The Color object was introduced in Flash Player 6. It is deprecated since Flash Player 8. Although the replacement ColorTransform object provides additional flexibility, the original Color object is easier to use and understand. Consequently, it is still used in spite of its deprecated status.

The ColorTransform object should be used in all new projects. The older Color object is discussed here as it provides a useful introduction to the theory of altering color using script. The ColorTransform object will be discussed in a future article.

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Today, nearly everyone has a smartphone, tablet or other mobile computing device. Unfortunately websites designed for large screen browsing do not display very well on these devices because of screen size constraints and other interface limitations. In addition, the Flash player is not universally implemented in all mobile devices (eg iPhones and iPads). This article discusses various techniques that can be used to detect a mobile device and then automatically re-direct the user to a mobile device specific landing page.

The techniques include:

• Manual Selection
• User Agent information via Java and
• User Agent information via Server Detection

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Did you know you can author a DVD with content created by SWiSH Max4? The process makes use of Windows Live Movie Maker and Windows DVD Creator. Both programs are provided with Vista and Windows 7.  DVD’s authored in this way make interesting and unique invitations or presentations. The technique can also be applied to create custom titles for home movies.

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Many users may not be aware that it is possible to use SWiSH Max4 to author custom effects such as the one shown below. A custom effect can be based on any of the ten core effects. Custom effects use a Custom interface to offer a specialized user interface that is easier to use than the underlying core effect interface tabs.

The Custom interface for the “Rainbow bulge” effect is shown below. This exposes five parameters instead of the 30+ parameters associated with the underlying Transform effect.

An authored effect can  support up to nine Custom parameters. If more control is needed, the original parameters associated with the core effect can be presented in additional tabs.

The sample effect, “Rainbow bulge”, has five custom parameters. In this example, the parameters associated with the core effect (Transform) have been hidden from the end user.

The remainder of this article demonstrates how the above effect was authored. Once understood, the technique can be applied to allow authoring of a virtually unlimited number of custom effects. (more…)

Radio buttons, along with Check boxes and Combo controls are some of the most familiar interfaces on the web. Every component enabled version of SWiSH Max and SWiSH miniMax (versions 2, 3 and 4), come with a radio button component: Buttons | Radiobutton | Radiobutton. Knowing how to use this component could save you a considerable amount of time when creating your movie.

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Windows DVD Maker is a DVD authoring program that is included with Vista and Windows 7. It works well but is unable to convert .flv movies to DVD format. The .flv video format is used by many websites including Youtube. In addition, flv is the preferred video format exported by Flash and SWiSH Max. This tutorial explains how to author a DVD comprising of flv videos using VLC (a free download) and Windows DVD Maker.

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