The Project Application

Macromedia Flash 8: Training from the Source includes a vast number of comprehensive tutorials aimed at showing you how to create a complete application using Flash 8 Basic. You will create an "online bookstore" application (without a shopping cart) that loads text, images, and a video presentation into the website, which serves as a tour for the website. It also contains a couple of feedback forms that connect to a server script, some audio, and even a partially animated map providing directions to the fictitious store.

By the end of 11 hands-on lessons, you will complete building an entire website using Flash. You will begin by creating the graphical user interface, which includes imported graphics, drawings you create right in Flash, as well as different kinds of animations. You import a video into a Flash Timeline and publish SWFs with the embedded video you imported. Then you will create an interactive presentation that uses those SWFs using ActionScript and the Timeline, which will be loaded at a different point into the main application.

This project includes learning the fundamentals of ActionScript: from the meaning of the scripting terminology to some of the better practices for completing a task and working with code. Even if you are uneasy with writing scripts or any kind of code in general, you will probably find the coding examples that are used both easy and intuitive. Finally, you will optimize your application so it is appropriate for the web and then publish the files so they can be uploaded and placed online.