- Industry: Software
- Number of terms: 430
- Number of blossaries: 3
- Company Profile:
Adobe offers a line of creative, business, Web, and mobile software and services used by creative professionals, knowledge workers, consumers, original equipment manufacturers, developers, and enterprises.
JPEG deblocking is a feature that has been available since the release of Flash CS4. It is an option in the publish settings that reduces the appearance of the common artifacts found in highly compressed JPEG files.
This option reduces typical artifacts resulting from JPEG compression, such as the common appearance of 8 × 8-pixel blocking of the image. Some JPEG images may lose a small amount of detail when this option is selected in the Publish Settings dialog box.
To make highly compressed JPEG images look smoother when they are exported from Flash, select the Enable JPEG deblocking option in the Publish Settings dialog box.
Industry:Software
Using the Motion Editor, you can control the shape of each property curve of a tween by editing the curve of each graph with standard Bézier controls. These controls are similar to working with the Selection tool or the Pen tool.
Move a curve segment or control point upward to increase the property's value; move it downward to decrease the value. Reposition property keyframes to different frames of the tween span to change how the tween appears.
To change the shape of a curve segment between two control points, drag the segment. When you drag a curve segment, the control points at each end of the segment become selected. If the selected control points are smooth points, their Bézier handles appear.
Industry:Software
A property keyframe is a frame within a tween span where you explicitly define one or more property values for the tween target object. Each property you define has its own property keyframes. If you set more than one property in a single frame, then the property keyframes for each of those properties reside in that frame. You can view each property of a tween span and its property keyframes in the Motion Editor. You can also choose which types of property keyframes to display in the Timeline from the tween span context menu.
You define changes to an object's properties for an animation in the property keyframes. Flash can tween, or automatically fill in, the property values between the property keyframes in order to produce fluid animations. Because property keyframes let you produce animation without drawing each individual frame, they make it easy to create animated sequences. A series of frames containing tweened animation is called a motion tween.
Black diamonds indicate the last frame and any other property keyframes in the Timeline. Property keyframes are frames that contain property changes explicitly defined by you. You can choose which types of property keyframes to display by right-clicking (or Command-clicking) a motion tween span and choosing View Keyframes from the context menu. Flash displays all types of property keyframes by default. All other frames in the span contain interpolated values for the tweened properties of the target object.
Do not confuse property keyframes with standard keyframes; the Timeline icon for a property keyframe is a solid diamond, whereas a standard keyframe icon is an empty or filled circle.
You arrange both property keyframes and keyframes in the Timeline to control the sequence of events in your document and its animation.
Industry:Software
Roving keyframes let you create smooth animation across a motion path. When you paste a motion path onto a tween span, roving keyframes create the animation along the motion path so it moves at the same rate across the path that you paste. The animation is smooth and consistent across the path largely because the keyframes are not bound to frame boundaries. The keyframes will fall on or between frame boundaries as necessary to achieve this. This kind of keyframe is called a roving keyframe.
Note: You will find roving keyframes only on x, y, and z (spatial) properties.
The spatial properties (x, y, z) in the new motion model can contain roving keyframes that do not fall on frame boundaries. They are used to simplify the process of making motion across a bunch of spatial keyframes constant.
Use the Motion Editor to enable roving for individual property keyframes for x, y, and z properties. Roving allows the property keyframe to move to different frames or between individual frames in order to create smooth motion.
Industry:Software
Use the Eraser tool to drag over a section of artwork on the Stage to erase it. Click the Eraser Mode modifier and select from the following list of erasing modes to specify how the area will be affected:
*Erase Normal: Erases strokes and fills on the same layer.
*Erase Fills: Erases only fills; strokes are not affected.
*Erase Lines: Erases only strokes; fills are not affected.
*Erase Selected Fills: Erases only the currently selected fills and does not affect strokes—selected or not. (Select the fills to erase before using the Eraser tool in this mode.)
(Erase Inside: Erases only the fill on which you begin the Eraser stroke. If you begin erasing from an empty point, nothing is erased. Strokes are unaffected by the eraser in this mode.
To use the Eraser tool, follow these steps:
#Click the Eraser Shape modifier in the Tools panel and select an eraser shape and size. Make sure that the Faucet modifier is not selected.
#Drag your cursor on the Stage in the desired location.
#To remove stroke segments or filled areas, select the Eraser tool and then click the Faucet modifier. Click the stroke segment or filled area to delete.
#To delete everything on the Stage, double-click the Eraser tool in the toolbar. This erases all types of content on the Stage and pasteboard.
Industry:Software
You can deploy digital video in Flash in several different ways:
*Progressive download from a web server
*Streaming video using Adobe Flash Media Streaming Server
*Embedded video data directly inside a Flash file
When you stream video, each Flash client opens a persistent connection to Flash Media Server and a controlled relationship exists between the video being delivered and the client interaction. Flash Media Server uses bandwidth detection to deliver video or audio content based on the user's available bandwidth. This enables you to provide different content for users based on their ability to easily access and download content. For example, if a user accesses the video content with a dial-up modem, you can deliver an appropriately encoded file that doesn't require too much bandwidth.
Flash Media Server also provides you with quality of service metrics, detailed tracking and reporting statistics, and a range of interactive features designed to enhance the video experience. As with progressive downloading, the video content (FLV or F4V file) is kept external to the other Flash content and the video playback controls. This lets you easily add or change content without having to republish the SWF file.
Streaming video with Flash Media Server (FMS) or Flash Video Streaming Service (FVSS) provides the following advantages over embedded and progressively downloaded video:
*Video playback starts sooner than it does using other methods of incorporating video
*Streaming uses less of the client's memory and disk space because the clients don't need to download the entire file
*Network resources are used more efficiently because only the parts of the video that are viewed are sent to the client
*Delivery of media is more secure because media is not saved to the client's cache when streamed
*Streaming video provides better tracking, reporting, and logging ability
*Streaming lets you deliver live video and audio presentations, or capture video from a web cam or digital video camera
*Flash Media Server enables multiway and multiuser streaming for video chat, video messaging, and video conferencing applications
*By using server-side scripting to control video and audio streams, you can create server-side playlists, synchronized streams, and more intelligent delivery options based on the client's connection speed.
Industry:Software
9-slice scaling allows you to specify how scaling is applied to specific areas of a movie clip. With 9-slice scaling, you can ensure that the movie clip does not become distorted when scaled. With normal scaling, Flash scales all parts of a movie clip equally, in both the horizontal and vertical dimensions. For many movie clips, this equal scaling can make the clip's graphics look strange, especially at the corners and edges of rectangular movie clips. This is often true of movie clips used as user interface elements, such as buttons.
The movie clip is visually divided into nine sections with a grid-like overlay, and each of the nine areas is scaled independently. To maintain the visual integrity of the movie clip, corners are not scaled, while the remaining areas of the image are scaled (as opposed to being stretched) larger or smaller, as needed.
When a movie clip symbol has 9-slice scaling applied, it appears in the Library panel preview window with the guides displayed. If Enable Live Preview is turned on (Control > Enable Live Preview) when you scale instances of the movie clip on the Stage, you will see the 9-slice scaling applied on the Stage.
Note: 9-slice scaling cannot be applied to Graphic or Button symbols. Bitmaps inside 9-slice enabled movie clips are scaled normally, without 9-slice distortion, while the other movie clip contents are scaled according to the 9-slice guides.
A 9-slice-enabled movie clip can contain nested objects within it, but only certain types of objects inside the movie clip properly scale in the 9-slice manner. To make a movie clip with internal objects that also adhere to 9-slice scaling when the movie clip is scaled, the nested objects must be shapes, drawing objects, groups, or graphic symbols.
To enable 9-slice scaling for symbols in Flash, select an instance on the Stage and press F8 (or choose Modify > Convert to Symbol). Expand the Advanced settings in the Convert to Symbol dialog box and click the check box next to the Enable for 9-slice Scaling Guides option.
To apply 9-slice guides to a symbol, use Adobe Fireworks or Adobe Illustrator to create a symbol and then follow these steps:
#Double-click the symbol or button to enter symbol-editing mode.
#In the Properties panel, select Enable for 9-slice Scaling Guides.
#Move the guides and place them appropriately on the button or symbol. Make sure that the parts of the symbol that you don't want to be distorted when scaling (such as the corners) are outside the guides.
#(Optional) Lock the guides: In the Properties panel, select the Lock option for 9-slice scaling guides.
#Return to the containing page by clicking the page icon at the top of the document panel.
#Resize the symbol as needed by using the Scale tool as desired.
#Import the symbol into Flash. The 9-slice scaling will still be enabled when you transform the symbol in Flash using the Free Transform tool.
Industry:Software
Flash Player detection (also known as SWF detection) is available only for publish settings set to Adobe Flash Player 4 or later, and for SWF files embedded in the Flash Only or Flash HTTPS templates.
To detect the presence of Flash Player before allowing a browser to view SWF files that use the following templates, create a separate HTML page with its own SWF file to detect Flash Player before redirecting browsers to the HTML page that contains the SWF content.
When you publish your SWF file, Flash creates a single HTML page in which to embed the SWF file and the Flash Player detection code. If an end user does not have the version of Flash you've specified to view the SWF file, an HTML page appears with a link prompting the user to download the latest version of Flash Player.
To export Flash detection with your project, follow these steps:
#Select File > Publish Settings and click HTML.
#Select either the Flash Only or Flash HTTPS template from the Template pop‑up menu. These templates support the single-page HTML detection kit. Either of these templates enables the Detect Flash Version check box and the version number text fields.
#Select the Detect Flash Version check box. Your SWF file is embedded in a web page that includes Flash Player detection code. If the detection code finds an acceptable version of Flash Player installed on the end user's computer, the SWF file plays as expected in their browser.
#(Optional) To specify precise revisions of Flash Player, use the Major Revision and Minor Revision text fields. For example, specify Flash Player version 7,0,2 if it provides a feature that is necessary to play your SWF file.
Industry:Software
When animating, you can use the Motion Editor to control the shape of each property curve of a tween, except for the x, y, and z axes. By working with property curves directly, you can add complex curves to create specific tween effects.
Control points of property curves can be either smooth points or corner points. When a property curve passes through a corner point, it forms an angle. When a property curve passes through a smooth point, it forms a smooth curve.
Select a property keyframe and then press Alt-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac) on the control point to toggle a control point between a corner point and a smooth point.
When a control point is in smooth-point mode, Bézier handles are exposed and the property curve passes through the point as a smooth curve. When a control point is a corner point, the property curve forms an angle when it passes through the control point. Bézier handles are not exposed for corner points.
To set the point to a specific point mode, right-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac) on the control point and choose Corner Point, Smooth Point, Smooth Right, or Smooth Left from the context menu that appears.
Industry:Software
ActionScript is the scripting language used to control playback of SWFs at runtime in Flash Player. Use ActionScript to make your applications play dynamically in a nonlinear way, and to add interesting or complicated functionality that cannot be added using the Timeline.
Using ActionScript, you can add complex interactivity, playback control, and data display to your application. You can add ActionScript in the authoring environment by typing code into the Script pane of the Actions panel. ActionScript follows its own rules of syntax, uses reserved keywords, and supports variables (used to store and retrieve information). ActionScript includes a large library of built‑in classes that you can use to create objects that perform many useful tasks, such as generating random numbers.
When you create a new FLA document, you must choose which version of ActionScript to use. You can change this setting if you decide later to write your scripts using a different version of ActionScript by updating the publish settings.
Flash supports several versions of ActionScript to meet the needs of different kinds of developers and playback hardware:
*ActionScript 3 (the most recent version) executes extremely fast and is fully compliant with the ECMAScript specification. It offers better XML processing, an improved event model, and an improved architecture for working with onscreen elements. FLA files that use ActionScript 3 cannot include earlier versions of ActionScript.
*ActionScript 2 is older and simpler to learn than ActionScript 3. Although Flash Player runs compiled ActionScript 2 code slower than compiled ActionScript 3 code, ActionScript 2 is still useful for many kinds of projects that are not computationally intensive—such as design-oriented content.
*ActionScript 1 is the simplest form of ActionScript, and is still used by some versions of the Flash Lite player. ActionScript 1 and 2 can coexist in the same FLA file.
*Flash Lite 2 and Flash Lite 1 are subsets of the corresponding version of ActionScript that are supported on mobile phones and devices.
Different features and file formats may require setting the corresponding version of ActionScript in the publish profile in order to function and render properly.
Industry:Software
