Book Description
ActionScript is the native scripting language of Flash. ActionScript knowledge is essential within the world of Flash design and development, as Flash remains a leading tool for cutting-edge interactive design and development. ActionScript is what gives Flash its power, but with that power comes a certain level of complexity, which can be intimidating. This beginners book, significantly updated since the last edition, covers all of the basics of ActionScript using the latest version of Flash, Flash 8. The skills acquired by working through this book will enable you to move on to more advanced friends of ED books such as Foundation PHP 5 for Flash, Foundation ActionScript Animation or Foundation XML for Flash. This book contains all you need to understand and make use of ActionScript, and to have some fun while learning. The Foundation series teaching style is ideal if youre a non-programmer who wants to learn Flash programming quickly and thoroughly. The authors teach the basics, and provide you an all-around proficiency in ActionScript, as well as Flash components within Flash 8. Youll gain the practical skills to build ActionScript based Flash projects, including making initial design decisions, structuring code, and testing. An ongoing case study means that by the end of the book, youll have constructed a cutting-edge Flash site to showcase your newly learned skills. Summary of Contents:
- Chapter 1 Interactive Flash
- Chapter 2 Making Plans
- Chapter 3 Movies That Remember
- Chapter 4 Movies That Decide for Themselves
- Chapter 5 More Power, Less Script
- Chapter 6 Movies That Remember How to Do Things
- Chapter 7 Objects and Classes
- Chapter 8 Objects on the Stage
- Chapter 9 Reusable Code and Realistic Movement
- Chapter 10 Games and Sprites
- Chapter 11 Drawing API
- Chapter 12 Adding Sound to Flash
- Chapter 13 Loading Dynamic Data with XML
- Chapter 14 Finishing the Futuremedia Case Study
- Chapter 15 Advanced ActionScript: Components and Classes
Customer Reviews:
A Great ActionScript Book By Designers For Designers.......2007-07-24
This is a great book for the designer interested in getting deeper into Flash through ActionScript 2.0. Primarily centered around web-based projects, with the occasional game project, Sham et al. lead the reader through basic programming fundamentals from a designer perspective. The reader is assumed to be mildly frightened by looking at code, but still interested in learing it. I can sympathize that many designers could be in this boat.
The language of the book is very non-technical and it's presented in a light-hearted manner to ease you into some difficult concepts. The authors do a great job of tricking you into getting excited about programming. So if you're a web designer who has always been impressed by what programmers can do, but were a little uncomfortable trying to just jump in on your own, this is THE book for you.
I have two warnings and one critique.
The first warning is that this is a Flash 8 book - hence ActionScript 2.0. The second warning is that almost all the projects in the book are web-based instead of game-based. Now it's Flash, so it kind of comes with the territory, and there is a full chapter devoted to making a game. However, the perfect book for me would be this exact same book, but centered almost completely around game-based projects. If you're strictly looking for that, this book isn't for you. I don't care as much, and there's still a lot to learn, so I don't regret purchasing the book.
My critique is regarding the book-long project where you make a website that uses ActionScript (the Futuremedia site). It's a case study where you can apply some of what you've learned to a "real" project. My problem with it is that you don't seem to learn a whole lot about ActionScripting by going through it. The authors (or whichever individual wrote the project) seem to be really proud of this project - proud in the sense that they like themselves for it - and you can tell by going throug it. Plus, its more content-oriented. There's much more to learn from everything else, so I'm just skipping the project and skimming over it whenever it's time to work on it a little (which isn't a whole lot anyway).
Overall, it's a great book so far (I'm about 1/3 done) and I'd recommend it to anyone who's new to programming and wants to learn it through ActionScript 2.0. Sham has an awesome ability to explain programming to a designer.
Well structured, No boring Jargon and Everything you need in one book........2007-05-13
I am new to actionscript, have watched a few Total Training dvd's, but they don't really go into indepth actionscript. Unless you buy all the dvd's which are expensive.
This book was great. And has given my mind more of an understanding, especially of the process, of programming.
I'm more a graphic designer, who is getting into web design, so if I can go from first page through to the end in 3 weeks and juggle a screaming 2yr old at the same time.....well then anyone can.( I am a stay at home dad!....by the way)
Good to keep for reference. Buy it.
Excellent Beginner ActionScript Guide.......2007-03-19
I was completely foreign to ActionScript before picking up this book. I had previously read one book on understanding the basic flash interface (i.e. using the drawing/tweening tools), but this was my first crack at ActionScript. Getting through this book was very easy. Each chapter is setup in a way that explains a specific topic, runs you through a few examples using what you just learned, and then continues on with an ongoing website project that you develop throughout the book.
Strengths: Writing is clear and concise, and doesn't feel like a programmer wrote the book. The context is a nice mix of theory and hands on practice to keep you interested while your learning some of the more complex topics. The teaching method looks to provide you with skills that you can apply and expand upon quickly, as opposed to just learning some commands and then throwing you out into the wild. The book projects are very well constructed and explained.
Weaknesses: Some of the later chapters advance quickly. I blew through the first 350 pages, but after that had to significantly slow down to fully understand each topic. I also noticed that one or two of the online downloads are missing files for the book project. These are not neccesary if you are writing everything from scratch (correctly), but it did sometimes get in the way of comparing my solutions to the books.
Overall I have been extremely satisfied with this book, and will most likely buy another Foundation guide.
Great Book for Beginner on up ...........2006-12-06
I am a current animation student in California and Flash is one of the tools we are using. While I have developed some proficiency animating in Flash, the scripting tends to turn my brain to mush after a while.
I picked up Foundation Flash 8 to learn some of the basics and have been using Foundation Actionscript for Flash 8 to gradually explore scripting. I am not a programmer but got through the first few chapters easy enough. The second half of the book is somewhat tougher but but filled with interesting chapters -especially the game chapter (chapter 10).
I haven't quite cleared the hurdle of the later chapters, find them more challenging, but I keep the book on my desk to pick at stuff. It is well written and comprehensive. From my perspective as a non-programming 'art head' I'd say it covers beginner to advanced level topics by the end of the book; that's pretty cool because many books seem to be simple rehashings of the product manuals designed to part you from $40-$50 while giving you no new info.
A diamond amongst coal........2006-12-02
As an old UNIX hack I have read quite a few programming manuals, from the original C (Kerninghan & Richie - when it was new!), to the present. Very few, if any, (including the O'Reilly series), have come close to being so informative, easy to read, and enjoyable as the 'ActionScript for Flash 8' book. I consider myself a poor programmer partly because I never found 'print Hello World!' that interesting. In any event, this book has taken me from rank Actionscript beginner to (dare I say it...) semi-advanced! Basically, cannot recommend it highly enough! For me, I enjoy the graphical nature of Actionscript and I am glad I finally found the right book to take me there. I think beginners and experienced Object-Oriented types will get a lot or something from it. Thanks Friends of ED!
Book Description
Foundation Flash 8 is the book you need if you're looking for a solid foundation in Flash 8 Basic and Flash 8 Professional.
Thousands upon thousands of designers have already learned from its previous editions and it's easy to understand why.
The fourth edition of friends of ED's legendary beginner Flash book, Foundation Flash 8 uses a series of structured exercises and detailed discussions to help you start your exploration of Flash. The detailed tutorial style will ensure that you retain the knowledge you gain and are able to draw upon it throughout your Flash career. Foundation Flash 8 features a running case study that evolves into a fully functional Flash website as you work through the tutorials, so you'll immediately see everything that you learn being used in a practical project.
This book focuses on the core skills that you need to get started working with Flash 8: understanding the interface, becoming familiar with the creative tools and their capabilities, grasping the relationships between the different components that make up a Flash movie, and getting insight into how to put all the pieces together to create your own Flash-based website.
Summary of Contents
- Chapter 1: Flash Movie Essentials
- Chapter 2: The Flash Tools Panel
- Chapter 3: Flash Symbols and Libraries
- Chapter 4: Managing Content
- Chapter 5: Working with Color and Images
- Chapter 6: Motion Tweening
- Chapter 7 Shape Tweening
- Chapter 8: Masks and Masking
- Chapter 9: Advanced Animation, Effects, and Commands
- Chapter 10: Actions and Interactions
- Chapter 11: Intelligent Actions
- Chapter 12: Multimedia: Sound and Video
- Chapter 13: Optimizing
- Chapter 14: Publishing
- Chapter 15: Intermediate ActionScript, Part 1
- Chapter 16: Intermediate ActionScript, Part 2
- Chapter 17: High-Level Site Design
- Chapter 18: Futurescape
Customer Reviews:
Solid foundation for all types of Flash novices.......2006-09-08
"Foundation Flash 8" by Sham Bhangal and Kristian Besley is, overall, an excellent introduction for all new Flash users, be they right-brained artists who think a line is something you draw in a picture or left-brained techies who think a line is something you write in a program.
Right-brained readers will be enthralled by the first half of the book's focuses on Flash's drawing and animating features, with exhaustive treatment of symbols, colors, tweening, and masks. There's even an excellent section on text and text animation. Left-brained readers will drool over the second half of the book, which runs from simple behaviors to intelligent actions to "intermediate" ActionScript. Somewhere in the middle, there is lots of talk about buttons -- and artists will be thrilled with all the things they learn to do to make them look pretty and programmers will be equally thrilled with all the things they learn to do to make them do neat things when pushed.
Of course, if artists didn't learn some ActionScript (or at least some basic Flash behaviors), or if programmers didn't learn animation, then there would be no point to learning Flash. Bhangal and Besley manage, in "Foundation Flash 8," to teach the full range of foundation Flash functionality to the full range of novice Flash users. While programmers might yawn a bit during the first few, graphics-intensive chapters (and, I imagine, while artists' eyes might spin somewhat during the last couple of ActionScript chapters), there's plenty in this book to keep everybody happy. Conveniently, the authors have structured the ongoing case study -- and have provided intermediate project files -- so that skipping sections or chapters is possible.
The authors make no assumptions about the level of knowledge of readers, other than that experienced Flash users are not their target audience. Everything is taught from square one (or, sometimes a bit frustratingly, from square zero). Straightforward and moderately complex topics are explained well throughout, and the more advanced scripting topics are equally well presented. One shortcoming is the less-than-stellar handling of complex, abstract graphics topics, such as advanced gradients and Bézier curves; as the authors put it on page 63, "It's easier to do than to explain!"
Friends of ED publishes what are probably the best design-oriented books in the business, and "Foundation Flash 8" certainly fits their usual high standards. The paper is thick and bright, the typography is pleasant, and the writing style is friendly -- at times bordering on plucky (page 132: "Colors, fills, and gradients are the extra paprika on the already tongue-tingling dish that is Flash"). This particular volume does suffer a bit from its two-column layout, which results in figures -- particularly screenshots -- being a bit too small for comfort, and from its one-color printing, which is not so much a problem in a book on, say, Dreamweaver or PHP but which is a significant disadvantage in a book dealing with a drawing and animation tool. (As the authors themselves acknowledge on page 132, "It's never going to be entirely satisfactory to discuss color in a book printed in black and white...")
Pluckiness and monochromicity notwithstanding, "Foundation Flash 8" does exactly what its name suggests -- it gives the reader a solid foundation in Flash 8 -- and it does it well. The book is comprehensive, accurate, clear, and well organized, and most importantly, it bears the "Friends of ED" cachet and is backed up by the best support in the business: the Friends of ED readers' forum, a lively and helpful online community frequented by authors and other experts always willing to answer question and to help solve problems. "Foundation Flash 8" is a fine choice for anyone eager to get his hands wet with Flash. I strongly recommend this book.
Solid book for beginners.......2006-06-28
I am an animation student at Brooks College and Flash is part of the curriculum. One of the challenges of these intensive courses is that we cover so much material, so fast, that it is hard to get any depth before we are off to the next tool. I looked around the net for tutorials and other resources to supplement class materials and having had previous good experiences with this publisher I picked up Foundation Flash 8 as a beginner book (and ActionScript for Flash 8 as my next step up).
I found this to be a very solid book. The early chapters are, in effect, the manual that didn't come with my Education Version product. All the basics that we zoomed through in class were right there when I needed them and I found myself enhancing my homework assignments by doing what was required, looking up topics when I was stuck and adding extras to the projects that helped me nail an A in the class.
I reviewed many programming books a few years back, and my first impression was that these books felt a bit different. I think some of the complaints one or two have voiced may be related to this. But upon review of the material and test projects I find this book friendly and well laid out. The material covered served both as a ready reference and as a good foundation for more advanced material. It starts at raw beginner and moves into some meatier intermediate stuff that I am still using to get ready for the more advanced ActionScript I am interested in.
About the only complaint I can register is that my personal interests lie more towards producing games and animated cartoons so I would have found an emphasis on that more `fun' - but that isn't a reflection on the book, just my childish nature. ;)
I recommend this book for beginners as a good reference and foundation for more advanced Flash topics.
Overall a Useful Learning Tool.......2006-05-06
This book covers a lot of ground and does so in a detailed and friendly way. It's organized and laid out logically enough, getting you started with the interface, tool types and basic animation, and then working its way through more and more complex topics. The book's working examples are appropriate for each level the book advances through,and the writing style is approachable enough that a wide range of users should find it worth their while.
I gave this book four stars and not five because it wasn't proofed well in some areas. For example, the chapter on Flash video notes incorrectly, that Mac users -even prior to the days of OS X- could download a free version of iMovie to start making movie content. The actual situation is that iMovie has only been available since OS X arrived, and only to those who have purchased a new Mac with a super-drive, or purchased the iLife suite. It is not and has never been available as a free download.
Another flaw this book has is that many of the screenshots are scaled down so much, that you cannot read the dialog text without squinting or looking very closely. (I don't wear glasses btw : ) Not all the screenshots suffer from this problem, but enough do to make it frustrating at points. A better idea for the next edition is cropping out the empty space or unimportant parts of a given dialog box, rather than scaling the whole dialog box -even the parts with important text- down.
Overall still a good book, and worth owning if you only have time or resources for one Flash Book. I prefer this book's learning style to that of the Lynda.com type books, which seeminly are all made from the same cookie cutter. When an author becomes and industry unto themselves, look out. : )
A Pretty Good Book.......2006-01-31
Being a novice designer, I learn most effectively when I have experts telling me the ins and outs of how things work in a program, explaining the logic behind a certain sequence of actions, and sharing the tips and tricks from their wealth of experiences using the program. And this is how I exactly felt embarking on the exciting exploration of the Flash world using the Foundation Flash 8 book by Sham Bhangal and Kristian Besley.
The book covers Flash 8 from its basic tools and techniques in dealing with shapes, text, colors and animations to the more advanced action/interactions and ActionScript. Rather than just prescribing step by step procedures to use the many tools and functions in Flash 8, the authors reveal what is behind the scene - from simply how terms such as "Tweening", "Onion Skins" and "Masking" came about to the underlying mechanisms of ActionScript. In addition, I found also most useful the many "rules of thumb" of using Flash that the authors share throughout the book.
The book proved to be very helpful for me as a novice Flash user to gain some solid foundational skills and a well-formed beginning understanding of how things work in Flash. The authors achieved this through their well-written explanations and illustrations, plus hands-on practices for the users, which consist of numerous mini exercises in each chapter of the book and a larger project that the users continuously build on throughout the chapters. The final few chapters also provide some nice additions including how Flash works with the Internet, principles of good design, and so on. These help put learning Flash in context and making it fit nicely in the large picture of Web design.
In the end, the five hundred plus pages of the book were fairly easy to go through, (also thanks to the light humors intermittently found in the writing). I felt more confident working with the powerful program, and I just cannot wait to roll up the sleeves and get started with some real work using Flash!
Solid Beginner to Intermediate Book.......2006-01-18
I just finishing reading Foundation Flash 8, co-authored by Sham Bhangal and Kristian Besley. The technical reviewer was Todd Yard, a role that he has played in 11 other Friends of ED books. I was checking out Todd's company website, and was very impressed. He works for Jeremy Allaire, former CTO of Macromedia. You might recognize him as the creator of the product that made Dreamweaver so great - Allaire Homesite. I digress, back to the book review.
First of all, let me specify who this book is for: Those looking to get a handle on Flash, starting from square one. One fellow gave it a really harsh review, probably expecting it to be something along the lines of Flash 8 Essentials. That being said, Foundation Flash 8 is a very good book in its own right. Sure, the first few chapters are elementary, but considering that this text is supposed to take you from beginner to intermediate in your skill-level, it's right on target. It takes you step by step through each part of the interface, and then builds from there. By the end, you're making simple video games.
Even seasoned veterans could benefit from reading through the introductory chapters, because of some of the significant changes to the way Flash works. For instance, object drawing used to cut out shapes that overlapped each other, which was an annoyance those who were used to a different graphics program.
This was always confusing to me, being a big fan of Macromedia Adobe Fireworks, the interface of which looks very similar to Flash. Now that this has been tweaked, the two cousin programs behave more similarly. This book does a good job of pointing out things like this, that while simple, could possibly prove confusing for those already used to the previous behavior. You could say that before, Flash was in "quirks" mode, and now it's more streamlined.
One of my favorite section of the book was chapter 12, which covers sound and video optimization. Flash 8 goes leaps and bounds beyond where its MX 2004 predecessor had been. I like that fact that the authors emphasize that you should tweak, listen to, and watch your projects as you work on them. While Flash has some heavy-duty compression by default, you would do well to choose specific settings for each media file you use, as this will help you get the best sound / picture clarity, while keeping your file size as low as possible. As is the case with most things in digital / physical art, practice makes perfect.
Another thing I appreciate about this book is its emphasis on learning real code. Some of the Flash books I've read in the past tend to gloss over this as too difficult for newer users. This may be true, but it does them a disservice not to teach it. Thankfully, these guys encourage the reader to delve in further, and draw the line between beginner or expert at the point of ActionScript...
"You can use a drag-and-drop behavior. It's fast and efficient, but at the expense of reducing your understanding of the problem, and it offers a solution that addresses problems that may not be part of your particular task. It's also a 'one size fits all' solution - and how many times have you bought a one-size-fits all shirt and thought 'Mmm, fits perfectly, almost as if it was tailor-made for me?' Me neither." - Page 302
The above quote pretty much sums up the jist of all web-based design. I can't tell you how many times I've got an email or been asked in person, even by experienced visual designers: "What program do you use to make your CSS websites?" What they mean is: How can I point-and-click my way through it? The short answer is: You can't, not of you intend on learning anything. Most people are disappointed to find out I use Araneae for all of my hand-coding.
Likewise, if you want to really harness the power of dynamic animations in Flash, you need to get comfortable with ActionScript. For those of you who are familiar with JavaScript already, it shouldn't be too hard to pick up because AS syntax is modeled after JS. If you're new to both, fear not, because Flash comes in with a built-in code assistant, similar to that in Dreamweaver.
The authors start out the ActionScript chapters using the code assistant, and then gradually steer the reader towards typing out code by hand. You could think of it this way: at the beginning of the book, you're riding a tricycle, but by the end you're handling a Harley Davidson.
My advice is this: as you're reading this book, take it all with a small grain of salt. They tend to hail Flash as the final point in web evolution, and sort of treat HTML as a necessary step for embedding your SWF file. I would swing the pendelum back towards the center, treating Flash as part of a wholistic solution to the web, using the most logical solutions where appropriate. Sometimes we over-complicate things, and lose the beauty of simplicity. As long as you maintain a larger perspective, you will learn much from this book.
Book Description
In this book you'll learn:
- The basics of video editing using Movie Maker 2, iMovie, and more
- How to import your video into Flash
- How to work with Flash Video components
- Several of the new features of Flash 8, including alpha channels, filters, and blends How to master several amazing video effects, such as green screen superimposing, video walls, getting your users into the thick of the action with webcams, and much more!
Do you want to master Flash video work, and work your way toward creating awesome, mind-blowing, interactive web applications? Well, don't go any furtherthis full color book is all you need to step into the future. When Flash Professional 8 was released, it seemed as if we'd embarked on a web video revolution almost overnight. Up until then, web video was a morass of competing players, technologies, standards, codecs, and playback quality. The inclusion of the On2 VP6 codec, the FLV Playback component, alpha channel video, and the Flash 8 Video Encoder has ended the infancy of web video, creating an instant benchmark with no stops in between. And this book is the ultimate guide to Flash 8 videoit offers practical advice, technical guidance, and a full series of creative projects ranging from the dead simple to the complex in a manner that talks to you as an equal and makes only one assumption: basic familiarity with the Flash interface. We start with the basicshow to edit video in some of the most popular packages available (such as iMovie and Movie Maker 2) and create a Flash video file and import it into Flash. Next, we move on to the good stuffcreating a custom video player; creating an alpha channel video and using it in some spectacular projects; turning your creativity loose by applying filters and blend effects to video using the Flash interface and ActionScript; creating video walls, menus, and stunning masking effects; and exploring how Adobe After Effects 7 and Flash Professional 8 are poised to become a motion graphics powerhouse. Best of all, you will discover something the authors had discovered by the time they started writing this book...this stuff is fun! Summary of Contents:
- Creating FLVs using the Video Wizard and the Flash 8 FLV Encoder
- The Basics of Video Creation
- Alternate FLV Creation tools: Sorenson Squeeze 4 and Flix Pro 5
- Creating Flash Video using the FLV Components
- Creating a "Talking head" video using Alpha Channels
- Adding Filters and Blend Effects to Flash Video
- Masking Video
- Creating a Video Wall
- Choosing and Playing Multiple Videos
- Using the Camera Object to Involve the Audience
- Actionscript and Flash Video
- Video Delivery to Cell Phones
Customer Reviews:
Huge Disappointment.......2007-06-27
I bought this book being a big fan of the Friends of Ed series and expecting that an entire book on just Flash Video would cover all I need to know and then some. Wow, was I wrong. There is hardly anything to be learned here.
I'd be willing to bet you'll learn a lot more from a video chapter in a general Flash book like Flash Bible than you will from this.
As an example, one thing I wanted to do is display a video's current and remaining time (like YouTube does). None of the current FLV skins support this, only the Media Player component which you can't customize. This is not covered anywhere in the book. Maybe its just me but I think that is a HUGE omission. The chapter on customizing your skins is short and elementary...nothing new to learn. And that was the main reason I bought the book. I emailed the author about the time thing, and got back a link of an FLV showing only the current seconds in decimal form. Much like the book, no effort was put into this.
Luckily in an online forum someone was good enough to post their code on how to link up text boxes with the current and total playing time of an FLV, in conventional time format. Honestly I learned more from those 3 small blocks of code than I did from this entire book.
Steer clear and save your money for an ActionScript book. You won't learn anything from this book.
A Solid Foundation.......2007-04-19
This is a well-written and enjoyable immersion into the nuts and bolts of creating and publishing video on the web using Flash 8. Aimed squarely at those beginning to work with Flash Video, the book is quite thorough for that audience. Most importantly, it covers all the essential principles one needs. From data rates for encoding videos to alpha channel effects to using the BitMapData and other classes, this book will set you up to launch that internet tv channel you've been thinking about.
However, if you're looking for the mind-bendingly master kung-fu video tricks that break existing rules of reality, I'm afraid you'll have to look further. Or write it yourself!
I like the clear organization and simple instructions the writers give. The book serves as a handy reference for those just starting to use video and other related objects in Flash. The code is broken down and explained for the reader and one can use these building blocks in combinations to stunning effect. Especially helpful is the section on playing multiple videos.
The writers make the whole thing fun and light. Hell, we're all playing around figuring out what we can do with these toys. I'd like more heavy, serious passages as well, though. Still, worth the cover preice, though.
A Good Place To Start.......2007-04-17
Title: Foundation Flash 8 Video
Author: Green & Chilcott
Publisher: Apress/FriendsofEd
Begins with an overview of video file formats with brief descriptions of each. The various steps involved in creating an FLV file are covered using the Video Wizard and the Flash 8 Video Encoder. Ample screenshots with settings selected are provided, as are descriptions of all the menu options, etc. Basic video editing is described using readily available programs like MovieMaker and iMovie. Alternative FLV creation tools such as Sorenson Squeeze and ON2Flix are covered also, with start-to-finish examples provided for both. FLV components as well as the video object are introduced also.
Alpha channels and keying are described with various tutorials using Premiere Pro, After Effects, and FinalCut Pro. Using a single clip, users learn how to remove background from video with these applications. The keying plugins used in the Adobe program tutorials are specific to the Creative Suite Production Bundle. Users of the standalone versions of these programs will be able to achieve the same results using other included plugins.
Filters, blend effects, and masking provide an insight into the creative potential of Flash video. One compositing tutorial I found particularly useful used a single FLV file to demonstrate the different effects possible using drop shadows. Others use Illustrator shapes to create masks, and ActionScript code samples enable the manipulation of mask color as well as creating motion. Other useful topics with their own chapters include creating video walls and choosing and playing multiple videos. Bandwidth issues and their importance are stressed several times here.
Streaming video using the camera object is described in detail, as well as creating a video box and flipping video. The creative possiblities seem endless. If you have a webcam installed, you can see yourself on multiple billboards in Times Square using the Chapter 10 tutorials. The last two chapters get further into ActionScript and motion graphics using After Effects.
The book itself provides a solid introduction to Flash video, and demonstrates the many ways Flash now increasingly interacts with other programs. The tutorials are straight-forward and practical, and keep the reader interested. Like other FriendsofEd books, all the source files are
This is the fun stuff!!.......2007-04-04
Foundation Flash 8 Video
by Tom Green and Jordan Chilcott
Publisher: Friends of Ed
Copyright: 2006
ISBN:-13(pkb): 978-1-59059-651-7
If you need some inspiration, this is a good book to read. It starts out basic and gets becomes advanced.
It explains the whole video process from scratch. One part that I liked was the description of buffering. The book explains that the key to successful playback is the data rate and storing enough packets before the video starts.
This author has fun with video. He is always showing you the amazing things you can do with a very small amount of code. He starts with showing you what the components can do and then ramps up with a very simple code sample that is required
to connect a video object to a web server.
Next Tom and Jordan go into Alpha Channels. They show you how to make a video clip with a green screen mask, attach it to a video object and add a drop shadow. Other exciting topics are: trim a video and use it like an ad banner, play video on video, adding cue points to trigger Flash events, and having someone walk across your web page in a browser. You can do amazing things like having a talking head discuss car models and adding a race car in another video zooming by in the background.
Filters are discussed and how they are added to a video embedded in a movie clip. He warns you that adding filters can be processor intensive.
Some of the things you learn are: moving your mouse across a video and creating trail of blur as you go. Also projecting a video onto an underlying image
with a screen blend mode.
Masking videos is discussed. You can create a mask in Illustrator, drag it into Flash and make it a mask layer. In Illustrator you would apply the roughen filter to 0.5 and the chalk scribble brush stroke. This would be placed as another copy above the mask to enable the details of the artwork to show.
Tom and Jordan show you how to fill Times Square with your own videos by removing the ads, and making masks for your own video feeds.
There is quite a lot of information about building a video wall. He explains getting the Flash Media Server 2 for no charge.
One of the crucial things about working with video the authors say is "Watching the pipe". This means always considering how much bandwidth you are using.
This book is not a complete resource on the Flash Media Server 2 or After Effects but, it touches on them just enough to get you interested.
The authors even leave you with a bit of information on video cameras and how to hook them up with just 2 lines of code. I enjoyed the fun approach in this book and its simplification of a complex topic.
Great Start for Video.......2007-03-01
Highly recommended this book informs you about key points in Flash Video from Date Rate to frame rate it also shows some of the more sought after function. It will help anyone new to Flash video get up to speed then move on the the next book Poetry in motion for more advanced techniques
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Books Index
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Foundation ActionScript Animation: Making Things Move! (Foundation)
Foundation Flash 8 (Foundation)
Object-Oriented ActionScript For Flash 8
Macromedia Flash 8 @work: Projects and Techniques to Get the Job Done (@Work)
Flash 8 ActionScript Bible
Workflow in the 2007 Microsoft Office System
Pro C# with .NET 3.0, Special Edition (Pro)
Microsoft SharePoint: Building Office 2007 Solutions in C# 2005 (Expert's Voice in Sharepoint)
