Animating With Flash 8

Whether you are a designer who hasn't yet used Flash, a professional animator who wants to create digital animation for the first time, or a Flash user who hasn't yet made the most of the animation features this book will show you how to bring your ideas to life. Get to grips with Flash and bring inspiration to your work using Alex Michael's easy to understand approach, demonstrating a wide selection of animation styles from a range of artists, along with key tips and tricks from the professionals.

Macromedia's Flash 8 is the world's premier program for adding animation to websites. And with the latest version, this popular program becomes more versatile, letting beginning webmasters and expert developers alike create sophisticated web content. But Flash isn't intuitive. And it doesn't come with a manual. Whether you want to learn the basics or unleash the program's true power, Flash 8: The Missing Manual is the ideal instructor. This hands-on guide to today's hottest web design tool is aimed at nondevelopers, and it teaches you how to translate your ideas into great web content. It begins with a solid primer on animation, which helps you get comfortable with the Flash interface. Once you have these basics under your belt, Flash 8: The Missing Manual moves on to advanced animations, including adding special effects and audio, video, and interactivity to your presentations. When you're really feeling steady, the book shows how to use a dollop of ActionScript to customize your content. It then teaches you how to publish your Flash creations for web surfers everywhere to enjoy. Along the way, the book shows you good design principles and helps you avoid elements that can distract or annoy an audience. Author Emily Vander Veer has more than a dozen books to her credit, including titles on web design and scripting--most written for non-technical readers. Her background makes her the perfect author for a straightforward book on a complex subject. She takes Flash 8: The Missing Manual from the basics to the advanced, yet avoids a hasty jump into tough topics that can leave readers confused. Not only will Flash 8: The Missing Manual help you turn a concept into unique, dynamic content, but it will continue to serve as a reference as you develop your website.

Whether you are a designer who hasn't yet used Flash, a professional animator who wants to create digital animation for the first time, or a Flash user who hasn't yet made the most of the animation features this book will show you how to bring your ideas to life. Get to grips with Flash and bring inspiration to your work using Alex Michael's easy to understand approach, demonstrating a wide selection of animation styles from a range of artists, along with key tips and tricks from the professionals.

Frustrated by the overwhelming nature of Flash? Want to get up to speed with the program fast so you can concentrate on your animation? Need to solve problems quickly to get work done to time and to budget? Then 'How to Cheat in Flash' is for you! This book is different from the rest because it shows you, step by step, how to work from the problem to the solution when creating Flash animations, from the viewpoint of an animator who has been commissioned to create a job and is working to a deadline. It is task orientated; every example shows real life commercial work. So, it's not so much a case of 'what does this filter/tool/option do?', as 'this is the task I've been set - how do I achieve it?' The solution may involve a variety of tools and techniques; it may take many steps to complete, or only a few. The free CD-Rom includes all the files you need to put your skills into practice as you read, and much more! It's an accessible (conversational in style), practical book and CD package which also provides artistic inspiration, a goldmine of timesaving practical tips, tricks and step-by-step workthroughs. You will wonder how you survived without it.

Andrew Rapo and Alex Michael explain all the important programming concepts from a designer's point of view, making them completely accessible to non-programmers. Completely revised and rewritten this second edition will help you develop professional ActionScript 2 applications, and communicate knowledgably about current, Object Oriented ActionScript 2 techniques. Divided into four sections to take you from novice to professional results: * Flash Fundamentals: Introduces the Flash authoring environment and basic core Flash concepts. * ActionScript 2 Fundamentals: Explains basic programming concepts and terminology, and shows how ActionScript 2 classes are constructed and used. * Built-in Classes: Describes the built-in ActionScript classes that are available for use in applications, including the MovieClip class, Key class, Sound class, etc. * Using ActionScript to Build a Game: Describes the development process for creating a complex Flash application and presents commercial-quality game coding examples.

Macromedia Flash is fast becoming the Web's most widely used platform for creating rich media with animation and motion graphics, but mastering Flash isn't easy. Most entry-level books teach through simple examples that concentrate on either animation or scripting, but rarely both together. To get the most from Flash 8, you not only need to be proficient in programming/interface design, you need the creativity for story telling and the artistic insights to design fluid animation. Flash 8: Projects for Learning Animation and Interactivity teaches Flash design rather than simply Flash itself. With a standalone series of walkthroughs and tutorials for Flash beginners coming from a graphics field, this book teaches Flash in the context of real-world projects. Rather than learn a Flash tool for the sake of it, you learn which areas of Flash are important, and which are less used, simply by seeing how typical content is actually created. And rather than a text-heavy approach, this graphically rich book leads you through hands-on examples by illustration. Each project in the book starts with goals and broad sketches before moving to design and scripting. This helps you understand design intent-the why of the process-rather than just learning the interfaces and the how of it all. Along the way, you'll create Flash content that includes traditional animation techniques (as seen in full-length animated features), and ActionScript-based interactive animation, such as custom web site interface designs. You also learn how to combine both traditional animation techniques and ActionScript to create feature-rich Flash assets from the ground up. Co-authored by educational developers with years of experience creating compelling content, interfaces, and applications, Flash 8: Projects for Learning Animation and Interactivity offers a content-driven approach that is also inspiration-driven. You learn because you're accomplishing something tangible, not because you think you need to know how a tool works. If you want to understand how various features of Flash come together to create a final end design, this book provides you with both the insight and the know-how.

You can build everything from simple animations to full-fledged iPhone, iPad, and Android apps with Flash CS6, but learning this complex program can be difficult—unless you have this fully updated, bestselling guide. Learn how to create gorgeous Flash effects even if you have no programming experience. With Flash CS6: The Missing Manual, you’ll move from the basics to power-user tools with ease. The important stuff you need to know: Learn animation basics. Turn simple ideas into stunning animations—in the very first chapter. Master Flash’s tools. Learn the animation and effects tools with clear explanations and hands-on examples. Use 3D effects. Rotate objects and make them move in three dimensions. Create lifelike motion. Use the IK Bones tool to simulate realistic body movements and other linked motions. Build apps that work anywhere. Create apps just for iOS or Android devices—or one app that works on mobile devices and desktops. Add multimedia. Incorporate your own audio and video files into Flash. Create rich interactive animations. Dive into advanced interactivity with easy-to-learn ActionScript examples.

This is the first definitive and authoritative book available on ActionScript 3 animation techniques. ActionScript animation is a very popular discipline for Flash developers to learn. The essential skill set has been learned by many Flash developers through the first edition of this book. This has now been updated to ActionScript 3, Adobe's new and improved scripting language. All of the code has been updated, and some new techniques have been added to take advantage of ActionScript 3's new features, including the display list and new event architecture. The code can be used with the Flash 9 IDE, Flex Builder 2, or the free Flex 2 SDK.

Animate to Harmony takes the reader through Toon Boom's Animate software, teaching those new to the program how to create high-quality, 2D animation of all complexities. From scene set up to rendering, readers learn how to navigate Animate's interface and how to create 'toons that can be viewed on a multitude of formats. And while the main text focuses on Animate, "Advanced Technique" boxes throughout the book take the reader through the Pro and Harmony versions of the software, appealing to readers of all levels and with any of the three main Toon Boom products.

Flash is the most popular Web animation tool in the world, widely used by Web designers, game developers, and others who want to add vibrant content to a Web site This book shows Flash newcomers how to get up and running quickly, demonstrating how to create and edit objects, add interactive elements, work with sound, animate objects, and deliver the finished product onlineExplains how to incorporate streaming video elements and create presentations for mobile devices Now thoroughly updated to cover new program features and enhancements.