Editor’s review:

Very short Flash tutorial that shows how to have the systems date and time display in Flash. Not the easiest Flash tutorial to follow, and it’s definitely lacking on explanation, but if you are looking to have the date and time display in your Flash projects, this is a great way to do it.

Note: if you are using copy/paste, all the quotes use smartquotes (can be aggravating for beginners), so you will need to swap in regular quotes. Also, there is a typo where it reads month[datedispay.getMonth()]. It is missing an “l” in display, should read: month[datedisplay.getMonth()].

View Tutorial: Flash Tutorial: Adding time/date stamp in Flash

Additional Info
Version: All
ActionScript: 2.0
Online example: No
Source files available: No
Video Tutorial: No

Editor’s review:

A lot of people use Flash’s hitTest() method for setting up collisions between 2 symbols, which is great, except when using on circles, hit test takes the outer dimensions of the entire symbol (a square), so it’s not an exact collision. This short Flash tutorial describes how to set up collisions of 2 circles where the collision is the curve lines of the circles rather than the symbol area. Pretty neat!

Also, nice explanation of the code accompanied by a short trigonometry lesson. But don’t worry, you don’t need to know trigonometry to complete this tutorial, it just helps explain what the code is doing.

ActionScript 2.0 and ActionScript 3.0 code is provided, although I couldn’t get the ActionScript 3.0 code to work correctly. Also, be careful when doing a copy/paste, as the AS2.0 code uses the HTML code for the less than symbol (“&lt;” vs “<”) on line 10. User will need to swap in the less than symbol if doing a copy and paste. Otherwise, the AS 2.0 code worked great!

View Tutorial: Flash Tutorial: Circle Collisons

Additional Info
Version: All
ActionScript: 2.0 and 3.0 code provided (note: editor could not get 3.0 code to work properly)
Online example: Yes
Source files available: No
Video Tutorial: No

Editor’s review:

Pretty nifty effect, and very easy to add. Would really like some more in-depth explanation of the code, but still a pretty good tutorial. Unfortunately, when I first tried to execute, I got a few errors (which is why I would have liked better explanation of the code). Using the “Output” window in Flash helped me troubleshoot, but for beginners, they might find this tutorial a little confusing.

Here are the 2 errors/changes I made for it to work:

//Create the mask which follows cursor movement (master mask)
var masterMask:MyMask=new MyMask(1);

In the second line of the code above, I simply removed the “1″ to read:

var masterMask:MyMask=new MyMask();

The other error was in this code:

//Create a new mask with random scale
var newMask:MyMask=new MyMask(scale);

Again, I simply removed the “scale” from between the parentheses to read:

var newMask:MyMask=new MyMask();

That did the the trick for me. Again, with more explanation, it would be easier to for a beginner to edit. Still, a great little effect, and if you know what to look for in the error output window, a pretty easy to implement Flash tutorial.

View Tutorial: Flash Tutorial: Random Mask Effect in  ActionScript 3.0

Additional Info
Version: CS3 and above
ActionScript: 3.0
Online example: Yes
Source files available: No
Video Tutorial: No

Editor’s review:

Very well explained tutorial for creating an effect that I’ve found many readers wondering how to do. Short and easy to follow, shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes even for Flash ActionScript 3.0 beginners.

Author’s Quote:

This tutorial will provide you with a step-by-step guide on how to create a custom cursor in Flash CS3 using AS3. This a simple trick for beginners which they can use in a Flash website, a game, or even an animation. This tutorial does not require any pre-requisite knowledge.

View Tutorial: Creating a custom cursor in Flash using ActionScript 3.0

Additional Info
Version: CS3 and above
ActionScript: 3.0
Online example: Yes
Source files available: No
Video Tutorial: No

Editor’s review:

Nice, easy to follow tutorial that shows how to display the mouses x and y position of the mouse as the user moves the pointer around the Flash stage. Provides 2 variations of simple ActionScript code to accomplish the same task.

Author’s Quote:

This Flash tutorial will teach you how to display the x and y position of the mouse, so when you move your mouse on the stage it keeps track of the position and updates as you move. This tutorial uses the _xmouse and _ymouse properties to return the x and y coordinates of the mouse position.

This tutorial also gives a brief intro to the use of dynamic text in Flash, which is needed in order for the actual coordinates to display as the mouse moves around on the stage. A great tutorial for newbies to Flash and ActionScript 2.0.

View Tutorial: Displaying Position of Mouse in Flash

Additional Info
Version: All
ActionScript: 2.0
Online example: Yes
Source files available: No
Video Tutorial: No

Editor’s review:

Very short, easy to follow high level explanation of how to create a button symbol in Flash. Very detailed with plenty of images to demonstrate how to draw a simple Flash shape, convert it to a symbol, and apply a basic rollover effect to the button.

Author’s Quote:

In this tutorial you will see how to build a simple rollover button.

Straight forward, and to the point, a great little tutorial to check out for those beginners out there who are just starting with Flash.

View Tutorial: Creating a Rollover Button in Flash

Additional Info
Version: All
ActionScript: N/A
Online example: Yes
Source files available: Yes
Video Tutorial: No

Editor’s Review:

Another very simple to follow tutorial from www.flashessential.com on how to draw curved lines using only Flash ActionScript 3.0 code. Sort of a “Part 2″ to their tutorial on Drawing Lines With AS3, this is another great starter tutorial for individuals looking to start to learn Flash AS3. Very clear, and nice descriptions to explain each line of code. Simple lines of code, and you can change the colors/coordinates to do your own experimenting.

Note: If you copy and paste the code from the page, you will need to keystrok the “x” in line 3 where it says “0×333333″. The “x” in the example code does not translate correctly into the Flash Actions panel. Took me a couple minutes to figure it out, but once I changed that, it worked great.

View Tutorial: AS3 Guide Drawing Curves

Additional Info
Level: Beginner
Version: Flash CS3 and up
ActionScript: 3.0
Online example: Yes
Source files available: No
Video Tutorial: No

Editor’s Review:

This tutorial has not yet been reviewed. Please feel free to add your own review in the comments below.

Authors quote:

This flash tutorial will teach you how to limit the keyboard movements of an object on the stage. This means you can use the keyboard controls to move your movie clip instance on the stage, but you will not be able to go over edge of the stage.

View Tutorial: Limit movements on the stage

Additional Info
Level: Beginner
Version: Flash 5 and up
ActionScript: 2.0
Online example: Yes
Source files available: No
Video Tutorial: No

Editor’s Review:

This tutorial has not yet been reviewed. Please feel free to add your own review in the comments below.

Authors quote:

Using this lesson, you will see how to create star flash preloader using the action script code. To make this lesson, we have to use mask in flash.

View Tutorial: Star Flash Preloader

Additional Info
Level: Intermediate
Version: Flash 5 and up
ActionScript: 2.0
Online example: Yes
Source files available: Yes
Video Tutorial: No

Editor’s Review:

This tutorial has not yet been reviewed. Please feel free to add your own review in the comments below.

Authors quote:

You have two ways of creating animations in Flash. You can create them using the timeline, or you can create them using code. For code-based animations, I’ve always written about using variants of EnterFrame. One thing I’ve never talked about is using the tween class to create animations, and it’s time to change that with this tutorial….

… In this tutorial, I will explain how to use the Tween class to create an animation using code. Before diving into the code though, let’s look at tweening using the timeline.

View Tutorial: Tweening with Code

Additional Info
Level: Intermediate
Version: CS3
ActionScript: 3.0
Online example: Yes
Source files available: Yes
Video Tutorial: No