CHAPTER ONE: SOFTWARE

There are three pieces of software that I have found indispensable for flash creation. The first, of course, is Flash 8.

This application will be the platform you use to create your flash animations, and export them for distribution. You can download a fully-functional 30-day trial of Flash 8 from Adobe's site, here.

(Note: You must register with Adobe, before you can download the software.)

Now that you have flash Installed, it's time to move on the your image editing software.

Adobe Photoshop is pretty much the industry standard, when it comes to image manipulation/processing. For our purposes here, any version will do, but it's preferable if you use one of the more recent versions that comes bundled with ImageReady (which gives you more control over image quality, and subsequent file export.) Again, a free 30-day trial is available from Adobe here.

Finally, you will need an audio editor. There a million and one of them out there, but the one I've used for the past few years is Goldwave. GW is simple, no-frills, and gets the job done, at a cheap price. You can download a free trial here. Unfortunately, Goldwave doesn't come out for the Mac- but I'm pretty sure the folks over on the Apple side have a comparable product available.

Now- I'll shut up until you've done a ton of downloading and installing.

Tum te tum... Hmnnn.. "Episode 3" of Star Wars sucks balls. They've shown this- what- four times in the last two days? I wish I could afford digital cable, so I could watch Sundance...

Done? Okay- now, before I proceed, I feel the need to mention something to those who have downloaded these free trials:

There are a lot of sites out there on the internet where you can download pieces of software called "cracks" that can turn trial download versions of software into fully-functional versions. Newgrounds.com wouldn't even exist if it weren't for these cracks, which allowed every thirteen-year-old in the world to unlock flash, and produce tons of crappy animation and games. I want to make my official position clear, on this matter: DO NOT DOWNLOAD AND USE THESE "CRACKS." It's illegal, and can expose your PC to viruses. Besides which, when you use a crack, you deprive a multibillion dollar corporation like Adobe Systems a hundred bucks in profit- and that's just un-american.

So now you know- just say "no" to cracks.

ADDITIONAL SOFTWARE

SWISH- Okay, okay- I know it has a bunch of sexy effects. I know it's cheap. However, for any serious flash developer, it's useless. I know that's a sweeping statement, but here's the technical nuts and bolts of the matter:

The files that swish generates are ludicrous in size- 90 megabytes for a three-minute movie- and that just flies in the face of what flash is all about (namely, generating files that contain a ton of content, in a relatively small package.) With flash 8, you have access to a lot of visual tools that are far superior to anything that swish can create, and with a tad of personal creativity, you can create effects that are far superior to any canned effect that swish has to offer.

SWIFT 3D- What- you're thinking of including 3d stuff into your flash? I'm not even gonna touch that in this tutorial, but I'd suggest anyone out there who is into 3d, to check the stuff out. It can be cool- but use it sparingly, as again, the resulting files can be rather large.

I'm assuming that you've gotten your software together, by now, so I'll proceed to familiarizing you with the flash interface...

ON TO CHAPTER 2