Flash 8 Essentials

by Paul Barnes-Hoggett, Stephen Downs, Matt Voerman, et al.

As a Flash Developer, you're no doubt excited by the great new features available in the next version of Flash X, to be released later in the year. It promises to include several impressive new design and scripting features.

However, a lot of the features will be the same, so you will want a book that gets you right up to speed asap with the exciting new features of the new version.

In this book, some of Flash's most prominent community...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590595327
• ISBN13: 9781590595329
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: Apress
• Length: 424 Pages
• Weight: 2.11 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.5" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Very Good.. Get up to speed on Flash 8

This book is good for experienced flashers who want to play around with all of Flash 8 cool new features. Shows you how to use the new filters and blends in both the IDE and actionscript. Full color examples and useful sample code. Definetly pick this one up if you want to exploit the power of Flash 8.

Essential for Flash 8 users

I just got into Flash and after reading Phillip Kerman's Flash 8 in 24 Hrs, i really wanted to get even more into it. This book is for me like the title reads "Essential". The explanations and lessons are fantastic and eye opening. This book will be on my desk at all times as i journey though the fantastic world of Flash 8 Pro!

Why reviews for this book are so long

Notice how long the reviews for this book are? Why? Because this book is fabulous, not just good, and it is filled with an impressive array of really useful material. As one who is self taught in flash, books are my instructors and this one is great. It gets right to the point with exactly the stuff you wanna know, which is, what is new in Flash 8. This book clearly and methodically explains it all, chapter by chapter. It is NOT a sequential build-a-project step by step book. You can jump in at any point. If you want to know about the new bitmap data class just read Chapter 8. Blending modes? Chapter 2. The on2VP6 codec or the new video alpha channel support? Chapter 5. And if you don't want to be in the dark about the new filters, just read chapter 3. Simple as that. This book gives an excellent description with lots of pictures demonstrating visually what does what. Considering the complex subject matter, this book is amazingly easy to take in. The tutorials included in the chapters are both facinating and fun. At the end of the book there are 3 examples to help you get indoctrinated to the new elements of Flash that this book has laid out. You can download the fla's from friendsofed.com. They are well chosen and well thought out. The action script used throughout the book is navigable, makes sense and is logical. Sweet! I can understand what it means, thanks to the fine work of the authors. That is what really makes this book so special, here you have 6 different authors each with great presentations. I originally borrowed this book from my Flash user group library but now that I have to return it, I realize I can't live without it so I'm here to buy it. It can be excellent for use as a reference book after you read it. I highly recomend this book.

Comprehensive Overview

I recently finished reading Flash 8 Essentials, and have found it to be an excellent resource for anyone looking to jump with both feet into the complex world of Flash design. The contributing authors are some of the biggest names in Flash design today. There is so much packed into this book that I am only going to be able to touch briefly on most of the highlights. Of the many new features available in Flash 8, here are the ones I found most exciting: * Search Engine Compatibility * Graphics Effects Filters * On2 VP6 Video Codec * Improved Text Rendering * Bitmap Caching Each of these topics is covered at length throughout the book. What's especially nice is that source code for each example can be downloaded from the website. You don't need to have purchased the book to use these code examples, but they will of course make better sense when accompanied by the text. Without further ado, here is why each of these improvements really matters... ch.1 - Search Engine Compatibility This book refers to this momentarily, but I thought it important to mention. One of the biggest complaints against Flash is its lack of accessibility, and implicitly its lack of search engine friendliness. These issues have been put to rest with Flash 8, because it now supports using a version of XML entitled XMP, which stands for Extensible Metadata Platform. In short, this means that Flash can now comply with W3C standards for information accessibility. This metadata could probably double for usage in subtitles, to aid in viewing Flash movies for those who have hearing impairments. For a good example of this in action, check out the Making of Flash 8. Throughout the video, by using various keypoints the way one would index DVD chapters, there are changes in the text displayed along the bottom of the screen. Stored as metadata, this could be indexed by Google, and would increase page relevance for the topics covered throughout the video. I never thought the day would come that I would use the word accessibility in reference to Flash, but I think that if designers pick up on this, it will be beneficial to the hearing impaired, as well as your clients. It's smart on both sides of the argument. ch.3 - Graphics Effects Filters In the past, if you wanted to have an effect added to something in your animation, it was not an easy thing to do. For instance, if you wanted to include a drop-shadow, you would have to make it ahead of time in a graphics program, and then import it as a layer into your SWF file. Flash 8 though, can create drop-shadow effects from within the player. These effects can even be created live via ActionScript, Flash's language similar in syntax to JavaScript. In fact, all effects and filters can be manipulated via ActionScript. These include the following blending modes: Normal, Darken, Multiply, Lighten, Screen, Overlay, Hard Light, Add, Subtract, Difference, Invert, Layer, Alpha and Erase. Various available effects are: Drop Shadow, Blur, Glow, B

Extremely Solid Flash 8 Book

Flash 8 Essentials provides thorough coverage of the new features of Flash 8 - including On2, filters, blend modes, and also BitmapData. The book has good quality paper, and screenshots and figures are represented in full-color which is a very nice touch. The cover is different than the other Flash FOE titles being released, which is nice actually as its a general" what's new" kind of title. Reading through, I only found a rogue (out of place) screenshot here and there - overall its edited pretty well and its a very easy read. Its broken into main functional chapters - so you can freely jump around the book without worrying about missing out on some precursor knowledge that might be required later on. The book starts out with a good overview of the new features that Flash brings with it. Its very nice to see this all in one chapter to get a top-down view of everything. Macromedia certainly did pack some great things into the last release to bear that company name. Next comes Blending Modes. The different kinds and their respective effects are explained with the help of useful screenshots. IDE is covered mostly, but you're introduced to ActionScript and Blend Modes at the end of the chapter. Nice. Filters comes next, then Drawing & Graphic improvements, then Video (great chapter!), Textfield improvements, Speed improvements, BitmapData (another great chapter!), External Interface (a decent chapter on the subject), and then some Flash 8 examples that use some of the new Flash 8 features. This book is intended to get newer Flash 8 users up and running pretty quickly- showing them what is now possible, getting them excited as to how things work, and freeing them up to create things on their own. In general, this is a very solid book for those new to Flash 8, or those who know very little about it and don't want to spend their time on Google hoping to discover all the things they might find interesting. The FileReference API is a nice touch in the samples, but everywhere one looks you'll find PHP code to go along with it - it might be nice to see a collection of scripts accompany samples like that. One could search and find code to go along with it - but one would think that kind of code might be found in a book that has an example of it. This book might even be valuable to those who have been using Flash 8 extensively because sometimes its easy to forget about certain functionality and the book may allow for a quick reference to some of the new functionality. For me, the BitmapData stuff in this book alone is worth the price. It can't possibly cover everything, but it does a very good job wrapping your head around the basics - readying you to discover some more advanced things on your own, armed with some knowledge to get you further. The Video chapter is another gem too boot. Well done chaps, this is a good title!