Things that you should know by the end of this week:

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Graphic content can be divided into 2 big families:Bitmap images and Vector based images.
Bitmaps are saved as a grid of pixels, each pixel storing one color. Vector based images are saved as mathematical formulas: refering to the (0,0) origin of the document (the upper left corner).
Learn more about this(see graphic_concepts1.doc).
Adobe Flash/Animate native way of storing information is vectorbased, but it can import and contain bitmap images. You want to import compressed images, like JPEG, GIF or PNG file formats.

 

Do you understand the difference between a Flash/Animate Project file (.fla) and a Flash/Animate Compressed Movie file (.swf)?

This week we are only working with the project file (fla) but by week 3 you will export your project in order to see the animation (by "testing the movie"
You guys will be submitting your projects (fla files) as homework. Remember that, in the future, you add text with a nice font in your project, you should also add the swf file of your project.
You will learn soon how to produce a swf file out of your project file (the easiest from is to "test" the project).
 

Do you know how to change the Stage dimensions (width and height) and background color?

With the Black arrow tool selected, the Properties window will show you the project's info. You can change the seetings there.

 

Do you understand the difference between a frame and a keyframe in Adobe Flash/Animate?

We are still not creating animation, but your sample file will contain layers, frames (that create time in the timeline) and Keyframes(look at the black dots), that indicate that something new is stored at that point in time, in that layer.
New projects always contain one layer with one empty keyframe on frame one. You add frames and keyframes (on different layers) as you build your projects.

 

What are and where are located the main panels in the flash/animate interface: the Tools panel, the Timeline,
the Stage plus the surrounding Pasteboard area, the Property inspector and the Library.

  
   
 


Play with the different workspaces till you find the one that suits you.
You might need to switch to a different workspace depending on the project.

  
selection tool

Play with the different Tools?
Mouse over each tool and you will find the tool-name and the keyboard short cut for it.

The most important tool right now is the First Upper one: the selection tool or Black Arrow tool.
The short-cut for the general selection tool is the letter (V).
To deselect elements, you can click on the pasteboard area, notice how the Properties Inspector changes
depending on what is selected.
The White arrow tool (placed under the Black arrow) acts as a selector in the style of Adobe Illustrator: that shows the position of the points and the little antenas of the Bezier points, that define the tension of the curve that goes from one point to the next.

 
rectangle tool

Some tool-icons contain more options that reveal when you hold the mouse on them. Look for that tiny icon on the lower right-corner of each tool's frame.
Find the different primitive-shapes that you get under the rectangle tool.
rectangle-options

  
 
 

The layer's name area on the Timeline. There are 3 important icons on the right of the layer's name: The Visibility, the Lock and the "View as outline" feature.
You can turn them ON and OFF by clicking on an individual layer, or you can choose to apply it to all layers by clicking on the icon at the top.
Notice that depending on the width assigned to that area of the timeline, the icons will look closer or farther away from the layer's name.
You can move that little wa;; in between the layer's name an icons and the Timeline with the frame-ruler on top.
You can rename layers by double clicking on the name.

The little colored square on each layer, defines in what color you are going to see the outline of the layer's content, when you turn the View Outline on.

This is a very important tool in big projects, when you might forget on which layer is any given content and you can find out by matching the color of the outline back with its correspondent layer.