The truth about cheating

The word “cheat”, in most cases, has a negative connotation. To “cheat” implies deception and trickery associated with a fraudulent act. In some ways this book will show you how you can trick your audience, not unlike a magician’s “sleight of hand” technique where you can control not only what is being seen, but how the viewer sees it. But this book will certainly not teach you how to be a fraud.

To “cheat” in Flash is to find shortcuts to help you work more efficiently and economically. Time translates to money and if you can deliver a great looking project on time, that means you stayed within budget and everybody wins.

My philosophy

At the end of the day, if I didn’t have any fun, then it would be time to find another job. But I had to learn this lesson the hard way a few years ago while working with an animation company designing a network television series. I was designing the main characters for a show called Science Court (ABC), and there was a conflict between us and the network as to the choice of skin color for one of the characters. I liked green and the network preferred orange. I felt strongly that my color choice was the best and I admit I may have let myself become emotionally charged about the issue. One day I went to lunch with the animation director and we were casually talking about the color issue. It was something he said that changed my outlook on work from that day forward: “We must have pretty cool jobs when the most stressful part of our day is whether or not a character looks too much like a frog.”

I stopped dead in my tracks, instantly realizing how right he was and how silly I felt about the matter. After lunch we returned to the studio where I immediately changed the character to orange and never uttered another word about it. I even ended up liking the orange more than the green. Since then, my philosophy has always been to have fun no matter how stressful my workday gets. My job, in comparison to all other possible occupations, is the best job even on the worst of days.

Workthroughs and examples

Each workthrough in this book 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 the workthroughs are real-world client projects I have been commissioned to design and animate. Using these projects as examples has allowed me to provide you with a downloadable zip file containing the source files for you to open and explore. Each chapter ends with an Interlude in which I talk about everything from my own experiences as a designer and animator as well as some relevant and useful information based on the topic at hand.

Flash terminology

Not much has changed when it comes to terminology in Flash. Symbols have been around since the beginning and so has the behavior any symbol can have (Graphic, Movie Clip and Button). The Timeline has remained unchanged and nesting still pertains to assets and animations within symbols, one of the key strengths of Flash. If you already have a basic understanding of Flash then you will most likely be familiar with most of the terminology in this book.

Download Example Files

The download icon indicates the source file for that particular example is available for you to download from www.howtocheatinflash.com/downloads. Download the ZIP file and unpackage it to your local hard drive. The unpackaged file contains all the example files found in this book and are for your learning pleasure.

Companion Website

Please visit the companion website for this book by navigating your browser to www.howtocheatinflash.com where you can keep up to date with the information regarding this book and download the example files.

Beyond the book

Be social. Visit facebook.com/howtocheatinflash to ask questions, get answers or post your own works of art and animation.

Follow me on Twitter@keyframer. I’m pretty consistent when it comes to tweeting about trends and technologies as well as cool new gadgets. You can also find out where and when my next speaking engagement will be.