Flash Report

Flash

Adobe Flash is a very good program for simple game authoring. The program has it's own built in coding system that is much simpler/easier than most other versions of code. Not only that but it's animation features also help simple games with cut scenes or panning/zooming. Movie clips, buttons and graphics can also be useful for game development, as they could be related to code, where they could be transformed into appearing at a particular time, or if it  hit an object then the object would activate a tween making the object explode. There is also the Library section, where files can be imported and stored for the project.

Like many of the other Adobe programs Flash  features the layering mechanism, best used for making a more 3D feel to the projects or sections for code to be placed. Flash also uses vector graphics, which can be used very smoothly for animating and game production.

The properties bar section is also a major asset towards game production, in the properties bar you can change the alpha levels so you can change the opacity of your chosen graphic, you can also give the graphic a drop shadow.

Another of the many ways that flash can be a good integrated development environment would be the onion skinning Selection key, this allows you to vaguely see the frames before so you can draw over them making short work of frame by frame animations, scenes/environments.

Frame by frame is another of the great assets of flash. Frame by frame can be used in many different ways, For example:

• Animating
• Changing Scenes or environments
• making a more suspenseful atmosphere to a particular scene/environment
• having an animated button that flashes as fast as you choose it to be using the Frame rate option

Frame by frame is also a very old school version of animating, another version of this can be seen as stop motion animation where a picture is taken to create a single frame of an entire intricate animation.

The frame rate option is a huge benefit for animators and game developers, as you can change the speed of the project within a second this mostly applies to animators, a good example would be if there was going to be a long and well designed animation that would take a while to create then a higher frame rate would be needed, about 30-60 frames per second. whereas a typical animator would have a lower frame rate, usually around 20-30 frames per second. The average and default frame rate for any flash product is 24 frames per second. Games developers can also find the frame rate option useful, if they wanted to speed up or slow down the game then the most likely option they would choose would be the Frame rate option.

Flash also has a wide variety of files you can import/export. You can usually import and export to/from the library and or stage. once imported you can do many things, ether start animating it straight away or keep it in the library and edit the properties. Files you can import into Adobe Flash are:

• JPEG
• BMP
• PNG
• MP4
• MP3
• GIF
• AI (Adobe Illustrator) 

The Type of files you can export from flash are:

• JPEG
• PNG
• BMP
• GIF
• PICT

Other Adobe Flash save types include:

• SWF
• FLA
• APK

In the Library, you should be able to find all the main files that would have been imported from any time during the project period, with the graphics/ tweens/ movie clips/ buttons in the library, you can then edit the properties by right clicking the selected graphic/ tween/ movie clips/ button and then clicking properties. once opened, you can make the files available to script in by clicking on the action script tab and then clicking export to action script, then you give the file a suitable class name, in which you then close the properties tab and the graphic/ tween/ movie clips/ button would be able and easy to script straight onto the stage.

Flash also contains many different versions/ work types, from the featured action script 3 - Air for android or IOS for apple products. There are also a few presets for certain animations as well for example, there is a preset of a candle and the lighting of the candle.