ActionScript has matured into a full-fledged, object-oriented programming language for creating cutting-edge Web applications, and this comprehensive book is just what you need to succeed. If you want to add interactivity to Flash, build Flex applications, or work with animation — it’s all here, and more. Packed with clear instruction, step-by-step tutorials, and advanced techniques, this book is your go-to guide to unlock the power of this amazing language. Learn the basics, apply object-oriented programming, and more.

If you want to create exciting dynamic web sites that will amaze your online audience, then the Flash platform is a great way to go, with it’s many features, including powerful graphical and sound and video capabilities. To really harness the power of Flash though, you need to make use of ActionScript, Flash’s coding language, to provide dynamic effects, enable user interaction, and manipulate data. Adobe just made things even more powerful with ActionScript 3.0. They’ve taken ActionScript and expanded it into a fully-fledged programming language, with full object-oriented capabilities, improved events, sounds and video support, and drawing capabilities, support for regular expressions, and much, much more. Whether you are an aspiring ActionScript developer, or an experienced ActionScript developer who wants to upgrade your knowledge to version 3.0, this book teaches all you need to know to start to harness the power of ActionScript 3.0 using Flash CS3, Flex 2 or Flex 3. It covers all the essential techniques from the ground up, allowing you to get up and running quickly and easily. The sensible layout of the book makes it easy to refer back to techniques when you need to, and there are even reference sections at the back of the book to allow you to look up syntax quickly. With this book as your guide, you’ll be creating killer ActionScript powered Flash applications before you know it!

Whether you are an experienced Flash designer or developer looking for a guide to doing animation in Flash, or a novice to Flash who is looking for an effective way to create and distribute animations, this book will prove invaluable to you. Covering every aspect of Flash animation, the book is a fast-paced yet thorough review of the Flash animation process. Written by the Emmy-Award winning team at ANIMAX, this book not only reveals the step-by-step process followed by one of today’s leading Flash animation studios, it gives you valuable tips and tricks to take your Flash animation to the next level. Divided into three phases of production (pre-production, animation, post-production) this book breaks the Flash animation process into smaller, more manageable steps. And because the authors approach the animation process from various perspectives (such as producer, animator, and editor) the book balances many of the real-world issues facing today’s Flash animators, from artistic to technical to financial. The book starts off by looking at planning and designing an animation project, including working out your goals, and putting together character libraries and storyboards. Next up we look at the production phase, which includes using plug-ins to make your work more efficient, implementing your animation, and adding special effects. Finally, we look at post-production work, including how After Effects can be used effectively alongside Flash for tasks such as camera mechanics, how to make Flash not look like Flash, and tips and tricks from the experts. Whatever the reason, like millions of others around the world you’ve become interested in Flash animation. And you’ve come to the right place to learn more. This book is compatible with pretty much any fairly recent version of Flash.