[bluesage]

Hi,

have used flash a long ago, and keep up with certain information now and then. Recently started a new job where I now do some flash as well as web design and programming.

Was wandering how many of you flashers, work more with actionscript than with the flash user interface and the mouse ? what I mean is, do you usually do it the WYSIWYG way, or do you code most of your flash through actionscript uniquely ?

thanks, would like to see what the most common or practical methods are among flash professionals.

[Hysteria]

Well I mainly use actionscript 3.0 since it greatly reduces the number of keyframes of the animation. (Not a fan of the gotoAndPlay etc). If i want to make an animation, i will be making a new .fla file for it and then import it to the stage with actionscript.

[bluesage]

Originally Posted by Hysteria

Well I mainly use actionscript 3.0 since it greatly reduces the number of keyframes of the animation.

thanks for the response, would you mind elaborating on the above ? As I am trying to see how using actionscript is an advantage, I am trying to understand why

[bluesage]

I have been reading up a bit on actionscript and have noticed that with actionscript 3 it seems to be developed so one can work without the flash interface.

I notice that sprites are being used now instead of movieclips, does this mean that using the timeline is a bad habit to keep ?

if im not mistaken, the way things should be done are:

1. build an .fla file with a layer called actions
2. in the layer actions, import .as files to be used and define all actionscript for the whole flash movie
3. create objects and give them usefull names.
4. in the actions layer, use the created objects methods by calling functions on certain events like mouse over, mouse release etc..

[Hysteria]

yeah it's really different now with actionscript. You can really easily make your whole website using only one single action layer...One thing is that the learning curve is steeper than for AS 2.0 (not that bad though).

A tutorial that has been pretty helpful for me to understand AS 3.0 is Computer Arts "Creating generative art with flash" tutorial. It covers alot of the basics. You can find it at their website.

You will also have to learn how to load external images, movieclips, etc but it's really not a big deal. Learning how to make your own classes is also important (they tell how in flash's help)

Once you know the basics you can look through the help in flash to learn new properties, methods etc.
Then the sky is the limit!