Datasheet

Part I: A Blast of Flash

If you’re going through the steps and make a mistake, choose Edit➪Undo (or

press Ctrl+Z or Ô+Z) and try again. You can use Undo repeatedly to undo

several steps, if necessary.

To import the Rainbow Resources logo into Flash, follow these steps. (The

steps might vary if you’re importing some other graphic in a different format.)

1. Start Flash.

See the instructions in the section “Starting Flash on a PC” or “Starting

Flash on a Mac,” earlier in this chapter, if you need help.

2. In the Create New section of the Startup screen, choose ActionScript 3.0.

You see a spanking-new movie on your screen.

3. Go to www.dummies.com/go/flashcs5fd and download the Bonus

Content, which contains the rainbow.gif image file.

You’ll need to unzip the file and extract the image file. Extract this image

file to the location where you plan to save your Flash movie.

4. Choose File➪Import➪Import to Stage.

The Import dialog box opens.

5. Browse the dialog box until you find rainbow.gif in the location

where you saved it, and then double-click the file to open it.

You see the logo onscreen. You need to break the logo into pieces and

make it a vector graphic so that you can animate sections of it separately.

6. Choose Modify➪Bitmap➪Trace Bitmap.

The Trace Bitmap dialog box appears.

7. In the Trace Bitmap dialog box, set the color threshold to 100, the

minimum area to 1, the corner threshold to Many Corners, and the

curve fit to Pixels. Click OK.

In our example, we chose to use settings that reproduce the bitmap

as faithfully as possible. Flash creates a vector graphic and breaks the

graphic into individual components. The entire graphic, however, is

selected.

8. Click anywhere outside the graphic to deselect it.

You have your logo! Now you need to set it up for animation.

Turning your objects into symbols

In the logo that you imported in the preceding section, each letter is a sepa-

rate object, which can get pretty confusing. Each line in the logo’s design

is also separate, but you want your words — and the little design — to stay

together. So, you must combine each word and the logo into a symbol. A

symbol helps keep objects together and is required for some kinds of anima-

tion. (See Chapter 7 for the scoop on symbols.)

05_613559-ch01.indd 2605_613559-ch01.indd 26 3/22/10 7:42 PM3/22/10 7:42 PM