.:THE ROSETTA STONE OF GUITAR
Over the years I have had the great pleasure of teaching students how to create projects using Adobe Flash. Working with Flash is thrilling as well as challenging. I have been to many, many sites, such as www.actionscript.org, www.bit-101.com, www.lynda.com and many more, seeking help to become a better Flash user. Teaching myself for years, and now starting to teach others, has been a bit of a mountain to climb. Having been at it about 10 years, I have finally discovered a way to teach my students much more effectively, using another Adobe program called Captivate.
Here, hosted in cyberspace graciously donated by The Rosetta Stone Of Guitar, is my humble library.
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
SIMPLE GAME #1
ARROW KEYS :: Here is a lesson that will allow you to create an object that will move according to which arrowKeys you press on the keyboard.
ARROW KEYS EASING :: Here is a lesson that will cause the movements of your character seem a bit more realistic. Just as a car eases to a stop, rather than suddenly, throwing all passengers throught the front winsheild, your character will accelerate and decelerate gradually and naturally.
HITTEST :: Here is a lesson that will show you a very basic hitTest between two objects, in this case, player1 and a wall.
SHAPEFLAG :: In this lesson, we will take the stuff we created in the previous lesson and add a more sophistocated kind of hitTest called a "shapeFlag".
HEALTHBAR :: In this lesson, we continue where we left off in the previous and add a heathBar to the file. This will allow the player to take some damage before he actually dies.
LIVES :: Once again, we are continuing were the last lesson left off. This time we will add a life counter to it. When the player's health is completely depleted, the player will die and a the counter will increment down to reflect this change.
HEALING :: In this tutorial we add an object to the game that will restore our healthBar to full.
EXTRA MAN :: In this lesson we add the capacity to get extra lives.
GAME OVER :: In this lesson we add a "Game Over" message that triggers when the player's lives drops to zero. We also declare a variable to disable the player's movement at that moment.
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
BREAKOUT
BALL :: In this lesson you will create a ball to move across the screen.
BOUNDARIES :: In this lesson, you will create boundaries to make the ball bounce off of them and stay on the screen.
PADDLE :: In this lesson you will create a paddle that will replace the bottom boundary of the screen. You will also be able to control the paddle with you mouse movements.
PADDLE GLITCH :: In this lesson we take care of a little glitch in the code to make things work better.
BLOCKS :: We introduce a single block and work on getting the ball to bounce off of it's sides correctly.
BLOCKS DISSAPEAR :: Here we make the block dissapear once hit by the ball.
BLOCKS ARRANGED :: Here we figure out a way to arrange the blocks in a neat and orderly fashion.
CLEAN UP :: In this lesson we clean up our work before we move on.
PADDLE CONTROL :: We add some basic control to the way the ball bounces off the paddle.
PADDLE CONTROL EDGES :: Here we advance our control of the paddle and ball interaction.
PLAY BUTTON :: Add a play button to our game.
BLOCK LEVELS :: Create more levels to our game.
BLOCK COUNTER :: Create a way to count and keep track of how many blocks are on the stage.
BALL LOCATION :: Make the ball start at a certain point at the beginning of a level.
PRIZE BLOCK GREEN :: The beginning of creating blocks that hold prizes. This one makes the paddle wider.
PRIZE BLOCK RED :: A prize to make the paddle more narrow.
PRIZE BLOCK YELLOW THROUGH :: A prize that allows the ball to pass through blocks without bouncing.
GRAPHIC EFFECTS :: A lesson on making everything look more stylish.
PRIZE BLOCK PURPLE HOLD :: A prize that allows the user to hold the ball by holding down a key.
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
RANDOM LESSONS
STICKMAN :: Here is a lesson on how to make the most basic animation imaginable. The methods used here are intentionally simplistic and, therefore, not particularly effective. The purpose of this lesson is mainly to give the learner a chance to do some simple manipulation of the tools and the timeline. (Contains Audio : fileSize = 7.5MB)
MOTION TWEEN :: Here is a lesson that will show you one of the most basic ways to create motion in Flash. This is a great technique to use if you just want an object to move from one place to another without having to draw all the intermediate steps. Set point A and point B and Flash will do the rest.
SHAPE TWEEN :: Here is a lesson on how to get Flash to morph a graphic from one shape to another. Just as with a motion tween, you set point A and point B and Flash does the rest, only this time the two points are more like "shape A" and "shape B".
MASKING :: In this lesson, you find out how to make a mask. A mask is where you set the graphic or shape on one layer to act as if it were a window to see the layers below it through. Just think of the kind of mask you put on your face, where the eye holes are like the windows you see through. Same concept.
BUTTONS :: In this lesson we go over how to create a button and some of the basic features involved with using one.
DUPLICATE MOVIE CLIP :: In this lesson we create a copy of one of the symbols in our library as a way to show you how you can copy and then modify an existing symbol to create a new on and save yourself time.
MOTION GUIDE :: In this lesson we create a motion guide which allows you to use an invisible line on one of the layers to dictate the path an object moves along during a motion tween.
TRACE BITMAP :: In this lesson I show you how to take a bitmap (regular picture) and turn it into a vector image. This is a must-see for any Flash user.
CRUDE ANIMATION :: In this lesson we go over some basic ways to create an animation. The methods here aren't very complicated and not very efficient either. But, beginners will learn some simple ideas in this tutorial. The real purpose of this lesson is to actually show what kinds of problems arise when an animation is created in such a way. In a later lesson, called "smartAnimation" these shortcomings will revealed when I show you a way to make editing your animation much, much easier.
SUBMOVIES :: In this lesson we create symbols inside of symbols and show you the power and usefulness of doing such things. Be careful to understand what is happening here. This technique can be very powerful, if used right, and is almost necessary to master. But, this concept can be a very big headache if you don't come to grips with how it's accomplished.
BUTTON CONTROLS :: In this lesson we will work with buttons and explore how they can be used to control the timelines of symbols. This lesson will give you some insight into a concept called "pathing". Very important!
PAINT THE CAR :: In this lesson we use buttons to control the timelines of different symbols and allow the viewer to select different colors from the choices we setup for them.
PARENT NEXTFRAME :: In this lesson we put some simple code into the timeline such that when the submovie timeline finishes, it triggers the parent timeline to move to the next frame.
GAS STATION :: In this lesson we use some of the same concepts to setup some of the features you would need if you were to create a virtual gas station.
RANDOM :: In this lesson you will learn the simple, but very important and useful code for selecting a random number.
PROPERTIES :: In this lesson we explore some of the important properties you can manipulate, such as x position, y position, transparency, xScale, yScale, rotation, width, height, etc.
TRACE :: In this lesson I will show you how you can use trace(); to get the computer to give you some of the answers you will sometimes so desperately need.
SMART ANIMATION :: Here we are revisiting the animation idea. Only this time I will show you (now that you've been exposed to some basic actionscript code) a much better way of controlling animation.
CONTROL + C & CONTROL + ALT + S & CONTROL +SHIFT +V :: Here's a lesson with a funny name! This is one of my favorite key combinations. It's a series of 3 different keyboard shortcuts that I find myself using almost every time I work in Flash (well, maybe not EVERY, but enough for me to go through the trouble of showing you). You 'll want to get good at this one!
FOR LOOP :: In this lesson I will show you how to use a for loop to do all kinds of work for you. Anytime you have a symbol you want to create a multitude of copies of and you don't want to have to do it all by hand, forLoop is your hero! Don't let the look of the code intimidate you. Just memorize it, get familiar with what each part does, and move on. You'll be using it in all kinds of ways!
TRACE #2 :: Obviously, I must feel that you can't get enough of this trace(); trick. And, rightfully so! It's something I use and most all Flash developers use to get info out of the computer. It is said to be useful in "debugging" your code. What that means, is when something is not working right, and you can figure out what it is, trace can be your best friend. Sometimes, using it can let you know exactly what part of your code is working right and what part is not. You really need to use this one!
THREE FRAMES ARCHITECTURE :: In this lesson I show you how to setup the keyframes inside a symbol to create a loop in the timeline. What this does is make it possible to store some of your code in a place (frame1) where it can be called on whenever you need it, while there is also a place (frame2) where your code is being processed constantly. Learning to build timelines in this manner is what has made the greatest difference in my ability to create simple games. I learned this trick by doing the tutorials at www.bit-101.com and I owe the creator of that site my gratitude.
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
ARRAYS :: INTRO
Push :: In this lesson you will learn how to create an array and use "push" to push information into it.
Pop :: In this lesson you will learn how to use "pop" to take out the last element in an array.
Shift :: Learn how to use "shift" to remove the first element in an array.
Unshift :: Use "unshift" to insert an element into the first position of an array.
Splice :: Learn to use "splice" to delete any element or multiple elements in an array. You can also use this method to insert new elements into any desired position within the array.
Array Application Part1 :: In this lesson we create an associative array, like a backpack to hold items.
Array Application Part2 :: In this lesson we create a pay button to populate one of the pockets in our backpack with money.
Array Application Part3 :: In this lesson we create a way to buy a ham sandwich. It takes money out of our money pocket and puts the sandwich in our lunch pocket.
Array Application Part4 :: In this lesson we create a way to trade our ham sandwich for a ice cream and some money. We program it so it checks for the correct amount of money. If there's enough money, and a ham sandwich in our backpack, the trade will take place. We will end up with our ham sandwich removed from our array, ice cream in the dessert pocket of our backpack (array) less some money.
Rosetta Stone Of Guitar :: Fretboard Geography :: Visual Music Theory About the Rosetta Stone Of Guitar :: Visual music theory for guitar. Fretboard Geography: Know where you are, where you can go, and how to get there.
