AdvancED ActionScript 3.0 Animation

AdvancED ActionScript 3.0 Animation

Released December 2008
Publisher(s): friends of ED
ISBN: 9781430216087

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Book description

This book is a compilation of advanced ActionScript 3.0 animation techniques for any user creating games, user interaction, or motion control with ActionScript. It's an anthology of topics that follow from the author's earlier book, Foundation ActionScript 3.0 Animation: Making Things Move, and things that became possible in version 10 of Flash Player. This book covers a diverse selection of topics that don't necessarily lead one into the other. You don't need to start with Chapter 1 and read it cover to cover. Just start with any chapter that looks interesting and jump around as you see fit. In this book, you'll find chapters on advanced collision detection, artificial intelligence and steering behaviors, isometric projection, using the camera and microphone for input, 3D, and much, much more.

AdvancED ActionScript 3.0 Animation is also more experimental in nature. The techniques shown here might not be the best way to do things, but they should work well and get you started in your own efforts to achieve a perfect implementation. In fact, many of the chapters can be seen as introductions to very complex topics that could fill a whole book by themselves. Many of these subjects have been extensively covered elsewhere, but not necessarily targeted for Flash or ActionScript 3.0. So it took a fair amount of work to pull the data together and get it all working and explain it all clearly in ActionScript. This book will inspire you to find out about subjects that you might not have considered before, acting as a springboard into your own research into the possibilities of ActionScript 3.0.

Table of contents

  1. Title Page
  2. Dedication
  3. CONTENTS AT A GLANCE
  4. CONTENTS
  5. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  6. ABOUT THE TECHNICAL REVIEWER
  7. ABOUT THE COVER IMAGE DESIGNER
  8. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
    1. Layout conventions
  9. Chapter 1: ADVANCED COLLISION DETECTION
    1. Hit Testing Irregularly Shaped Objects
    2. Hit Testing with a Large Number of Objects
    3. Summary
  10. Chapter 2: STEERING BEHAVIORS
    1. Behaviors
    2. Vector2D Class
    3. Vehicle Class
    4. SteeredVehicle Class
    5. Flocking
    6. Summary
  11. Chapter 3: ISOMETRIC PROJECTION
    1. Isometric versus Dimetric
    2. Creating Isometric Graphics
    3. Isometric Transformations
    4. Isometric Objects
    5. Depth Sorting
    6. Isometric World Class
    7. Moving in 3D
    8. Collision Detection
    9. Using External Graphics
    10. Isometric Tile Maps
    11. Summary
  12. Chapter 4: PATHFINDING
    1. Pathfinding Basics
    2. A* (A-Star)
    3. Implementing the AStar Class
    4. Using AStar in a Game
    5. Advanced Terrain
    6. Summary
  13. Chapter 5: ALTERNATE INPUT: THE CAMERA AND MICROPHONE
    1. Cameras and Microphones
    2. Sound as Input
    3. Video as Input
    4. Summary
  14. Chapter 6: ADVANCED PHYSICS: NUMERICAL INTEGRATION
    1. Numerical Integration and Why Euler Is "Bad"
    2. Runge-Kutta Integration
    3. Verlet Integration
    4. Summary
  15. Chapter 7: 3D IN FLASH 10
    1. Flash 10 3D Basics
    2. 3D Positioning
    3. 3D Rotation
    4. Field of View and Focal Length
    5. Screen and 3D Coordinates
    6. Pointing at Something
    7. Summary
  16. Chapter 8: FLASH 10 DRAWING API
    1. Paths
    2. Triangles
    3. Graphics Data
    4. Summary
  17. Chapter 9: PIXEL BENDER
    1. What Is Pixel Bender?
    2. Writing a Pixel Shader
    3. Data Types
    4. Getting the Current Pixel Coordinates
    5. Parameters
    6. Sampling the Input Image
    7. Twirl Shader for Flash
    8. Using Pixel Bender Shaders in Flash
    9. Using a Shader as a Filter
    10. Using a Shader as a Blend Mode
    11. Summary
  18. Chapter 10: TWEEN ENGINES
    1. The Flash Tween Class
    2. Flex Tween Class
    3. Tween Engines
    4. Tweener
    5. TweenLite/TweenGroup
    6. KitchenSync
    7. gTween
    8. Summary
  19. INDEX

Product information

  • Title: AdvancED ActionScript 3.0 Animation
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: December 2008
  • Publisher(s): friends of ED
  • ISBN: 9781430216087