Flash MX Studio takes your raw Flash talent and multiplies its potency by focusing it on real-world web design situations. In the heady days of the late 1990s, designers were trying their hand at anything and everything they could lay their hands on. Now the marketplace is seriously focused, and serious Flash designers have to know exactly what they're doing and why. These days, it's all about functionality over experimentation, justification over style. It's all about maturity. The design must fit the job specs, and this book shows the reader how to fulfill these requirements and more. This book examines all the avenues open to professional or aspiring professional Flash MX designers. It takes a look at advanced uses of the new MX features, such as components and the Drawing API, and gives guidance on building whole new structures for animation, Dynamic Content, PHP, ColdFusion MX, XML, video, audio and audiovisual formats. Never before has so much power been so accessible to the web designer. This book is designed to put that power in your hands. Flash MX Studio has been broken into four sections to address the most common needs for the Flash designer. First off, Jamie McDonald provides five chapters on site presentation and the principles of web design. These opening chapters take a look at how to create slick, professional-level sites, involving Flash MX's new drawing and motion capabilities and interactive techniques. The second section concentrates on ActionScript. Flash's resident coding environment is crucial to master, and taps into Flash's great strength—intuitive and interactive applications. Keith Peters and Todd Yard have buddied up on this section, and examine some of the most advanced ActionScript techniques around. Be warned—this section is not for the faint-hearted! Section three takes a look at Flash MX's greatly improved visual, audio and audiovisual capabilities. Its three chapters, written by Jez Turner and Alex White, concentrate on building a single site aimed at displaying rich media content. The final section is devoted to expounding a few myths about dynamic content using Flash. Its four chapters talk about general practice, before focusing in on specific areas, including introductions to PHP and XML, together with a look at Macromedia's brand new ColdFusion MX.

Contents of accompanying CD-ROM: Examples and Trial versions of Flash MX 2004, Canvas 9 Professional Ed., Sorenson Squeeze, Swift 3D, Toon Boom Studio.

* Learn the new, powerful features in the new release of Flash. Covers all new areas of extensibility: commands, tools, timeline effects, behaviors, and advanced topics. This book will allow you to streamline day-to-day development by showing you how to custom-build your own commands and tools. Plenty of useful examples are included throughout to demonstrate each area. * Two books in one: first part will actually get the person to understand and be able to use the Extensibility features, not just copy and paste the code in the book, but have a conceptual understanding of how it works and be able to create their own extensions. The second part of the book will be a complete reference guide, that one will want to keep around to look up commands, syntax, parameters, etc. * At this time, it’s the only book covering the subject, and this book actually covers extensibility in both Flash MX 2004 and Flash MX Professional 2004. * The reference content and example files will be available from the book’s companion site, www.flashextensibility.com – this site aims to be the premier site for designers and developers to go to for Flash extensibility material.

High-demand-Flash skills and techniques are essential for anyone involved in Web motion-and this book delivers the goods Gives advanced developers everything they¿ll need to extend the already extensive functionality of Flash Provides intermediate to advanced users with the tools necessary to master the production process and create professional applications Ultimate resource-filled with developer¿s tips on managing file size and working with sound and interactivity features Includes CD-ROM featuring code from the book

This book provides the richest and most solid introduction to the exciting world of Flash applications, which are becoming increasingly popular as ways of presenting visually rich interfaces to useful data and services. Foundation Flash MX Applications supplies you with the knowledge, techniques, and skills that you need to help you plan, develop, and build Flash-based applications that you can deploy on the Web. In true Foundation series style, this book uses step-by-step exercises and a running case study to build skills that you can then apply to any Flash application you create. The emphasis in this book is on the generic skills and approaches that are essential in this field, rather than on shallow walk-throughs of trivial projects. You'll come away from this book with a deeper understanding of the issues (architectural, technical, process-related, design-oriented) that are key to developing successful Flash applications for the Web. This is the only book on the market that focuses on generic, transferable skills that are taught using a case study that'll really drive the learning home. If you want to really understand this subject, then this is the book for you. To get the most out of this book, we recommend that you already have a grasp of the Flash MX interface, as well as some ActionScript experience. Topics include: A full-length case study, creating a dynamic Flash message board application. Designing usable, scalable, and interactive Flash-based applications. Deploying XML for client/server communication. Using PHP as an intermediary between XML and back-end data storage. The MySQL database.

The Flash Reference You've Been Waiting For—Covers Flash MX 2004 and Flash MX Professional 2004 Flash MX 2004 at Your Fingertips is the first ever task-based reference to Flash. Every page of this unique, highly practical guide is focused on giving you immediate access to the information you need to get your work done fast. Inside you'll find: Complete explanations of the most common authoring and editing tasks and ActionScript techniques An intuitive organization that lets you search according to what you want to do Clear, step-by-step instructions At-a-glance shortcuts and time-saving tips A visual reference to the Flash MX 2004 interface This groundbreaking book was written by expert authors who share inside knowledge accumulated over years of intensive Flash use. Whatever your field or level of experience, whether working on the Mac or in Windows, you've found the Flash reference you've been waiting for.

The days of Flash as a creative luxury are long gone. After months of downsizing, Flash creativity has been on a huge rationalization program. It is no longer enough to present animation in millions of colors and a hundred transparencies. It is no longer sufficient to provide interactivity and dynamism for their own sake. The purpose of this collection is to show how designers have taken Flash and made it work for its supper. What we discover is a series of creations that place Flash at the hub of cutting edge web content. The end result is a snapshot of Flash as the ideal medium. In these amazing examples, we see the software pushed to its limits to create unbeatable applications—a collapsible family tree, an interactive video learning system, and a drawing tool, capable of running online! Beyond this, we dip into the back-end capabilities to look at how to improve Flash still further. Some staple XML and PHP routines are brought in to add a bit of spice, while Flash's mysterious sharedObject command is hunted down and tamed to create a hybrid Tamagotchi houseplant—perfectly suited to lure surfers back to your website!