Professional Papervision3D

Appendix A. Pocket Reference

This appendix is a listing by chapter of important code snippets and formulas. It's meant to be a reference for the code snippets. The electronic form is on the book's companion website so you can arrange it into any format that you'd like.

Chapter 1: Understanding Flash3D

Summary: Flash 3D is one of the fastest-moving areas in web technology. In this chapter, you learned how to build a simple 3D engine in both CS3 and CS4. Using what you learned about 3D engines you created a torus worm, carousel, and image ball. Finally, you examined Disney's rules for creating realistic animation, and converted a timeline animation into ActionScript.

Helpful Links

http://www.mathworld.wolfram.com

http://www.sebleedelisle.com

http://flintparticles.org

http://www.flashandmath.com

Perspective Scaling

T = scale = focal length/(focal length + z)
scale=focal length/(focal length + z);
x=x*scale;
y=y*scale;

Generating Random Colors

Math.random()*0xffffff

3D Engine in 13 Lines of Code

import flash.display.Sprite;//imports sprite class var myAngle:Number =0;//Angle of ball var ball:Sprite = new Sprite();//instantiates ball sprite ball.graphics.beginFill(0xFF0000);//Assign a ball color ball.graphics.drawCircle(0, 0, 40);//draws your ball at 0,0 ball.graphics.endFill();//ends the fill addChild(ball);//adds the ball to the stage addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, myonEnterFrame);//loops equations function myonEnterFrame(event:Event):void{ myAngle=myAngle+.1;//iterates angle ball.x = 300*Math.sin(myAngle); ...