Macromedia Flash MX Advanced for Windows and Macintosh

@CATEGORY = Electronic and Desktop Publishing@TITLE = Macromedia Flash X Advanced for Windows and Macintosh: Visual QuickPro Guide@HEADLINE = Take your Flash skills to the next level with a Visual QuickPro Guide!@BULLET = This Visual QuickPro Guide discusses more complex Flash topics, such as advanced animation techniques and ActionScript programming.@BULLET = One of the best-selling Flash titles on the market, completely updated with revised examples and plenty of new screenshots reflecting the updated Flash interface.@BULLET = Geared for the intermediate-to-advanced Flash developer audience.@SUMMARY = Macromedia Flash X Advanced for Windows and Macintosh: Visual QuickPro Guide is targeted at intermediate-to-advanced Flash developers, including graphic designers, Web animators, game programmers, interface designers, and producers. These are the people who are already familiar with the basics of Flash and need a book to help them learn advanced animation techniques and ActionScripting. Russell Chun, an experienced Flash instructor, sidesteps "cool effects" and specific case studies in favor of demonstrating basic ways to approach animation and interactivity in Flash. By presenting material in a logical fashion that emphasizes method and problem-solving approaches, this book encourages readers to "think" in Flash and truly understand its flexibility and functionality. The text is divided into three sections: advanced animations, advanced navigation, and advanced interactivity. All of Flash X's new features are covered, including the revamped user interface, brand-new ActionScript commands, and Flash's new drawing and text tools.@AUTHBIO = Russell Chun earned his B.S. In Biology at the University of Michigan and later earned an M.A. In Medical Illustration from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Since then, he's been involved with developing interactive educational media for the sciences, most recently as the Senior Producer for Art and Media at Benjamin Cummings Publishers. He also teaches advanced Flash classes at the Center for Electronic Art in San Francisco and has written several Flash articles for Macworld and SBS Digital magazines. He has conducted both national and regional workshops on Flash, and is the author of all previous editions of this book. @ISBN = 0-201-75846-6 @MAINCAT = Electronic and Desktop Publishing@SUBCAT = Web Graphics and Publishing/Tools@DATALINE1 = 2002, 480 pages, 7 x 9@DATALINE2 = paper w/CD-ROM, $29.99@IMPRINT = Peachpit Press 

Introduction.


Introduction. Who Should Use This Book? Goals of This Book. What's New in Flash MX.

I. APPROACHING ADVANCED ANIMATION.

1. Building Complexity.


Motion-Tweening Strategies. Shape-Tweening Strategies. Creating Special Effects. Animated and Complex Masks.

2. Working with Video and 3D.


Integrating Flash and Video. Rotoscoping. Simulating Video. Simulating 3D.

II. UNDERSTANDING ACTIONSCRIPT.

3. Getting a Handle on ActionScript.


About Objects and Classes. About Methods and Properties. Writing with Dot Syntax. More on Punctuation. The Actions Panel. Using Objects. About Functions. Using Comments.

III. NAVIGATING TIMELINES AND COMMUNICATING.

4. Advanced Buttons and Event Detection.


Events and Event Handlers. The Button Object. Invisible Buttons. Tweening Buttons. Animated Buttons and the Movie-Clip Symbol. Complex Buttons. Button-Tracking Options. Button Properties. The Movie Clip as a Button. Keyboard Detection. Mouse Detection. Clip Events. Creating Continuous Actions with enterFrame. Creating Continuous Actions with setInterval. A Summary of Events and Event Handlers.

5. Controlling Multiple Timelines.


Navigating Timelines with Movie Clips. Naming Instances. Target Paths. Absolute and Relative Paths. Using the with Action to Target Movie Clips. Slash Notation and tellTarget. Scope. Movie Clips as Containers.

6. Managing Outside Communication.


Communicating Through the Web Browser. Communicating with External Movies. Communicating with External Images. Communicating Between Two Movies. Using Projectors and the fscommand Action. Communicating with the Printer. Detecting the Movie's Playback Environment. Detecting Download Progress: Preloaders.

IV. TRANSFORMING GRAPHICS AND SOUND.

7. Controlling the Movie Clip.


Dragging the Movie Clip. Setting the Movie-Clip Properties. Getting the Movie-Clip Properties. Modifying the Movie-Clip Color. Swapping Overlapping Movie Clips. Detecting Dropped Movie Clips. Detecting Movie-Clip Collisions. Getting the Boundaries of Movie Clips. Generating Movie Clips Dynamically. Removing Movie Clips Dynamically. Creating Shapes Dynamically. Using Dynamic Masks. Customizing Your Pointer. Beginning to Animate with ActionScript.

8. Controlling Sound.


Using the Sound Object. Attaching Sounds. Playing Sounds. Modifying Sounds. Modifying Independent Sounds. Transforming Sounds. Creating Dynamic Sound Controls. Loading External Sounds. Reading Sound Properties. Detecting Sound Events.

V. WORKING WITH INFORMATION.

9. Controlling Information Flow.


Initializing Information. Using Variables and Expressions. Loading External Variables. Storing and Sharing Information. Modifying Variables. Concatenating Variables and Dynamic Referencing. Testing Information with Conditional Statements. Providing Alternatives to Conditions. Branching Conditional Statements. Combining Conditions with Logical Operators. Looping Statements.

10. Controlling Text.


Input Text. Dynamic Text. Selecting Text-Field Options. Concatenating Text. Displaying HTML. Tweening Text Fields. TextField Properties. Generating Text Fields Dynamically. Modifying Text in Text Fields. Manipulating Text-Field Contents. Controlling the Focus of Text Fields. Controlling the Selection Within Text Fields. Detecting Changes in the Text Field. The String Object. Analyzing Strings. Rearranging Strings. Modifying Strings.

11. Manipulating Information.


Calculating with the Math Object. Calculating Angles with the Math Object. Using Sine and Cosine for Directional Movement. Calculating Distances with the Math Object. Generating Random Numbers. Ordering Information with Arrays. Keeping Track of Movie Clips with Arrays. Using the Date and Time. Building Reusable Scripts. Building Custom Classes with Functions.

12. Managing Content and Troubleshooting.


Sharing Library Symbols. Sharing Fonts. Using Components. Editing ActionScript. Including External ActionScript. Using the Movie Explorer. Listing Variables and Objects in the Output Window. Tracing Variables in the Output Window. Debugging. Optimizing Your Movie. Avoiding Common Mistakes.

Appendix A. Summary of Object Methods & Properties.
Appendix B. Keyboard Keys and Matching Key Codes.
Appendix C. Summary of the Actions Category.
Appendix D. Summary of Events and Object Associations.
Index.