3D with Flash MX

While Flash wasn't originally intended for generating 3D creations, there are actually numerous ways, basic and advanced, in which you can manipulate graphics to give the impression of 3Dso many that we wrote a whole book on them! The important thing to remember is that using Flash to create faux-3D graphics is all done using various cheats and tricks. Flash obviously isn't a 3D graphics package like 3D Studio Max, Maya, Swift 3D, and so on, but you can use certain standard techniques, along with a little ActionScript, bitmap tracing, importing from external programs, and so on to produce some great 3D designs.

Starting with the fundamentals, in this chapter we'll study some simple and effective methods of hinting at that elusive third dimension in Flash. The examples we show here deal with using perspective, shading, and gradients to create that 3D look.