Creating graphics for Flash games can be fun and rewarding, especially when you can channel your imagination into your art and provide potential players with a fun entertainment experience. Written for anyone creating games with Flash, Macromedia© Flash(TM) Professional 8 Game Graphics teaches the essentials of Flash game art. You'll learn all about what Flash graphics are, how to create your own, and how to import them into working game source files. The book covers vector and raster graphics and explains how both can be used to improve the performance of your game. Helpful tips and techniques are included throughout to help you become more effi cient at creating user interfaces, game character sprites, and special effects. And several real-world game examples are used to teach about the development process for creating game graphics and preparing them correctly for a smooth transition to programming. You don't have to be an artist to use this book, because the graphic techniques taught don't require a painter's hand. So if you want to create awesome graphics for your Flash games, this is the place to get started.

Macromedia's Flash 8 is the world's premier program for adding animation to websites. And with the latest version, this popular program becomes more versatile, letting beginning webmasters and expert developers alike create sophisticated web content. But Flash isn't intuitive. And it doesn't come with a manual. Whether you want to learn the basics or unleash the program's true power, Flash 8: The Missing Manual is the ideal instructor. This hands-on guide to today's hottest web design tool is aimed at nondevelopers, and it teaches you how to translate your ideas into great web content. It begins with a solid primer on animation, which helps you get comfortable with the Flash interface. Once you have these basics under your belt, Flash 8: The Missing Manual moves on to advanced animations, including adding special effects and audio, video, and interactivity to your presentations. When you're really feeling steady, the book shows how to use a dollop of ActionScript to customize your content. It then teaches you how to publish your Flash creations for web surfers everywhere to enjoy. Along the way, the book shows you good design principles and helps you avoid elements that can distract or annoy an audience. Author Emily Vander Veer has more than a dozen books to her credit, including titles on web design and scripting--most written for non-technical readers. Her background makes her the perfect author for a straightforward book on a complex subject. She takes Flash 8: The Missing Manual from the basics to the advanced, yet avoids a hasty jump into tough topics that can leave readers confused. Not only will Flash 8: The Missing Manual help you turn a concept into unique, dynamic content, but it will continue to serve as a reference as you develop your website.

Andrew Rapo and Alex Michael explain all the important programming concepts from a designer's point of view, making them completely accessible to non-programmers. Completely revised and rewritten this second edition will help you develop professional ActionScript 2 applications, and communicate knowledgably about current, Object Oriented ActionScript 2 techniques. Divided into four sections to take you from novice to professional results: * Flash Fundamentals: Introduces the Flash authoring environment and basic core Flash concepts. * ActionScript 2 Fundamentals: Explains basic programming concepts and terminology, and shows how ActionScript 2 classes are constructed and used. * Built-in Classes: Describes the built-in ActionScript classes that are available for use in applications, including the MovieClip class, Key class, Sound class, etc. * Using ActionScript to Build a Game: Describes the development process for creating a complex Flash application and presents commercial-quality game coding examples.

Whether you are a designer who hasn't yet used Flash, a professional animator who wants to create digital animation for the first time, or a Flash user who hasn't yet made the most of the animation features this book will show you how to bring your ideas to life. Get to grips with Flash and bring inspiration to your work using Alex Michael's easy to understand approach, demonstrating a wide selection of animation styles from a range of artists, along with key tips and tricks from the professionals.

Anyone with moderate Macromedia Flash experience who is looking to acquire or improve their understanding of ActionScript will find this book a valuable resource. For this edition, the author has updated the games from the previous edition and has added several new projects.

So you wanna be a hotshot game designer? Well, if you have a basic grasp of Macromedia Flash MX, you can. Unafraid to tackle some of the more complicated aspects of game creation (including physics and trigonometry!), this comprehensive reference covers it all. Macromedia Flash Game Design Demystified starts out with the basics: planning, adapting ActionScript techniques, using introductory Flash game techniques, and more. Then it gets down to the real business of building simple games. You'll tackle simple-logic and quiz games before moving on to multiplayer and complex-logic games (chess, for example)--learning about importing 3-D graphics, adding sound effects, and licensing your games in the process. The book's companion CD includes the source files for a number of games as well as the tutorials and lessons that go along with the book and XML server software to facilitate multiplayer games. If you're tired of the games that you have and want to make your own action, this book offers comprehensive coverage of sophisticated techniques--but put in easy-to-grasp, practical terms.

Here is the first of a four-volume set that constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, HCII 2007, held in Beijing, China, jointly with eight other thematically similar conferences. It covers interaction design: theoretical issues, methods, techniques and practice; usability and evaluation methods and tools; understanding users and contexts of use; and models and patterns in HCI.