I don't even know where to begin

[yonabout]

Hi,

*Please move this to a better forum if I've stuck it in the wrong place*

I'm pretty much brand new to Flash (the version of flash we use is 8). I've been through the tutorials that come with Flash, and I'm fairly comfortable with finding my way round it etc.

Anyway, I've got a project that I need to do and I don't know where to begin or the best way of doing it. I don't want anyone to write it for me, but I really need a bit (a lot?) of guidance on how I should structure my project - I'll then feel better about going off and trying to make it work if I know that at least I've started off in the right way.

I've attached the "spec" for what I want to do (FlashSpec.jpg).

I don't think it will be that hard, but what I need to know initially is:

Should it be a normal flash document or a flash application?
Should I do my calculations in the main file or turn them into components that I can call?
Should the sliders and buttons and stuff be separate components that I call in my main file?
Are there any specific tutorials or other threads that could help me with bits of my project?
What bit should I start with? - What bit would you start with?

Thanks in advance to anyone who takes pity on me!

Cheers

Yonabout

[sher75]

from all i can say is i would start off with checking the variables, but im also new and wouldn't really no what the differance would be. So far what i've done is completely write every single part of the code that i know and then do the corrections at the end which is good only if you have very little coding like most of my work (under 100 lines). but in general i do everything and try not to think aobut what to start off with so just go for it. hope that gave you some guidance.

[yonabout]

Thanks for the reply.

I've started from the graphical side of things, and I'm now trying to work on the actionscript to make the visuals do what I want.

Fingers crossed...

Yonabout

[sher75]

Thats always a start, i myself suck at animating and was looking for someone >.> but thats the only reason i dont start with animation because i suck at it. I can't belie i forgot to mention that i start with coding because its my strong side. Hope it works out.

[xdeath]

well i do stuf flike this all the time so allow me to answer some of your questions.
1. you want to open a new flash document.
2. components are cool little inventions they can make stuff easier so you don't have to make things from scratch. but in this case less would probably be better.
3. with components should you choose to use them, you can just click on the component you want and it will add it to your library. you can use code to add it to the stage and so on if you want or you can just drag it on the stage yourself if you'd like.

some general tips though, there is nothing wrong with starting with the graphic side of it first but people normally do the code first. make some rough shape and make it work how you'd like it to. you can easily change the graphics of it all later, thats the normal way people tend to work but its still ok to do things the opposite way round.

i'd imagine it wouldn't be to hard to do, just some math calculations and then you assign the end result of those calculations to a variable or two. then you can make rectangles for your grapph and make then scale to your calculations. the code would be structured something like this:

var calc:Number = 0;
calc = Math.round(<insert calculations here>);
retangle.scaleY = calc;


something like that is what i'd expect to see...

[yonabout]

Cool - Thanks for the feedback