Chapter 15: 3D Basics

Overview

What well cover in this chapter:

• The third dimension and perspective

• Velocity and acceleration

• Bouncing

• Gravity

• Wrapping

• Easing and springing

• Coordinate rotation

• Collision detection

• Important formulas in this chapter

Everything youve done so far in the book has been in just two (and sometimes only one) dimension, and youve done some pretty cool stuff. Now, lets take it to the next level.

Creating graphics in 3D is always exciting. That extra dimension seems to make things really come to life. How to do 3D in Flash has been covered in innumerable books and tutorials. So, while I dont plan on skimping on anything, Im going to move through the basics pretty quickly. After that, Ill explain how the motion effects discussed in the previous chapters can be done with a third dimension. Specifically, this chapter covers velocity, acceleration, friction, gravity, bouncing, wrapping, easing, springing, coordinate rotation, and collision detection.

For now, youll primarily be concerned with taking a movie clip and moving it around in 3D space, using perspective to calculate its size and position on the screen. The movie clip itself will be flat, of course. It wont have a back, side, top, or bottom that you can see. In the next couple of chapters, youll do some modeling of points, lines, shapes , and solids in 3D.