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Dan Carr
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Using prebuilt FLVPlayback skins
- Using FLVPlayback custom UI components
- Creating a custom video player skin
- Skinning ActionScript 3 UI components
Skinning the ActionScript 3 FLVPlayback component
One of the great features of the FLVPlayback component is its range of options for customization. You can easily change the combination of controls that appear with the video, the look and feel of the control skins, and the look of the background chrome.
A component's skin is a collection of graphics that define the visual states of the control. Skinning a component is the process of changing the look of the graphics. There are times when you'll want to customize the component's look to fit your presentation, screen real estate, and company branding.
This article covers three approaches available for skinning the ActionScript 3 FLVPlayback component:
- Choosing prebuilt skins through the Select Skin dialog box
- Using the FLVPlayback custom UI components to mix and match customizable controls
- Creating your own prebuilt skins
In addition, the article closes with a brief look at skinning the ActionScript 3 user interface components. This process is now standard and is similar to working with the video components.
Note: This article covers skinning the FLVPlayback component available in the Components panel of an ActionScript 3 FLA file. If you're using Flash Professional 8 or working with an ActionScript 2 file in Flash CS4, please see the previous version of this article for the appropriate details.
Requirements
To make the most of this tutorial, you'll need the following software and files:
Flash CS4 Professional
The ActionScript 3 FLVPlayback component comes with Flash CS4 Professional along with the Adobe Media Encoder.
Sample file:
Although this sample file is not mandatory in order for you to understand this article, it will be helpful to have an FLV file on hand so that you can test your skin customizations with a working file. If you don't already have an FLV file to use, you can download this sample file.
Prerequisite knowledge
This article focuses on customizing the FLVPlayback component using the skinning features and assumes you are familiar with working with FLV video and have some previous experience using ActionScript. For details on how to play and control videos, see Flash video template: Video presentation with navigation.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License
About the author
Dan Carr is owner, lead developer, and trainer for Dan Carr Design in San Francisco. With years of experience developing for Macromedia and Adobe, Dan has created a range of features available in Flash, including e-learning templates, UI components, and Developer Resource Kit extensions. Dan teaches Flash design and ActionScript classes in Northern California and develops e-learning and web applications for the public, as well as for Adobe product teams.
