• Introduction
• Goal
  • Objectives and Assumptions
• Part 1
  • Making the Wild FX Effects
• Part 2
  • Gedunken, Background, and Heavy Chat
    • The Nature of Flash
    • The Nature of Designers
    • If Not Import, What?
    • Remember the Goal
• Part 3
  • Movie Clips
• Part 4
  • Why Levels Aren't As Useful
• Part 5
  • Changing the _X and _Alpha
• Conclusion

Let's start in Wild FX:

1. Open it, and type in whatever text you like. For this example, I used the text "Flash Rules," and I chose a Flash 3 effect, All in One.
2. The easiest way to position your animation in your final Flash project is to make the Wild FX file the same dimensions as your larger Flash movie. So before you go any further, go to the Movie panel and set the width and height to be the same as the final Flash movie, 550 and 400. Also, it helps to set the background color to match that of your Flash movie as well, although it's not strictly necessary. Select whatever font and size you prefer. Just make sure it fits in the movie window! Click Preview to ensure no part of your text disappears off the stage during the effect.
3. This is a thinking step: Where within my final Flash movie will my Wild FX animation go? I took a look at my final design. As with all Flash projects, it often easier to start with a rough sketch of the end of the animation and work backwards to get there. So look at your final Flash design, using the ruler in Flash, and find the x and y positions for your animation. To some extent where your animations end up depends on the particular Wild FX effect you choose. Use guides in Flash to help you. But draw out or visualize the completed effect; this helps a lot. Remember, Flash doesn't place or measure these animations from the center of the text, but from the upper-left hand corner. Wild FX does the same.
4. Set the x pos and y pos positions in the Wild FX Font panel to 20 and 20. This sets the upper-left hand corner of the text at 20, 20 in the animation when you save it. And this is where it appears when it loads into the final Flash movie.
5. Click Preview to look at your animation. Neat, huh? To make it possible to open the Flash 3 effect later, clear the protect swf checkbox. And, for purposes of the tutorial, also clear the loop output checkbox. Click Save As to save it to your Desktop. Name it ani1.swf.
6. While we're here, let's make the Flash 4 effect. I used the same text, but chose the effect, Alpha Scan. Set the x and y pos to 220 and 190. Again, clear the protect swf and loop output checkboxes. Save As ani2.swf to your Desktop.