Category list

About the Artist

Doug Clarke is Art Director for Fig Leaf Software's Interactive Media. When he's not working for "the FIG," Doug spends his time painting and illustrating. Doug posts his work in illustration, animation, sound, and design on his personal site, www.liquidmethod.com.

Introduction

With the release of Flash 5, Macromedia has positioned Flash as a tool not just for creating interactive and engaging animated Web sites, but also for high-end Web applications. Add to that the integration of Flash and Generator and you can dramatically extend the power of your applications.

The high penetration of Flash into the browser market means that, as designers and developers, we finally have a viable alternative to the standard HTML/DHTML site.

From its June 2001 survey, Macromedia reports that 97 percent of all users browsing the Web now have a version of the Flash player installed. A breakdown based on player version shows the percentage of users who can view the content of the different player versions as this:

Flash 2: 96 “98 percent
Flash 3: 93 “96 percent
Flash 4: 88 “93 percent
Flash 5: 55 “67 percent

The next survey is scheduled for September 2001. To check the current statistics, visit http://www.macromedia.com/software/player_census/flashplayer/.

Who Is This Book For?

This book is aimed at two very different audiences: artists and programmers. We know we can't turn the artists into hard- core programmers or the programmers into gifted artists, but we hope we can bring about a meeting of the minds. The more each group understands how the other thinks, the better chance each has of leveraging the true power of Flash 5. Development in Flash has truly become a collaborative effort, more so in Flash 5 than ever before.

Organization of the Book

The book is divided into four sections of increasing complexity.

Part I: "Getting Started with Flash 5" (Chapters 1 “4) is introductory in nature. It's designed to bring new users up to speed fairly quickly in the basics of Flash. If you're familiar with Flash, but new to Flash 5, you might want to skim these chapters for tips on how to set up your work environment and use some of the new tools in Flash 5. If you've never worked with the Generator templates in Flash 5, Chapter 4, "Flash and Generator," gives you a quick look at the power of Generator.

Part II: "Building Blocks/Animation and Sound" (Chapters 5 “13) is primarily focused on using graphics, sound, and animation techniques in Flash. And yes, there is a sprinkling of ActionScript in there ”even before you get to the coding section of the book. The more time you spend working in Flash, the more you'll realize that knowing at least a little bit of ActionScript is indispensable .

Part III: "Building Blocks/Introducing ActionScript and Interactivity" (Chapters 14 “23) is aimed at programmers and artists who want to develop a better command of ActionScript. This section relies heavily on ActionScript to control the behavior of objects in Flash. You'll get an introduction to object-oriented programming and most of the new Flash objects. Toss in a dash of physics and a little XML, and you'll really be on your way.

Part IV: "Pulling It All Together: Implementing Flash in the Real World" (Chapters 24 “28) addresses some of the issues not explicitly covered in the other sections and is really aimed at issues that both artists and programmers have to deal with on a regular basis. Ranging from storyboarding to dealing with browser and platform idiosyncrasies to working with middleware, this section helps to tie up some of the loose ends you find in Flash development.

Flylib.com

Category list

About the Artist

About the Artist

Introduction

Who Is This Book For?

Organization of the Book

Similar products