Need Adobe Flash Help Please!

[Ying the Shadow Dragon]

Hello C&T,
I was wondering if I could get some quick help with learning flash. I need to make a quick and simple flash web page. So I was wondering if anyone here knew a lot about how to do that with flash, or knew of a good resource that had some easy guides on how to do that.

I am currently using adobe CS4. My main problem is getting the site to stay and move to the different pages right now.

Thanks for your time!
Ying

[Allariele]

I highly recommend using the Gaia Flash framework, it includes SWFObject and incorporates SWFAddress for those Flash URLs and is SEO friendly.

Otherwise the easiest way would be to split the site up into a navigation bar and a content loader. Depending on which button is pressed, you'd load the respective content either as a movieclip from the library or as an external SWF file. You could use something like Tweener for the script controlled transitions.

What I wouldn't recommend doing would be to design everything on the root timeline and use gotos to jump around, not only will the transitions be unnatural, but load times will be ridiculously high.

This seems to be an recurring question asked in the forums, perhaps i'll write up a tutorial sometime. A site with excellent video tutorials is gotoAndLearn.

ps. Flash websites usually aren't a good idea, unless you're thinking of creating a Design Agency website, showcasing a product or Photography Studio / anything else luxurious. The SEO capabilites are certainly getting better, however Google is yet about to index dynamically loaded content such as XML which Flash Websites rely alot - the backbone of most Flash websites

Many amateur web designers also like to use Flash to make websites that have poor accessibility, a plenty of unnecessary features, hidden information, pointless intros and animations and ludicrous file sizes; don't make the same mistake - use a more suited technology.

[Ying the Shadow Dragon]

Allariele

I highly recommend using the Gaia Flash framework, it includes SWFObject and incorporates SWFAddress for those Flash URLs and is SEO friendly.

Otherwise the easiest way would be to split the site up into a navigation bar and a content loader. Depending on which button is pressed, you'd load the respective content either as a movieclip from the library or as an external SWF file. You could use something like Tweener for the script controlled transitions.

What I wouldn't recommend doing would be to design everything on the root timeline and use gotos to jump around, not only will the transitions be unnatural, but load times will be ridiculously high.

This seems to be an recurring question asked in the forums, perhaps i'll write up a tutorial sometime. A site with excellent video tutorials is gotoAndLearn.

ps. Flash websites usually aren't a good idea, unless you're thinking of creating a Design Agency website, showcasing a product or Photography Studio / anything else luxurious. The SEO capabilites are certainly getting better, however Google is yet about to index dynamically loaded content such as XML which Flash Websites rely alot - the backbone of most Flash websites

Many amateur web designers also like to use Flash to make websites that have poor accessibility, a plenty of unnecessary features, hidden information, pointless intros and animations and ludicrous file sizes; don't make the same mistake - use a more suited technology.

I am a 3D Animator in training. I plan on showcasing my Graphic Design projects as well.

It is my understanding that the best way to make flash a web page is to have different frames act like different pages.

Right now I can't get it to stop continuously play from the start, it just goes all the way though. So I need the action codes. I also need to know how to move to different frames and stop where I want it too.

P.S. The site is rather simple, I just can't stand CSS grid formats any more, and may want to do a small intro.

[Allariele]

Fair enough, however, as mentioned before, jumping to different frames is a bad way of Flash Website design. The file would need to load perhaps 2MB's worth of images and data before even displaying any content, unless you have a extremely fast file host and your users typically have decent connections speeds, you'd preferably want to load data only when it is needed or requested. The most popular method for this type of implementation is by combining Flash with XML. Plenty of tutorials out there for this.

Sorry for not actually helping as much as I'd like to, but giving pointers and the right direction I feel is more important than teaching deprecated web-design methods; which you seem inclined to be headed for.

[tobirocus]

Im making a flash website aswell, and i have my different sections of the website on different Scenes.

The best way to make it stop at the different frames par say is to flag the frame with a label.

so to do this you will make a new layer and leave it blank. call it Labels if you like, then click on the frame and in its properties it should give you a name space. just for an example call it something like Here.

make a button and call it herebtn

then in the code for frame 1 you will write:

stop()

/////// button for here ////////
herebtn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, herebtndown);
function herebtndown(event:MouseEvent):void {
herebtn.gotoAndStop("down" wink ; /// this makes it go to your buttons down state if you have a seperate animation for that.
gotoAndStop("here" wink ; //// this is making it go to the flagged destination.
}

(please ignore the smilies, they should just be a close bracket >>> ) <<< )

if you are going to be doing the whole site in one scene, i would advise getting a pre-loader for your site

[Ying the Shadow Dragon]

tobirocus

Im making a flash website aswell, and i have my different sections of the website on different Scenes.

The best way to make it stop at the different frames par say is to flag the frame with a label.

so to do this you will make a new layer and leave it blank. call it Labels if you like, then click on the frame and in its properties it should give you a name space. just for an example call it something like Here.

make a button and call it herebtn

then in the code for frame 1 you will write:

stop()

/////// button for here ////////
herebtn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, herebtndown);
function herebtndown(event:MouseEvent):void {
herebtn.gotoAndStop("down" wink ; /// this makes it go to your buttons down state if you have a seperate animation for that.
gotoAndStop("here" wink ; //// this is making it go to the flagged destination.
}

(please ignore the smilies, they should just be a close bracket >>> ) <<< )

if you are going to be doing the whole site in one scene, i would advise getting a pre-loader for your site

Thank you, I'll give it a try as soon as I get the time.