Tutorial: how to create flash movie using SWF Scout library and Visual Basic.NET (Visual Studio.NET)

Quick Start Guide with SWF Scout library and Visual Basic.NET: "Hello, World!" example

You can download the source code of this example here: swfscout_vb_net.zip

This page contains step-by-step tutorial that will teach you how to create SWF animation file in Visual Basic.NET application using SWF Scout library.

1) Install SWF Scout library on your computer and run Microsoft Visual Studio 2003.NET

Go to New menu and click Project... to create new project as shown on screenshot below:

You will see New Project Wizard. Select Windows Application in Visual Basic Projects group:

2) VB.NET will create a new project:

3) To use SWF Scout in Visual Basic.NET we have to add reference to SWF Scout library for current VB.NET project. Select Project in the main menu and click Add Reference command:

Switch to COM tab and find SWF Scout library in the list of available COM objects:

Now click on Select button to add reference to SWF Scout and click OK

4) Now add the code that will create "Hello, World!" SWF flash movie. Double-click Form1 to create Form1_Load event procedure:

The source code editor window will be appear:

5) The code that generate "Hello, World!" SWF flash movie is below. Created flash animation file will be saved into "c:]Shapes.swf" file. You can simply copy-and-paste this code into your project.

Dim Movie As SWFScout.FlashMovie

Movie = New SWFScout.FlashMovie

Movie.InitLibrary("demo", "demo")

Movie.BeginMovie(0, 0, 640, 480, 1, 12, 6)

Dim Font As Integer

Font = Movie.AddFont("Arial", 18, True, False, False, False, 0) ' add font

' create and place text

Dim Text As Integer

Text = Movie.AddText("Hello, World!", 0, 0, 0, 255, Font, 0, 100, 250, 160)

Movie.PlaceText(Text, Movie.CurrentMaxDepth) ' place text into current depth

Movie.PLACE_FadeOut(0.5) ' fade out text

Dim Shape As Integer

Shape = Movie.AddShape ' add new shape

Movie.SHAPE_Rectangle(0, 140, 150, 285) ' draw rectangle

Movie.SHAPE_SetSolidColor(50, 255, 50, True, 255) ' set solid fill for shape

Movie.PlaceShape(Shape, Movie.CurrentMaxDepth) ' place shape into current depth

Movie.ShowFrame(10) ' show 10 frames

Movie.EndMovie() ' end movie generation

Movie.SaveToFile("c:\Shapes.swf") ' save generated SWF into file

Hint:

You can simply copy the source code from the snippet above and paste into Visual Basic.NET code editor window:

6) Press F5 to run the application (you can also use "Debug" | "Start" menu command) and Visual Basic.NET will run the application:

The application will generate flash animation file and will save it as "Shapes.swf" file in root folder of C:\ drive.

You can view generated SWF movie using Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox or another application that is able to open and play flash movies.

Flash movie generated by VB.NET project

You can download the source code of this example here: swfscout_vb_net.zip