Assignment 8: Flash - Extra Credit

In this assignment, you will create an interactive “choose your own adventure” story using Flash and it’s programming language, ActionScript. Your Flash project will be published online on a Web page. You are to tell a short story consisting of at least two scenes. There must be a main character of your choosing and a decision that this character makes.

For on overview of ActionScript, see this page.

The Structure of the Narrative

The First Scene

  • The first scene is an animation where the character is involved in some kind of introductory action.
  • This scene should have text that displays the title of the story and the author’s name.
  • Once the first scene is complete, the story stops and the project continues to the interactive part.

The Interactive Part

  • At this point, the Flash application pauses and asks the user to indicate what should happen next.
  • The user is presented with at least two choices. These choices can be in the form of buttons the user can click.
  • Depending on which button the user clicks, a different animation will play in the second scene.
  • Tip: Read about the stop() command in ActionScript to pause the movie.
  • Tip: See the notes about buttons to set them so that clicking them jumps to specific frames of the movie using the gotoAndPlay() function in ActionScript.

The Second Scene

  • Once the user has selected what should happen next, the second scene begins.
  • This scene is an animation that shows whichever event the user chose in the interactive part.

End Frame (optional)

  • The story should end with a scene that shows the text, “The End.”

Example Movie

An example movie has been created for your reference. Download a ZIP archive with the original Flash source file here.

Here is another (modest) example created for class: TV Movie

You may download all of the files used to create the example Flash Animation: TV Movie Zipped

You may also download the finished .fla file and see how it works: TV Movie Revealed

Requirements

  • When you begin working on the Flash file, make sure you create an “ActionScript 3” project.
  • Use at least one Shape Tween.
  • Each object should live on its own layer. This makes it easier to animate them separately.
  • You should also include at least two sound files in your project.
    • One of the sounds should have at least two sounds playing simultaneously (i.e. use two tracks in Audacity).
    • Feel free to use as many sound effects as you see fit.
  • Your Flash project should be published on a Web page on i6.

On Importing

You will probably start your project by gathering your images, sounds, animated GIFs, etc. and importing them into Flash using File > Import. You will import your images and sounds into your library using File > Import > Import to Library. That way, you can use them over and over again by dragging them from your library onto the stage or into the Timeline.

In particular, you will want to import any animated GIFs into your library before pulling them onto the stage. Using this method, all of the frames will be aligned around a common registration point, and you can place the entire animated sequence onto the stage without having to worry about aligning individual frames.

Submitting Your Assignment

  1. You should post your assignment as assignment8.html to your website and it should include your .swf file.
  2. That Web page should be linked to from the Assignments page (index.html) that you already have online.
  3. Submit the URL to the page via Blackboard and upload the .fla (Flash) and .aup (Audacity) files along with it.

Grading

This assignment is worth 10 points.

  • Flash-based narrative with at least two scenes (3 points)
  • Opening credits, including the title of the story and students’ name (1 point)
  • Interactivity, including buttons and scene selection (2 points)
  • At least one shape tween (1 point)
  • Original sounds (2 points)
  • Project published on a Web page on i6 (1 point)