AS3: As easy as 1, 2, 3
From feedback we’ve been picking up from some of our polls as well as messages on the FlashDen forums, it seems like there’s nothing worse for anyone wanting to learn AS3 than long, complicated tutorials. The last thing you want to do when trying to teach someone something is intimidate them or confuse them.
So this post will try to address the balance somewhat by providing a selection of approachable, digestible, and very easy to follow YouTube videos that will help any new or existing Flash users/designers with limited coding experience, to see how easy it is to learn ActionScript 3. Invest just 30 minutes of your day to watch the following videos. They will give you the hands-on experience and knowledge to kick-start what you always wanted to learn but keep putting off: Learning ActionScript3!
Please let us know in the comments if you are a new Flash user or just someone wanting to make the transition from AS2 to AS3 and if these type of video roundups are useful to you. We’re certainly not wanting to blind you with the science, but just prove to you that AS3 is not as scary as you think. We will then try to continue the series and provide more basic videos for AS3 beginners if we hear that you find it useful.
Creating your first function
Control an object using the mouse
Basic Buttons with AS3
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Scott
Scott is the Down the FoxHole blog editor. He is also a reviewer for ActiveDen. Scott is a freelance Web and Interactive Media Designer having previously worked as the Lead Web Designer for a well-known children's hospital in the US for 8 years. Follow him on Twitter @scottwills
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nice iniciative, but teaching non OOP as3 is teach as2 all over again. but that’s just what i think
Thanks for letting us know, guinetik, you make a totally valid point!
However, if we went straight into some serious OOP, I’m sure that would negate what we’re trying to do here, which is to nurture and encourage more and more (new) Flash users to learn and adopt AS3. Understanding OOP is obviously a necessity to ultimately learning/mastering AS3, but baby steps first I think, and all in good time for this particular target audience. 
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I think this is great. This is just how I learned oop. I learned as2, then I learned as3 like this, they I finally made (am making to be honest) the jump to oop. Learning oop and dealing with classes at the same time as learning the new syntax was just too much for my brain to handle. This is the perfect way to ease into it. Thanks Scott!
I learned AS3 this very way also. I eventually moved to OOP, but this is definitely a place to start
I learned any actionscript version from the buttons ,menu,mouse to begin
. OOP? I don’t think the flash designer need it. but the flash programer need it. 
OOP is a tool, its up to you whether you use it. You could make great sites without a drop of OOP but it would be a nightmare to code and debug… learn the basics STRICTLY and OOP will be easier… get your head into colin moocks book’s
I think it’s a good startup for AS2 developers.
Good article!
baby steps for learning AS! Nice pick FlashDen.
yes that’s true AS 3 is not scary..in fact its more structured
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this is a great initiative!!
For the AS3 beginners there are couple of more video tutorials available on Adobe’s site which i have found very useful http://www.adobe.com/devnet/actionscript/articles/actionscript_1-on-1.html
This is great for beginers.
Sure, it’s not that difficult to teach portions of the ActionScript language to perform a specific task. Funcitons, arrays, variables, and if conditionals presented on their own don’t pose that much of an issue in the classroom. It’s when the OOP-class based approach is presented that you get blank stares.
And then there’s the syntactical oddities of AS3, like when you write an event listener specifically for I/O errors or when you are required to import classes to get something done. That’s when I get the blank stares and glazed eyes.
Again, someone with absolutely no prior programming experience, but has good design skills and has learned the whole animation side of Flash, has a really hard time transitioning into AS3 code. Gentle easy doses like the ones listed here are a great start for anybody looking to get started.
I highly recommend (and use in the classroom) Rich Shupe’s book Learning ActionScript 3.0. It’s brilliant in its approach and tailored specifically for the beginner. The examples are excellent and the code is explained very well.
The first few chapters of Peter Elst’s book, Object-Oriented ActionScript 3.0, is also a great starting point for someone moving off procedural scripting and into the world of class-based, OOP code.
Great post and I hope to see more snippets like this in the future.
I think AS3 is the best thing that ADOBE could make.. moving from AS2.. now you can handle better errors, an have a better structure.
I learned on hard way.. making mistakes.. and hours of studying.. but let me tell you, It really worth.
This is suitable for anyone who wishes to jump from AS2 to AS3 or just ton get started with ActionScript. I find it better to learn how to code on timeline and after that to make a leap into OOP.
Good Work!
When as3 Came i thought i have to learn a lot to change to as3 . lol but its fun and easy
AS3 is great , but it looks hard to learn at beginning . I’m still learning it , and I’m amazed of it’s speed .