designing for a flex application. need help.

[Guest]

Hi Guys,
I need to design a web application in flex (flash builder) (for PC) and I have never used flex. I am a web designer and work on regular visual design plus html css conversion but now I need to do visual design in photoshop and then convert it in flex instead of html.  And I need your help.              

Is it possible to convert everything from PSD to flex like we do from PSD to html, css. What sort of visual elements should I use for a flex app?
For example for creating gradient background in html – We use an image of 1px in height and tile it horizontally using css. Is it doable in flex by writing the similar code in the a flex CSS file? As my visual design has good use of photoshop gradients I would prefer to tile in thru the css in flex.
Same thing while using buttons and the nav bar. I have created the buttons and navigation bar in web 2.0 style in photoshop can we import it in flex to maintain what I have created? Also can I tile the navbar in flex like we do in regular web app by css tiling. Or can we create web 2.0 elements such as buttons or nav bars in flex itself.

How to apply CSS in flex?
Any free icons/buttons available to use?
Any help for flex design would be of great help and much appreciated.

Any information on 'designing the web applications in flash builder' from design point of view would be of great help. I need to know the best approach to start the design process.

Vicky

[Innovatology]

If you have no experience in Flash/Flex, I'd have a good look at Flash Catalyst. It's kind of a bridge or stepping-stone between Photoshop-like mockups and a functioning app.

Flash Catalyst:

http://www.adobe.com/products/flashcatalyst.html

[kushpa]

You should definitely check out some online tutorials on design in FB4.5, such as Lee Brimelow's tutorials on "blitting" and skins/styles in Flex ("Intro to Flex: Part 3"):

http://www.gotoandlearn.com/

Also, the "Change the appearance of your application" videos on the Flash Builder "Test Drive" site:

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/testdrive.html

Good luck!