how would one go about making a custom component from scratch?
http://www.ultrashock.com/tutorials/flashmx/
http://www.ultrashock.com/tutorials/flashmx/gridhack_tutorial.html
http://www.philterdesign.com/blog/archives/000056.html
http://www.flashcomponents.net/tutorials/triangle/triangle.html
http://www.actionscript.org/tutorials/advanced/Creating_Flash_MX_Custom_Component_Help/index.shtml
thanks for the links… boy, this stuff looks time consuming!
it is 
Building your own components from scratch is very fiddly and takes a long time. Macromedia has a whole library of premade ones though, and it’s likely that what you’re after is available there. Once you’ve downloaded a component, you can take it to pieces and re-work. That way a lot of the difficult part is done for you. 
You can also check www.27bobs.com A lot of components and some nice tutes
making the component is that hard… making everything that goes with it is the tough part; the custom interfaces, the live preview, the color syntax, reference, etc. - at least if you’re packaging it. For personal use it usually isnt a big deal heh.
You can always ask for help here too if you have a specific question :beam:
