Flash

Take Flash to the next dimension by creating detailed, animated, and interactive 3D worlds with Away3D

• Create stunning 3D environments with highly detailed textures
• Animate and transform all types of 3D objects, including 3D Text
• Eliminate the need for expensive hardware with proven Away3D optimization techniques, without compromising on visual appeal
• Written in a practical and illustrative style, which will appeal to Away3D beginners and Flash developers alike

In Detail

Away3D is one of the most popular real-time 3D engines for Flash. Besides creating various detailed 3D environments you can also create animated 3D scenes, use various special effects, integrate third-party libraries, and much more. The possibilities of using this engine are endless. But will you be able take full advantage of all these features and make a 3D application that is picture perfect?.

This is the best book for guiding you through Away3D, and the possibilities it opens up for the Flash platform. You'll be able to create basic 3D objects, display lifelike animated characters, construct complex 3D scenes in stunning detail, and much more with this practical hands-on guide.

Starting with the very basics, this book will walk you through creating your first Away3D application, and then move on to describe and demonstrate the many features that are available within Away3D such as lighting, shading, animation, 3D text, model loading and more. With the help of this comprehensive guide to all the information you ever needed to use Away3D, you'll find yourself creating incredibly detailed 3D environments in no time.

You begin with an overview of downloading the Away3D source code and configuring various authoring tools like Flex Builder, Flash Builder, FlashDevelop, and Flash CS4. Next you ease your way through creating your first primitive 3D object from scratch, then move on to creating stunning 3D environments with incredibly detailed textures and animations. You will make applications react to mouse events, with the click of a mouse - literally, learn ways to focus your camera and perfect your creation by viewing it from all angles, and take your Away3D application to the next level by overcoming the limitations in default Away3D algorithms. You will also learn optimization techniques to obtain the best performance from Away3D, without compromising on visual appeal.

Create stunning real-world 3D Flash applications, right from displaying your first sphere to creating entire 3D cities, with plenty of tips to help you avoid common pitfalls.

What you will learn from this book

• Draw primitive shapes such as cubes, cones, spheres, and planes without having to manually construct them from their basic elements
• Add eye-catching special effects to your Away3D application
• Warp, curve, modify, and bend 3D text to your will
• Focus the Camera and view 3D objects from all angles
• Improve mouse interactivity in your 3D application
• Integrate third-party libraries such as TweenLite and Stardust with Away3D to animate 3D objects and create particle effects
• Use sprites and sprite classes
• Utilize the power of Pixel Bender for image processing
• Export 3D models from 3D modeling applications such as 3ds Max, Blender, MilkShape, and Sketch-Up
• Get practical tips on achieving maximum performance in your 3D applications

Approach

Away3D is an impressive technology, and this book is focused on showing you how to create practical and fun 3D Flash applications with plenty of step-by-step examples, tips to help you avoid common mistakes, plain English explanations of the concepts and techniques used by Away3D, and honest advice to help you understand some of the inconsistencies in the Away3D code base.

Who this book is written for

This book is meant for beginners as well as experienced Flash developers who are looking to create 3D applications in Flash using the Away3D engine. Whether you are using Away3D for the first time or are a seasoned developer, this book will provide you with a solid foundation in taking Flash to the next dimension. It can also be used as a reference guide by Flash developers who are already familiar with Away3D.

Professional Flash Mobile Development: Creating Android and iPhone Applications

Everything Flash developers need to know to create native Android and iPhone apps

This Wrox guide shows Flash developers how to create native applications for Android and iPhone mobile devices using Flash. Packed with practical examples, it shows how to build a variety of apps and integrate them with core mobile services such as Accelerometer, GPS, Photo Library,and more.

• Offers Flash developers the tools to create apps for the Android and iPhone mobile devices
• Shows how to design a user interface optimized for Android and iOS and offers plenty of examples for building native Android and iPhone apps with Flash, migrating existing Flash media, testing and debugging applications, and more
• Helps you understand ways to work with files on Android and iOS

Professional Flash Mobile Development: Creating Android and iPhone Applications answers the demand for Flash-capable Android and iPhone apps.

InDesign CS5 opens the door to a new world: with the addition of exciting animation tools and deeper multimedia support. It's now a viable interactive authoring tool. Designers want to create engaging interactive content, but may resist making the transition from page layout to timeline-based thinking. But now it's much easier: InDesign CS5's new interactive features are intuitive and easy to learn. And once they've mastered those tools in the familiar world of InDesign, they'll find that Flash isn't scary after all. Designers already know how to add text, graphics, and geometric shapes to a page in InDesign, it's a short walk to adding interactive features. Before they know it, they're creating Flash content.

Build social Flash applications fully integrated with the Facebook Graph API

• Build your own interactive applications and games that integrate with Facebook
• Add social features to your AS3 projects without having to build a new social network from scratch
• Learn how to retrieve information from Facebook's database
• A hands-on guide with step-by-step instructions and clear explanation that encourages experimentation and play

In Detail

The Facebook platform provides you with an ideal solution for building rich, social experiences on the web to develop an effective user experience application. Combined with Flash which effectively enables social interactions, you can create a fully functional application on Facebook. If you've been waiting to get started with your own applications and games on Facebook, with this book you don't have to wait any longer.

This book takes you through everything you need to know to integrate your AS3 apps and games with Facebook accompanied by illustrative screenshots and short quizzes.It presents you with in depth coverage of the key underlying concepts such as creating a basic application that runs inside Facebook and exploring the Graph API which greatly simplifies how developers can retrieve data. This book also covers topics on security, permissions and authentication features on Facebook.

This beginner's guide starts off by teaching you about retrieving simple public data and then rapidly working your way up to authenticating users, building powerful searches across the entire database, and uploading photos and other content.

Throughout the book, you'll learn by building two fundamental components: an RIA Facebook interface and an AS3 SDK that you can drop into any project to add Facebook integration. This easy-to-understand guide has everything written as AS3-only projects with publicly available components, so you can follow along whether you use Flash Pro, Flex, or MXMLC - as long as you know AS3!

This hands-on tutorial will present you with a whole new perspective of the three core aspects of Facebook - searching, retrieving, and updating the data .This practical book focuses on how to set up an application on Facebook and how to deal with different contexts like AIR.

By the end of this book, you will be confident enough to set up your own application and create social interactions for users to share on Facebook.

Everything you need to know from integrating applications and games to searching, retrieving, and updating data on Facebook

What you will learn from this book

• Make your AS3 projects more social and personalise them for your users by adding Facebook integration
• Grab information directly from Facebook into your applications by using Facebook's Graph API
• Securely authenticate your users with OAuth 2.0 to log them into Facebook
• Access information about your users and their friends directly from Facebook - no need to make them type it all in again
• Upload photographs, add wall posts, and create events through AS3
• Search on Facebook's databases with the powerful Facebook Query Language
• Build an AS3 Facebook SDK that you can drop into any AS3 project to add Facebook integration
• Easily access both public and private Facebook data from the surface of a graph
• Learn with exercises and fun examples illustrated with diagrams and screenshots

Approach

This step-by-step book gives you an empty shell of an AS3 Facebook RIA, and guides you through writing the Facebook interaction code by means of fun examples, exercises, and code snippets.This beginner's guide focuses on getting you through all the major learning points in a smooth, logical order. You'll also see how to avoid some common pitfalls.

Who this book is written for

If you are an AS3 developer who wants to create applications and games that integrate with Facebook - either on the Facebook website itself or off it, then this book is for you. Even if you have no previous experience with Facebook, databases, or server-side programming , you can count on this book.

We've all sneaked the odd five minutes here or there playing the latest Flash game that someone sent round the office, but creating those games is trickier than it looks. The aim of Foundation Game Design with Flash is to take you, even if you've minimal multimedia or programming experience, through a series of step-by-step examples and detailed case studies to the point where you'll have the skills to independently design any conceivable 2D game using Flash and ActionScript. The book is a non-technical one-stop-shop for all the most important skills and techniques a beginner game designer needs to build games with Flash from scratch. Whether you're creating quick blasts of viral amusement, or more in-depth action or adventure titles, this book is for you.

• Focused and friendly introduction to designing games with Flash and ActionScript
• 5 detailed case studies of Flash games
• Essential techniques for building games, with each chapter gently building on the skills of preceding chapters

What you'll learn

• Learn how to build interactive movies and objects with Flash
• Get a thorough grounding in ActionScript 3.0 and good programming practices, with minimal prior programming experience required
• Discover how to build Interactive Storybooks, Space-Shooter, Adventure and Drag and Drop games.
• Master collision detection, Enemy AI systems, player control, managing game data, basic physics and trigonometry.
• Make use of Design Patterns and Object Oriented Programming techniques to build robust games.
• Understand the strategies for making games fun to play and easy to build.

Who is this book for?

This book is for a non-technical creative person who wants to learn the art of videogame design, but has no idea where to start or where to look for help. It is a lucid, friendly and step-by-step guide though all the technical and creative issues involved in game design with Flash and ActionScript. The book treats the art of programming as a creative artistic tool, and will help anyone who may be afraid of programming to love the subject as much as the author does. The techniques in the book are comprehensive enough to form the basis of career as a game designer, and form a solid foundation for continued study of programming and ActionScript. This book is the missing link that will guide and inspire any curious and creative person turn a good game idea into a reality.

We've all sneaked the odd five minutes here or there playing the latest Flash game that someone sent round the office, but creating those games is trickier than it looks. The aim of Foundation Game Design with Flash is to take you, even if you've minimal multimedia or programming experience, through a series of step-by-step examples and detailed case studies to the point where you'll have the skills to independently design any conceivable 2D game using Flash and ActionScript. The book is a non-technical one-stop-shop for all the most important skills and techniques a beginner game designer needs to build games with Flash from scratch. Whether you're creating quick blasts of viral amusement, or more in-depth action or adventure titles, this book is for you.

• Focused and friendly introduction to designing games with Flash and ActionScript
• 5 detailed case studies of Flash games
• Essential techniques for building games, with each chapter gently building on the skills of preceding chapters

What you'll learn

• Learn how to build interactive movies and objects with Flash
• Get a thorough grounding in ActionScript 3.0 and good programming practices, with minimal prior programming experience required
• Discover how to build Interactive Storybooks, Space-Shooter, Adventure and Drag and Drop games.
• Master collision detection, Enemy AI systems, player control, managing game data, basic physics and trigonometry.
• Make use of Design Patterns and Object Oriented Programming techniques to build robust games.
• Understand the strategies for making games fun to play and easy to build.

Who is this book for?

This book is for a non-technical creative person who wants to learn the art of videogame design, but has no idea where to start or where to look for help. It is a lucid, friendly and step-by-step guide though all the technical and creative issues involved in game design with Flash and ActionScript. The book treats the art of programming as a creative artistic tool, and will help anyone who may be afraid of programming to love the subject as much as the author does. The techniques in the book are comprehensive enough to form the basis of career as a game designer, and form a solid foundation for continued study of programming and ActionScript. This book is the missing link that will guide and inspire any curious and creative person turn a good game idea into a reality.

Build social Flash applications fully integrated with the Facebook Graph API

• Build your own interactive applications and games that integrate with Facebook
• Add social features to your AS3 projects without having to build a new social network from scratch
• Learn how to retrieve information from Facebook's database
• A hands-on guide with step-by-step instructions and clear explanation that encourages experimentation and play

In Detail

The Facebook platform provides you with an ideal solution for building rich, social experiences on the web to develop an effective user experience application. Combined with Flash which effectively enables social interactions, you can create a fully functional application on Facebook. If you've been waiting to get started with your own applications and games on Facebook, with this book you don't have to wait any longer.

This book takes you through everything you need to know to integrate your AS3 apps and games with Facebook accompanied by illustrative screenshots and short quizzes.It presents you with in depth coverage of the key underlying concepts such as creating a basic application that runs inside Facebook and exploring the Graph API which greatly simplifies how developers can retrieve data. This book also covers topics on security, permissions and authentication features on Facebook.

This beginner's guide starts off by teaching you about retrieving simple public data and then rapidly working your way up to authenticating users, building powerful searches across the entire database, and uploading photos and other content.

Throughout the book, you'll learn by building two fundamental components: an RIA Facebook interface and an AS3 SDK that you can drop into any project to add Facebook integration. This easy-to-understand guide has everything written as AS3-only projects with publicly available components, so you can follow along whether you use Flash Pro, Flex, or MXMLC - as long as you know AS3!

This hands-on tutorial will present you with a whole new perspective of the three core aspects of Facebook - searching, retrieving, and updating the data .This practical book focuses on how to set up an application on Facebook and how to deal with different contexts like AIR.

By the end of this book, you will be confident enough to set up your own application and create social interactions for users to share on Facebook.

Everything you need to know from integrating applications and games to searching, retrieving, and updating data on Facebook

What you will learn from this book

• Make your AS3 projects more social and personalise them for your users by adding Facebook integration
• Grab information directly from Facebook into your applications by using Facebook's Graph API
• Securely authenticate your users with OAuth 2.0 to log them into Facebook
• Access information about your users and their friends directly from Facebook - no need to make them type it all in again
• Upload photographs, add wall posts, and create events through AS3
• Search on Facebook's databases with the powerful Facebook Query Language
• Build an AS3 Facebook SDK that you can drop into any AS3 project to add Facebook integration
• Easily access both public and private Facebook data from the surface of a graph
• Learn with exercises and fun examples illustrated with diagrams and screenshots

Approach

This step-by-step book gives you an empty shell of an AS3 Facebook RIA, and guides you through writing the Facebook interaction code by means of fun examples, exercises, and code snippets.This beginner's guide focuses on getting you through all the major learning points in a smooth, logical order. You'll also see how to avoid some common pitfalls.

Who this book is written for

If you are an AS3 developer who wants to create applications and games that integrate with Facebook - either on the Facebook website itself or off it, then this book is for you. Even if you have no previous experience with Facebook, databases, or server-side programming , you can count on this book.

InDesign CS5 opens the door to a new world: with the addition of exciting animation tools and deeper multimedia support. It's now a viable interactive authoring tool. Designers want to create engaging interactive content, but may resist making the transition from page layout to timeline-based thinking. But now it's much easier: InDesign CS5's new interactive features are intuitive and easy to learn. And once they've mastered those tools in the familiar world of InDesign, they'll find that Flash isn't scary after all. Designers already know how to add text, graphics, and geometric shapes to a page in InDesign, it's a short walk to adding interactive features. Before they know it, they're creating Flash content.

Professional Flash Mobile Development: Creating Android and iPhone Applications

Everything Flash developers need to know to create native Android and iPhone apps

This Wrox guide shows Flash developers how to create native applications for Android and iPhone mobile devices using Flash. Packed with practical examples, it shows how to build a variety of apps and integrate them with core mobile services such as Accelerometer, GPS, Photo Library,and more.

• Offers Flash developers the tools to create apps for the Android and iPhone mobile devices
• Shows how to design a user interface optimized for Android and iOS and offers plenty of examples for building native Android and iPhone apps with Flash, migrating existing Flash media, testing and debugging applications, and more
• Helps you understand ways to work with files on Android and iOS

Professional Flash Mobile Development: Creating Android and iPhone Applications answers the demand for Flash-capable Android and iPhone apps.