Make Your Own Flash Slideshow Template

In the last Flash^R slideshow tutorial, we encountered a problem. The ending fade out transition for image4 doesn't overlap the fade in transition for image1. We will need to make some adjustments. We can move the fade in transition for image1 to the end of the animation so that it will overlap the fade out transition for image4.

On Frame 2 of the image1 layer, hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard and click and drag on Frames 2 through 10 to select these frames. Right-click on the selected frames and choose Remove Frames. Now we have image1 at 100% Alpha on Frame 2 but our transitions do not overlap.
Now remove Frames 2 through 10 for the other three image layers. When we do this, the transitions overlap again and the animation ends on Frame 271.

The fade out transition for image4 now spans Frames 261 to 271. We will add the fade in transition for image1 on Frames 261 to 271 so that they overlap.
On the image1 layer, add a Keyframe to Frame 261 and 271.
The Alpha is already set to 0 on Frame 261. Set the Alpha to 100 on Frame 271.

Now we can test the movie and see that all of our transitions are overlapping. The last adjustment we need to make is to tell Flash to repeat the animation when it reaches the end. We will add the code to tell Flash to go back to Frame 2.
On the Actions layer, add a Keyframe to the last frame of the animation. Open the Actions panel and add this code.

stop();
gotoAndPlay(2);
Create a new folder in the Library and name it "image assets". Drag the four psd files and the four movie clips into this folder.

Now we have our slideshow working just as we want, we can save it as a template.
From the Menubar, click File – Save as Template. In the dialog box, give your template a name such as Simple Slideshow. You can create a new category just for your templates or choose a category from the list.

To add a new category, type the category name in the text box. I usually create a category named "dCipollo" for my templates. It's easy to remember.

Add a description for your template such as "Simple Slideshow with 4 placeholder images". Click Save and Flash will add this new template to the other templates that it stores in it's templates folder.

To use your new template, click File – New. From the New from Template dialog box, you can open your template.

Join us in the Digital Art and Design forum.

	Diane Cipollo BellaOnline's Flash and Animation Editor