Adobe Flash Professional CS6 Adobe Flash Professional CS6 Classroom In A Book | Page 59

getting started
Start by viewing the finished movie to see the animation you’ll be creating in
this lesson.
1 Double-click the 02End.html file in the Lesson02/02End folder to view the final
project in a browser.
The project is a simple static illustration for a banner ad. This illustration is for
Garden Court Cafe, a fictional company that’s promoting its store and coffee. In
this lesson, you’ll draw the shapes, modify them, and learn to combine simple
elements to create more complex visuals. You won’t create any animation just
yet. After all, you must learn to walk before you can run! And learning to create
and modify graphics is an important step before doing any Flash animation.
2 In Flash, choose File > New. In the New Document dialog box, choose
ActionScript 3.0.
3 On the right-hand side of the dialog box, make the Stage size 700 pixels by 200
pixels and make the color of the Stage a light brown by clicking the icon next to
Background color. Click OK.
4 Choose File > Save. Name the file 02_workingcopy.fla and save it in the 02Start
folder. Saving your file right away is a good working habit (even if you’ve
enabled the Auto-Recovery feature) and ensures that your work won’t be lost if
the application or your computer crashes.
Understanding strokes and Fills
Every graphic in Flash starts with a shape. A shape is made of two components: the
fill, or the insides of the shape; and the stroke, or the outlines of the shape. If you
always keep these two components in mind, you’ll be well on your way to creating
beautiful and complicated visuals.
The fill and the stroke are independent of each other, so you can modify or delete
either without affecting the other. For example, you can create a rectangle with a
blue fill and a red stroke, and then later change the fill to purple and delete the red
stroke entirely. All you’ll be left with is a purple rectangle without an outline. You
can also move the fill or stroke independently, so if you want to move the entire
shape, make sure that you select both its fill and stroke.
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Lesson 2
Working with Graphics