How to Cheat in Adobe Flash CC

How to Cheat in Adobe Flash CC

Released March 2014
Publisher(s): Focal Press
ISBN: 9781136146534

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Book description

Move beyond the limitations of programming standards and license agreements and get back to animating with a new edition of the bestselling How to Cheat in Adobe Flash, the real world guide to developing dynamic and fun Flash content. Whether you are creating an animated short, catchy and fun cartoon or mobile game, save time and money with expert cheats by renowned Flash Expert, Chris Georgenes with all new content for the Flash CSX revision. With practical applications and step by step tutorials solve problems quickly to develop creative projects to time and to budget. Want to hone your Flash skills so you can remain competitive in a diverse market while concentrating 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. Each technique 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 walkthroughs 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!

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 CSX, How to Cheat in Flash CSX, is a goldmine of artistic inspiration, timesaving practical tips, tricks and step-by-step walkthroughs that you'll wonder how you survived without it. New! CSX cheats and examples with practical solutions for the busy animator with a focus on Action Script, Flash for mobile applications, specifically for Android development, as well as a focus on an improved physics engine. Put the Adobe Flash CSX cheats to the test with the fully updated companion website with downloadable Flash source files, examples and video tutorials, and a creative commons game, developed with Adobe, to demonstrate the new functionality of CSX!

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 What’s new in CC
    1. Under the hood
    2. Darker User Interface
    3. Unlimited pasteboard size
    4. Distribute symbols & bitmaps to keyframes
    5. Swap multiple symbols & bitmaps
    6. Toggle Guides & Masks
    7. Scale to Anchor Point
    8. DragonBones Extension
    9. Multi-device connectivity
    10. Exporting Video
    11. Find & Replace enhancements
    12. Live preview for drawing tools
    13. Other notable enhancements
    14. Deprecated features
    15. Interlude: Adobe Creative Cloud
  10. 2 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. Image Trace (Illustrator)
    12. Shading 1: line trick
    13. Shading 2: shape it
    14. Shading 3: paint selected
    15. Shading 4: outlines
    16. Realism with gradients
    17. UI Design
    18. Character design
    19. Object Drawing
    20. Interlude: Being subtle
  11. 3 Transformation & distortion
    1. Distorting bitmaps
    2. The Envelope tool
    3. Warping
    4. Card flip
    5. 3D Rotation
    6. Butterfly
    7. Squash and stretch
    8. Interlude: A moment of clarity
  12. 4 Masking
    1. Rotating globe
    2. Flag waving
    3. Iris transition
    4. Handwriting
    5. Spotlight
    6. Focus
    7. Feathered mask (ActionScript)
    8. Medical pack
    9. Interlude: Learning to be simple
  13. 5 Motion techniques
    1. Motion and Classic tweens
    2. Creating Motion tweens
    3. Working with Motion spans
    4. Editing Motion paths
    5. Motion Presets
    6. Motion tweens and 3D
    7. 3D Position and View
    8. Basic shadow
    9. Drop shadow
    10. Perspective shadow
    11. Flying text
    12. Combining effects
    13. Blur filter (text)
    14. Selective blurring
    15. Background blurring
    16. Interlude: How did I get here?
  14. 6 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. Closing the gaps
    11. Bitmap animation (Jib Jab)
    12. PSD Importer (Jib Jab)
    13. Motion guides (Jib Jab)
    14. Walk cycle
    15. Advanced walk cycle
    16. Walk cycle examples
    17. Anticipation
    18. Drawing upon oneself
    19. Tradigital animation
    20. Brush animation
    21. Interlude: Embracing challenges
  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. Torch
    15. Lightning
    16. Winter wonderland
    17. 3D perspective
    18. Sausage grinder
    19. Interlude: From the inside out
  16. 8 Working with sound
    1. Recording sounds
    2. Samson USB Microphones
    3. Audacity®
    4. Adobe® Audition® CC
    5. Sound in Flash
    6. Dynamic sounds (AS3)
    7. Interlude: My wish list for Flash CC
  17. 9 Flash to video
    1. Document setup
    2. Title and action safety
    3. CC video templates
    4. Safe colors
    5. Ape Escape
    6. Keeping it all in sync
    7. QuickTime Exporter
    8. SWF & FLV Toolbox
    9. Interlude: Wacom tablets
  18. 10 Interactivity
    1. Stage 1
    2. Stage 2
    3. Stage 3
    4. Stage 4
    5. Stage 5
    6. Stage 6
    7. Interlude: Thank you
  19. Index

Product information

  • Title: How to Cheat in Adobe Flash CC
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: March 2014
  • Publisher(s): Focal Press
  • ISBN: 9781136146534