Today we started to attempt start and stop buttons.  We started by opening up a previous animation then we viewed the buttons folder of the common libraries.  We then dragged a couple of buttons onto our animation.  The idea was to write code to start and stop the animation, but it didn’t work (…because we needed to create an Action Script 2 file, not Action Script 3, but we’ll come back to this another day!)

Next we learned how to import sounds into Flash.  First we went to Freesound.org to download a sound clip.  Then in Flash we went to File / Import / Import to Library and selected our downloaded sound file.

In the timeline we added a layer for each sound clip.  On that layer we added a keyframe where we wanted the sound to start playing.  Then on the righthand side in Properties under ‘Sound’ and ‘Name’ we selected the new sound clip.  Then in the layer we could see the sound wave appear in blue and when we played the animation there was a comic ‘boing’ noise.

Next we tried out importing video clips.  The biggest problem was finding video clips we could download and use legally.   We used Channel 4’s PixnMix (bit.ly/c4pix) to find and download videos.  We then imported them into Flash (File / Import video).

The biggest problem with importing video into Flash is you have to use the Adobe Media Encoder programme to convert the file from .avi to .flv (Flash video) before you can use it in your animation.  As you’re importing it you can select different ‘skins’ to choose the visible buttons and what colour you want the buttons to be.

We then added another layer and drew a TV around the screen (or a cinema screen or an iPad…)