CONTENTS
Animators, coders, designers, oh my
What is this thing called Flash?
The world today—addicted to change
Three-tiered application model
Natural evolution of thin clients
Flash Platform, open source, and Web 2.0
Web 2.0 means what you want it to
The open source Flash explosion
Chapter 2: The New Interface of Flash CS4
The Flash CS4 interface is nearly identical between operating systems
Working with panels and windows
Understanding panels (color-coded panel parts—three shades of gray)
Docking, grouping, stacking, and floating
The Property inspector—one panel to rule them all
Changing numeric property values (new behavior!)
Understanding the document window
Controlling the document window
Zoom tool (Z is for bones, silly rabbit!)
Property inspector options of the document window
Changing the document frame rate
Changing the default document settings
Understanding the Timeline panel
Adding frames/keyframes to the timeline
Persistence and tinting frames
Adding and inserting frames and keyframes to layers
Adding and inserting frames and keyframes to all layers
Customizing the interface with workspaces
Customizing keyboard shortcuts
Chapter 3: Drawing with Flash's Vector Tools
Drawing modes: Merge Drawing vs. Object Drawing
Creating and manipulating lines
Selecting and manipulating lines
Drawing squares and rectangles
Drawing ovals, donuts, and pie shapes
Selecting and manipulating shapes
Chapter 4: External Assets and Symbol Management
Using bitmaps in your Flash projects
Importing external bitmaps into Flash
Importing to the stage or library
Importing your first bitmap into Flash
Setting bitmap properties in the Library panel
Using the Trace Bitmap feature
Preparing to add states to the button
Breaking apart symbol instances
Getting familiar with the Library panel
Updating imported library items
Chapter 5: Working with Blends, Filters, and 3D Transformations
Introducing 3D transformations
Rotating a multiple-object selection in 3D space
Rotating a single object in 3D space
Moving a single object in 3D space
Moving multiple objects in 3D space
Chapter 6: Basic Animation in Flash
Animating to convey information
Animation for impact and emotion
Understanding animation in Flash
Motion tweening vs. frame-by-frame animation
Introducing the new motion tween
Creating a motion tween—a step-by-step primer
Changing the curve of a motion path
To rotate, scale, or skew the motion path
Changing the easing of your tween
Changing the duration of your motion tween
Roving keyframes vs. nonroving keyframes
Changing the position of your symbol
Changing the rotation of your symbol
Understanding the Motion Editor
Making custom eases in the Motion Editor
Duplicating a tween from the timeline quickly
Saving animation as ActionScript
Saving your animation as a custom preset
Converting motion presets to frame-by-frame animations
Exporting and importing motion presets
Chapter 7: Playing with Dolls: Introducing Flash IK
An arm or a leg: Experimenting with IK
Controlling the motion of specific bones
Applying constraints to specific bones
Creating motion with an IK system
Comparing IK to motion tweening
Author-time versus runtime IK animation
Using IK with complex anatomies
Simple anatomy: A little help from Leonardo
Applying IK to a human character
Using IK with shapes and the Bind tool
Working with bones and vector shapes
Applying bones to a vector shape
Chapter 8: The Programming Primer: A Flash Designer's Intro to ActionScript 3.0
Following the evolution of ActionScript 3.0
Crafting your first ActionScript application
The trace statement: Leaving breadcrumbs
Moving into the Actions panel: Your new home
Looking closely at the Actions panel
Pinning scripts so you don't lose them
Basic elements of ActionScript programming
Multiplicative and additive operators
Returning values from functions
Having a little class or a big one
Building your first application
Packages and import statements
Chapter 9: The Building Blocks of Interactivity
Properties: I unpacked my adjectives
Translating properties from stage to ActionScript
Changing properties with ActionScript
Incrementing ActionScript with frame loops
EventDispatcher class and the Flash event model
Welcomed side effects of event propagation
Assigning events to parent objects
Chapter 10: Learning the Display Model and Bringing It All Together
Examining display object containers
Inserting display objects at different depths
Randomly adding germs to the stage
Creating random motion with the scurry event
Things are killed, and then they die
Ending the game by infestation
Chapter 11: Managing External Assets and Communication
Waiting for the data to arrive
Sending data to external places
There and back again: A variable's tale
Loading external display objects
Storing data to a local machine
Taking a closer look at local shared objects
Creating a simple shared object
Chapter 12: XML: The Best Way In and Out of Flash
Using proper structure and syntax
Rules for working with elements
Loading an XML file with ActionScript
URLRequest and URLLoader objects
Drilling down into the structure
PART FOUR: ADDITIONAL USER INTERFACES
Chapter 13: Working with Text and Strings
Creating text with the Text tool
Revisiting the Property inspector
Starting a simple contact form
Render modes and text field modifiers
Using the Options section of the Property inspector
Breaking apart and animating text
Manipulating text with ActionScript
Filtering and deconstructing strings
Formatting and creating text fields
Assigning formats to text fields
Adding dynamic text fields to the contact form
Adding components to your application
Adding components to your application in Flash
Adding components to your application using ActionScript
Configuring components in Flash
Configuring components using ActionScript
Creating an application using the document class
Making the form do something—listening to components
Skinning components using ActionScript
PART FIVE: ENHANCED MEDIA DEVELOPMENT
Chapter 15: Using the Adobe Media Encoder—A Crash Course
Encoding your first video using presets
Choosing your output file name and location
Taking a close look at the Export Settings window
Advanced mode encoding features
Video tab and bitrate settings
Chapter 16: Working with Audio in Flash
Understanding audio in the Flash authoring environment
Selecting a synchronization type for your audio instance
Export settings in the Sound Properties dialog
Fine-tuning audio with the Envelope Editor
Using library audio assets at runtime
First things first—let's create our application
Application states made simple
Buttons please—changing states
Making library audio assets available to ActionScript
Creating sound objects and changing sounds at runtime
Understanding the Flash.media package
Loading the playlist into the media player application
Wiring the UI and making it play
When the music stops—handling audio events
Chapter 17: Working with Video in Flash
Understanding the FLVPlayback component
FLVPlayback Component inspector
Understanding and setting the scaleMode parameter
Customizing the FLVPlayback component skin
Understanding the FLVPlayback component skin
Understanding play control components
Assigning custom play controls to an FLVPlayback component
Synchronizing video, text, and other media using events
Beyond the Ready event—other key video events
Creating ActionScript cue points
Handling the CUE_POINT event and reading cue point parameters
Adding captions to the FLVPlayback component
Timed Text XML Schema for the FLVPlaybackCaptioning component
Understanding the FLVPlaybackCaptioning component
PART SIX: PREPARING YOUR PROJECT FOR DEPLOYMENT
Chapter 18: Publishing, Exporting, and Debugging Your Flash Project
Understanding the Publish Settings window
Setting Flash publishing options
Targeting player version and ActionScript version
Setting HTML publishing options
Setting GIF publishing options
Changing palette type and other color settings
Setting PNG publishing options
Setting JPEG publishing options
Importing and exporting profiles
Exporting your FLA as a movie or image sequence
Using the Compiler Errors panel
Using the Output window—strategies for tracing
Setting and removing breakpoints
Navigating code while debugging
Resuming normal code execution
Chapter 19: Building AIR Applications with Flash CS4
Creating windows with the NativeWindow class
Building your first AIR application with Flash CS4
The AIR – Application & Installer Settings dialog
Creating applications with custom chrome
Adding Close and Minimize buttons
Checking server and service availability