The ABC's of 100% Flash Site Design: Where to Start?

Greetins again-
I have some experience with Flash (creating photo galleries, buttons, rotating banners, etc.,) but desire to take things to a higher level, such as these website examples:
http://www.agathagroup.com/
http://www.haefnerphoto.com/
Of particular interest is how these sites expand to and encompass 100% of the browser window, and include background music, and other nicities like the cursor turning into a right/left arrow.
Can someone elaborate, or perhaps provide some sort of general outline, on the order of operations, or general workflow, of how sites like these are laid out and constructed in Flash, or perhaps direct me to a place where I should be making my inquiries about this?
Many thanks-

My advice is to use this resource. It's a great jumping off point and following along with video is the next best thing to having someone sitting with you to walk you through the process.
http://www.lynda.com/home/ViewCourses.aspx?lpk0=392
There are various levels of tutorials here and you can choose the one that suits your needs. I used the Flash Tutorial for building a portfolio website, which appears to be similar to the two examples that you cited. Good luck.
~P

Similar Messages

NOOB to Flash SIte Design

Hi all
I am new to Flash site design and would like to see what
other people/developers are creating or find any tutorials or
discussions on this subject!
My first flash website is titled Diatonic Scales and was
developed entirely in Flash. The theme of the site is a DAW(Digital
audio workstation)/Virtual Keyboard that illustrates how to use
diatonic scales and a similar scale set. It is housed @
DIATONIC
SCALES.
regards
john
www.javono.com

HI
thanks for the links, I have learned heaps from
watching Craig Campbell @ learnflash.com, I will look forward to
checking out those sites when I have some spare time, working on 7
projects presently in college, lynda.com is great also, I am worn
out from reading at the end of the day, video tutoring is such a
release from staring at language specifications or books!
lol

Who makes the nicest, easiest to use Flash website design software?

Please forgive the beginner's question. I would like to build
a flash site like
http://www.hockaday.org from an
easy to use Flash template. You get what you pay for so my first
choice isn't something for free but a 30-day free trial version
would be nice.
What I like best about
http://www.hockaday.org is the
great menus and that pictures continually reload in interesting
ways.
Maybe a template is too restrictive. Who makes the nicest,
easiest to use Flash website design software that allows fast
creation of those fancy menus and with other fast features to do
nice things with pictures and motion?
I need to create a site like
http://www.hockaday.org
immediately so I don't have the time to learn Flash first. What's
my best bet?

you are in a catch 22 - you don't have time to learn flash -
yet you need to build an entire site
immediately - you can't - sure you can download a template
that is similar but if this forum is any
proof, you almost need more flash knowledge trying to
decipher most templates in order to edit them
- search this forum, there are several posts per week from
non-flash users who purchased templates
and have no clue how to edit them. Often times it is hard for
an educated flash user to
reverse-engineer a FLA made by somebody else - Flash
documents are blank canvases that can be setup
a myriad ways by different users making the same thing - some
developers are more organized than
others - most templates are not organized but rather thrown
together for a quick profit.
You will simply need to learn enough flash to understand how
it works or hire somebody to edit the
template for you.
hope this helps.
--> **Adobe Certified Expert**
--> www.mudbubble.com
--> www.keyframer.com
e.Shubee wrote:
> Please forgive the beginner's question. I would like to
build a flash site like
>
http://www.hockaday.org from an
easy to use Flash template. You get what you
> pay for so my first choice isn't something for free but
a 30-day free trial
> version would be nice.
>
> What I like best about
http://www.hockaday.org is the
great menus and that
> pictures continually reload in interesting ways.
>
> I need to create a site like that one immediately so I
don't have the time to
> learn Flash first. What's my best bet?
>
>
>

Flash site design tips

I'm looking to build a flash portfolio site. Basically the
picture I have in my mind of this site is that its going to be
very......elegant. I don't know how to put it in words. Its going
to be called Sophistication, and will be a black website with very
very mild transtitions. It will have aptly have a calming Mozart
song as the background.
What I want to know is, at the Loading screen I would like to
design it such a way that when the site is loaded, the "L" "A" "D"
"I" "N" and "G" disappear, but the "O" stays and it sort of goes up
and gently comes down like a comet and explodes to reveal a
blinding light and the main site content appears.
Can someone give me a few tips or pointers on how to do this?
I have a very clear idea in mind of what to do , just that I don't
know how to do this in flash.

This is quite easy and can be done using simple tweening and
frame-by-frame animation on the timeline. You could also achieve
much of this type of animation using ActionScript but you may find
this more challenging although it is arguably the preferred method.
Googling for text tweening in Flash should throw up some
tutorials. There are also many Flash sites where you can simply
purchase prebuilt text effects, which you can manipulate and
deconstruct to see how the effect is created. If you do buy a
prebuilt effect make sure that you are given the source fla file
and some commenting in the code.
If you get really stuck you can buy some great Flash books
that will show you these basic techniques or if you prefer video
you can try sites like
http://www.lynda.com or total
training for free content snippets and full dvd videos. Try and use
AS3 or CS3 Flash techniques or, if you can't find much CS3 info
online, look for Flash 8 or AS2. Older tutorials abound and more
modern techniques are better in the long run so choose your
technique carefully.
regards
Nick Barling
www.barkingweb.com

I have Labview 5.0 and I can't run a program it gives me a runrime error C++ relating to the Labview exe file. Do you know where to start to fix this?

I've had this version for quite a long time and haven't had any problems with it. When I start Labview normally it seems to work fine I can look at individual Vi's and such but when I go to start a Vi program or even the tutorial it gives me a "Runtime error message C++
C:\Program File\National Instruments\LabView\LabView.exe abnmormal program termination." I'm not sure if it is a computer problem DAQ card (PCI 6023E) problem or a software glich. If you have any ideas of where to start tracking this down please let me know ASAP. It is a work stoppage situation.
Thanks for your consideration
Maurice Massey
UES,Inc

Have you tried doing a repair or reinstalling?

FLV FILES IN FLASH SITE DESIGN

Can anyone give me some suggestions, I am using a flash
template that has 7 separate flash files (1.fla; 2.fla;3fla; etc.)
that feed into the 1.fla/1.swf/1.index.html flash page. I have
incorporated a small movie with no sound into the swf.1 file and
then the rest of the files have simple text but in the 6.swf file I
utilized another template by Dan Carr which he put up on this site
that has an flv movie player with 5 flv files. I have no problem
with this template it works wonderfully, the problem is it opens
and play independently but it is 6.swf and when I open my
1.swf/1.index.html file the voice from the first movie in my 6.swf
file plays. The movie sound that plays from my 6.swf file is the
first flv movie on that page which has 4 other flv movie files. I
don't understand why the sound track for that flv file is playing
in my homepage or 1.swf file. Expermenting, I took the voice out of
that first flv movie player and with the voice/soundtrack out of
the first flv/movie in 6.swf then no other sounds carry forward to
the homepage or the 1.swf/1.html page. But I want to keep all 5
movies in my 6.swf file/movie player and not start that file with a
blank flv spot and then 4 other movies. I would appreciate any
suggestions.
SueSue

From your description, it sounds like all of the loaded
movies, are loaded in at the start of the first Flash movie.
Additionally, in this 6.swf movie, the first .flv file is set to
begin to play as soon as that movie is loaded. That's why you are
hearing the sound track playing when the first movie loads.
You can fix this by changing the code in 6.swf so that the
first movie doesn't begin to stream/play when it loads. If there is
a button to play this movie then this should be a trivial task.
Another option is to not load 6.swf when the first movie starts,
but to wait until 6.swf is called to be shown.

Flash Site Design - How to -

I've been learning flash for the last month or so and now I'm
about to dig in. I need to create a site and slideshow that has
animated borders around a slideshow like this:
http://www.gretchenadams.com/
(enter site)
With then entry lines looking as though they are drawn on
should I be doing this by creating a movie clip of a drawn out
border and then masking, fading and keyframing the borders in? Or
should that be done with some actionscript trickery?
The actual resizing borders around the slideshow. Do I just
create 3 or so different borders and then is there a way to write a
script that recognizes the size of the photo and then adjusts the
border automaticly so that I can load the photos from xml. I'm
pretty sure that if I was creating a self contained slideshow I
could animate this all myself without some crazy actionscripts
(Aside from the basics) but since I need to load them from xml and
I need it to adjust itself to the size I'm not quite sure which way
I should be heading.
Thanks for your prompt attention : )

Don't shoot me for this...
I need to load this from xml. I wanted to load the sizes etc
via the xml but I couldn't figure out how to do all that.
I found a tutorial that teaches how to do the resizing
border. But it starts off by creating a border of any size, then
using a "UILoader" component. The tutorial teaches how to load the
files for this via an images folder one at a time but not as an xml
file. I've got about 24 pictures typed out in an xml file, a few
blank squares to act as thumbnail buttons on the stage but it says
to:
add mouse click event listener (load pic)
button mode true
function loadImage(whatever:MouseEvent):void
picLoader.source = "images/individual image.jpg";
Now I'm stuck at that last part. How can I get the first file
in the xml to be called out from there instead of the individual
jpg?
Here is the top part of the code that tested the xml itself:
var babyImages:XML;
var imageList:XMLList;
var loader:URLLoader = new URLLoader()
loader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, onComplete);
loader.load(new URLRequest("slideshow.xml"));
function onComplete(d:Event):void
babyImages = new XML(loader.data);
imageList = imagesX.image;
trace(imageList);
Thanks for your prompt attention. I'm open to jumping ship on
this way and doing it the other if I could figure out how to put
the sizes properly into the xml and extract them in the
actionscript.

Children's Start-up Looking for Flash Site Designer

New Los Angeles based children's media start-up is looking
for a creative independant Flash website developer. Please send
links to [email protected] or post them in this forum. This
project needs to be completed by 12/31/06.
Thank you,
David

Hi Hugh
Rather than attempting to find those files, I suggest you lock the Shared Object folder. This precludes any Flash cookie info from being written to your HD.
To do so, go to the Finder and navigate to the Macromedia folder - Your User Account>Library>Preferences folder. Continue drilling down to the Shared Objects folder. Now, simply move to the trash the contents of the Shared Objects folder. Once the folder is empty, click on the Shared Objects folder, Command/I to open its Info panel and click on the Locked option, then close the panel.
From here on out, no information will be written to that file. I did this awhile ago and have not had any adverse effect from locking the folder.

What should i do to be a flash site designer

i mean which technologies should i learn .now i can use flash
software at least so should i learn actionscript? and something
else? thanks

Hi sharesunshine.
You should DEFINATELY learn Actionscript.
and on the side, some image editing progs would be verry
usefull to learn. Even though Flash has some good image editing
tools, it is still quite limited. So if you were to use something
like, Photoshop, Fireworks, Gimp, just to name afew...you could
have much more editing power with images, and creating own images.
then simply load them into Flash for animating.
Another thing you could look into, is Video editing progs,
and 3D Progs too. Although 3D progs are quite hard to get a grip
on, they can really make your Flash look good. And having your own
videos playing in the BG would just add to the effects.
basically you can create just about anything your imagination
can come up with, using atleast these softwares.. not these
"specifically"... but these kinds of software.
Hope this helps you abit...Others on the forum might have
other suggestions for you too.
Pick whatever works for you, and good luck. =)

Anyone familiar with using Photoshop Elements for Flash site design?

l am seeing a tutorial using ''elements'' and wonder if l can simply use PhotoshopCS4?
lf so, is the process similar or not to using elements?
thanks

Hi,
You can use Photoshop CS4. The process is the same but Photoshop CS4 is more powerful and can do more stuff.

Gettin "Assertion Failed" message and "Assert: parent node must have _DOMElement set", first when trying to bookmark and then when the "auto fill" on some web sites is used. Started after 3.6.9 automatic upgrade.

Open Firefox and navigate to web site. Try to save to bookmarks and get the "assertion Failed" message and "Assert: parent node must have _DOMElement set" followed by a list of 8 (0-8) items.

Try the Tiny Menu extension. I am using an older version of Tiny Menu on Lucid with Firefox 3.6.x and it works fine.

HT1363 whenever I do this, the apple symbol appears for a second and then it has the red cross symbol again - which tells me to go to the support part of the apple website; so i end up back where i started, anybody know what i can do?

I just wanted to restore my ipod nano, it told me to go to the support area of the apple website which i did andi followed the steps and they worked for about 2 seconds and then it told me to go back to the support area. it is fairly old but i dont understand why it will not reset?

Hey Megan,
If you are getting the Red X on your iPod nano, check out the following article. Of it does not work check out the second section in the article.
iPod Displays a Red "X" Icon
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1463
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Regards,
-Norm G.

How do I find and save the background music file of my Flash site?

I see that the background music in my Flash site is located in a symbol called muz. When I click the properties of this symbol, the sound file's location is listed as .\flash\sound\muz.wav I couldn't find that sound sub-folder in the flash folder nor could I find the file. I tried doing a search to look for the muz.wav file in my computer but it could not be found. Does anyone know how I can find and save this file? Can the symbol somehow be exported and the sound file be extracted that way?

I copied and pasted the symbol into an empty .fla file. This new .fla file is just 1 frame. Can you tell me what you mean by "spreading" it along the timeline? When I tried exporting it to a .wav file (as just 1 frame in timeline), I only hear a fraction of a fraction of the first note of the music in the generated .wav file. The music is heard fine in its entirety when previewing the .fla file (F12).
By the way, in the symbol's properties, there is an option to "Export for ActionScript" and an option to "Export for runtime sharing". Do you think any of these would work?

How can I resize my Flash site to fit any screen resolution?

I built a 100% flash site with tiled framing but I have a
problem. My flash was built 766 x 750 pixiels. When viewed at
resolutions greater than 1024x768 the webpage looks great but
anything less than that it looks like @#$@. I know most people
probably view at 1024 x 768. Is there anyway to auto resize based
up on screen resolution or something to detect the screen size and
adjust the webpage accordingly.
www.platlimosvc.com
Below is my html (index.html) for my flash movie:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01
Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title>Untitled</title>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;
charset=UTF-8">
<link href="style.css" rel="stylesheet"
type="text/css">
</head>
<body>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0"
style="width:100%; height:100%">
<tr>
<td valign="top" style="width:100%" height="750">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0"
width="766" style="height:100% " align="center">
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="234" style="height:750px ">
<object
classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="
http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swfl
ash.cab#version=6,0,29,0" width="766" height="750">
<param name="movie" value="flash/xxxx_main.swf">
<param name="quality" value="high">
<param name="menu" value="false">

<object data="flash/xxxx_main.swf"
width="766" height="750"
type="application/x-shockwave-flash">
<param name="quality" value="high">
<param name="menu" value="false">
<param name="pluginurl" value="
http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">
FAIL (the browser should render some flash content, not
this).
</object>

</object>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" style="width:100%; height:1px;
background-color:#6C6C6C">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0"
style="width:100%; height:1px">
<tr>
<td valign="top" style="width:50%;
height:1px"></td>
<td valign="top" style="width:766; height:1px">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0"
width="766" style="height:1px ">
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="766" style="height:1px
"></td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
<td valign="top" style="width:50%;
height:1px"></td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" style="width:100%; height:100%">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0"
style="width:100%; height:100%">
<tr>
<td valign="top" style="width:50%;
background:url(images/bottom-3.gif) top right;
height:100%"></td>
<td valign="top" style="width:766;
background-image:url(images/bottom-5.gif); height:100%">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0"
width="766" style="height:100% ">
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="766" style="height:100%
"></td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
<td valign="top" style="width:50%;
background:url(images/bottom-4.gif) top left;
height:100%"></td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>

tlcarl,
> I know most people probably view at 1024 x 768.
You think so? Even if they have their resolution that high
(which is
fairly standard, nowadays), do you think most people maximize
their browsers
to fill that whole area?
> Is there anyway to auto resize based up on screen
> resolution or something to detect the screen size and
> adjust the webpage accordingly.
There is, indeed. :) Check out the Stage.onResize event in
the
ActionScript 2.0 Language Reference. That event is dispatched
when the
browser (or whatever container) is resized -- in cases where
the SWF is
embedded with percentages. If that's your aim, you'll need to
code against
that event, which can be done like this ...
http://www.quip.net/blog/2006/flash/how-to-position-movie-clips-browser-resizing
It can take a bit of thought, depending on the complexity of
your goal,
but the result is usually worth it. The site in your URL is
already built,
so this wouldn't do much of anything without opening the
hood, so to speak,
and completely rebuilding the engine. A Flash movie has to be
designed and
programmed to respond to the Stage.onResize event.
David Stiller
Adobe Community Expert
Dev blog,
http://www.quip.net/blog/
"Luck is the residue of good design."

First Flash Site

Calling Flash Gurus-
I am building my FIRST flash site. I have been doing effects,
headers, and basic flash elements for websites now for almost 2
years. I have MX 2004, but have just bought (today) Studio 8. I am
scared to death, but sometime I have to jump head first into flash
site design. I am excited. However, I am also scared out of my
mind. I have a few questions:
#1-Is a site set to the size of 780 W by 480 H a good size? I
see so many TINY flash sites, and that is not something I want. How
can I optimize it for the fastest load time at that size? Any
tutorials or books that can help me there?
#2-Navigation-I wanted to build a nav that slide out from the
side of the site like on the Gucci site, I know it is javascript,
but I have seen this done with Flash before (
http://www.gucci.com/us/index2.html),
and instead of rollovers, there is a tsunami effect that I like
that could be found here:
http://www.actionscripts.org/tutorials/advanced/Building_a_tsunami/index.shtml.
HOW would I create buttons? Invisible buttons? How can I get them
to move out with the menu?
#3-Am I biting of more than I can chew?
#4-Where can I get the advice I need that explains the basic
actionscript and standards of flash site design? I just need
something to help me along. I am determined and will work day and
night to make this happen. I have a VERY basic understanding
already, I bought a flash template and looked at all the code to
see how everything worked. I need something a little beyond basic
that give comprehensive explanations about the actionscripting
behind all the effects. I am not a copy and paste guy, I need to
understand what is going on.
That is it for now, I am sure here in the next few weeks, you
will all be so sick of seeing my posts here that you may even avoid
the forums until I finish my site. Lol. Seriously though, thanks in
advance for all the help. I need every bit I can get.

First when you finish with the site, go to publish
settings> HTML tab> Dimensions> Percent (width and Height
must be 100)
Then go down to scale> No scale (from drop down menu).
Select publish. Now when you go to publish preview select
view>source. In the code insert the following in the head tab.
<style type="text/css">

</style>
Save and refresh the page. This makes the window fill without
you having to resize your fla file. I usually make mine 800/600. On
the other stuff, I'm gonna have to get back with you,

The ABC's of 100% Flash Site Design: Where to Start?

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