Flash tutorials
Here’s a whole set of Flash preloaders (every type of loader and preloader that I could think of. All I am supplying at the moment is the complete project for each type of preloader.
You get all the FLA, JPG, MOV, and MP3 files. You also get to see how each one looks in a demo.
Topics covered are (easiest to hardest):
- Basic
- Bytes loaded
- Frames loaded
- Percent loaded
- Auto-pause loader
- Intermediate
- Graphic loader
- Basic animation loader
- Complete animating loader
- Progress loader
- Partial preloader
- Forcing the percent loader to play
- Forcing the keyframed loader to play
- Technical loader
- External image loader
- Reusable loader
- Audio
- Streaming audio loader
- MP3 Audio loader
- Video loader
- Advanced
- Download rate loader
- Update download rate loader
- External update download rate loader
- Download time remaining loader
- Update download time remaining loader
- Just in time auto-play preloader
- Section buffering preloader
- Full project
If there is enough interest, I’ll start writing tutorials for each project. The more comments and questions I get, the more I’ll write!
We’ve also got our old Flash MX tutorials available (they open a new window):
Entries (RSS)
August 1st, 2008 at 3:44 am
Hey - I’m working on a first time flash project, and need to have a movie load with a slider, and this looks like pretty much exactly what I need. I have to know -how- things work, though, so I’d really appreciate a tutorial on your video loader. Your audio-loader tutorial was excellent, and I was going to try to modify that to work in video (I still may try that), but I figured I’d at least hope for a video version, and here one is (at least the project files).
August 1st, 2008 at 9:20 am
Hi Josh
If you understand the audio loader, then you already have what you need to work out the video loader as well!
Instead of doing the “putting the sound on the stage” step, you import your video on to the timeline. Flash does its progressive download thing with the video (the same as it does for your streaming audio) so the load indicator still works. And the video is on the timeline, so the play controls still work the same way.
The way the media controller is written, you get two controllers for the price of one!
August 2nd, 2008 at 2:17 am
Thanks!
About halfway through recreating the audio player, per the tutorial, it clicked, and I successfully used the media controls with video. Now I’ll need to change the presentation and polish to whatever I’m told over here, but I’ve got to thank you a lot. Self-taught Flash is kind of like teaching yourself a foreign language with a tape, alone. It might sound okay to you, but there’s no other native speakers around to tell you that their 5 year old communicates better than you do. So, I’m doing all this stuff without really knowing if it’s good Flash, or even a halfway decent way to do things…
August 2nd, 2008 at 2:21 am
As an OT aside, I just noticed that you’re in Western Australia (based on the time zone in the posts). -I- was just there almost this time last year, in Perth, having my life saved by a surgeon at Sir Charles Gardener. Not the first choice in how I’d want to spend a month there, but definitely better than the alternative.
August 4th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Mate, I’m glad you’ve got things sorted. And you’re right about the self-taught Flash thing, but the payload is that you bring a different perspective to the tool that others may not have.
OT: Yep, we’re in Perth. If you were in Charlie’s, you were in great hands. They do some awesome work on hearts here and a whole bunch more, besides.