How to Cheat in Adobe Flash CS5

How to Cheat in Adobe Flash CS5

by Chris Georgenes
Released October 2012
Publisher(s): Routledge
ISBN: 9781136130298

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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 and to a budget.

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. Fully updated for CS5, How to Cheat in Flash CS5, is a goldmine of artistic inspiration, timesaving practical tips, tricks and step-by-step workthroughs that you'll wonder how you survived without it.

Each techniques is designed as a double-page spread so you can prop the book up behind your keyboard or next to your monitor as a visual reference while working alongside it. Many of these workthroughs are real-world client projects, with the source files supplied for you to open and explore. With these real-life professional projects you'll discover how to: bring objects to life with cool motion effects, make it rain, snow or set your world ablaze, develop flash mobile applications and many more tips and tricks not found anywhere else!

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title
  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. Geometric and organic shapes
    3. The Brush tool
    4. Mixing colors
    5. Advanced Color Effect
    6. Animated Color Effect
    7. Using gradients
    8. Adding texture
    9. The Pen tool
    10. Trace Bitmap
    11. Shading 1: line trick
    12. Shading 2: shape it
    13. Shading 3: paint selected
    14. Shading 4: outlines
    15. Realism with gradients
    16. Spray Brush tool
    17. Deco tool
    18. Interlude: The new Flash CS5 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. Feathered mask (ActionScript)
    8. Interlude: A moment of clarity
  12. 4. Motion techniques
    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. Basic shadow
    17. Drop shadow
    18. Perspective shadow
    19. Blur filter
    20. Flying text
    21. Combining effects
    22. Blur filter (text)
    23. Selective blurring
    24. Background blurring
    25. 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 tweens)
    8. Sync (Motion tweens)
    9. Hinging body parts
    10. Bone tool (Inverse Kinematics)
    11. Closing the gaps
    12. Bitmap animation (Jib Jab)
    13. PSD Importer (Jib Jab)
    14. Motion guides (Jib Jab)
    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. Title and action safety
    3. CS5 video templates
    4. Safe colors
    5. Safe colors (Kuler)
    6. Ape Escape
    7. Keeping it all in sync
    8. QuickTime Exporter
    9. SWF2Video
    10. SWF & FLV Toolbox
    11. 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. Handwriting effect (frame-by-frame)
    7. Fireworks
    8. Soft reveal
    9. Star Wars text
    10. Color adjustments
    11. Vertigo
    12. Let it rain
    13. Playing with fire
    14. Winter wonderland
    15. 3D perspective
    16. Bone and Spray
    17. Sausage grinder
    18. Interlude: From the inside out
  16. 8. Working with sound
    1. Recording sounds
    2. Audacity®
    3. Adobe® Soundbooth® CS5
    4. Adobe® Audition®3.0
    5. Sound in Flash
    6. Dynamic sounds (AS3)
    7. Interlude: My wishlist for Flash CS6
  17. 9. Working with video
    1. Importing video (pre-CS4)
    2. Importing video (CS4 and CS5)
    3. Flash Video (FLV)
    4. 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. Enter current frame
    4. AnimSlider Pro
    5. Ajar Extensions
    6. iK’motion
    7. Swift 3D Xpress
    8. Flashjester
    9. Toon Boom
    10. Flash Decompiler Trillix
    11. Flash Optimizer
    12. Interlude: Pimp my Flash
  20. 12. What’s new in CS5
    1. XFL uncompressed format
    2. Code Snippet panel
    3. Text Layout Framework
    4. Deco brushes
    5. Spring
    6. iPhone publisher
    7. Interlude: The Future of Flash
  21. Index
  22. What’ on the CD

Product information

  • Title: How to Cheat in Adobe Flash CS5
  • Author(s): Chris Georgenes
  • Release date: October 2012
  • Publisher(s): Routledge
  • ISBN: 9781136130298