Hands On 2: Creating an Illustrated Ocean Scene with Layers and Objects

Overview

By now you've probably figured out that Flash movies can be quite complex. A movie of even moderate size and intricacy can contain many discreet areas of action (interactivity, animation, and so on). As a result, it's fairly easy to create a Flash movie that, although compelling and beautiful, is an unorganized, chaotic nightmare. Whether you are creating a stand-alone animation, a web-based animated short, or a complete Flash site, you're going to have to develop and maintain a method of keeping your Flash creation well organized.

Now, imagine being able to break your creation into any number of manageable chunks , each containing a specific series of events (such as an animation, an interface, or some interactivity) ”this is where Flash scenes come in. As in theater, you can think of scenes as self-contained chunks that logically break up your movie's content. Each scene is something akin to a mini-movie that is strung together with other mini-movies to create an overall Flash movie. When it comes to movies of any significant complexity, scenes save you a great deal of time and trouble.

 

Understanding the Power and Possibilities of Scenes

Scenes are wondrous little tools that segment the overall content in your movie into self-contained, manageable chunks. Each scene acts as a mini-movie that plays one after the other. Although they appear to be somewhat separated from one another within the Flash authoring environment, they really aren't. When you play the overall movie (either from within Flash or after it has been published), the scenes string together as if they were one movie and play according to the sequence listed in the Scene panel. There is never any perceivable lag or flicker between scenes.

 

Note  

The number of scenes you can have is limited only by the amount of memory in your computer.

The possibilities for scenes are literally endless. Say, for instance, you are creating an entire Flash site. You could use a scene for each individual section and subsection of the site. Another possibility is along the lines of traditional film or theater. Web-based Flash animated shorts are becoming increasingly popular these days. You could use scenes to partition a Flash animated short you created into well, scenes!

Introducing the Scene Panel

For the most part, you access the majority of scene functionality through the Scene panel (Figure 12.1), which you open by choosing Window Design Panels Scene. The Scene panel displays the number and organization of your movie's scenes. In addition, it lets you duplicate, add, delete, and move scenes.


Figure 12.1: The Scene Panel

 

Note  

Unlike many other Flash panels, the Scene panel doesn't have any additional options beyond the default Maximize Panel, Close Panel, and Help options.

Introducing the Edit Bar

Nestled above the Timeline and below the main program menu is the Edit bar (see Figure 12.2). You open and close the Edit bar by choosing Window Toolbars Edit Bar.

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Figure 12.2: The Edit Scene button in the Edit bar gives you access to all the scenes in the currently open movie.

You used the Edit bar in Chapter 7 when you were working with the Symbol Editor (more specifically , moving back to the main Timeline from the Symbol Editor). However, you didn't get a chance to explore its functionality in relation to scenes.

Essentially, Edit bar displays the current scene. When you move to another scene, the Edit bar changes its display accordingly . Also, as illustrated in Figure 12.2, the Edit Scene button in the right portion of the Edit bar displays a drop-down list that lets you switch the currently displayed scene. (For more information about this button, see the "Moving Between Scenes" section, later in this chapter.)

 

Creating and Crafting Scenes

As mentioned previously, you'll use the Scene panel (Window Design Panels Scene) to work with scenes. In this section of the chapter, you're going to explore how to use the Scene panel to add, duplicate, rename, and rearrange scenes.

Adding a Scene

As your movie increases in size and complexity, you are going to want to add more scenes to keep a firm grip on its organization. By using the Scene panel, you can add as many scenes as you want by following these steps:

1.     Make sure you have a document open.

2.     Choose Window Design Panels Scene to open the Scene panel.

3.     Click the Add Scene button located in the bottom-right corner of the Scene panel. Alternatively, besides using the Scene panel to add a new scene, you can also select Insert Scene.

4.     You'll notice that Flash has added an additional scene to the movie. By default, Flash always adds the new scene below the currently selected one. The default naming convention for a new scene is numerical ”for instance, Scene 1, Scene 2, and so on.

5.     Now all you have to do is select the newly added scene in the Scene panel and start creating.

 

Note  

When you create a new scene, Flash automatically switches to the newly created scene.

Deleting a Scene

If you want to delete a scene, follow these steps:

1.     Open the Scene panel by choosing Window Design Panels Scene.

2.     Select the scene you want to delete.

3.     Click the Delete Scene button located in the bottom-right corner of the Scene panel.

4.     When the prompt appears, click OK. As indicated in the prompt, you cannot undo a scene deletion.

Duplicating a Scene

In previous chapters, you looked at how to copy and duplicate various elements such as objects and animations (mostly for the purpose of converting them to symbols). The process, especially when it comes to copying entire animations, is fairly unwieldy. Imagine, then, having to duplicate an entire scene! The prospect is pretty daunting, especially if your movie (and its respective scenes) has become fairly complicated.

Macromedia has integrated a simple duplicate function that lets you create exact copies of any given scene with a click of a button:

1.     With the Scene panel open (Window Design Panels Scene) , select the scene you want to duplicate.

2.     Click the Duplicate Scene button in the bottom-right section of the Scene panel.

3.     You'll notice that a duplicate of your selected scene, with the word copy tagged onto the original name, appears in the Scene panel.

Renaming a Scene

The default name that Flash assigns to a new or duplicate scene is not very original. Although logically numbered, the names aren't particularly useful when it comes to identifying the content of individual scenes in a large movie. To rename a scene, follow these steps:

1.     With the Scene panel open, double-click the scene whose name you want to change. By doing this, as illustrated in Figure 12.3, the scene's name becomes editable.


Figure 12.3: Scene panel with editable scene name

2.     Type a new name and press Return/Enter (or click anywhere off the Scene panel).

Rearranging Scenes

As mentioned, scenes play sequentially based on their positions in the Scene panel. But you certainly aren't stuck with the order in which the scenes were created (and therefore the sequence that they play). To change the arrangement of scenes, follow these steps:

1.     Open the Scene panel (Window Design Panels Scene).

2.     Click and drag the scene to the location you want (see Figure 12.4). You'll notice that as long as you keep your mouse button down, your cursor changes and a blue line appears in the scene's projected location.


Figure 12.4: Scene panel with scene being moved

3.     To move the scene, just release the mouse button.

 

Moving Between Scenes

Because you are going to want to switch back and forth between various scenes as you work on them, Flash has provided several scene navigation tools:

Scene panel       To navigate between the various scenes in your movie, all you need to do is click the desired scene in the Scene panel. Remember, your current scene is displayed in the Edit bar.

Edit Scene button       Two buttons dominate the right portion of the Edit bar. The leftmost one, when clicked (as illustrated earlier in Figure 12.2), provides a menu of all the current scenes in your movie. All you need to do is select one and Flash automatically switches to that scene.

Movie Explorer       As discussed in Chapter 9, the Movie Explorer (Window Other Panels Movie Explorer) displays the contents of your movie hierarchically, lets you search your entire movie for any symbol or symbol instance, and replaces text and fonts (see Figure 12.5).

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Figure 12.5: Movie Explorer with scenes listed

Because scenes are part of the overall movie, they are displayed in the Movie Explorer as top-level items in the organizational hierarchy. Simply locate the scene by its name, and click it. Flash automatically switches you to the selected scene.

 

Note  

Under normal circumstances, the Movie Explorer displays the contents only of the currently selected scene. To display all scenes (and their content), choose Show All Scenes from the Movie Explorer's drop-down Options menu.

 

Testing Scenes

So far, you've looked at a couple of different ways to test the movie that you've created. When it comes to scenes, you should be aware that if you were to simply hit Return/Enter to play your movie within the Flash authoring environment, you would be able to preview only the currently active scene. Although, when exported, the movie plays all the scenes sequentially, it does not do so from within Flash. As a result, you need to do one of the following:

§                       To test a scene other than the current one, use the Scene panel to select it, and then hit Return/Enter. Alternatively, you can choose Control Test Scene.

§                       Now, if you want to test the movie in its entirety, select Control Test Movie or use the shortcut Cmd/Ctrl+Return/Enter. This opens the movie in a Flash Player and plays all the scenes according to their sequence within the Scene panel.

 

Note  

You can also play all the scenes in your movie by choosing Control Play All Scenes.

 

ActionScripting and Scenes

Although scenes are great for organizing animated content, they do tend to create a fairly linear product. Granted, there isn't much you can do about the linearity of scenes; you certainly can't have two scenes playing at the same time. However, what if you wanted to play your first scene, followed by your third scene, your second scene, and finally your fourth scene? Alternatively, what if you wanted your scenes to play from last to first, instead of first to last? Under normal circumstances, this defies the natural laws of Flash. However, with the use of ActionScript (specifically frame actions), you can be your own Einstein, shattering the conventions of the known Flash universe! But seriously, as is the case in many aspects of Flash, ActionScripting greatly extends scene functionality.

However, at this point it would be a little premature to get into ActionScript. Instead, this section will focus on what is possible when you use ActionScript to extend the usability of scenes. For now, all you need to know is that these built-in functions can increase the versatility of scenes:

§                       gotoAndPlay( ) determines the specific scene and frame that the playhead jumps to when it evokes the action.

§                       gotoAndStop( ) goes to a specific scene or frame and stops the movie. This is a variation of the gotoAndPlay( ) action that you set by deselecting the GotoAndPlay check box at the bottom of the Actions panel.

§                       play( ) restarts a movie that has been previously stopped .

§                       stop( ) ends the movie from playing any further.

 

Note  

If you want to explore the specifics of these very useful built-in functions, check out the ActionScript Reference located on this book's accompanying CD.

 

Inspirational Design Model

Based in Austin Texas, Terra Incognita is arguably one of the most talented and respected interactive design studios around today. With talented designers (all of whom have a strong background in the social sciences and humanities), Terra Incognita doesn't just design websites , kiosks , or collections databases, they develop innovative and intelligent products that spark the imagination , engage the mind, and lead users on experiences to discover the nature of the human experience.

Their company website ( www.terraincognita.com ) is a phenomenal expression of their dedication to amazingly creative (and technically mind-blowing) digital storytelling (see Figure 12.6).

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Figure 12.6: Terra Incognita

 



Flash MX 2004 Savvy. Also Covers Flash Professional.
Flash Mx2004; Also Covers Flash Professional; Savvy
ISBN: 0471789151
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 54

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