Macromedia Flash 8: Advanced Design

Prerequisites

This course is for Flash designers who have some experience with ActionScript but want to learn more advanced topics and features to enhance their designs. To gain the most from this class you should already have:
Experience creating Flash designs and animation using the Timeline.
Equivalent knowledge from the Macromedia Flash 8: Rich Content Creation course.
Equivalent knowledge from the Macromedia Flash 8: ActionScript course.
At least one year of Flash design experience.
Unit 1: Introducing the Course
Introducing the course
Understanding the course format
Discussing the course objectives
Reviewing the course prerequisites
Reviewing the course outline

Unit 2: Architecting a Flash Application
Architecting with layers
Architecting with Movie Clips
Placing code in external ActionScript files
Introducing object oriented programming concepts
Working with Flash classes
Writing methods, functions and event handlers
Referencing dynamic variables using bracket notation
Extending the Movie Clip class
Detecting Movie Clip interactions with hitTest()
Unit 3: Working with Graphics
Learning about Flash drawing models
Using filters
Using blends
Creating filters and blends with ActionScript
Introducing bitmap caching

Unit 4: Importing XML Data
Learning about XML
Using XML in Flash
Accessing XML data
Looping through XML data

Unit 5: Working with Text
Implementing advanced anti-alias rendering
Introducing the TextFormat class
Formatting text with cascading style sheets
Resizing text fields
Unit 6: Implementing Advanced Graphic Loading
Creating reusable instance-based code
Loading external media with MovieClipLoader
Creating instances of the Flash Object class
Introducing listeners and event handlers
Understanding the MovieClipLoader event handlers
Using createEmptyMovieClip() and getNextHighestDepth()
Attaching Movie Clips
Positioning visual elements dynamically
Understanding swapping depths

Unit 7: Reviewing Animation Basics with ActionScript
Creating Timeline-based custom easing
Animating with ActionScript
Interacting with the mouse location
Adding easing via ActionScript
Creating a mask with ActionScript

Unit 8: Learning Advanced Animation with ActionScript
Introducing the Tween class
Handling Tween class events
Introducing the Transition classes
Using Delegate to create a component listener

Unit 9: Styling and Skinning Components
Styling components
Skinning components with themes
Skinning components manually