3: Building the “News” Section

    Don’t like ads? Download the screencast, or subscribe to Activetuts+ screencasts via iTunes!

    Section…

  • Astronaut – 3D Particle Effect in AS3 Flash CS4

    We present a new 3D particle effect, Astronaut, in which We animate
    15,000 particles. The principles that govern motion of particles
    are different from those in Kepler’s Supernova and our other popular
    examples. In Astronaut, the particles fly upwards at a height
    based on their luminance. As always, we provide easily customizable source code.

  • Manipulating Particle Motion with Stardust Particle Engine – Part 1

    Stardust Particle Engine provides two major approaches to freely manipulate particle motion, namely gravitational fields and deflectors. Gravitational fields are vector fields that affect a particle’s acceleration, and deflectors manipulate both a particle’s position and velocity.

    The first part of this tutorial covers the basics of particle motion and gravitational fields. Also, it demonstrates how to create your own custom gravitational fields. The second part focuses on deflectors and how to create custom deflectors.

    Prior knowledge of the basic usage of Stardust is required to continue reading this tutorial. If you’re not familiar with Stardust, you can check out my previous tutorial on the subject, Shoot out Stars with Stardust Particle Engine, before going on.

    Final Result Preview
    Let’s take a look at the final result we will be working towards. This is an example of a custom vortex gravitational field.

    Particle Motion Basics

    It’s time for some quick flashback…

  • New Two-Part Tutorial On AIR 2.0 NativeProcess

    I recently uploaded a two-part tutorial that explains how to use the new NativeProcess API in Adobe AIR 2.0. With this API you can communicate with native code to get deeper access to the host operating system. In the first part, I create a command-line screenshot application using Visual Studio and C#. In part two, I create an AIR-based front-end for the C# application using the NativeProcess API.

  • Event Handler Style Showdown

    There has been some talk on Twitter recently about the best way to write an event handler. This is all in good fun of course as there is no right way to do any kind of code. Flashers come from all walks of life. Some are from the design world and some from serious development backgrounds. Below are some of the suggested ways. What do you think?
    1234567891011121314151617181920private function kermanStyle(evt:Event):void {
        // this is nice but I don’t like evt for some
        // reason. Also it is much more readable and
        // clean to put the opening { on a new line.
    }
           
    private function sacksStyle(event:Event):void
    {
        // Steven rightly puts the opening { on a new
        // line but uses the word event for his event
        // object. You should never use a lowercase…

  • Easy way to store event listener references & prevent memory leaks

    screen-shot-2010-07-15-at-105913-pm

    Many times when we find memory leaks in our applications, it’s due to listeners that have been set by us or someone else and never removed from memory. Although it’s recommended to use weak reference when setting event listeners, the fact that we have to put these three extra parameters often cause developers not to set them, which blocks the garbage collector from collecting these objects:

    eventDispatcherObject.addEventListener(type,handler,false,0,true);

    The solution is simple. All display objects such as Sprite, UIComponent, Spark etc are all extending event dispatcher class and if you set a line break point and look in the debugger you can see that any display object that the event listeners were set are actually stored in an array.

    The only problem is that the array is set to private, which prevents us from cleaning an object from it’s listeners.
    See EventDispatcher class:

    private function get listeners() : Array;

    Yesterday, I…

  • Applications for Tile Engines in Flash Game Design

    How tile engines simplify the game design process and how to apply them to different game types.
    We found this awesome author thanks to FlashGameLicense.com, the place to buy and sell Flash games!

    Final Result Preview
    Let’s take a look at the final result we will be working towards:

    Move your mouse to make the little square walk towards it, and click to make it jump. Hit space to change tile currently underneath the cursor.

    Introduction: What are Tiles?
    The simplest way to describe tiles is to show you images from games that have used them in the past. This is a portion of a screenshot from The Legend of Zelda:

    When you look at older games, you can see that a lot of the art in the game is reused. The same tree appears twice, the same rocks appear twice, the wild grass is there three times on the screen…

  • Magnifying Glass Effect on a MovieClip with AS3 Flash

    A simple tutorial on creating magnifying glass effect for
    vector graphics and MovieClips. The technique is quite
    different from zooming on bitmap images presented in our
    earlier tutorial.

  • Colorful Animated Menu with AS3

    View Demo

    In this simple tut, let’s create a colorful horizontal menu with mouse over animation by using Actionscript 3 and the Tweenlite engine.

    1. Create a new flash file (Actionscript 3.0) and save it as menu.fla.
    2. First let’s create the “template” button that will use to create the menu.
    Create a Movie Clip (Insert>New Symbol) and give it a name of MyBtn.
    Export you button for actionscript with a class name of MyBtn.
    Inside this movie clip reproduce the same thing as shown below:

    3. Open the actions panel. We’ll use the Tweenlite engine so first if you don’t already have it
    go to http://blog.greensock.com/tweenlite/ to download the AS3 version.
    Extract the zip file and get the com directory. Place this directory at the same level of your flash file.
    First write the following statements to use Tweenlite. We’ll use the Tint plugin to manage the colors so we need to activate it.(More…

  • Quick Tip: Embed a Transparent Flash Movie with CSS – Basix

    Learn how to export a Flash Movie with a transparent background and embed it in an HTML file.

    Step 1: Brief Overview
    Using a publish option in Flash and a little bit of CSS, we’ll embed a transparent Flash Movie on top of HTML content.

    Step 2: Choose a Flash File
    Select the file you want to use with a transparent background, I used the Random Ease Candle template included in Flash CS5.

    Step 3: Publish Settings
    With your file open, go to File > Publish Settings, click in the HTML tab and change the window mode to Transparent Windowless.

    Click the Publish button to export the corresponding swf and html file.

    Step 4: HTML
    You can get the exact same result by setting a parameter in the HTML file you’re using.
    Let’s take a look at that part, starting in the flashContent div.

    <div id="flashContent">
    <object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="320" height="240" id="Transparent" align="middle">
    <param name="movie"…

  • Full Browser Flash

    Most Flash movies are created at a specific size, which makes them much easier to design and build. But every now and again you come across a website built in Flash that fills the entire browser window and dynamically repositions its elements when the browser is resized. In this tutorial you’ll learn the basic techniques needed to create a full browser Flash website.
    1 OPEN THE STARTER FILE
    Download the exercise file for this tutorial at www.layersmagazine.com and unzip it onto your desktop or other location of your choosing. Inside of the ZIP file you’ll find a file named “FullBrowserFlash.fla.” Open this file in Flash CS4. This movie is set to publish to Flash Player 10 and uses ActionScript 3. It’s important to keep this last setting, as the code I’m about to show you will only work when targeting ActionScript 3. In the Library panel (Window>Library) you’ll see a couple of…

  • Create an Image Cropping Application in Flash with ActionScript 3 – Active Premium

    It’s that time of the week again; today we have an awesome Active Premium tutorial exclusively available to Premium members. Follow the prolific Carlos Yanez as he explains how to build an image cropping app – all with Flash and AS3..

    This Premium Tutorial is Filled with Creative Tips
    Using the Flash Tools we’ll create an attractive interface that will be powered by several ActionScript 3 classes like MouseCursor, Bitmap, BitmapData, Rectangle, Point, Tween, FileReference and even external libraries. A nice looking mac-like interface will power our code, involving multiple timeline based buttons, custom cursors and more.
    The user will be able to crop an image multiple times to later select the best option and save it to disk.

    Professional and Detailed Instructions Inside
    Premium members can Log in and Download! Otherwise, Join Now! Below are some sample images from this tutorial.

    Demo

    Example Images

    Active Premium Membership
    We run…

  • Create a Dynamic Deep Linking Flash Web Site with SWFAddress

    :)

    In this tut, we will be exploring the wonder that is SWFAddress, discussing why your site should have deep linking, and the processes involved in implementing deep linking in your Flash projects.

    This website is XML driven. Also we shall be looking at SWFAddress’s built in functions and how they are used to create the final result. Enjoy!
    Check out the demo above in a new window. Notice how your browser’s URL changes as you navigate through the mini-site.

    Step 1: Why use Deep Linking?
    Deep linking is a great way to structure a website and also is great way to structure code.
    Deep linking is basically giving the user a chance to link to a certain area of a Flash movie through a simple URL.
    For example if you wanted to show a portfolio to a client and you gave them the link to a Flash website without deep…

  • New Video Tutorial on Android Camera Access

    I just uploaded the second tutorial in the AIR for Android series. The latest build (07/05) on the prerelease site contains a ton of cool features including camera and microphone access, webview, and hardware acceleration. In this tutorial I show you how to get the device’s camera into your AIR application.


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