Show Heineken Test + PSD and Ubisoft Test

There are Five Levels of Mastery in Flash that you can achieve.

Stage 1: The Noob Noob - nerd slang for inexperienced beginner

The noob knows for a fact that he knows nothing. He worships all those above him where anything anyone else makes above his level of quality is already Godlike.

He is receptive to learning anything they can teach him as he dreams of reaching their level of skill one day.

Everyone goes through this stage.

Stage 2: The Advanced Noob

You know for a fact that you know everything there is to know.

You've done enough that your years of experience makes you The Supreme Overlord of Flash.

Your sinful level of confidence easily seeps through your cocky dinner table discussions about Flash and ActionScript.

Your Flash advice is like reading The Bible because you are never wrong and nobody else knows what they're talking about.

75% of the industry will never advance beyond this stage.

Stage 3: The Competent Noob

You begin to humble yourself out of your state of denial and give way to others as you realize that you were just the babbling village fool after the pure Zen skill of real masters blinds your eyes with its level of brilliance.

Stage 4: The Proficient Noob

You're afraid that you will be discovered to be a complete fraud who has no idea of what he is doing. You count your blessings as you silently appreciate the fact that you still have a job.

Stage 5: The Expert Noob

At this stage, you extensive list of qualifications might include a PhD in computer science from MIT but you've become so paranoid of your own ultimate level of incompetence that you start hearing voices in your head.

You cautiously refrain from discussing anything related to Flash, ActionScript or programming with other programmers.

You realize you will never learn everything there is to know.

The Apprentice and The Master have in common that they both know nothing.

The stuff I'm teaching you guys is not because I feel like teaching a random mash up of useless non practical concepts just to kill time.

All the theory you're learning is very practical for real world industry applications.

I don’t have any special technical ability to solve problems faster than you. This stuff is just as hard for me to figure out and solve as it is for you guys.

Except I didn’t have the benefit of anyone teaching me any of this stuff. I graduated from business school and picked up Flash afterwards in bits and pieces with no formal graphic design training of any sort.

If I can do it, so can you. You just have to be patient and keep trying.

Review of Previous Classes

Application Programming Interface (API)

Import Reference

import com.name.ClassName

Instantiation

var variableName:Class = new Class();

Review of Previous Classes

Example: Import reference and Instantiating the sound class for playing sound files

import flash.media.Sound;

var s:Sound = new Sound();

Review of Previous Classes

Accessing methods and properties

import flash.media.Sound;

var s:Sound = new Sound();

s.load(new URLRequest(“audio.mp3”));

s.play(); //run play method

trace(s.url); //trace value of url property

Introduction to Basic OOP Concepts

Object Oriented Programming (OOP) is an industrial standard style of programming.

Programs are molded after real life models where everything is contained in an object. All objects can interact with each other via accessing their methods, properties and listening to events.

OOP also comes with techniques of programming called Design Patterns which are designed to solve complicated problems by designing a program with specific styles of objects that do specific purposes.

OOP increases development efficiency and saves money for project changes in the long run. It exists to make assembling modules of code easier.

Benefits of OOP

The style of programming you are currently using is known as Procedural Programming in which only one master set of code is used and if someone else wants to share their code with you, you have to copy and paste their code in directly into your code.

Imagine your car was completely welded together so that it was not easy to change parts. If there is some engine trouble, you cannot open the hood because it’s welded shut and you have to remove the entire body frame of the car just to get to the engine.

Think of Objects as individual parts that make up a program.

Benefits of OOP

Assembling an object oriented program is like assembling a car.

Someone creates the door, someone else creates the engine and someone creates the tires. Instead of waiting on one person at a time to create a object and weld it to the frame of the car, multiple people can work on it.

All the individual parts are then assembled together to work. By using classes, parts can be swapped in or out easily without affecting the rest of the program.

Example

Door Class

Methods:

openDoor();closeDoor();

Properties

doorColour:uint = 0xFFFFFFdoorSize:uint = 3

Engine Class

Methods:

turnOnEngine();turnOffEngine();

Properties

horsePower:uint = 100

Objects included in car object:

- Door object- Engine object- Window object- CDPlayer object- AirConditioningUnit object- Tire object- Body Frame object- Seat object- SteeringWheel object- SeatBelt object

Objects included in Website object:

- MainNavigation object

- AboutPage object

- Autobiography object

- Gallery object

- LinksPage object

Benefits of OOP

You are already familiar with working with classes which is what OOP mainly consists of. You can also create your own custom classes that have your own methods and properties in conjunction with working with 3rd party or native API classes.

You will learn to create custom classes in the next class

Two Basic OOP concepts for today:

Abstraction

Inheritance

The Concept of Abstraction

An animal is an abstraction.

Dogs exist. Cats exist. Cows exist. They all fall under the animal kingdom.

But an animal doesn’t physically exist.

It is just an abstract concept used to describe a range of types of living breathing creatures that can move around.

The Concept of Inheritance

A human being inherits traits (properties) and abilities (methods) from the animal kingdom which is why humans are categorized as a type of animal.

Animals can move around. Humans can move around.Animals can make sounds. Humans can make sounds.Animals can eat food. Humans can eat food.

The Concept of Inheritance

What differentiates humans from a dog?

humans walk on two legs when it moves around. A dog walks on four legs.

Humans are tall. Dogs are smaller.

Humans can talk. Dogs bark.

But they both evolutionarily inherited the ability to make sounds and move around.

Animal Class

Methods

makeSounds();moveAround();eatFood();

Properties

age:uint;Height:Number

Animal Class

Methods

makeSounds();moveAround();eatFood();

Properties

age:uint;Height:Number

Human Class + Animal class inheritance

Methods

makeSounds(); singSongs();moveAround(); dance();eatFood(); createCuisine();

Properties

age:uint; Height:Number

Inherited by --->>

When Human Class inherits Animal Class

Animal Class

Methods

makeSounds();moveAround();eatFood();

Properties

age:uint;Height:Number

Dog Class + Animal class inheritance

Methods

makeSounds(); bark();moveAround(); chaseStick();eatFood();

Properties

age:uint; Height:Number

Inherited by --->>

When Dog Class inherits Animal Class

The Concept of Inheritance

By inheriting from another abstract class, both the human and dog classes instantly get access to those shared methods and properties without having to re-create the methods and properties yourself.

Although they both share the same inheritance from the abstract Animal Class, the differentiation between the human and dog classes are still prevalent.

Only the dog class can bark and only the human class can sing.

Biology Inheritance

Monkeys, apes and gorillas look very similar to humans in certain features because they inherited the same genes as us but are still very different from humans.

MovieClip Class Properties

MovieClip Class Properties

Notice that properties such as: x, y, width, height, alpha, rotation are not shown in the list of available properties

That is because:

DisplayObject Class MovieClip Class

MovieClip Class inherits from another abstract Class called DisplayObject

Abstract DisplayObject Class

MovieClip Class Properties

When we manipulate graphics on the stage, no one actually creates a DisplayObject class because DisplayObject is an abstract class that has a bunch of shared methods and properties that several classes use including the MovieClip class.

When you instantiate a new MovieClip class, you automatically get access to DisplayObject’s properties and methods because MovieClip inherits from the DisplayObject class.

Multiple layers of inheritance

The MovieClip class actually directly inherits from the Sprite class which inherits from the DisplayObjectContainer class which inherits from the DisplayObject class which inherits from the EventDispatcher class which inherits from Object class

The MovieClip is the final product of all those inheritance and has all its predecessors’ traits and abilities

Kind of like how you inherit genes from ancestors

Multiple layers of inheritance

You may not always immediately see all the methods and properties of a class until you click on one of its parents, grandparents or ancestor inheritance such as clicking on DisplayObject to discover that you can manipulate x, y, width, height properties.

Animal Kingdom Inheritance