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| Basic
Instructions for Using the Wild FX Flash Text
Animator |
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| Contents |
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| Introduction |
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| This
is a very basic tutorial to help you get started
using the Wild FX Flash Text Animator. Wild FX
contains a great number of features that are
not covered here. Instructions on how to use
these features are located in the Help file of
the Wild FX program itself. We also offer numerous
tutorials on how to use Wild FX in the tutorials
section of our web site. |
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| Step
One: getting started |
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order to use Wild FX you will need the following
basic requirements: |
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For
PC:
- 64MB RAM
- 20MB free disk space
- Pentium II 233MHz
- 10MB free disk space
- Win 98/ME/2000/XP
- Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher
- Internet connection
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For
Mac:
- 64MB RAM
- 20MB free disk space
- Power PC
- 10MB free disk space
- OS 9.x/10+
- Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher
- Internet connection
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Additional Requirements:
- Free Flash Player for previewing
.swf files
- Free QuickTime Player 6 (complete "recommended" installation)
for importing background image files
(.jpg, .gif, .png, .bmp, .psd, .tif,
.tga, and .pic).
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| Step
Two: open the program and type in your text |
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| Type
your text in the text field of the main tab. |
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| Step
Three: select an effect |
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| Select
an effect from one of the effects folders in
the left column of the main tab. |
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| Step
Four: select an output path |
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| Select
the name and location of the effect you will
export in the output box in the main tab. You
may click the browse button to the right of the
output box to assist you. (insert screenshot) |
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| Step
Five: export your Flash file |
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export your effect, click the “Export SWF” button
in the Movie section of the Main tab. (Insert
screenshot). |
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| Step
Six: playing your text effect |
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| To
play your newly created text effect click the “Play” button
to the right of the Output Box in the Movie section
of the Main tab. (Insert screen shot) You may
also select “Play Output” from the
File drop down menu. (Insert screen shot). Double
clicking on your .swf file from your hard drive
will also launch and play your text effect as
long as you have the standalone Flash player
installed on your computer (it is available for
free from www.macromedia.com. |
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| Additional
Features |
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| Wild
FX comes with several additional features and
controls. We will cover some of the basics ones
here. Please keep in mind that these are not
all of the features you can find in Wild FX.
For a complete understanding of Wild FX, consult
the Help File that comes in the program itself. |
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| Aligning
your text |
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| To
align your text, check to “Align to SWF” box
in the Main tab and choose one of the horizontal
and vertical alignment options. In this case
we will center our text both vertically and horizontally. |
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| Positioning
your text |
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addition to aligning your text as outlined above,
you can position your text where you want. To
position your text you can use the X and Y values
in the Font area of the Main tab. You can also
select the “View cursor” option from
the toolbar or the Preview drop-down menu. When
you activate the view cursor option a cross appears
in your preview window. You can then drag the
cross anywhere within the preview window and
that will be the starting X and Y position for
your text effect. |
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| Changing
your font attributes and font color |
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| To
change your font click the font button which
will bring up the font selector. |
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In
this box you can change the font, the font size
and font attributes.
To change your font color select the fill box
in the font section of the main tab, |
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| which
will bring up the “Choose Text Fill” box
from which you can select a color. |
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You
can choose a solid, linear gradient, radial gradient
or image for your fill.
If you would like to apply an outline to your
font, you may select the Stroke box above the
Fill box and follow the instructions. |
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| Changing
your background color |
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change your background color select the “Bg
Fill” box located in the movie section
of the Main tab. |
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| Select
a color and choose from solid, linear and radial
gradient options. |
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| Adding
an image to your background |
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| To
add an image to your background, click on the
pen icon in the toolbar |
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select from the View menu “Choose Bg Image…” |
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To
select an image browse the bmp, jpg, gif, png
files on your hard drive and select one. (Wild
FX imports the following image formats: bmp,
jpeg, gif, and png.) In the same box, you may
choose to insert the image as a background image,
or tile the image, and you may control the positioning
of the image in your swf by entering in your
desired coordinates in the “Translate X
and Y boxes) as well as control the width and
height of the image.
To import images make sure you have the complete “recommended” install
mode of the free Quicktime player installed (it
is available at www.quicktime.com). |
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| Customizing
your effects |
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| All
of the effects in the “Custom” effects
folder can be customized. To customize one of
these effects, select an effect and then click
on the Customize tab. In this example we will
choose the “Matrix” effect, which
has two customizable attributes: Letter Color
and Letter Speed. |
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| To
change the letter color click on the attribute
in the Parameter/Value box. To change the color
from blue to red, click on the color box next
to the value, which launches the Color tab. Select
the color red and click okay. In order to save
your changes you much click update in the Customize
effect section of the Customize tab. ). |
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Click
preview to see your new effect.
Once you have set your new settings, you can
save the revised effect as a new custom effect
using the “Save as new effect” option. |
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| Playing
your text effect in an HTML page. |
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| If
you wish to output your text effect directly
into a web page, click on the HTML tab and click
the “Export HTML” box in the HTML
Options section. You may click the browse button
to the right of the box if you want to change
the location or name of your output file. |
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| Then
go to the main tab and click the “Export
SWF” button in the Main tab, or from the
toolbar click on the “Export” icon
(screenshot) to export your files. |
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| If
you have the export HTML option checked, Wild
FX will export both your swf and an HTML file.
To play the HTML file, double click on the file
from your hard drive. |
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| Placing
your file in a web browser |
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You
may now take your html and swf files and upload
them directly to your web site via an ftp program.
You may also bring your .swf files directly into
an HTML editor, such as Dreamweaver or Frontpage.
The Flash video file you create in Wild FX functions
like any other .swf file and is brought into
these programs in the same manner as any other
.swf file. For further instructions on how to
do this, please see the “Using Wildform
Software with Other Applications” page
of our tutorials site. |
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| Using
Wild FX .swf output with Macromedia Flash |
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Wild
FX comes with 417 installed effects: 176 Standard/Flash
3 effects (which have a "3" icon),
196 Dynamic/Flash 4 effects (which have a "4" icon)
and 45 "custom" effects which can be
either Flash 4 effects (which have a "C4" icon)
or Flash 5 effects if the custom effect uses
color variables (which have a "C5" icon).
- Flash 3: There are 175
Flash 3 effects that have a icon. Flash 3
effects, when saved as Flash 3 can be directly
imported into the Flash authoring tool. Flash
3 effects can also be saved as Flash 4, which
significantly reduces the file size of the
output, but makes the output Flash 4, which
cannot be imported into the Flash authoring
tool. There are some Flash 3 versions of
several Flash 4 effects (these are designated
by a "v3" at the end of the effect
name.
- Flash 4: There are 196
Flash 4 effects that have a icon. Flash 4
effects cannot be imported into the Flash
authoring tool. To use Flash 4 effects with
the Flash authoring tool, you need to use
the LoadMovie action in Flash. (The Macromedia
Flash authoring tool can not import Flash
4 and higher .swf's into the program, only
Flash 3 compatible SWfs. This is the way
Macromedia Flash is designed.)
- Custom: There are 45 "custom" effects
that have a or a icon. This folder contains
Flash 4 and Flash 5 effects that can be used
as is, or they can be further customized
by entering in values in the Customize tab.
When you change the values in a Custom effect,
you can save the revised effect as a new
effect that will appear in your Wild FX effects
library. Custom effects cannot be imported
into the Flash authoring tool. To use custom
effects with the Flash authoring tool, you
need to use the LoadMovie action in Flash.
(The Macromedia Flash authoring tool can
not import Flash 4 and higher .swf's into
the program, only Flash 3 compatible .swf's.
This is the way Macromedia Flash is designed.)
- Plain Text: There is a
single Flash 3 effect called "Plain
text" . Using this effect creates the
text that you enter without any effect. If
you need text for some type of presentation
and you don't want any effect, use this setting.
The output Flash version of each effect is based
on the Flash version of the effect itself. So
Standard/Flash 3 effects export a Flash 3 .swf,
Dynamic/Flash 4 effects export a Flash 4 .swf
and so on. All the effects can be used with the
Macromedia Flash authoring tool (including Flash
4, Flash 5, Flash MX, and Flash MX 2004).
For more information on using Load Movie to bring
your Wild FX .swf output into the Macromedia
Flash authoring tool check out our load movie
tutorials at:
http://www.wildform.com/support/tutorials/
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