May 1, 2007

My Intro to ActionScript Class

As I am cursed with no artistic talent whatsoever, I am amazed at what people can do with Flash. From simple animated banners to truly beautiful interactive web sites. I do not use Flash on a regular basis, but am knowledgeable of the scripting language ActionScript and what it can do for Flash. As an adjunct part-time faculty for a local community college, I ocassionally teach weekend classes on Flash. One of the classes I teach is on the basics of ActionScript.

Updated November 2007
With the release of Flash CS3, I updated my examples I use in the class to ActionScript 3.0. The code (.zip) is available for you to download.

ActionScript is based on ECMAScript (which JavaScript is based on) and entered the scene in Flash version 5 and now has developed into a fully fledged programming language with true OOP support.

The topics covered in this class are an overview of the core language, using it within button and movieclip symbols, importing external text files, basic animation techniqes, creating preloaders and an introduction to components.

Here is the syllabus (.pdf) for the class to give more detail on the topics covered as well as the example files (.zip).