Tutorial : Flash sticker with a link

SPY · Joined: 24 Aug 2006 Posts: 305 Location: France

How to add a link to a flash sticker.

If you never made a sticker before you should start doing it before trying to make a flash one.

You need Adobe Flash. You can download free trial here (30 days period)

450 Mo yes that's long to download...
Don't know what to do watting it to downlad? Go shopping here Laughing

This is a very basic tutorial, you can do a lot more with flash buttons.
For exemple you can play a short sound or change how the button look when the mouse cursor is over it...

STEP 1 :

Install Flash and open it.
Create a new flash file ActionScript 2.0 (must be possible in AS 3.0 but i'm still new to it, i was working on a 2004 version from Macromedia few days ago)

STEP 2 :

Insert a new symbol "Button"

Name it whatever you want to check "Button" and click "OK"

STEP 3 :

Insert a new symbol again but this time check "Movie clip"

Select the first frame then import a picture (animated or not).
This can be a gif (transparent background or not), a jpg , a png ...

STEP 4 :

Now that we have the "Movie clip" ready, we're going to put it in the "Button" we made on step 2.

Press "Ctrl+L" to display the "Library" (it should apear on the right panel)
(you can also find it in the "window" tab)

Open the "Button" made on step 2 (Click twice on it)

Now that we are in the "Button", drag and drop the "Movie clip" in it

Press "Ctrl+K" to display the "Align" panel
(you can also find it in the "window" tab)
Check the "To stage" button and then align left and top.

Select the first frame of the timeline (Up) and press "F5" 3 times
(you can insert frame or keyframes with right click on the timeline too)

Optional : If you plan to change the button when the cursor is over the button you can add a keyframe on "Over" and put a new "Movie clip" in it. Same for "Down". You need Someting in "Hit" it's the button area (it's not visible) else your button will not work.

Once the frame cover "Up" "Over" "Down" and "Hit", click on "Scene 1"

STEP 5 :

Drag and drop the "Button" from the "Library" to the scene

Align it to the left and top corner (as we did for the "Movie Clip")

Modify the document size

Check "Contents" to set the document size the same than the button size.
Note the new dimentions somewhere you'll need it to submit your sticker.
Be sure to note the size after you checked "Contents"

STEP 6 :

Now we're going to add the link on the button

Select the button in the scene then go to "Behaviors" in the "Window" tab.

In the "Behaviors" Click on the "blue +" then "Web" and " Go to Web Page".

Type or paste the URL you want your sticker to link to in the "URL field".
Choose Open in : "_Blank" then "OK"

STEP 7 :

You can press F12 to preview how your sticker will look.
You'll had maybe a warning message from your browser when you click on it
(it's because your file is not online it will work after submit)

Now we have to save the file before publishing it.
In the "File" tab choose "Save as" save it somewhere. It will make a .fla file.
This fla file is not the file we'll submit.
This file will be usefull if you plan to modify your sticker later or do a new one from this one.

Optional : You can modify the "Publish settings" (set the jpg quality to 100 in the flash tab)

Now "Publish" it. It will make a .swf file in the same folder you saved the .fla file before.
This is this .swf file we're going to submit (not the .fla or the .html one).

STEP 8 :

Time to submit your flash sticker.

Sticker image : choose the swf file
Sticker width an height : not optional for a flash sticker. Type the size you noted in step 5 (just the numbers, without "px")

STEP 9 :

Enjoy your new sticker Wink

(You'll have to buy your own sticker if you want to display it on your homepage)
Flash stickers don't work well in Edit mode on homepages, try in Preview mode.

If this tutorail was usefull for you, please help pepole in this post (because i don't have time to...)

Wanna thank me ?
Display my flash banner sticker on your hp Wink

:

I don't take requests so don't ask me to do a sticker for you.
(ask someone who succed doing it in this post)

It my first tutorial and i'm french so if you find mistakes or things that's not sound english, message me i will edit this post. Thank you
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SPY · Joined: 24 Aug 2006 Posts: 305 Location: France

If you use an old version of flash from Macromedia, there is no "Behaviors" in the "Window" tab.

To add a link to your button, select it in the scene, then open the "Actions - Button" tab (it must be somwhere at the bottom of the screen)

Paste this code in it :

SnowWhite2907 · Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 373 Location: United Kingdom

you guys are great..i have been wondering how people do those. hope this gets stickied:)
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SPY · Joined: 24 Aug 2006 Posts: 305 Location: France

Thank you

Added a poll i was curious ... Laughing

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Ty · Joined: 24 Aug 2006 Posts: 1159 Location: USA - NJ

Spy00!!!!! YOU ROCK!!! Now im going to do one Very Happy

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SPY · Joined: 24 Aug 2006 Posts: 305 Location: France

Nice don't forget to give me one Wink

I gived something like 500 of mine Laughing

It cost 160 Cr ok but i think it's a good advert even if only 1/4 of the pepole i gived it display it ...
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Ty · Joined: 24 Aug 2006 Posts: 1159 Location: USA - NJ

Mission Accomplished! It was a Success! Very Happy

! Thanks SPY00. I sent you both of the ones I did Razz

.
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Allergic · Joined: 08 Feb 2007 Posts: 31 Location: USA

Thank you Spy! That was a great tutorial! Is there any chance that you might do a tutorial on how to add sound to a flash sticker? And how to hear the sound by moving your cursor over the sticker? I would love to learn how to do that! I got to where I could add sound, but it would either loop, over and over again, or only play once and then stop! And I couldn't figure out how to add the cursor movement into it. Sad

SPY · Joined: 24 Aug 2006 Posts: 305 Location: France

Lawlicoster · Joined: 25 Oct 2007 Posts: 2 Location: USA - NY

Is it supposed to look fuzzy? looks so much more crisp in the catalog..

http://www.imvu.com/shop/product.php?products_id=1495851

SPY · Joined: 24 Aug 2006 Posts: 305 Location: France

Yep i bought this sticker to see what you mean...
True it look more blurry than the jpeg pic...
I think i know why : you have to change the "publish settings" in flash (somwhere under the first tab if i remeber well).
You're jpeg compression quality must be set to low.
I hope it help
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LordDarcy · Joined: 11 Jan 2008 Posts: 78 Location: USA - GA

I have Adobe Imageready 7, which Adobe doesn't even support anymore, and it doesn't seem to support the SWF format. Do you know of a conversion method or must I upgrade if I want to use it longer than 30 days?
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Tempus Unum Hominem Menet

MrRomance57 · Joined: 11 Mar 2008 Posts: 10 Location: USA

awesome tutorial, i'm off to do some flash practice. hell, i may even end up with something worth submitting Very Happy

SPY · Joined: 24 Aug 2006 Posts: 305 Location: France

HippyJane62 · Joined: 20 Jan 2007 Posts: 417 Location: USA - OH