CoffeeCup Firestarter Online Help
Tips and Tricks | General Options and Settings | Advanced Features

Getting Started


Quick Tips and Tricks in Firestarter:


Click Here to check out examples and download the Fire files to see how they work.

Use Blank Space to show & hide things when you want in your Movie.

Use the Magic Hat to add special effects to text, sounds, images, and shapes. (it's unbelievable)

Make Links with Images or Text. (create active navigation)

Move the colored film on the timeline to play effects, sounds, and blankspace where you want.
Grab & Stretch film to lengthen your special effects and blankspace.
Opacity is awesome when you combine it with effects. Move the slider to play with opacity settings.

- Convert Wav sounds automatically to MP3's and use them in your Movie. (use effects too)

- Place Text on top of Text and apply different Effects (wow)

- Use .bmp images for your movies, it makes your Flash files up to 40% smaller!

- The preview window is not an exact preview. You will be able to see opacity, and your text will be smooth (anti-aliased) when you test your movie.

- Movie Looping - Be sure that you have the Flash Player 5 Browser Plug-In installed or your movies may not show up properly. You can download the latest version here. Download Flash Player 5

Note: If you received an OLE error while installing, please download again, this has been fixed as of 06/05/2001.
Shareware Download Registered Download

Adding Text, Images, Sounds, Links, and Shapes.


It's easy to add Text, Images, Sounds, Links, and Shapes to your movie.
.
You can click the toolbar button for what you want to add.


You can also add objects using the Movie menu.


or by right-clicking on the Project Preview area.

Adding Effects:


Adding effects to your objects is very simple. You can add effects to any object. However, some objects have different effects available than others, so play around a bit to see what you can do with each type of object.

Just look for the Magic Hat to add Effects to your Objects.

You can add Motion Effects, Action Effects, and Advanced Effects. For more info about Effects, Click Here.

Adding Images:


Use this button to add images.

When adding Images to your Movie, try to use the smallest images (in filesize) that you can. Remember, everything you add to your Movie will make it bigger. We found that using GIF's gives the best results. Your movie will be smaller and look better if you optimize your images in a Photo Editor before you import them into Firestarter.

Adding GIF's:


Use this button to convert animated GIFs into .swf files.

Adding Sounds:


Use this button to add Sounds.

When adding sounds to your project, there are a few important things you should know.

1.
Sounds will make your finished project much larger. The bigger the sound, the bigger your .swf file will be.
2.
Because of the way Firestarter handles sounds, you have to position them one frame ahead of where you want them to play in your timeline.
3.
Sound Clips can play multiple times while Sound Tracks can only play once. Sound Clips are meant to accent an action or motion, Sound Tracks are meant to play like background music.

Test your Flash:


After you have added a few things to your project, you probably want to see how it is going to look on your Web Page. You can play the project at any time by clicking the Test Button on the main toolbar.

This will open a browser window and play your project.


Tips and Tricks | General Options and Settings | Advanced Features
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