I wanted to try something fun with Flash this week, so I did a quick search for “Flash Physics Engine.” Lo and behold, I struck gold. Box2DFlashAS3 is an open source ActionScript 3.0 conversion of the C++ Physics Engine Box2D. I’m very impressed with its well coded structure and easily implemented nature. I learned a few new things that will change how I code forever just by reading through their example files.

Still, they have limited resources right now as far as help documentation goes (”Please refer to the source code from the examples provided to get an idea of how to use Box2DFlash in your projects.” — that’s the ReadMe.txt that comes with it… not very helpful,huh). I thought I might give you an example of my own and walk through it step by step.
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I am going to talk about how to animate using Tween objects in ActionScript. Tween objects are enormously useful. They can change any numeric property of any object over time.

For example one of the most common uses of Tween objects in ActionScript is to fade an image out as another fades in. The advantage of using a Tween object to do this instead of any of your other options is

• 1.) it is easy to understand
• 2.) it is the easiest to code
• 3.) it generally looks the best.

It’s fairly easy to write a bit of code that will change the X position of a movieClip by 2 every frame, but that will be very linear and boring. Also when does it stop? and how? You would have to create a lot of if() statements that just take forever to think through and would make your code harder to read. (VQ: lots of nested if statements are usually a thing to avoid)

With a Tween object you can use Easing methods. In the example that follows I used the Easing method Regular.easeInOut to start the motion with a little acceleration and then bring it to a stop in the same way.

If the motion of the dot gets annoying you can stop or start it again at any time by clicking on the Flash movie. (more…)

 

I’m going to talk about how to build a simple 4 function calculator using static variables and meathods in Flash ActionScript 3.0. This is my first tutorial, so if you have questions or comments, I would appreciate them and will do what I can.

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As a designer you might be really excited about the power Flash CS3 has to offer you, but a little frustrated with the complicated ActionScript required to turn your vision into reality. Or maybe, as a Flash developer you are getting hung up on the difficult transition from ActionScript 2.0 to AS 3.0. Well, it’s my job here to try and help you through that learning process.

I’m going to be trying to post a new ActionScript 3.0 tutorial once a week (and maybe some AS 2.0 tutorials if requested) every Monday. If you have any specific requests or questions you can ask them in a post comment or send me an e-mail at Paul@ClickPopMedia.com. If you are looking for more immediate answers there is a great resource for ActionScript help at ActionScript.org. You might see me answering questions in their forum (as TomMalufe) or see some of my tutorials posted there.