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:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
I love this book:
This book is an in-depth look at the topic of scripting animation in ActionScript. By meaning "Making things moves" It's mean making objects move using ActionScript. The primary focus of the book is on creating animation for simulating real-world physics: making things move; simulating bouncing, gravity, springing, and friction; creating objects you can throw them. Finally, an additional section gives an introduction to basic 3-D concepts and techniques. Most of the well-known and engaging Flash content... more info
OOP beginner:
Since I'm still a beginner and this book is more for intermediates I'm a little overwhelmed. Definitely more details than I expected but a sourcebook worth buying. I will catch up.
Excellent book:
This book teaches motion physics programming on flash! And amazingly it's an incredible resource for OOP beginners as well. The first 2 chapters will talk about the philosophies of motion and flash and set you up to learn AS3 programming and OOP! I already had knowledge a solid knowledge of OOP from C# and C++, and let me just say that this book is very concise! It cuts to the chase and gives tons and tons of examples (downloadable), very accurate and useful information! I recommended this book to my... more info
A Great ActionScript 3 Book!:
If you're new to AS 3 and have some kind of OOP (Object Oriented Programming) experience in your past or none at all then this book is right up your alley...an experienced programmer may find this book a little simplistic. Anyway, I've always had a problem understanding programming concepts because I could never apply them to real world applications. All through college while taking JAVA, VB, PL/SQL...etc I always felt like I never truly grasped some of the basic concepts that made up OOP. The way Keith... more info
