So you think you've got to grips with the features of Macromedia Flash MX? Welcome to this inspirations upgrade from friends of ED. Upgrade your thinking, upgrade your attitude, and upgrade your standards to take on board the host of exciting features incorporated into this version of Flash. With this title, we run the gamut of new features, from the Drawing API ("to die for"), through new video compression, Scriptable Masks and Components. We explore the new territory with experimental interfaces, check out the improvements in the 3D arena, and quarry the back-end technologies to see what gems we can turn up! Some of the best designers in the Web community have concentrated their efforts on this project. This has resulted in the highest caliber of work, including an exclusive insight into the creation of Jim Armstrong's New York Flash Film Festival final piece. From the acclaimed team that brought you Flash Math Creativity comes this inspiring volume, full of brand new effects and discussion on what Flash MX is going to do for designers—and where we go from here.

* First Flash book to use the unique "virtual classroom" approach to teaching ActionScript programming to absolute beginners, so it meets a need head-on that no other book addresses directly—providing the missing link between technology and creativity. * Flash and ActionScript are extremely simple to learn, so this book provides the ideal entry point for any aspiring programmer and web designer, compared with technologies like VB and C++, which can be very intimidating to the novice. Additionally, this book is complementary to any other entry-level Flash titles – it recognizes that as well as mastering the design side of the toolset, effective designer/developers also need to grasp basic programming skills. Having Flash on your machine doesn't miraculously turn you into a web designer – you need to work at learning design and programming skills too. * The authors are highly experienced authors and Flash tutors, well versed in communicating technical information to a low level consumer audience. They are also active web community members and will provide personal technical support for the book direct to the reader via the Friends of ED support forums.

by Bruce Herbert and Diana Johnson ofSorenson Media Creative boundaries are being blown apart as Macromedia Flash MX ushers in a new era of moving images on the Internet. At its launch, analysts predicted that the Flash Player would transform itself from being a lightweight animation tool" to "the de facto technology for simple web interactivity5* (Randy Souza, Forrester). Since then though, Flash developers combining vector animation and video have proven that it's capable of much, much more than "simple web interactivity". We're still just beginning to scratch the surface of the possibilities it opens up to us, but already it looks like Flash MX is becoming the key technology for pushing video creativity on the Web to a new whole level. Understandably, many people look at Flash as just another way to deliver video on the Web, one more program for showing movies on your desktop. Well, it can certainly do that - but there's a whole lot more it can do besides! You can use ActionScript to add custom controls, determine a video playback sequence, or mask your video with a custom shape. You can use layering to create special effects, design custom templates for e-learning applications, and use lightweight video streams along with Flash animation in rich media e-mail campaigns.

Full-color book and video package teaches you Flash in a flash! If you want to design and maintain dynamic websites with Adobe Flash, this full-color book-and-video training package from expert instructors is the perfect place to start. Fifteen self-paced, step-by-step lessons are accompanied by video tutorials, and this powerful combination helps you master the basics, acquire essential skills, and learn what's new. Making all aspects of Flash less intimidating, this superb training tool covers topics such as using layers to build animation sequences, creating interactive web components with ActionScript, and much more. Uses full-color, step-by-step lessons in the book accompanied by videos on the DVD for a one-two punch of effective training Features five-minute videos that demonstrate and further explain the concepts in the lessons Covers Flash basics, new features in the latest release, and topics for beginners, intermediate, and advanced users Flash Professional CS6 Digital Classroom is what you need to learn how to use Adobe Flash, whether you're a designer, programmer, or hobbyist. Note: The DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of the e-book file. These materials are available for download upon purchase.

Learn Flash in a flash with this full-color book and video training package! Adobe Flash is used by designers, game programmers, and hobbyists to create interactive Web sites, digital experiences, and mobile content. The latest release of Flash promises exciting new capabilities and this book-and-video training package makes learning the new features of Flash less intimidating. Fifteen self-paced lessons encourage you to discover essential skills and explore new aspects of Flash. The tutorials featured in the videos are each approximately five minutes long and supplement the concepts and topics covered in the lessons. Features full-color, step-by-step tutorials that complement the topics covered in each lesson Demonstrates the basics of using the newest release of Flash, such as using layers and instances to build animation sequences Covers intermediate and advanced capabilities, such as using ActionScript to create interactive Web page components Jam-packed with information, this book takes you from Flash basics through intermediate-level topics and helps you find the information you need in both print and video. Note: DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file. These materials are available for download upon purchase.

* New edition of the best selling and very well respected beginner’s Flash book. Sham Bhangal is very well known in the Flash community as a world class teacher, and beginners have even contacted him about personal tuition, as well as buying his books. * Provides easy-to-follow tutorials ideal for beginner market - it is slimmer and more concise than the competition, and concentrates on the essentials that beginners need to know. * Flash X is going to be a huge market – it is the most widely-anticipated release of Flash since 5, because of exciting new features. It is the release that MX 2004 should have been.

Flash CS4 Professional Digital Classroom is like having a personal instructor guiding readers through each lesson, while they work at their own pace. This book includes 13 self-paced lessons that let readers discover essential skills and explore new features and capabilities of Adobe Flash Professional. Every lesson is presented in full color with step-by-step instructions. Learning is reinforced with video tutorials and lesson files on a companion DVD that were developed by the same team of Adobe Certified Instructors and Flash experts who have created many of the official training titles for Adobe Systems. Each video tutorial is approximately five minutes long and demonstrates and explains the concepts and features covered in the lesson. This training package shows the basics of using the program, such as using layers and instances to build animation sequences, as well as advance features, such as using ActionScript to create interactive Web page components. Jam-packed with information, this book and DVD takes users from the basics through intermediate level topics and helps readers find the information they need in a clear, approachable manner. Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

The days of Flash as a creative luxury are long gone. After months of downsizing, Flash creativity has been on a huge rationalization program. It is no longer enough to present animation in millions of colors and a hundred transparencies. It is no longer sufficient to provide interactivity and dynamism for their own sake. The purpose of this collection is to show how designers have taken Flash and made it work for its supper. What we discover is a series of creations that place Flash at the hub of cutting edge web content. The end result is a snapshot of Flash as the ideal medium. In these amazing examples, we see the software pushed to its limits to create unbeatable applications—a collapsible family tree, an interactive video learning system, and a drawing tool, capable of running online! Beyond this, we dip into the back-end capabilities to look at how to improve Flash still further. Some staple XML and PHP routines are brought in to add a bit of spice, while Flash's mysterious sharedObject command is hunted down and tamed to create a hybrid Tamagotchi houseplant—perfectly suited to lure surfers back to your website!

The authors give you all you need to know to create the most commonly requested and popular Flash visual effects and movies on the web with fast and fun examples.