Flash Training

Adobe Flash is the industry standard for delivering rich graphic content over the web incorporating animation, sound and user interactivity.

Flash has evolved to satisfy the need for web designers to create ever more complex and visually engaging content whilst maintaining an efficient and effective download capability.

This two day Flash training course will introduce delegates to the main features in Flash including vector graphics, interactivity, animation, video and publishing Flash movies into an HTML page.

We also provide private and in-company Flash courses. Call +44 (0) 1273 622272 to discuss.

Does Flash Still Matter?

HTML5 and CSS3 are are starting to be supported by more browsers. Because these technologies - (along with other interactive scripting languages like JavaScript and jQuery) - allow web designers to create interactive vector animations and support video without plugins, some argue that Flash is dying.

Whilst Flash use is certainly changing (you don't see many navigation elements designed in Flash now, because of iOS's lack of support), it is an exaggeration to say that Flash has died.

At present, HTML5 and CSS3 cannot provide anywhere near the level of interactivity possible with flash - there is no Audio & Video control (beyond simple triggering) and no motion tweening.

Flash has evolved over the years to changing demands, and will continue to do so for some time yet.

Adobe Flash Course Objectives

Upon completion of this Adobe Flash course, the delegate will be able to:

• Create and edit vector graphics.
• Create interactive page elements.
• Create custom animations.
• Incorporate sound into animations and web pages.

Flash Course Prerequisites

• All delegates attending this flash training course must be confident with Windows or Macintosh environments, including creating, moving and deleting files and folders.
• Silicon Beach Training recommends that all delegates familiarise themselves with the Flash interface before attending.
• Trial can be downloaded from http://www.adobe.com/uk/downloads/#webdesdev

What our clients think of our Flash training course 

There was a good balance between tutor led examples and freedom to try things on your own.  Great foundation for animation and web design.

Steve Oliver - Chelsea Building Society

Really helped me to understand the programme & what is possible on a basic level to more complicated work.  The build up from the basics to more complicated work helped me to get to grips with Flash.

Simon Smith

Read the full Flash Training course outline

Flash Training Content

Introduction to Flash

• The Flash Interface
• Flash and HTML
• How Flash movies work - streaming and vectors
• Finding your way around Flash
• What Flash can and can't do

Flash basics

• Setting Movie properties
• Using Vector-based paint and draw tools
• Creating & editing shapes and working with shapes and elements
• Grouping elements
• Using panels and shortcuts for efficiency.

Creating vector graphics

• Lines and brush strokes
• Drawing lines, rectangles and ovals
• Smoothing/straightening lines and curves
• Using grids and rules
• Aligning objects
• Using gradients and fills
• Creating and editing custom colours and fills
• Using colours to create 3d and light effects

Text

• Creating and editing text
• Breaking apart and reshaping text
• Adjusting weighting, font, style and alignment

Transformations

• Rotating, skewing, scaling and flipping
• Free Transform

Layers and Keyframes

• Locking layers and colour coding layers
• Using Mask and masked layers
• Understanding frames and keyframes

Creating simple animations

• Using the Timeline Frames and keyframes
• Using the onion skin and outline colours mode
• Frame by frame animations

More animation features

• Creating tweened animations
• Shape and motion tweening
• Creating animations along a path

Symbols and Instances

• Working with symbols
• Creating and editing symbols
• Assigning properties to instances
• Using the Edit symbol Commands
• Applying transparency to colours and gradients

Images

• Direct import of layered images from other Adobe products such as Photoshop
• Do’s and don’t’s when importing images

Interactivity

• Explaining actions and event-handlers
• Types of actions
• Adding actions to buttons and keyframes
• Giving control to the user
• Nesting symbols
• Creating animated buttons
• Making interactive links to other scenes and URLs

Sound

• Importing sound
• Adding sound to a scene and adding sound to buttons
• Synchronising sound
• Streaming audio with MP3 compression

Video

• Flash video codecs explained
• Video streaming modes explained
• Using the video import wizard
• How to deploy video

Components

• Introduction to components
• Changing component parameters
• Changing the appearance of components

Management

• Using the library to organise elements
• Using the Movie Explorer to keep track of elements

Testing and Publishing

• Using the bandwidth profiler
• Streaming and streamlining your movie
• Using the Publish command
• Inserting a preloader

Flash Training Recommended Reading

Adobe Flash Professional CS5 Classroom in a Book (Classroom in a Book (Adobe)

Flash Professional CS5 and Flash Catalyst CS5 For Dummies (For Dummies (Computers)