How to Cheat in Adobe Flash CS4

How to Cheat in Adobe Flash CS4

by Chris Georgenes
Released August 2013
Publisher(s): Focal Press
ISBN: 9781136137891

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Book description

Need to solve problems quickly to develop creative projects to time and to budget? Want to hone your Flash skills so you can concentrate on your animation? Then How to Cheat in Flash is for you! Chris Georgenes shows how to work from the problem to the solution - from the viewpoint of an animator who has been commissioned to create a job and is working to a deadline. With his in-depth knowledge of the little-known secrets used by the pros to produce creative, professional animations, Chris is THE go-to guru for designers and animators who want to create great animation, applications or motion design with Flash.  This accessible, practical book and CD package is such a goldmine of artistic inspiration, timesaving practical tips, tricks and step-by-step walkthroughs that you'll wonder how you survived without it.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents
  5. Foreword
  6. How to cheat, and why
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. How to use this book
  9. 1. Design styles
    1. Drawing with basic shapes
    2. The Brush tool
    3. Mixing colors
    4. Using gradients
    5. Adding texture
    6. The Pen tool
    7. Trace Bitmap
    8. Shading 1: line trick
    9. Shading 2: shape it
    10. Shading 3: paint selected
    11. Shading 4: outlines
    12. Realism with gradients
    13. Spray Brush tool
    14. Deco tool
    15. Interlude: The new Flash interface
  10. 2. Transformation and distortion
    1. Distorting bitmaps
    2. The Envelope tool
    3. Warping
    4. Card flip
    5. 3D Rotation
    6. Butterfly
    7. Squash and stretch
    8. Interlude: Being subtle
  11. 3. Masking
    1. Rotating globe
    2. Flag waving
    3. Iris transition
    4. Handwriting
    5. Spotlight
    6. Focus
    7. Interlude: A moment of clarity
  12. 4. Motion tips and tricks
    1. The new Motion tween
    2. The Motion Editor
    3. Basic shadow
    4. Drop shadow
    5. Perspective shadow
    6. Blur filter
    7. Flying text
    8. Combining effects
    9. Blur filter (text)
    10. Selective blurring
    11. Background blurring
    12. Interlude: Learning to be simple
  13. 5. Character animation
    1. 2.5D basics
    2. 2.5D advanced
    3. 2.5D monkey
    4. Lip syncing (swap method)
    5. Lip syncing (nesting method)
    6. To sync or not to sync
    7. Sync (Classic tween)
    8. Sync (Motion tween)
    9. Hinging body parts
    10. Bone tool (Inverse Kinematics)
    11. Closing the gaps
    12. Bitmap animation (JibJab)
    13. PSD Importer (JibJab)
    14. Motion guides (JibJab)
    15. Walk cycle
    16. Advanced walk cycle
    17. Anticipation
    18. Drawing upon oneself
    19. Looping backgrounds
    20. Tradigital animation
    21. Interlude: How did I get here?
  14. 6. Flash to video
    1. Document setup
    2. Ape Escape
    3. Title and action safety
    4. Safe colors
    5. Safe colors (Kuler)
    6. Keeping it all in sync
    7. QuickTime Exporter
    8. SWF2Video
    9. Interlude: Graphics tablets
  15. 7. Animation examples
    1. Super text effect
    2. Page turn
    3. Smoke with gradients
    4. Smoke stylized
    5. Full steam ahead
    6. Fireworks
    7. Soft reveal
    8. Star Wars text
    9. Color adjustments
    10. Vertigo
    11. Let it rain
    12. Playing with fire
    13. Winter wonderland
    14. 3D perspective
    15. Bone and Spray
    16. Interlude: From the inside out
  16. 8. Working with sound
    1. Recording sounds
    2. Audacity®
    3. Adobe® Soundbooth® CS4
    4. Adobe® Audition® 3.0
    5. Sound in Flash
    6. Dynamic sounds (AS3)
    7. Interlude: Flash wasn’t always this good
  17. 9. Working with video
    1. Importing video
    2. Flash Video (FLV)
    3. Interlude: FLV tools and articles
  18. 10. Interactivity
    1. Event handling
    2. What a drag
    3. Pausing the timeline
    4. Loading images (AS3)
    5. Loading images (AS2)
    6. Toggling sound (AS3)
    7. Interlude: Objects, objects everywhere
  19. 11. Extending Flash
    1. Introduction to JSFL
    2. Trace Bitmap and JSFL
    3. AnimSlider Pro
    4. Ajar extensions
    5. iK’motion
    6. Swift 3D Xpress
    7. Flashjester
    8. Toon Boom Animate
    9. Interlude: Pimp my Flash
  20. 12. What’s new in CS4
    1. Motion presets
    2. Motion and Classic tweens
    3. Creating Motion tweens
    4. Working with Motion spans
    5. Editing Motion paths
    6. Motion Editor properties
    7. Custom easing
    8. Motion tweens and 3D
    9. 3D Position and View
    10. Basic bone armature
    11. Complex bone armature
    12. Joint rotation and constrain
    13. Bone tool easing basics
    14. Bones and shapes
    15. Bind tool
    16. Interlude: The History of Flash
  21. Index
  22. What’s on the CD

Product information

  • Title: How to Cheat in Adobe Flash CS4
  • Author(s): Chris Georgenes
  • Release date: August 2013
  • Publisher(s): Focal Press
  • ISBN: 9781136137891