Flash Masking

Masking, in itself, is a very simple process. You take one image, (the mask), and you stick something under it, (the masked). Whatever the shape of the mask is, is how the masked will look. Kinda like cutting a shape out of a piece of paper and laying the paper cutout on top of another sheet of a different color. Only the shape of the mask shows the shape of the underlying layer.

Related Tutorials

Masking in Flash
This tutorial will teach you the basics of masking in Flash MX 2004. The download .fla file is also included at the end of the tutorial.

Spotlight Masking of it
Create masking effect in Flash

Create Colored Masking Effect
Some of my readers asked me to write more about masking. Here is another simple way of using masking with colors and object which still can give good impression.

Masking effect in FlashMX 2004
This tutorial will teach you the basics of masking in Flash MX 2004.

Simple Flash MX Masking
In this tutorial we will learn simple flash masking.

Simple Masking
Here we will work on a spotlight type effect for masking. There is also another possibility of masking at the Text Fades effect page.

Dynamic masking
This tutorial will teach you about dynamic masking. Dynamic masking allows you to use movie clips as masks. For example in this tutorial text will appear as the mouse moves over the screen

Dynamic masking using the drawing API II
Create a 'swosoh' masking effect using dynamic masking and the drawing API. Also covers easing and morphing shapes.

AS3 Masking
Learn how to create cool effects using masking.

Masking
In this toturial you're going to learn how to apply Masking to a picture.

LED spectrum analyzer meter effect using dynamic masking
This tutorial describes how to produce a spectrum analyzer meter effect using dynamic masking in Flash MX, with some actionscript.

Steel Effect in Flash
In this tutorial I will show you how to use layer masking to create Steel Effect, I expect you to know the basics of Flash animation like making symbols and tweening.

Cool Effects in Flash
Flash Tutorials to create simple & cool effects using Tweening and Masking.

Applying Masking to a Picture
In this tutorial, you're going to learn how to apply Masking to a picture.

Creating a colored masking effect
This tutorial covers the creation of a masking effect where different colored shapes will appear to pass through a given object.

Advanced Masking Effect
In this tutorial, we will show you how to create a advanced Masking Effect.You will see how to use alpha settings, radial gradient fill and how to work with guide layer in combination with mask layer.

Flash MX. Part I. Getting Started: Making Nice Masking Effect and learning basic Flash procedures.
In this step-by-step tutorial, you will learn how to to work with layers, frames and keyframes, use radial gradient fill and alpha settings, use copy of the background and line tool to create precise mask, use guide layer in combination with mask layer.

Cool Flash Masking Effect
In this tutorial, we are going to add a nice effect like the one below. This effect works particularly well industrial and robotic images as well as objects with curves and fluid lines.

Steel Effect
In this Macromedia Flash tutorial I will show you how to use layer masking to create Steel Effect.

Draggable dynamic masking
This Flash tutorial will teach you how to create draggable dynamic mask.

Masking On Text-Light Effect
This tutorial will teach u how to create a Masking On Text-Light Effect.

Spotlight Masking
Learn Spotlight Masking.

Animated Masks
This tutorial shows you how to make a simple animated Mask in Flash. A Mask is an object which hides something. In Flash Masks are used with layers and they provide a simple way to selectively reveal portions of the Layer or Layers below. Masking requires making one Layer a Mask Layer and the Layers below it become only partly visible or masked.

Interactive Spot-Light Effect (Masking) Using ActionScript
In this tutorial we will make Interactive Spot-Light Effect (Masking) Using ActionScript.

Crosshairs Rollover Text Effect
In this Flash tutorial you will create a rollover effect using masks. The crosshairs will follow your mouse cursor as you move over the text. Topics involved: startDrag actionscript, masking, drawing a target using radial gradient tool. Source file included.

Getting Started in Flash 5
There are two types of people that will be reading this tutorial. Those that have used flash 4 and those that have just bought their copy of Flash 5 and have absolutely no idea about anything but are keen to learn. If you fit latter category, you are in the right place! If you have used Flash 4 then you best introduction to Flash 5 is the Flash 5 tour.

Flash Plugin Detection in Flash 8
Flash plugin detection is very easy to implement in Flash 8. Its actually built-in. In this tutorial I will show you how to activate Flash plugin detection for whatever version of Flash that your Flash document requires.

Using Local Shared Objects in Flash MX: The Flash Cookies
Before Flash MX, it was pretty tricky to "remeber" the data in a Flash movie - it could be done with a standard browser cookie, which was hard to implement for someone with intermediate Flash skills, using a 3rd party script such as PHP or ASP or (in offline Flash applications) with the undocumented fscommand "save". Flash MX's Shared objects allow to store and retrieve the information within a Flash movie easily. Lets see how it works.

Using a mask inside a preloader
See how you can apply the masking effect to a preloader.You will also learn how to make a loading bar with this tutorial.

Sprites in Flash
This tutorial was written for the Flash Designer software, which allows you to create flash animations in a much easier way than by using Macromedia Flash.

Kaleidoscope
Let's get trippy with an easy-to-build kaleidoscope! A simple bit of masking and some tweening is all it takes to achieve something that looks a lot more complex.

Intro to Flash
After you install the Macrodedia FlashMX2004(or professional version), open it, and there are the following things you'll need to know before starting to work on.A complete document to introduce flash and learn the basic flash elements, learning what flash is, how to make animation with basic knowledge, understand the flash environment.

Preload External Flash Movies using Components Flash tutorial
In this preloader tutorial you will learn how to load an external Flash file into another Flash Movie using the Loader and Progress Bar Components. The use of Components make this is very simple and quick build. You can then break up your Flash project into several Flash movies rather than having one very large Flash file. It also means that the user only needs to wait for that section of the site that they wish to view.

Using Local Shared Objects in Flash MX
Before Flash MX, it was pretty tricky to "remeber" the data in a Flash movie - it could be done with a standard browser cookie, which was hard to implement for someone with intermediate Flash skills, using a 3rd party script such as PHP or ASP or (in offline Flash applications) with the undocumented fscommand "save". Flash MX's Shared objects allow to store and retrieve the information within a Flash movie easily.

Spotlight Mask
Spotlight masking of it's own kind.

Using Flash And Java To Create Pop-Ups
With Flash it is quite common to have a customized pop up window to hold your flash movie. This is almost always done using HTML and JavaScript. Well, what about having buttons in your flash movies that will open customized pop up windows?In this tutorial I am going to show you how to incorporate Flash and Java to do the same effect from a Flash movie.

Flash Javascript API > An Introduction
With the release of Flash MX 2004, a new arena was opened up for Flash Programmers called the Flash Javascript API. The programmers can now extend the Flash authoring environment itself to execute customized tasks making life much easier.

Detecting the Flash Player
For somebody to be able to see your Flash movie online they need the appropriate Flash player to be installed into the Browser. So if you create a movie in Flash 5 they will need the Flash 5 Player (or a more recent version of the player). If you create a Flash MX movie the Browser needs the Flash 6 Player and Flash MX 2004 needs the Flash 7 Player.

Baby Steps : Getting Started in Flash
This is a tutorial for flash 4. How exactly do you start using Flash? Well first you have to understand how flash works. Think of it as a cartoon and you, the designer, are the cartoon artist who has to draw each frame. (Flash helps you here, you don't have to draw every frame.)

Flash Masking

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