As an Actionscript developer, I usually like to stop Flash’s playhead and work within the more predictable space of a single frame. But there are some things—such as frame-by-frame animation and shape morphing—that can be managed only with the timeline in motion. It turns out that Flash has many timelines, all running simultaneously, so it’s possible to unify these disparate needs in a single swf. This month at the Salon, we’re going to look at Flash’s multiple timelines and how to manage them effectively. We’ll cover some foundational concepts for setting up the most efficient timeline for your particular project and examine ways we can manipulate the timeline to do our nefarious bidding.

As a favor to our gracious hosts, we will also be incorporating a Q&A this month for students of the Art Institute of California. We’ll put aside one hour at the beginning to answer questions about our industry to these up-and-comers. Please come along and participate!

This Salon is rated: Beginner

Rating Key
• Beginner: basic understanding of fundamental concepts, button control, handlers, properties, variables, etc.
• Intermediate: complex math operations, arrays, objects, functions, bitwise operations, debugging, dynamic movieclip control.
• Advanced: XML, server-side integration, remoting, multi-dimensional arrays, AI.

Marc Tanenbaum is the NBMA Web SIG leader. He is a writer, designer and Flash developer. He hangs out at flashmxfiles.com, flashgoddess.com and bit-101.com forums where he dispenses Flash and Actionscript advice to the unwary.

The Actionscript Salons are presented with the support of The Arts Institute of California – San Francisco.