Adobe Flash Basics

Real Hosting

Jun 11th

Posted by Dennis Thompson in Adobe Flash Basics

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Real hosting is something much more than what meets the eye. It is more than a place to merely store files and have a space on the Internet. It’s more than just unlimited this and unlimited that; it involves real space, real deals, real support, and real guarantees.

What you REALLY pay for

Ever heard of the Myth of Unlimited Hosting? Aside from being technically impossible, it is highly unlikely that a web hosting company will charge you $4.95 a month if you agree to stay for 60 months. This includes unlimited disk space, a free domain name, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited databases, unlimited FTP accounts, unlimited emails, and unlimited everything else.

If you happen to break the 60 month agreement you are slapped with a termination fee and other hidden fees. This can quickly become a major hassle, especially when you receive poor support and service when you just want out of a bad hosting situation.

Often, in these situations, the hosting companies will begin to nag at you when too much space is taken up on a shared server, you’re taking up too much CPU, or taking up too much RAM on the server. This renders the promise of unlimited features as invalid and not a real guarantee and not real, honest hosting.

These types of hosting companies will go into your account and begin changing things if you have too many files on the server, if the files are taking up too much space, or too many “unrelated files”. They will disable the website and then it becomes a hassle to get your website back online. While they’re breaking promises, you’re losing traffic, clients, and/or money. Whether it is a business website or a personal blog, it is embarrassing when you have to explain to clients and friends why your website is down in the first place.

While you’re banging your head against a wall wondering why your website was suspended, they will be helping other people and not replying to your support tickets, emails, or phone calls. Some hosts will treat you like a second-class citizen if your account is suspended.

What you get with real hosting from AtomicPages

AtomicPages Real Hosting is different; we do not make promises we cannot keep. We will never claim to have unlimited features and go back on our word later on. The amount of features you pay for is the amount of features you will actually receive and nothing less; no questions asked.

This is what defines real hosting from impostors. We are honest, backup our guarantees, and have real morals. You will never hear that we are suspending your account due to too much space, taking up too many resources on the server, or any other made-up excuse. We will not impose upon your website unless it is breaking the law. AtomicPages real hosting will never leave you in the dark about your website.

Helping people with websites and delivering good quality hosting while keeping a promise is not all smoke and mirrors. There is no mystery to keeping a promise.

Flash Animation/Effects Tutorial 2: Shape Tweens

Feb 9th

Posted by Thomas Palmer in Adobe Flash Basics

No comments

Flash can create two types of tweened animation using timeline:

  1. Motion Tween
  2. Shape Tween

Creation of Motion/Shape tween using timeline is the basics of Flash.

By tweening shapes, you can create an effect similar to morphing, making one shape appear to change into another shape over time. Flash can also tween the location, size, and color of shapes.
Please note:
1. You need to have Flash Player 7.0 or higher installed to view the Flash animation.
2. Flash MX 2004 or higher must be installed in your system to download the .fla file.

This tutorial will teach you a simple shape tween.
Steps to follow:

* Open a new flash file (Ctrl+N).
New Document window will appear
Select General panel and choose Type: Flash Document . Press OK.
* If your timeline window is not open, press (Ctrl+Alt+T).
* Now you can see a single Layer called “Layer1″ in your timeline Window.

* Select the first frame. Now go to your working area and draw any object. To start off with, may be you can draw a circle.This is going to be your initial object.
In the this demonstration, my initial object is a short line.
* Select frame 20 and press F6 to insert a new keyframe.
* Still keeping playhead on frame 20, delete the object present in your working area. Now draw a different object, may be a square.
In the above demonstration, I have drawn a long line.
* Select any frame between, 2 to 19 and select Shape from the tween pop-up menu in the Property inspector. Now your Layer will look something like the one shown below.

* Now press (Ctrl+Enter) to view your motion tween.

In the above tutorial, you learned how to create a simple shape tween. Believe me, using this logic you can create a number of beautiful things.

Flash Animation/Effects Tutorial 1: Motion Tweens

Feb 8th

Posted by Thomas Palmer in Adobe Flash Basics

No comments

Flash can create two types of tweened animation using timeline:

  1. Motion Tween
  2. Shape Tween

Creation of Motion/Shape tween using timeline is the basics of Flash.

Motion tween is nothing but tweening a Symbol’s movement from one position to another.
To implement Motion Tween all that you have to do is, provide Flash with Symbol’s initial position and the end position. Rest is taken care by Flash. Isn’t it really simple.

For example in this demonstration, I have converted the pencil object to a Symbol. Provided Flash with its initial and the end position, intermediate tweening is done by Flash. Motion Tween animation is as simple as that \:\)
Okay, you ready to learn how to create motion tween. All you have to do is just follow this tutorial step by step.

Please note:

  1. You need to have Flash Player 7.0 or higher installed to view the Flash animation.
  2. Flash MX 2004 or higher must be installed in your system to download the .fla file.

Steps to follow:

  1. Open a new flash file (Ctrl+N).
  2. New Document window will appear
  3. Select General panel and choose Type: Flash Document . Press OK.
  4. If your timeline window is not open, press (Ctrl+Alt+T).
  5. Now you can see a single Layer called “Layer1″ in your timeline Window.
  6. Select the first frame. Import your image onto stage, upon which you would want to implement motion tween. File>Import>Import to Stage, or just press (Ctrl+R) or you can even draw your own object, you can either choose Rectangular tool or Oval tool from the tool box and draw your desired shape.
  7. Now select your object on the stage and press F8 to convert this image to a Symbol. Convert to Symbol window will pop-up.
  8. Name your Symbol what ever you like.
  9. Select Graphic behavior and press OK.

    10. Note: You can create motion tween only on symbols. So any object upon which you would want to implement motion tween, First convert the object to a Symbol.

  10. Right now your Symbol is in frame1 of Layer1. Select frame 20 and press F6 to insert a new keyframe.
  11. Still keeping playhead on frame 20, move your Symbol to any other position other than the present one.
  12. Select any frame between, 2 to 19 and select Motion from the tween pop-up menu in the Property inspector. Now your Layer will look something like the one shown below.
  13. Now press (Ctrl+Enter) to view your motion tween.

Flash Tutorial 8: AI Enemies Type 2

Feb 5th

Posted by Thomas Palmer in Adobe Flash Basics

No comments

If you have already made a moving character (type 2), this Tutorial will be very easy for you.

Set up your new AI enemy exactly as you did your moving character (make sure that everything in the main movie clip is CENTERED). Give it the instance name “AI2″ and use the following script to control it (instead of key down detection):

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onClipEvent(enterFrame){
   var AI_speed = 6; //the higher this number the faster the AI moves
   var reaction_distance = 300; //this higher this number, the farther the AI can "see" your character from.

   var AI_width = this._xscale / 2;
   var AI_hight = this._yscale / 2;

   if(this._y < _parent.character._y){
      var view_direction2 = "down";
      var y_dif = _parent.character._y - this._y;
      this._xscale = 100;
      if(y_dif > x_dif){
         gotoAndStop("down");
      }
   } else {
      var view_direction2 = "up";
      var y_dif = this._y - _parent.character._y;
      this._xscale = 100;
      if(y_dif > x_dif){
         gotoAndStop("up");
      }
   }

   if(this._x < _parent.character._x){
      var view_direction = "right";
      var x_dif = _parent.character._x - this._x;
      this._xscale = 100;
      if(x_dif > y_dif){
         gotoAndStop("right");
      }
   } else {
      var view_direction = "left";
      var x_dif = this._x - _parent.character._x;
      this._xscale = -100;
      if(x_dif > y_dif){
         gotoAndStop("left");
      }
   }

   if(view_direction == "left"){
      if(x_dif > AI_width + 100){
         this._x -= AI_speed;
      } else {
         if(y_dif < AI_hight + 1){
            trace("you've been hit!");
         }
      }
   } else if(view_direction == "right"){
      if(x_dif > AI_width){
         this._x += AI_speed;
      } else {
         if(y_dif < AI_hight){
            trace("you've been hit!");
         }
      }
   }

   if(view_direction2 == "up"){
      if(y_dif > AI_hight){
         this._y -= AI_speed;
      } else {
         if(x_dif < AI_width + 1){
            trace("you've been hit!");
         }
      }
   } else if(view_direction2 == "down"){
      if(y_dif > AI_hight){
         this._y += AI_speed;
      } else {
         if(x_dif < AI_width + 1){
            trace("you've been hit!");
         }
      }
   }
}

Flash Tutorial 7: AI Enemies Type 1

Feb 4th

Posted by Thomas Palmer in Adobe Flash Basics

No comments

This is for action-script 2.0.

Well, if you’ve gone though my moving character tutorials, or if you already know how to make moving characters…you may be wondering “How can I make an AI enemy? A monster if you will.”. As always, I’m here to help!

First things first, make sure your character movie-clip (as I am assuming it is already made) has the instance name “character”.

Now, lets make the movie-clip for the AI (give it the instance name “AI1″ (It is set up very similarly to your character movie-clip). In fact, set it up EXACTLY as you did your character, except use this script in the “AI1″ movie-clip. And you MUST have everything in the AI1 movie-clip placed at 0,0.

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onClipEvent(enterFrame){

   var AI_speed = 1.5; //the higher this number the faster the AI moves
   var reaction_distance = 500; //this higher this number, the farther the AI can "see" your character from.

   var AI_width = this._xscale;
   var AI_highth = this._yscale;

   if(this._x < _parent.character._x){
      var view_direction = "right";
      var x_dif = _parent.character._x - this._x;
      var y_dif = _parent.character._y - this._y;
   } else {
      var view_direction = "left";
      var x_dif = this._x - _parent.character._x;
      var y_dif = this._y - _parent.character._y;
   }

   if(y_dif <= reaction_distance){
      if(view_direction == "left"){
         gotoAndStop("jumping");
      } else {
         gotoAndStop("crouching");
      }
   }

   if(x_dif <= reaction_distance){
      if(view_direction == "left"){
         this._xscale = -100;
         this._x -= 2;
         if(_global.jumping != "yes"){
            gotoAndStop("walking");
         }
      } else {
         this._xscale = 100;
         this._x += 2;
         if(_global.jumping != "yes"){
            gotoAndStop("walking");
         }
      }
   }
}//end on Clip Event
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