Assembling Your Demo
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If the members of your team are working on different parts of your demo, you'll have assets saved in different Flash files, possibly on different computers. To bring all these pieces together, assign one team member as the editor. The editor's job is to assemble everything into one file.
- Below you will find videos that help you as an editor to assemble your finalized demo.
- Still stuck? Check out these additional tips for extra help.
- Lastly, check your new file to make sure everything transferred over.
Combining your files
The videos below will take you through the steps for combining assets into one Flash file.
In this first video, you are introduced to the Game Skeleton FLA and the two demo files, MyAnimation.fla and MyTitleScreen.fla, used as examples in this three-video series.
Single-frame content migration
Sometimes you have content on a single frame of Flash that you wish to copy to another Flash file. The following video shows you how to successfully copy a single frame of content.
Multi-frame content migration
If you have an animation that takes up multiple frames and want to copy it another Flash file, it can be a tricky process. This following video shows you how to successfully copy multiple frames, such as tweens, into another Flash file.
Different Copy/Paste Methods
This video shows you two common ways to copy and paste assets from one file to another, either by copying symbols or copying frames. The video also explains situations where one method would be more desirable than the other.
Additional File-combining tips
Open All Files in Order
Start Flash and open all the files to be combined, in order from first to last. Also, create a new, empty Flash file to paste into, and save it.
Check for Duplicate Names
Look at all the files' Libraries. There shouldn't be any duplicate names between the files, unless the exact same symbol is being used in both cases.
If you are combining three different Flash files, each with a different "Symbol 1", one of them will overwrite the others and you will lose some of your work.
To rename a symbol, double-click its name in the Library and enter the new name.
TIP: Flash only likes tweening symbols. If you try to tween anything but a symbol, Flash will simply convert the drawings on both keyframes to symbols and name them Tween 1 and Tween 2. So, don't tween anything but symbols. Or, once you've created your tween, rename the symbols created by Flash with something more descriptive.
TIP: Watch those image sizes! If you are using bitmap images in your file (not vector images), resize the image to the size you need BEFORE bringing it in to Flash. If you have already brought the images in, you can always re-import smaller versions (see [Wiki Tips] for instructions). One or two large images are fine, but five or six might make your Flash file too large to upload to the wiki.
Check Your New File
Check the combined file and make sure everything has copied over correctly. Scrub through the timeline one frame at a time and look at your file to make sure everything looks right.
Export your .SWF (go to File > Publish or hit Shift+F12) and make sure that everything is working properly. You may need to work on the transitions between sections.
Now that your file is cleaned up a bit, send it out to the rest of the team -- and post it to the wiki and your blog.
TIP: Copying and pasting frames will bring over most of your information, but it doesn't bring over folders in your timeline or Library. If you had folders in your file before, you can recreate them now.
Update the Wiki
1. Save your newly combined Flash file using the following naming scheme "TEAM_demo"
2. Publish your .fla file to create an .swf version of it.
3. Upload BOTH the .fla and .swf file to the wiki.
4. Embed both the files on your Team page in the "Game Demo" section.
Update the Blog
Suggested Post Idea
- Do you think you've learned more about your game topic in the process of making this demo? If so, what have you learned and why do you think you've acquired this new knowledge? If not, why not?
- If you could talk to the journalists, website content-writers, Wikipedia authors or other "knowledge producers," how would you suggest they improve their resources to help you improve your learning-process?
- In what ways do you feel you have taken the process of learning into your own hands? How can you improve your self-learning skills in the future?
Comment on the blog of another Globaloria student in your Knowledge Community!
Related Links and Tutorials
- Browse the MyGLife.org Flash Tutorials list for more tutorials, information and links!
