Adobe Flash, a powerful tool for enhancing web interactivity and animation, has garnered a vast community of developers seeking to refine their skills. This article presents 12 essential websites that are invaluable for those looking to deepen their proficiency in Flash development. Each site offers a selection of tutorials to showcase their content.
Kirupa.com is a leading resource for Flash tutorials, also covering Silverlight, ASP.net, PHP, and Photoshop. With well-crafted, in-depth tutorials and articles, the site is divided into seven categories, including Basic Drawing, Special Effects, Server-side Flash, and Game Development.
Tutorial Examples:
Simple Page Transitions
Creating and Animating Clouds
Falling Text
Gotoandlearn.com, created by Lee Brimelow, offers a suite of free Flash video tutorials that cater to visual learners who prefer real-time, step-by-step instruction.
Tutorial Examples:
ActionScript 3 Sound Basics
Creating 3D Carousels
Creating Flash Tooltips
gotoAndPlay() is a platform dedicated to Flash game development, providing resources such as a forum, interviews with professional developers, and reviews of books and resources. Tutorials and articles are available for filtering by topic, expertise, and type.
Tutorial Examples:
Developing a space shooter game
Skeletal Animations
How to protect SWFs from decompilers?
Adobe’s Flash Developer Center is a hub for developers, featuring tutorials, articles, and resources on Flash. The ActionScript Technology Center is a specialized section for articles specifically on ActionScript.
Tutorial Examples:
Using ActionScript to pause and loop the timeline in Flash
Drawing with the Pen tool
Creating a 3D button animation for Flash
Flash Kit, a vast community of over 600,000 Flash developers, offers forums, free resources for download, and a comprehensive tutorials section with 18 categories.
Tutorial Examples:
Making movieclips point at the mouse
Move a sprite with the keyboard
How to use hitTest in a simple game
ActionScript.org provides resources and information on Flash, Flex, and ActionScript, with an active Forums section and an extensive ActionScript Library containing over 700 objects for download.
Tutorial Examples:
Drawing Shapes with AS3
Simple reflection effect with AS2
Physics in ActionScript 3.0
Flash and Math offers a rich collection of AS3 tutorials, ranging from basic to advanced, with many including source files for download.
Tutorial Examples:
Drag-and-Drop in Flash CS3
Tween Tricks in Flash CS3 and ActionScript 3
Simple 3D Drawing in Flash CS3 and ActionScript 3
Pixel2Life, a vast tutorial index for graphic designers, webmasters, and programmers, boasts over 40,000 indexed tutorials, with a dedicated section for Flash tutorials.
Indexed Tutorial Examples:
Creating a Basic Flash Website (AS3 Version)
Actionscript 3 Timer Class
Stars animation above the city
Flash Perfection aggregates a vast collection of Flash tutorials, tips, and tricks from various sources, organized into 23 categories for quick access.
Indexed Tutorial Examples:
Atmospheric Steam
Optimizing your Flash SWFs
Quick and Easy Zoom Effect in Flash
metah.ch offers video tutorials on Flash, ActionScript, Flex, and AIR, with downloadable files for use in personal projects.
Tutorial Examples:
Introduction to Loop and Event in AS3
Connecting AS3 with a Database
Interaction between AS3 and JavaScript
LukaMaras.com provides detailed Flash tutorials and resources, complemented by a small forums section with over 3,000 registered users for discussion.
Tutorial Examples:
ActionScript drop-down menus
How to make pixel buttons in Flash the easy way.
How to make an amazing dynamic image gallery in Flash 8
Flashmagazine is an online magazine that offers news, reviews, information, and resources on Flash, with a dedicated Tutorials section featuring high-quality content for developers.
Tutorial Examples:
How to make a custom AS3 preloader
AS3 Photo gallery
Rollover effect using masks
I hope this compilation has been beneficial! Given the numerous websites dedicated to Flash development, I have not been able to include all of them. If your favorite site is missing, please share it with the community in the comments.
