Last Week on ActiveTuts+

ActiveTuts+, the “sister” Web site of ActiveDen, is part of the envato Tuts+ network, and features some of the best Flash, ActionScript and Flex tutorials on the Web in an easy-to-follow and engaging format.

Each week on ActiveDen we will provide a roundup of all the previous week’s tutorials from ActiveTuts+ as a reminder to brush-up on your Flash skills or to learn something new.

Control a Flex Video Application Using Mouse Gestures

October 23rd in Flex, Video by Matthew Casperson

Almost all PC user interfaces are designed around the notion of moving a cursor and clicking on objects. Buttons, menus, combo boxes, lists and every other standard UI control work in this way. The mouse is used to position the cursor, and the position of the cursor is used to perform an action.

It’s a design paradigm that has worked well, but lately new technologies like touch screens and motion sensors (think the Wii) have challenged the notion of using a mouse, or even having a cursor on the screen at all.

Add Depth to Your Game with Parallax Scrolling

October 21st in Games, by Michael Williams

This is a really simple technique which you can use to add the illusion of depth to any side-scroller game. Whilst I’m explaining how it’s achieved, we’ll also take a look at making infinitely repeating backgrounds.

Develop an Encryption App Using Flash and MDM Zinc

October 19th in ActionScript by Carlos Yanez

Encryption is the process of transforming information using an algorithm to make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing special knowledge, usually referred to as a key.

Using Multidmedia Zinc we’ll create an encryption application in ActionScript 3, capable of encrypting text and files with a user specified key.