Script Causing Flash to Run Slowly – taterboy
July 24th, 2008 | Filed under: ActionScript 2, ActionScript 3, Flash, Tips

“A script in this movie is causing Adobe Flash Player 9 to run slowly. If it continues to run, your computer may become unresponsive. Do you want to abort the script?”

This error message is commonly caused by a hanging “for” loop. First check the code is written properly with no typos or mix-matched variables.
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Is AS3 Ready For Prime-Time? (part 1) – taterboy
July 8th, 2008 | Filed under: Flash, Flash AS2 to AS3, Tips

This is the first in a series of posts about some issues with Flash, ActionScript 3 and current work-arounds.

1. Timeline Animation and Scripting:
I could not believe this issue when I ran across it for the first time. I really hope it is a bug. If you have code on the first frame of a timeline, then advance the timeline, the objects on the next frame are not available to your code until the frame after.

This simple code does not work: (place code on frame 1 and place mc_clip on frame 2)
gotoAndStop(2);
mc_Clip.visible = false;

You get an error that says mc_Clip equals null if it did not exist on the first frame.
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Shuffle Objects or Random Order In Flash – taterboy
July 2nd, 2008 | Filed under: ActionScript 2, ActionScript 3, Flash, Tips

Random is a funny thing. You are working on a site or a game and think, “let’s make this part random to add some interest. You add your new code and realize that now things are repeating where they were not before Or the game experience is now really inconsistent.

That is because random is well, random. It is not 1, 2, 3, 4 any more, but it is also not a consistent distribution or values ether. The first sample is a concept built to prove a point I felt very strongly about, that I wagered lunch on it. I lost, but it is still an interesting exercise.
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Illustrator Tip #11… – taterboy
June 18th, 2008 | Filed under: Design, Digital Art, Illustrator, Tips

…and The Most Important:
Learn as many keyboard shortcuts you can. This is not an illustrator only tip. As with any app that you work in and expect to be proficient at, you should learn the key-board short cuts. In the manuals that come with the box, there is normally shortcut charts. If you did the download, you can find them online. Most Adobe apps have the ability to re-assign key-board short cuts as well. I would suggest against it, unless it is necessary, because if you ever go to work at a different location, or have to show someone something on a different computer, it helps if the shortcuts are the same. Some reasons we have had to change shortcuts in the past are, In Illustrator CS2 and previous, The shortcut for switching between the hollow and solid arrow selection tools, was Command + Tab (Ctrl + Tab on PC). On a mac, all the way back to OS 8, would instead toggle the application switcher. So instead of getting the hollow arrow selection tool, you would get a web browser or other open app instead.

In Photoshop CS2 and before, Command + Option + D (Ctrl + Alt + D on PC)was the short – cut for Feather Selection. On a Mac since the introduction on the dock, that shortcut was used to toggle the dock to appear and disappear. Both of these shortcuts were easily fixed by customizing the shortcuts to require and extra Key. That way Command + Option + Tab to toggle the selection Arrows in Illustrator and Command + Option + Shift + D to get the Feather section dialog box.

I believe Illustrator CS3 now comes pre-modified? (I seriously can not remember if I had to change that or not and I can not find any documentation on the Toggle Selection Arrow short cut as it this post). But Photoshop CS3 has done away with the Feather Selection dialog box and replaced it with Refine Edge which is Command + Option + R (Ctrl + Alt + R on PC).

Here is a resource for keyboard shortcuts. They are not complete, but in a easier format to print.
http://www.keyxl.com/
Also for Photoshop Only Shortcuts :
http://www.photoshopsupport.com/tutorials/jennifer/keyboard-shortcuts.html

Flash:
http://www.adobe.com/go/tn_12105

Official Adobe help docs:
http://livedocs.adobe.com/en_US/Illustrator/13.0/WS714a382cdf7d304e7e07d0100196cbc5f-642a.html

http://livedocs.adobe.com/en_US/Photoshop/10.0/WSfd1234e1c4b69f30ea53e41001031ab64-76b9.html

http://livedocs.adobe.com/flash/9.0/UsingFlash/WS4B6E7EC1-81C9-4d9d-96C0-9C01EB96E1FA.html

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10 Adobe Illustrator Tips – taterboy
June 16th, 2008 | Filed under: Design, Digital Art, Illustrator, Tips

With the nature of vectors being smaller than bitmap images in file size, I typically try to illustrate everything I do for Flash in Illustrator first. I love Illustrator as an illustration tool. Although Flash has made some great progress it’s illustration tool set, it just does not come close to the power and features of Illustrator. I also find Illustrator really fast for laying out design projects and more illustrative graphics then modeling and detailing in photoshop. Like any relationship, my affection for illustrator is not without frustration and we have to learn to accept some of the faults, if you can pardon my Dr. Phil type metaphor, to make it work. So here are some workarounds for some illustrator issues and a couple tips to help you work better with this great tool.

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