Overview
The stun design site, constructed as the case study in Foundation ActionScript, is viewable at www.friendsofed.com/extras/1903450322/stun/index.html.
Flash 5 is Macromedia's incredibly successful motion graphics creation package. Flash 5 implements a vastly expanded and more powerful range of ActionScript components. It is ActionScript, coupled with Flash's exceptional graphical facilities, that makes Flash the de facto standard for interactive, graphically-rich web sites and applications. The new implementation makes ActionScript an even more important part of the Flash landscape.
Foundation ActionScriptprovides a raft of new features for the Flash designer to use. To fully exploit these features, the designer will need to understand a basic set of programming constructs and principles. This book will teach those principles in the Flash 5 context, providing the reader with a solid base to develop more complex ActionScript skills. The book has a strong tutorial thrust, focusing on building the core skills that the reader needs to master Flash ActionScript. The skills and techniques are built in self-contained chapters that combine into an ongoing case study to build a rich knowledge base in the reader's mind.
What you’ll learnWho this book is for
Flash 5 beginners who've read an introductory text and need a much more in-depth introduction to ActionScript.
Flash 4 users who need a fuller understanding of ActionScript as implemented in Flash 5.
Synopsis
OK, so you've got the Flash 5 basics under your belt. You've built your typical timeline-based movie but you know that Flash 5 has a lot more to offer your creativity. Foundation ActionScript will open up this new gateway and take you through the transition from linear animation to produce cutting-edge dynamic Flash web sites, all the time remembering that you're a designer, not a programmer. With the emphasis on practicality rather than theory, each chapter will follow the Foundation model and introduce a new topic backed up with step by step examples that combine into a working web site full of ActionScript tricks. You will begin by learning how to plan your ActionScript project, adding actions that provide simple timeline control and taking the full tour through re-usable code, adding sound and building your first interactive Flash 5 game! ActionScript may look like a whole new ball game, but this book will show you that the rules aren't all that different and the end result is more exhilarating than you know!