Preface

Flash began as a technology for building and deploying vector animations. Since that time, Flash has developed into a platform of technologies with Flash Player at the core. The Flash Platform consists of the Flash IDE (the Flash authoring application) as well as server-side technologies, including Flash Remoting and Flash Media Server. In recent years, the Flash Platform has expanded to also include new technologies for building Flash content, such as Flex.

Clearly, the Flash Platform is a large subject. This book focuses primarily on how to use the Flash IDE to build Flash animations and applications, but additional Flash Platform technologies are discussed when deemed appropriate and within the scope of the book.

Audience

This book is intended for anyone who wants to learn solutions to specific tasks using Flash. Whether you are a Flash beginner or a Flash expert, this book can help.

Assumptions This Book Makes

This book is not a typical reference book or training guide. We necessarily assume that you are already familiar with the basics of Flash.

We also assume that if you are reading this book, you are most interested in Flashbased, authoring time, non-ActionScript solutions. For example, it is technically possible to animate programmatically with ActionScript; however, the non-ActionScript timeline tween solution is emphasized in this book. It's possible that an ActionScript solution is either necessary or better in some circumstances, and, in those cases, we provide the ActionScript solution either by itself or in addition to a non-ActionScript solution. If you are looking for a book that focuses on ActionScript solutions, you may want to consider a different book.

Conventions Used in This Book

The following typographical conventions are used in this book:

Plain text

Indicates menu titles, menu options, menu buttons, and keyboard accelerators (such as Alt and Ctrl).

Italic

Indicates new terms, URLs, email addresses, methods, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, directories, and Unix utilities.

Constant width

Indicates commands, options, switches, variables, attributes, keys, functions, types, classes, namespaces, modules, properties, parameters, values, objects, events, event handlers, XML tags, HTML tags, macros, the contents of files, or the output from commands.

Constant width bold

Shows commands or other text that should be typed literally by the user.

Constant width italic

Shows text that should be replaced with user-supplied values.

Indicates a tip, suggestion, or general note.

Indicates a tip, suggestion, or general note.

Using Code Examples

This book is here to help you get your job done. In general, you may use the code in this book in your programs and documentation. You do not need to contact us for permission unless you're reproducing a significant portion of the code. For example, writing a program that uses several chunks of code from this book does not require permission. Selling or distributing a CD-ROM of examples from O'Reilly books does require permission. Answering a question by citing this book and quoting example code does not require permission. Incorporating a significant amount of example code from this book into your product's documentation does require permission.

We appreciate, but do not require, attribution. An attribution usually includes the title, author, publisher, and ISBN. For example: "Flash 8 Cookbook by Joey Lott. Copyright 2006 O'Reilly Media, Inc., 0-596-10240-2."

If you feel your use of code examples falls outside fair use or the permission given above, feel free to contact us at [e-mail].

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Acknowledgments

Joey Lott

I'd like to thank the many people that helped directly and indirectly with this book. Thanks to Tim O'Reilly for publishing this book. Thanks to Steve Weiss for being an advocate for the book and making sure that it received all the necessary resources.

This book is only possible with the help of Elise Walter, and I'd like to thank her for all the work reviewing, editing, and coordinating every aspect of the book.

As noted on the cover of this book, there are several contributing authors. Thanks to Ezra Freedman for writing the mobile devices chapter, Kris Honeycutt for writing the 3D chapter, and Robert Reinhardt for writing the video chapter. Although this is the first publication of the book, the first drafts were written several years ago when Flash MX was the current edition of the Flash IDE. At that time, Jeffrey Bardzell was the author and Bruce Epstein was the development editor for the book. Despite several subsequent revisions, their foundational work remains.

Many technical reviewers have helped by reading chapters and testing to ensure that everything is accurate. Thanks to John Davey, Matt Sutton, Rich Shupe, Lynn Baus, Igor Costa, Jens Hauser, Stacey Mulcahy, Tim O'Hare, Jawar "JP" Puwala, and Bill Sanders.

Margot Hutchinson at Waterside Productions is the agent representing this book. Thanks to Margot for managing contract details and the like so that the authors could focus on writing.

Thanks also go to the Flash team at Adobe (formerly Macromedia), to the Flash community, and to the readers of this book.

Ezra Freedman

I would like to thank Robert Reinhardt for helping start my speaking and writing careers. I would also like to thank Joey Lott for giving me the opportunity to work with him on this book.

Kris Honeycutt

I would first and foremost like to give my heartfelt thanks to my family for their ongoing support in all my endeavors. Much respect to the people at Macromedia who made Flash what it is today, and to the team at Electric Rain for creating Swift 3D, and continuing to deliver improvements with each new release. Finally, my gratitude goes out to my coauthors and O'Reilly Media, Inc. for giving me the honor to be part of this book.

Author Bios

Joey Lott helped write this book. He writes mostly from Los Angeles.

Ezra Freedman is Senior Manager of the Multimedia Platforms Group at Schematic, a Los Angeles-based services company that develops interface and technology solutions for the Web, television, and mobile devices. He has served as lead architect and developer for many successful web and mobile applications, for such clients as ESPN, Macromedia, and MTV. Ezra has spoken about Flash at several conferences, and recently presented a session on Mobile Content Delivery Technologies at SIG-GRAPH 2005. He lives in Venice Beach and enjoys biking to work.

Kris Honeycutt (Kagawa, Japan) is the cofounder and lead designer for Solid Thinking Interactive (www.solid-thinking.com), an international web and multimedia studio.

Kris began his professional career working in print and later embarked on his journey in interactive media as a freelance web designer, while continuing his formal education in graphic design and fine art photography. In his decade of experience prior to founding STi, Kris was an in-house designer for companies in both the U.S. and Japan, where he worked with clients around the globe. Over the years, his positions have included graphic designer, web designer, multimedia designer, creative director, and author. He is the lead author of Foundation Swift 3D (Friends of ED/Apress). While continuing to work in a variety of mediums and technologies, his favorite weapon of choice is Flash, which he has wielded to create projects for the Web, disc media, broadcast, and mobile devices. His current focus is UI design for Flash/FMS-based RIA.

Kris is a member and moderator of several online design communities, and in his spare time, he can be found both giving guidance to, as well as learning from, his peers. He enjoys spending his time outside of work with his wife Mayumi and their two sons, Kai and Riley, as well as studying traditional Japanese martial arts.

Robert Reinhardt, VP of the Multimedia Platforms Group for Schematic (www.schematic.com), is regarded internationally as an expert on multimedia application development, particularly in Macromedia Flash. Robert is the lead author of the Flash Bible series (Wiley), as well as coauthor of other successful web development titles. He has developed multimedia courses for educational facilities in Canada and the United States, and he is a Macromedia certified instructor for Flash courses at Portland State University. Robert has been a regularly featured speaker at the Flash-Forward, FITC, and SIGGRAPH conferences. Robert is also a partner and writer at Community MX (www.communitymx.com).

Technical Editor Bios

Lynn Baus is a new media designer living and working in San Francisco. Over the past seven years, she has created interactive environments and motion graphics for prominent advertising agencies, design studios, corporations, and nonprofit organizations. Her current focus is customized, permission-based, media-rich communication. In addition to her interactive and graphic design work, she is a frequent editor of books on Flash and Dreamweaver, as well as an author and instructor in the field of New Media design. She has taught courses at Columbia College and Loyola University.

Igor Costa, a resident of Brazil, is passionate about Flashhe has worked with it since Version 5, when he fell in love with it. He's a freelance Flash developer and has worked as a consultant for many Brazilian companies. He's an active member of the Flash community in Brazil, was a member of the Macromedia Flash team, and has written several articles about Flash development. His current focus is open source development for the Flash platform (www.osflash.org), and he is working with ActionScript 3. You can learn more about him at www.igorcosta.com.

John Davey is a Flash developer who has produced work for BBC, Disney, Robbie Williams, Wal-Mart, Science Museum, The Guardian, and many more. He builds everything from games to full-blown CMS sites. You can reach John at www.developette.com.

Stacey Mulcahy is a Flex and Flash developer who once had a torrid love affair with the Director. She currently works at Teknision Inc. in Ottawa, Ontario creating rich Internet applications that even designers like. She rants more than raves on her Flash-centric blog at www.bitchwhocodes.com.

Tim O'Hare is a Senior Flash Developer for Scripps Networks, the parent company of HGTV, DIY Network, Food Network, Fine Living, HGTVPro.com, Shop at Home, and Great American Country. His responsibilities are centered on the development of Flash applications for many of the Scripps Networks' online properties. Within his first year and a half with the company, Tim won two Macromedia Site of the Day awards and wrote articles for Community MX and the Macromedia Dev Center. Tim has a BFA in graphic design, and he spent five years pole-vaulting for the University of Tennessee track and field team.

Jawahar Puvvala is Core Application Developer at Nucor Corporation in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he develops server-side and client applications in Microsoft Technology. He is coauthor of .NET for Java Developers (Addison-Wesley)and has technical-edited several books. His educational background is in writing software for mechanical and structural engineering systems, topics on which he has published scientific journal and conference articles.

Bill Sanders is a Flash developer specializing in Flash Media Server 2 for a wide range of applications, from streaming audio/video communication to real-time data transfer. He has run Sandlight Productions (www.sandlight.com) for the last 20 years, has published over 40 computer booksincluding several on Flashand is currently on the faculty at the University of Hartford in the Interactive Information Technology Program (iit.hartford.edu), where he is developing FMS2 applications on Internet 2.

Rich Shupe is the founder and president of FMAa full-service multimedia development company and training facility in New York City. Rich teaches a variety of digital technologies in academic and commercial environments, and has lectured on these topics at Macworld, Flashforward, and other national and international events. He is currently on the faculty of New York's School of Visual Arts and teaches in both the undergraduate and master's programs. As a technical writer, Rich is a regular columnist at DevX.com and the author of multiple books, including the upcoming Flash 8: Projects for Learning Animation and Interactivity (O'Reilly). FMA develops CD-ROMs and web sites for clients including McGraw-Hill, Phillips, 20th Century Fox, and Nickelodeon, and trains digital media professionals in Flash, Director, Processing, HTML, XML, JavaScript, and more. Visit FMA at www.fmaonline.com.

Matt Sutton is an ActionScript developer based out of Chicago. He specializes in rich Internet and desktop applications that leverage the power of Flash. He's a lot like the A-Team: if you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find him, he may be for hire.