Action Script 3 101: Your First Project (Part 3)

Follow @tristarweb

Getting started with your first project in flash and ActionScript 3 is relatively easy compared to most scripting languages, in the sense that all you need is your chosen flash authoring software – Flash, Flex, Flash Builder or Catalyst. In this series we will be focusing on ActionScript 3 using the Flash authoring tool.

At this stage it would be useful to note the naming conventions when we are referring to the flash family to avoid confusion when reading this series.

  • Flash – Is the Flash Authoring tool – as in the program you create flash movies in.
  • Flash player  – Is the browser plug-in which plays flash movies.
  • Flash movie – Is the actual compiled .swf

Creating your first project

Open flash and choose new ActionScript 3 project.

Start flash project screenshot

Start flash project screenshot

Once your project has opened we will need to set up the project to best suit our needs. Goto the properties panel and you will see:

  • Script > Make sure this is set to ActionScript 3.
  • Player > Make sure this is set to 9 or higher. (try to use the lowest player which will support what you are using within your project, at this stage use 9 – Flash will tell you if you are using something that is not supported)
  • The size option is your stage size in pixels
  • FPS is the frames per second > This will determine the  fluidity of your animation, if you have any. (Try to keep it a low as possible to reduce the load of your movie on the system)

At this point you are ready to start programming. In the next part we will look at creating your first script.

About russell

Web Developer I’m a web developer with 3 years’ experience in the media industry.My Development skills includes flash, AS3, AS2, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Jquery, XML, PHP, and MySQL. I have a great deal of experience developing interactive user interfaces in PHP Javascript AS3 AS2I have two masters degrees in Computer Science and Multi Media and before my current role I completed a year of research at De Montfort University researching multi touch technology. during this time I developed several multi touch applications for entertainment spaces.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Please wrap all source code with [code][/code] tags.

Follow Tristar on Twitter