Book description
This practical, nuts-and-bolts toolkit puts theory into practice with ready-made answers to common Flash development questions. It's the perfect resource for Flash developers, as well as designers who are ready to start doing development work.
Flash 8 Cookbook offers quick look-up (and cross-referenced) recipes in four main categories:
Creating Flash Content
Building Interactive Flash Interfaces
Adding Multimedia and Data
Planning Flash Projects
Using O'Reilly's popular Problem/Solution/Discussion Cookbook format, this book offers 280 standalone recipes that include a brief explanation of how and why the solution works, so you can adapt it to similar situations you may run across in the future. For people who say, "I understand everything in theory, but I don't know where to start in practice," this book offers ready-to-use answers to real-world problems.
Joey Lott is the author of ActionScript Cookbook (O'Reilly) and co-author of Flash MX 2004 ActionScript Bible (Wiley). He's a leading speaker and consultant in the Flash development community.
Table of contents
-
Flash 8 Cookbook
- Preface
-
1. Drawing in Flash
- 1.1. Drawing Straight Lines
- 1.2. Drawing Curved Lines
- 1.3. Modifying Curves
- 1.4. Selecting a Line
- 1.5. Applying Line Styles
- 1.6. Controlling How Lines Scale
- 1.7. Customizing Line Caps
- 1.8. Customizing Join Styles Between Line Segments
- 1.9. Creating Effects with Strokes
- 1.10. Drawing Primitive Shapes
- 1.11. Drawing Regular Polygons
- 1.12. Drawing Stars
- 1.13. Drawing Other Assorted Shapes
- 1.14. Building Complex Shapes from Simple Shapes
- 1.15. Drawing Complex Lines and Shapes
- 1.16. Repositioning Points on Paths
- 1.17. Freehand Drawing
- 1.18. Smoothing and Straightening Lines
- 1.19. Painting Shapes
- 1.20. Tapered Painting Using a Pressure-Sensitive Graphics Tablet
- 1.21. Selecting a Shape and Changing Its Attributes
- 1.22. Applying a Stroke to a Fill
- 1.23. Applying a Fill to a Closed Path
- 1.24. Filling in Paths with Gaps
- 1.25. Mixing Custom Colors
- 1.26. Saving and Reusing Custom Colors
- 1.27. Applying Preset and Custom Gradients
- 1.28. Applying a Fill Across Multiple Elements
- 1.29. Stretching, Rotating, and Repositioning Fills
- 1.30. Scaling Elements
- 1.31. Distorting and Reshaping Elements
- 1.32. Rotating Elements
- 1.33. Creating Mirror Images
- 1.34. Positioning Elements Precisely
- 1.35. Erasing Content
-
2. Importing and Exporting Artwork
- 2.1. Importing Assets from Fireworks
- 2.2. Importing Content from Freehand MX
- 2.3. Importing Simulated 3D Shapes from Freehand MX
- 2.4. Importing Acrobat PDF Content
- 2.5. Importing Illustrator AI and EPS Content
- 2.6. Exporting Single-Frame Images
- 2.7. Exporting Animated GIF Files
- 2.8. Exporting Image Maps (HTML Images with Clickable Regions)
-
3. Structuring Movies and Laying Out Content
- 3.1. Setting the Background Color
- 3.2. Setting Stage Dimensions
- 3.3. Setting the Frame Rate
- 3.4. Applying New Default Document Settings
- 3.5. Creating Document Templates
- 3.6. Lengthening the Duration of the Movie
- 3.7. Changing Contents on Stage
- 3.8. Managing Content with Layers
- 3.9. Hiding, Locking, and Customizing the Display of Layer Content
- 3.10. Customizing the Display of Layers and Frames
- 3.11. Using Guide Layers
- 3.12. Managing Complex Content with Layer Folders
- 3.13. Laying Out Page Elements Proportionately
- 3.14. Aligning, Distributing, Resizing, and Spacing Elements
- 3.15. Nudging Elements with the Keyboard
- 3.16. Grouping Elements
- 3.17. Reusing Elements: Creating Symbols
-
4. Creating Animation
- 4.1. Animating Changes in Location or Appearance
- 4.2. Animating Along Curved Paths
- 4.3. Applying Acceleration and Deceleration with Easing
- 4.4. Applying Advanced Tweening Effects
- 4.5. Animating Rotation
- 4.6. Looping Animations
- 4.7. Previewing Playback
- 4.8. Viewing Multiple Frames Simultaneously
- 4.9. Editing Many Frames Simultaneously
- 4.10. Morphing Graphics with Shape Tweens
- 4.11. Controlling Morphing
- 4.12. Creating Nested Animations
- 4.13. Copying Animations
- 4.14. Changing a Movie Clip’s Location at Runtime with ActionScript
- 4.15. Animating Runtime Location Changes with ActionScript
-
5. Simulating 3D in Flash
- 5.1. Solutions for Integrating 3D with Flash Projects
- 5.2. Creating 3D Objects
- 5.3. Adding Simple 3D Animation to Flash
- 5.4. Animating a 3D Shape Morph
- 5.5. Vector-Based 3D Graphics
- 5.6. Realistic Raster-Based 3D Graphics
- 5.7. Creating 3D Buttons
- 5.8. Using 3D Models in Flash Not Originally Created in Swift 3D
- 5.9. Creating a 3D Product View from Multiple Angles
- 5.10. Rendering Swift 3D Animations as Flash Video
- 5.11. Adding 3D Graphics Without Leaving Flash
- 6. Composing Images with Bitmaps and Masks
-
7. Working with Text Basics
- 7.1. Adding Static Text to the Stage
- 7.2. Changing the Appearance of Text
- 7.3. Making Text Follow a Curve
- 7.4. Adding Drop Shadows to Text
- 7.5. Changing the Width of Static Text Fields (Without Stretching the Text)
- 7.6. Resizing Text Fields (Stretching the Text)
- 7.7. Setting Margins, Indentation, and Leading
- 7.8. Setting Space Between Characters
- 7.9. Optimizing Static Text for Minimum File Size
- 7.10. Superscripting and Subscripting Characters
- 7.11. Making Text Nonselectable
- 7.12. Creating Text Hyperlinks
- 7.13. Adding an Email Link to Static Text
- 7.14. Opening Browser Windows with Specific Parameters Using Static Text
- 7.15. Calling ActionScript Functions from Static Text
- 7.16. Making Small Fonts Readable
- 7.17. Checking Spelling
-
8. Working with Dynamic Text
- 8.1. Creating Text that You Can Modify at Runtime
- 8.2. Changing Text at Runtime
- 8.3. Accepting User Input
- 8.4. Accepting Password Input
- 8.5. Limiting the Length of User Input
- 8.6. Setting Allowable Characters for Input
- 8.7. Retrieving User Input
- 8.8. Resizing Dynamic or Input Text Fields
- 8.9. Creating Multiline Text
- 8.10. Creating Scrolling Text
- 8.11. Specifying Wrapping of Multiline Fields
- 8.12. Using HTML Tags in Text
- 8.13. Entering International and Nonstandard Characters
- 8.14. Ensuring that Text Displays in the Original Font
- 8.15. Applying CSS
-
9. Adding Interactivity
- 9.1. Creating Buttons from Scratch
- 9.2. Creating Buttons that Animate
- 9.3. Defining the Area that Activates the Button
- 9.4. Creating Hotspots with Invisible Buttons
- 9.5. Making Buttons Respond to Clicks
- 9.6. Making Buttons Respond to Mouse Rollovers
- 9.7. Making Buttons Respond to Dragging and Releasing Off the Instance
- 9.8. Building Menus with Buttons
- 9.9. Using Slider Controls
- 9.10. Using a Dial Control
- 9.11. Creating Custom Cursors
- 9.12. Creating Animated Cursors
- 9.13. Creating Interactive Custom Cursors
- 9.14. Hiding the Hand Cursor
- 9.15. Detecting Keystrokes
-
10. Managing Playback
- 10.1. Pausing a Movie After It Loads
- 10.2. Preventing the Movie from Looping
- 10.3. Dividing the Timeline into Segments
- 10.4. Skipping the Playhead to a Different Frame of the Timeline
- 10.5. Creating a Basic Interface to Control Timeline Playback
- 10.6. Playing the Timeline Backward
- 10.7. Creating Seek Buttons
-
11. Managing Movie Clips
- 11.1. Performing Actions Repeatedly Over Time
- 11.2. Applying Transparency to Movie Clips
- 11.3. Fading Movie Clip Instances In and Out
- 11.4. Adjusting Movie Clip Instance Color
- 11.5. Animating Color Changes
- 11.6. Brightening Movie Clip Instances
- 11.7. Transforming Movie Clips (Rotation, Scaling, and Skewing)
- 11.8. Moving a Movie Clip in Front of or Behind Another Movie Clip (or a Button or Text Field)
- 11.9. Creating New Movie Clips Based on Existing Movie Clips
- 11.10. Generating Unique Depths
- 11.11. Controlling Movie Clip Playback from Different Timelines
- 11.12. Creating Simple Drag-and-Drop Functionality
- 11.13. Constraining Drag-and-Drop Areas
- 11.14. Changing Movie Clip Visibility
- 11.15. Relocating or Moving Movie Clips
- 11.16. Detecting Collisions (or Overlaps) Between Two Movie Clips
- 11.17. Adding Movie Clips at Runtime
-
12. Creating Presentations and Slideshows
- 12.1. Building a Presentation Using the Built-in Template
- 12.2. Building a Presentation Using a Slide Presentation
- 12.3. Adding Back and Forward Buttons to a Slide Presentation
- 12.4. Adding Transitions to Slide Presentations
- 12.5. Building a Presentation Using the Flash 8 Cookbook Components
- 12.6. Adding Buttons to a Presentation Using Flash 8 Cookbook Components
- 12.7. Adding Transition Effects to a Presentation Using the Flash 8 Cookbook Components
- 12.8. Building an Image Slideshow Using a Flash Template
- 12.9. Building an Image Slideshow Using the Flash 8 Cookbook Components
- 12.10. Adding Titles and Captions to a Slideshow Using the Flash 8 Cookbook Components
-
13. Building Flash Forms
- 13.1. Adding a Form Control for Gathering Text Information
- 13.2. Adding a Password Form Control
- 13.3. Adding a Menu Form Control
- 13.4. Adding a Checkbox Form Control
- 13.5. Adding a Radio Button Form Control
- 13.6. Adding a Form Control for Gathering Numeric Input
- 13.7. Adding a Clickable Button
- 13.8. Adding a Button that Can Toggle
- 13.9. Adding a Form Control for Collecting Date Information
- 13.10. Performing Actions When the User Clicks a Button
- 13.11. Retrieving Text Field, Text Input, and Text Area Values
- 13.12. Retrieving Combo Box, Single-Select List, and Numeric Stepper Values
- 13.13. Retrieving Values from Multiselect Lists
- 13.14. Retrieving Values from Checkboxes and Toggle Buttons
- 13.15. Retrieving Values from Radio Button Groups
- 13.16. Retrieving Date Values
- 13.17. Submitting Form Data to the Server
- 13.18. A Feedback Form
- 14. Building Advanced Flash Forms
-
15. Customizing UI Components
- 15.1. Applying Individual Component Styles
- 15.2. Applying Styles to Component Groups
- 15.3. Applying Styles to Component Types
- 15.4. Applying Styles Globally
- 15.5. Working with Color Styles
- 15.6. Working with Font and Text Styles
- 15.7. Working with Border and Background Styles
- 15.8. Working with Button and Scrollbar Styles
- 15.9. Working with List Styles
- 15.10. Working with Combo Box Styles
- 15.11. Working with Radio Button, Checkbox, and Arrow Styles
- 15.12. Using Different Artwork Themes
-
16. Loading Images and Flash Content
- 16.1. Loading External SWF/Image Content
- 16.2. Loading External SWF/JPEG Content into a Draggable Window
- 16.3. Loading External SWF/JPEG Content into a Scroll Pane
- 16.4. Determining Load Progress
- 16.5. Hiding a Progress Bar When Content Has Loaded
- 16.6. Optimizing Download Time by Sharing Content Among Movies
-
17. Working with Sound
- 17.1. Importing Sounds
- 17.2. Updating Imported Sounds (When the Source File Has Been Modified)
- 17.3. Adding a Sound to a Timeline for Playback
- 17.4. Synchronizing Sounds to Animation
- 17.5. Playing a Sound with a Button
- 17.6. Applying Effects to Sounds
- 17.7. Changing the In and Out Points of a Sound
- 17.8. Looping Sounds
- 17.9. Compressing Sounds in Your Movie (Optimizing Quality and File Size)
- 17.10. Starting and Stopping Sounds with Buttons
- 17.11. Stopping All Sounds
- 17.12. Manually Synchronizing Sounds and Visuals
- 18. Working with Video
-
19. Using Data
- 19.1. Loading Variables
- 19.2. Sending Variables
- 19.3. Loading Text
- 19.4. Loading XML Data with Components
- 19.5. Calling Web Service Methods with Components
- 19.6. Calling Flash Remoting Methods with Components
- 19.7. Displaying Data with Components
- 19.8. Formatting Data with Data Binding
- 19.9. Sending Data Using Data Binding
-
20. Building Preloaders
- 20.1. Determining How a Movie Will Download
- 20.2. Building a Simple Preloader
- 20.3. Building a Preloader that Displays Load Percentage
- 20.4. Using a Progress Bar to Create a Graphical Preloader
- 20.5. Creating Preloaders for Files with Exported Symbols
- 20.6. Creating Preloaders for Files with Components
-
21. Publishing Flash
- 21.1. Publishing Flash to the Browser
- 21.2. Making Flash Content that Works with DHTML Menus
- 21.3. Detecting Flash Player Version
- 21.4. Passing Parameters to Flash from HTML
- 21.5. Communicating Between Flash and JavaScript
- 21.6. Integrating Flash with the Browser Back Button
- 21.7. Publishing Projectors
- 21.8. Making Fullscreen Flash Projectors
- 21.9. Printing Flash Content
- 21.10. Hiding the Context Menus
-
22. Deploying Flash on Mobile Devices
- 22.1. Creating a Flash Lite Movie
- 22.2. Using the Mobile Emulator
- 22.3. Finding Supported Devices
- 22.4. Playing a Flash Lite Movie on a Device
- 22.5. User Navigation for Flash Lite
- 22.6. Overriding the Default Active Button State
- 22.7. Applying Custom Labels to the Soft Keys
- 22.8. Responding to the Soft Keys
- 22.9. Accessing External Data
- 22.10. ActionScript for Flash Lite
- 22.11. Using Sound in Flash Lite
- 22.12. The Flash Lite Development Community
- 23. Making Movies Accessible
- Index
- Colophon
Product information
- Title: Flash 8 Cookbook
- Author(s):
- Release date: April 2006
- Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
- ISBN: 9780596102401
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