This is a simple tutorial that will teach you how to create an animated cube revolving on its axis. To replicate the steps described above you will need Adobe Flash CS4.

At the end you will get the following result:

1. Create a new Flash file AS3 with the size 400 X 400 px.

2. Then draw a square 100 X 100 px with thick outline and filling of low opacity.

3. Highlight the square and convert it to symbol by pressing F8. ‘Covert to symbol’ window will open. Write a name, set type to Movie Clip and make sure you selected Registration “Center”.

4. After that we should center the movie clip on the scene. Click [Ctrl + K] -> the ‘Align’ window will appear. Highlight the movie clicp and copy it [Ctrl+c].

5. While the movie clip is still selected, go to its Properties [Ctrl+F3] -> 3D Position and View, where we set ‘Z’ value (depth) to be equal to our square size. In our case Z equals 100 px.
The Prespective angle is 80.

6. Then click on any empty place of the scene to get highlight off. By mouse right clicking, choose Paste in Place.

7. Now we have two moview clips. Highlight them [Ctrl+A] and copy [Ctrl+C]. Right mouse clicking -> Pate in Place.

8. While the movie clips are still selected, open the Transfrom window [Ctrl+T] and enter the following values:

3D Center point:
X: half scene width
Y: half scene height
Z: half square side

3D Rotation:
X: 90; Y: 0: Z:0.

9. Right mouse clicking -> Paste in Place. While the movie clips are still selected, open the Transfrom window [Ctrl+T] and enther the follwoing values:

3D Center point:
X: half scene width
Y: half scene height
Z: half square side

3D Rotation:
X: 0; Y: 90; Z: 0.

10. Highlight everything [Ctrl+A] and convert to Movie Clip [F8]. Make sure you set Registration to ‘Center‘. Then go to the movie clip Properties [Crtl+F3] and enter Instance name “cube”.

11. To view the cube from different sides, we should make the cube revolving. For this open ActionScript [F9] and paste in the first frame the following code:

function rotate(e:Event){// function to rotate the cube
cube.rotationX+=1// where cube is the Instance name of our cube
cube.rotationY-=1
}
stage.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME,rotate)

Press [Ctrl + Enter] and view the result.

To make cube revolving on its axis, double click on it (on the scene or in the Library [F11]). Highlight it and open the Pro[erties window. Set “Z” value (depth) = 0.

Download source files.

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Thanks to DooD for this great lesson.