Flash CS4 Folded Book

Excellent video David, thanks for sharing!

If this doesn’t get you excited about Flash CS4 I don’t know what will… oh wait there is a whole list of amazing features. Cant wait to watch more!

Thanks for a great video.

To Thomas,

You’re welcome! Glad you liked it.

To Andrew,

Haha, agreed. Flash CS4 has some *really* cool stuff. Thanks for the encouragement!

hi, i went to
http://www.layersmagazine.com/magazine

and i wonder how to do that book where i can turn the pages one by one. The effect of paper turning is so..wow…can i know how to do that?

Thanks

white2020,

Believe it or not, that’s a 2D effect, and has been possible in Flash for quite some time. It’s done entirely with ActionScript, so if you’re not comfortable with programming, you’ll likely find it quite a challenge. Unlike like the 3D movement shown in this video, the page turn effect is simply not something you can do in the timeline.

Sham Bhangal’s 2004 O’Reilly title, “Flash Hacks,” discusses this effect on pages 110 through 114. There’s also a prebuilt component you can purchase at http://page-flip.com/.

Thanks David!

That was great!^^

I downlaoded the prebuilt component

hi there. Can I know what is swf file? I cant read that…

then…can i know how to read that JS file?

white2020,

I’m afraid I haven’t worked with that particular component personally — I’ve only seen it demoed on other sites, and it looks great. By the looks of their site, they offer their pageflip element as a component and as a SWF.

The component would be something you drag around inside the Flash authoring tool. The SWF would be an already-compiled Flash movie that you embed in HTML on your own and feed parameters (probably with FlashVars).

If there’s a JS file that comes with it, you can read that in any simpletext editor (JS files are JavaScript files, which are nothing more than text).

Your best bet, though, is to check with the company that sells the component. I’d be surprised if they don’t provide full documentation.

hi there,

I downloaded the softwares in another site and I installed it using Extension Manager.

It is said that the tools are available under the Components Panel but I dunno where to open it.

Can I know where to open the tool?

Thanks again.

white2020,

I’d like to gently steer questions/comments back to the topic of the tutorial, mainly because I don’t have enough experience with the 2D version to give anyone insight into that particular page-flipping technique.

That said, most of the 3rd party components I’ve seen — at least, the ones that install themselves to the Components panel — give themselves a folder in that panel. Your Components panel should already have at least a couple folders (one for the UI components and one for the video components), but those folders change based on the configuration of your FLA file.

If your FLA is set for ActionScript 3.0, you will only see AS3 components. If this page-flipping component is written for AS2, you’ll have to change your FLA’s publish settings to ActionScript 2.0.

I know this may sound like a basic question & not directly linked to this video (which was really good!) but where can i find the actionscript coding pane in Flash CS4? My old flash version had the actionscript pane viewable at the bottom of the screen but i don’t seem to be able to find it on the new version.

Shuja,

Flash CS4 has probably the most flexible workspace in the history of the application. The default positions of certain panels have changed, but you should be able to spot the Actions panel by keeping an eye on your workspace while repeatedly selecting Window > Actions (which shows and hides the Actions panel).

Thanks!

For God’s sake, just use 3d Max and export images!!! Flash makes a simple task extremely difficult!!!!

I agree, it’s so much easier to just do a quick 3d animation on 3d Max, Cinema 4D and export images or video. Those Flash users who don’t know 3D are truly missing it.

It’s a hell of a lot easier to just do a quick animation in 3d Max or Cinema 4D and export images/video into Flash. If you don’t know 3d software, you truly are missing out. Flash couldn’t possibly be better at 3d than Autodesk or Maxon…that’s their specialty. Sorry Flash, nice try.

DRJR and David,

No one’s arguing that Flash does 3D better: it doesn’t! You’re absolutely right, apps like 3ds Max, Cinema 4D, Blender, and so on, are *made* for 3D and have much more powerful modeling/rendering tools and workflows. In contrast, Flash 3D is in its infancy.

What Flash does allow, even with its utterly basic approach, is direct interactivity via ActionScript. That isn’t possible with videos imported from an actual 3D app. So there are pros and cons to either approach, as always. The cool thing is that the options you mentioned are available, which means a wide array of choices is there for the taking.

Thank you so much David! This was very helpful. I’m a begginer but you turorial was easy enough for me to do it right. I can’t get enough of this flash cs4!

Gabi,

Glad to hear it!

Thanks, way cool.

I want to rotate an entire flash movie (the finished product) 45 degrees (to fit behind a peel-away ad at top right corner of website page).

Is that possible??

thanks

[...] Flash CS4 Folded Book       [...]

Simple and elegant and relevant

You helped me to figure out what I was doing wrong with making the 3D tool work. After many hours I ashamed to say it was your video that helped me find the solution. Now I know it works.
Thanks.
I would of like to know then how that gets incorporated into a page with all the other content?

To computerguy,

> I want to rotate an entire flash movie (the
> finished product) 45 degrees (to fit behind
> a peel-away ad at top right corner of website
> page).
>
> Is that possible??

If your Flash content (your FLA) is already complete, then the least painful way to accomplish your goal is probably to load that SWF into your ad SWF and rotate the loaded content. You could do the rotation (2D or 3D) with ActionScript or simply by preparing an empty movie clip in the parent file (the ad SWF), rotating the empty movie clip with the drawing tools, and then addding the loaded content (the other SWF) to the display list of the empty movie clip.

To kash,

> Simple and elegant and relevant

Thanks!

To jeff,

> I would of like to know then how that gets
> incorporated into a page with all the other
> content?

Aside from the fact that the’re 3D, layers with 3D content work the same as 2D layers (that is, motion tween, classic tween, and shape tween layers). So if you wanted to display 3D content on top of other content, you’d move its layer above the other layers; if below, then you’d move it below. If you wanted it to appear at frame 500, you’d introduce its first keyframe on frame 500. Make sense?