Develop your Own Skin

There are two ways to develop your own skin. In this lecture we will learn how to work with extensive modification of pre-existing skins.

Advanced Custamization of a Pre-existing Skin

All of the skins available in Flash can be found in a folder called "FLVPlayback Skins." Inside of which you will find folders "ActionScript 2" and "ActionScript 3.0." You will also find a folder titled "FLA" in which you will find two more folders also titled "ActionScript 2.0" and "ActionScript 3.0."

To initially develop advanced skins of your own, it is best to begin by adjusting a pre-designed skin. To do this, access the FLA folder on your computer. Open your Adobe Flash Folder > Configuration > FLVPlayback Skins > FLA > ActionScript 3.0

Inside you will find all the FLA skin files used to develop the skins you previously browsed through to choose a basic skin for Video Streaming Lecture 1. Select one of these FLA files, and open it in Flash, then save with a different name.

My example will be the FLA file titled "SkinUnderAll.fla." Double click the FLA file and rename with a name that makes sense to you. Look through the library; you will notice a set set of folders with all the movie clips and graphic names. If you decide to create a unique design, you will then have to develop the graphics and swap them with the graphics currently in place.

Once you have created a design to your satisfaction and swapped all the files and attached the ActionScript to the instances on stage properly, you will need to publish the SWF. Take that SWF and place it inside the folder: FLVPlayback Skin > ActionScript 3.0. When you open Flash and select pre-existing skins, you will find your own skin as part of the selections.