Editorial Reviews
Product Description:In this book, you'll learn
- All the ActionScript 3.0 (including math and trigonometry functions) and Flash rendering techniques you'll need to start animating with code
- Basic motion principles such as velocity, acceleration, friction, easing, and bouncing
- How to handle user interaction via the keyboard and mouse
- Advanced motion techniques such as springs, coordinate rotation, conservation of momentum, and forward and inverse kinematics
- All the basic 3D concepts you need to do 3D in Flash, from simple perspective to full 3D solids complete with backface culling and dynamic lighting
Flash has long been one of the most approachable, user-friendly tools for creating web-based animations, games, and applications. This has contributed to making it one of the most widely used programs for creating interactive web content. With each new version of Flash, ActionScript, its built-in scripting language, has become more powerful and a little more complex, too. ActionScript, now at version 3.0, has significantly matured as a programming language, bringing power and speed only previously dreamed about to Flash-based animation, going far beyond traditionally used keyframes and tweens. The material inside this book covers everything you need to know to harness the power of ActionScript 3.0. First, all the basics of script-based animation and setting up an ActionScript 3.0 project are covered. An introduction to object-oriented programming follows, with the new syntax, events, and rendering techniques of ActionScript 3.0 explained, giving you the confidence to use the language, whether starting from scratch or moving up from ActionScript 2.0. The book goes on to provide information on all the relevant trigonometry you will need, before moving on to physics concepts such as acceleration, velocity, easing, springs, collision detection, conservation of momentum, 3D, and forward and inverse kinematics. In no time at all you'll both understand the concepts of scripted animation and have the ability to create all manner of exciting animations and games.
Summary of Contents
- PART ONE - ACTIONSCRIPTED ANIMATION BASICS
- Chapter 1 Basic Animation Concepts
- Chapter 2 Basics of ActionScript 3.0 for Animation
- Chapter 3 Trigonometry for Animation
- Chapter 4 Rendering Techniques
- PART TWO - BASIC MOTION
- Chapter 5 Velocity and Acceleration
- Chapter 6 Boundaries and Friction
- Chapter 7 User Interaction: Moving Objects Around
- PART THREE - ADVANCED MOTION
- Chapter 8 Easing and Springing
- Chapter 9 Collision Detection
- Chapter 10 Coordinate Rotation and Bouncing Off Angles
- Chapter 11 Billiard Ball Physics
- Chapter 12 Particle Attraction and Gravity
- Chapter 13 Forward Kinematics: Making Things Walk
- Chapter 14 Inverse Kinematics: Dragging and Reaching
- PART FOUR - 3D ANIMATION
- Chapter 15 3D Basics
- Chapter 16 3D Lines and Fills
- Chapter 17 Backface Culling and 3D Lighting
- PART FIVE - ADDITIONAL TECHNIQUES
- Chapter 18 Matrix Math
- Chapter 19 Tips and Tricks
Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review
The initial review to this book, October 2, 2009
By
Gerardo Pelaez Lourido (VIGO, PONTEVEDRA Spain)
I am a beginner dealing with Flash CS3. However I have a fair background on Multibody.
Dealing with the initial suggestions and templates of this book they work ! And you get your first red circle without big problems. However matters like the basis of Multibody: the constraint equations of joints, plus the integration of M q'' - D' lambda = -h. That can be found in Nikravesh and other are not included. Plus complex matters like friction (stick -slip and so) are quite simple in this book and perhaps not serious studied. In addition the text templates written in Java where can be found in the web in order to do not write all of them again in the Mac or PC.
Great book for those who know a bit already..., September 30, 2009
By
Kevin WoodsThis book is a great entrance into more advanced actionscript 3.0. The examples are well explained (from a theory standpoint) and the code given is clear. If the reader lacks a background in programming and Flash in general, I can see some of the material being somewhat arbitrary. There are a few errors in the code that I noticed, but I knew enough about what was going on to spot them before they caused problems (IE: a variable intended for horizontal movement was coded with vertical movement information). It would have been nice to have an errata page online for code updates and issues considering the errors and that Flash does not like some of the function naming conventions used by the author. That aside, the book is perfect for people needing a quick crash course in actionscript 3.0 animation. Even a casual familiarity with basic programming will be more than enough to understand the examples.
does what it says.... but i expected more, August 24, 2009
By
Kutsunagi Miu (Bay Area, California)
This book does what the title states, the author teaches you to make objects with code and then move them. Which is well and good if your recreating Asteroids, or want a triangle for a spaceship.
However if you want to also know how to use symbols you have already created in flash, you will need to find someone else to help you. This book doesn't cover the integration of images or how to make non-code created images move.
It is a great book to start you learning how to structure code and how to draw with code, especially if you are new to flash and want to take a programmer / developer approach to learning action script 3.
best book on actionscript i've ever read, April 15, 2009
By
bryan mcdonald (San Francisco Bay USA)
i graduated with a computer science degree so i know how to program. flash has gone through quite a few changes over the years and keith does an amazing job explaining why code looks different for the different versions. he does not dwell on the minutia but focuses on the key important things. best book on actionscript i've ever read...wish i would have bought it sooner.
Math made easy, February 25, 2009
By
Mr. Anders (Oslo, Norway)
I found this book to answer pretty much all the Actionscript and Math questions I've encountered over the years. This book makes it easy to understand how and, more importantly, why one should go about animating objects with Actionscript. Great stuff
