If you want to create exciting dynamic web sites that will amaze your online audience, then the Flash platform is a great way to go, with it's many features, including powerful graphical and sound and video capabilities. To really harness the power of Flash though, you need to make use of ActionScript to provide dynamic effects, enable user interaction, and manipulate data.

ActionScript 3.0, the Flash Platform's scripting language, offers a lot of new and powerful features. ActionScript is now a full-fledged programming language, with complete object-oriented capabilities, improved event handling, sound and video support, drawing capabilities, support for regular expressions, and much more.

Whether you are a Flash designer wishing to add to your skill set or an experienced ActionScript developer who wants to get up to speed with the latest version, you'll find all you need to know in Foundation ActionScript 3.0 with Flash CS3 and Flex.

This book covers all the essential techniques from the ground up, allowing you to get up and running quickly and easily. Starting with the fundamentals, you'll learn about using ActionScript objects, manipulating sound and video, and harnessing the power of regular expressions and XML.

The book concludes with two case studies to consolidate what you've learned and to introduce some more advanced techniques. This will give you some grounding in the new and exciting world of ActionScript 3.0 and show you how it all fits together in larger applications, allowing you to go on and build your own professional sites.

The sensible layout of the book makes it easy to find information about specific techniques. It doesn't aim to be an exhaustive reference, but rather focuses on the essential skills that will enable you to get up and running more quickly. With this book as your guide, you'll be creating killer Flash applications before you know it

This is the first definitive and authoritative book available on ActionScript 3 animation techniques. ActionScript animation is a very popular discipline for Flash developers to learn. The essential skill set has been learned by many Flash developers through the first edition of this book. This has now been updated to ActionScript 3, Adobe's new and improved scripting language. All of the code has been updated, and some new techniques have been added to take advantage of ActionScript 3's new features, including the display list and new event architecture. The code can be used with the Flash 9 IDE, Flex Builder 2, or the free Flex 2 SDK.

Video is one of the most exciting features on today's Internet, with widespread adoption being made possible by advances in bandwidth and software. But simply streaming video clips to Web users is only the tip of the iceberg Flash CS3 offers a whole host of advanced video features, allowing you to create breathtaking user experiences. And this book, the 2nd edition of the critically-acclaimed Foundation Flash 8 Video, shows you how to make the most of video in Flash CS3. The authors start with the basics of creating video ready for use on the web using popular applications such as Windows Movie Maker and iMovie, creating FLV (Flash video) using both Flash and other applications such as Sorenson Squeeze, and importing that video into Flash. With that out the way, then turn their attention to essential practical techniques such as creating and customizing video players, applying blends and filters to Flash Video, effective use of video alpha channel and masks, captioning, cue points, interactivity using the Camera object, going full screen, and much more. This edition is fully-updated for Flash CS3 and ActionScript 3.0, and includes many new examples. Learn how to create video for the web using popular applications such as iMovie and Movie Maker, and turn it into Flash Video using Flash, and other tools such as Sorenson Squeeze Learn several essential practical techniques for manipulating video in Flash New edition fully-updated for Flash CS3 and ActionScript 3.0, with new examples What you'll learn All the essential video features of Flash CS3 and ActionScript 3.0 How to create video using iMovie and Windows Movie Maker How to process that video into Flash Video (FLV) usingFlash, Sorenson Squeeze, and Flix Pro How to create a video player and customize it How to apply fantastic filters and blend modes to your video How to use masks with video How to create applications with multiple videos How to allow the user to interact with your Flash using the camera object How to add captions to your video How to work will full screen video A whole host of tips and special effects Who is this book for? This book is for anyone who wants to learn Flash video from the ground up.

One of the more revolutionary parts of the MPEG-4 International Standard is the Face and Body Animation, or FBA: the specification for efficient coding of shape and animation of human faces and bodies. This specification is a result of collaboration of experts with different backgrounds ranging from image coding and compression to video analysis, computer graphics, as well as speech analysis and synthesis, all sharing a common interest in computer simulation of humans. This book concentrates on the animation of faces.

Features include:

• Sets the MPEG-4 FA specification against the historical background of research on facial animation and model-based coding and provides a brief history of the development of the standard itself.

• Comprehensive overview of the FA specification with the goal of helping the reader understand how the standard works, what the thinking is behind it, and how it is intended be used.

• Covers the implementation of the standard on both the encoding and decoding side. Presents several face animation techniques for MPEG-4 FA decoders, as well as architectures for building applications based on the standard.

• Brings together a collection of applications using the MPEG-4 FA specification.

• Includes a standard benchmark method for assessing the quality of MPEG-4 FA decoders.

Data-Driven 3D Facial Animation systematically describes the important techniques developed over the last ten years or so. Although 3D facial animation is used more and more in the entertainment industries, to date there have been very few books that address the techniques involved. Comprehensive in scope, the book covers not only traditional lip-sync (speech animation), but also expressive facial motion, facial gestures, facial modeling, editing and sketching, and facial animation transferring. It provides an up-to-date reference source for academic research and for professionals working in the facial animation field. An edited volume, the book brings together contributions from leading researchers and practitioners working in both academia and in the leading animation studios.

Whether you are an experienced Flash designer or developer looking for a guide to doing animation in Flash, or a novice to Flash who is looking for an effective way to create and distribute animations, this book will prove invaluable to you. Covering every aspect of Flash animation, the book is a fast-paced yet thorough review of the Flash animation process. Written by the Emmy-Award winning team at ANIMAX, this book not only reveals the step-by-step process followed by one of today's leading Flash animation studios, it gives you valuable tips and tricks to take your Flash animation to the next level. Divided into three phases of production (pre-production, animation, post-production) this book breaks the Flash animation process into smaller, more manageable steps. And because the authors approach the animation process from various perspectives (such as producer, animator, and editor) the book balances many of the real-world issues facing today's Flash animators, from artistic to technical to financial. The book starts off by looking at planning and designing an animation project, including working out your goals, and putting together character libraries and storyboards. Next up we look at the production phase, which includes using plug-ins to make your work more efficient, implementing your animation, and adding special effects. Finally, we look at post-production work, including how After Effects can be used effectively alongside Flash for tasks such as camera mechanics, how to make Flash not look like Flash, and tips and tricks from the experts. Whatever the reason, like millions of others around the world you've become interested in Flash animation. And you've come to the rightplace to learn more. This book is compatible with pretty much any fairly recent version of Flash. Covers the full process of Flash animation, through preproduction, production, and post production Covers many practical techniques, including creating character libraries, using plugins, and camera mechanics with After Effects. Written by the Emmy award winning ANIMAX studios team What you'll learn How to effectively plan an animation project How to put together storyboards How to create elegant character libraries How to set up your .fla file, ready for animation to commence How to make more efficient use of your time with plugins, where to find good plugins, and how to create your own How to animate, frame by frame, or using tweens Why After Effects can be better than Flash for some tasks. Effective After Effects Techniques, such as camera mechanics How to make Flash not look like Flash

This book examines the life and animated art of the late Adam K. Beckett. Beckett is known for his six award-winning animations, made between the years 1972-1975, that were ground-breaking at the time and that continue to influence artists today. He is also recognized for his contributions to the first Star Wars movie, as he was head of the animation and rotoscoping area. Beckett was a shooting star during a critical time of change; an innovative genius as well as a unique and compelling character. His life and work illuminates significant social and cultural changes of that time: the emerging independent animation movement of the 1970s in the United States; the rebirth of the visual effects industry; the intersection of animation with newly developed video imaging and computer graphics; and the intense Cultural Revolution that occurred in the 1960s. Beckett's work in animation and effects was pioneering. His premature death cemented his mythic reputation as a larger than life artist and personality. Key Features: A comprehensive biography of Adam Beckett, based on original research Photographs of and drawings by Beckett that are not yet published or available Critical look at his six primary films that include insight into his techniques and process Insight into the re-emerging visual effects field, through Beckett's work at Robert Abel and Associations and Industrial Light and Magic The emergence of a "golden age" of independent animation in the United States Key Features A comprehensive biography of Adam Beckett, based on original research Photographs of and drawings by Beckett that are not yet published or available Critical look at his six primary films that include insight into his techniques and process Insight into the re-emergin visual effects field, through Beckett's work at Robert Abel and Associations and Industrial Light and Magic The emergence of a "golden age" of independent animation in the United States

All professional animators know a handful of secrets that give them an edge in a production environment. "How to Cheat in Maya" puts these secrets in your hands! Learn time and energy-saving techniques tested in real Hollywood productions in this book, jam-packed with screenshots and scene files designed to get you up to speed quickly. From menus to modeling, lipsync to lighting, How to Cheat in Maya 2014 covers all of the methods available in the latest version of Maya. Get up to speed quickly and produce stellar results with these insider workflows. With new, updated cheats for the latest version of Maya, How to Cheat in Maya 2014 is an essential guide for amateur and professional 3D animators alike. Fully updated with gold-mine coverage including: expanded sections on production workflow, all new chapters covering rigging cheats and Maya's referencing tools, and brand new project files demonstrating production-proven techniques. The companion website includes complete scene files for exercises and techniques, extra rigs, Quicktime movies of full projects, and video tutorials.

Here are the refereed proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Image and Video Retrieval, CIVR 2006, held in Singapore in July 2006. Presents 18 revised full papers and 30 poster papers, together with extended abstracts of 5 papers of 1 special session and those of 10 demonstration papers. These cover interactive image and video retrieval, semantic image retrieval, visual feature analysis, learning and classification, image and video retrieval metrics, and machine tagging.

This book is a creative and practical introduction to the field of digital media for future designers, artists, and media professionals. It addresses the evolution of the field, its connections with traditional media, up-to-date developments, and possibilities for future directions. Logically organized and thoughtfully illustrated, it provides a welcoming guide to this emerging discipline. Describing each medium in detail, chapters trace their history, evolution, and potential applications. The book also explains important, relevant technologies-such as digitizing tablets, cloud storage, and 3-D printers-as well as new and emerging media like augmented and virtual reality. With a focus on concepts and creative possibilities, the text's software-neutral exercises provide hands-on experiences with each of the media. The book also examines legal, ethical, and technical issues in digital media, explores career possibilities, and features profiles of pioneers and digital media professionals. Digital Media Foundations is an ideal resource for students, new professionals, and instructors involved in fields of graphic and visual arts, design, and the history of art and design.

Sure you can animate using motion tweens, in fact we'll help you do that with our Flash Cartoon Animation book, but isn't there something extra special in making things move with just a few lines of code? In this book Keith Peters guides us through some basic animation theory and then demystifies the math and physics behind creating realistic animation, looking at trigonometry, velocity and acceleration, and bouncing & friction. This book will teach you how to use Flash ActionScript to move the objects in your movies, rather than letting Flashs tween engine do it for you. The benefit of this is smaller, more realistic, more dynamic interactive movies that seem to come alive on your screen. Almost all of the code featured in this book will work fine in either Flash MX 2004 or Flash 8, and with a few minor adjustments, most of it can even be applied to Flash MX. Although the text covers many advanced math and physics concepts, making for very realistic motion, theres no need to worry, even if youre a relative newcomer to programming and the last math class you took was in high school (and even if you barely remember that!). This book first covers everything you need to know to get started: the principles of animation, and the basics of ActionScript, trigonometry, and Flash rendering methods. Youll work your way slowly from using code to move a single object across the screen to creating complex systems that really push Flashs capabilities with topics covered including collision detection, particle attraction, and kinematics. The book concludes with looking at 3D animation techniques, including building a basic 3D engine, 3D lines, fills and solids, and matrix math. Once you come to gripswith the ideas presented here, youll find yourself creating all manner of exciting animations and games! Summary of Contents Part I ActionScripted Animation Basics Ch. 1 Basic Animation Concepts Ch. 2 ActionScript Basics for Animation Ch. 3 Trigonometry Ch. 4 Rendering Techniques Part II Basic Motion Ch. 5 Velocity and Acceleration Ch. 6 Bouncing and Friction Ch. 7 User Interaction: Dragging and Throwing Part III Advanced Motion Ch. 8 Easing and Springs Ch. 9 Collision Detection Ch. 10 Bouncing off Angles Ch. 11 Billiard Ball Physics Ch. 12 Particle Attraction Ch. 13 Forward Kinematics Ch. 14 Inverse Kinematics Part IV Three D Ch. 15 A Basic 3D Engine Ch. 16 3D Lines, Fills, Solids Ch. 17 Advanced 3D: Backface Culling and Lighting Ch. 18 Matrix Math Part V Tips and Tricks Ch. 19 Tips and Tricks

Video games have become the world's largest leading cultural product. Though disputed in the past, the narrative qualities of video games have finally secured distinction in the realm of art. This is especially true for interactive games. Writing an Interactive Story will help the reader in navigating the creation process of interactive scripts, in addition to discovering behind the scenes narrative choices of renowned games, and will help you to harness your inner creativity. Guided by master interactive scriptwriters, the text presents its content in the form of a unique writing workshop. With interactive game writing, the player becomes the star of the work. Thanks to this method of storytelling, the morals of the game become resonant. This is because the weight of the narrative's choices and consequences rest fully upon the player. It's the ultimate narrative. Whether you are a video game enthusiast, student, or professional, discover how to create a more immersive personalized experience than ever before and give your players the opportunity to write their own destiny through their choices. The methods, strategies, and secrets of this new art await you. Features exclusive interviews with: David Cage - BAFTA Award for Best Story - Heavy Rain Jean-Luc Cano - BAFTA Award for Best Story - Life Is Strange Joe Penny, David Bowman - Telltale's The Wolf Among Us, The Walking Dead Benjamin Diebling - Beyond Two Souls, Detroit: Become Human Erwan Le Breton - Ubisoft Thomas Veauclin- The Council Fibre Tigre - Out There

It was our great pleasure to host the 4th International Conference on Image and Video Retrieval (CIVR) at the National University of Singapore on 20 22 July 2005. CIVR aims to provide an international forum for the discussion of research challenges and exchange of ideas among researchers and practitioners in image/video retrieval technologies. It addresses innovative research in the broad ?eld of image and video retrieval. A unique feature of this conference is the high level of participation by researchers from both academia and industry. Another unique feature of CIVR this year was in its format it o?ered both the traditional oral presentation sessions, as well as the short presentation cum poster sessions. The latter provided an informal alternative forum for animated discussions and exchanges of ideas among the participants. We are pleased to note that interest in CIVR has grown over the years. The number of submissions has steadily increased from 82 in 2002, to 119 in 2003, and 125 in 2004. This year, we received 128 submissions from the international communities: with81(63.3%)fromAsiaandAustralia,25(19.5%)fromEurope, and 22 (17.2%) from North America. After a rigorous review process, 20 papers were accepted for oral presentations, and 42 papers were accepted for poster presentations. In addition to the accepted submitted papers, the program also included 4 invited papers, 1 keynote industrial paper, and 4 invited industrial papers. Altogether, we o?ered a diverse and interesting program, addressing the current interests and future trends in this area."

Learn Programming with Flash MX employs a truly unique class-based approach to learning with the goal of establishing core, generic-programming skills. Each chapter represents a discrete lesson covering a distinct topic of programming with ActionScript. In each 'class' we smoothly blend theory and practice with plentiful practical examples, and a class project that runs through the book to reinforce the learning in an integrated, real-world context, using Flash MX as the illustrative vehicle.This book also addresses the shortfall in solid programming knowledge in significant segments of the web design community - specifically, traditional web designers and Flash users with no exposure to the programming world. It also assumes that the reader is a Flash novice, so if you're coming to Flash completely from scratch, this book will give you a broad and solid introduction enabling you to create aesthetically pleasing, well laid-out content glued together with robust coding techniques. and skills that every programmer needs to master in order to create well-structured and efficient code to a professional standard. Readers will come away from this book with the following: - A rich, solid understanding of the concepts and basic processes of programming that will enable them to explore Flash and other technologies with a degree of confidence that they didn't have before. - Insights into universally applicable programming processes and techniques. - An understanding of how to implement these principles in Flash MX

Situational Design lays out a new methodology for designing and critiquing videogames. While most game design books focus on games as formal systems, Situational Design concentrates squarely on player experience. It looks at how playfulness is not a property of a game considered in isolation, but rather the result of the intersection of a game with an appropriate player. Starting from simple concepts, the book advances step-by-step to build up a set of practical tools for designing player-centric playful situations. While these tools provide a fresh perspective on familiar design challenges as well as those overlooked by more transactional design paradigms. Key Features Introduces a new methodology of game design that concentrates on moment-to-moment player experience Provides practical design heuristics for designing playful situations in all types of games Offers groundbreaking techniques for designing non-interactive play spaces Teaches designers how to create games that function as performances Provides a roadmap for the evolution of games as an art form.

Although Macromedia Flash is primarily used as an animation tool, information technology consultant Jerke and graphic designer and software developer Beard argue that it is also a useful database interface tool. They provide an introduction to working with Flash and databases, describing how to set up the environment, setting up the Web server and

Macromedia Director 8.5 provides an exciting environment for composing interactive, attractive and media rich movies suitable for the web. Starting with an introduction to the development environment, Fiaz Hussain presents a quick and effective guide to the powerful components that make up Macromedia Director 8.5. Using a hands-on approach, with plenty of illustrations, Essential Director 8.5 fast:- Introduces the panels, windows and tools required for producing attractive and informative movies - Explains the role of casts and sprites in making appealing movies - Shows various ways of designing, developing and publishing animations - Demonstrates how different media types can be integrated to create lively movies - Illustrates the use of behaviours to add interactivity and dynamism in movies - Provides a quick guide to producing Shockwave movies suitable for web delivery Essential Director 8.5 fast gives an easy explanation of the basic tools needed to create dazzling entertainment, interactive product demonstrations and learning applications suitable for corporate web sites. Examples used in the book can be found in the accompanying Essential series web site http://www.essential-series.com

Composition for the 21st 1/2 century: Image-Making for Animation focuses on composition and its technical and artistic application in animation, illustration, games, and films. It covers all aspects of design and discusses in detail their artistic applicability and impact on image and narrative. Emphasis is placed on the ability of each aspect to support and affect the narrative. Additional case studies explain the successful use of these concepts in films and animation. This book is geared toward students; however, it is also reader-friendly for professionals. Composition for the 21st 1/2 century: Image-Making for Animation's goal is to comprehend composition as an artistic tool and as a significant part of the professional image-making process. Key Features: Teaches the complexity of composition in image-making. Closes the gap between praxis and theory in animation. Explains how to produce images that support the narrative in their visuals. Discusses the need for artistic reasoning in image-making. Presents case studies that assist the reader in understanding the process as they progress through this book. Author Bio: For more than twenty years, Thomas Paul Thesen's career has been about learning and understanding the complexities of art, animation, and image-making, both in still illustration, drawing, and photography, and in the moving image. He has worked in the industry as a character animator and visual development artist for companies such as Pixar, DreamWorks, and Sprite Animation Studios. He has also taught for many years at universities across Asia, the USA, and the UK.

Composition for the 21st 1/2 century: Characters in Animation focuses on characters and their application in animation, illustration, games, and films. It covers various technical aspects of character design and their artistic applicability. This book analyzes in detail the purpose of these character design features and provides examples of their impact. Emphasis is placed on each aspect and how it affects and is affected by the narrative. Additionally, complex case studies that assist in explaining the successful use of these concepts in films and animation are included. This book is geared toward students; however, it is also reader-friendly for professionals. Composition for the 21st 1/2 century: Characters in Animation's goal is to comprehend composition as an artistic tool and as a significant part of the professional character design process. Key Features: Teaches the complexity of composition in the professional character design process. Closes the gap between praxis and theory in character design. Explains how to produce believable characters that express their narrative in the visuals. Discusses the need for artistic reasoning in character design. Presents case studies to assist readers in understanding the process as they progress through this book. Author Bio: For more than twenty years, Thomas Paul Thesen's career has been about learning and understanding the complexities of art, animation, and image-making, both in still illustration, drawing, and photography and in the moving image. He has worked in the industry as a character animator and visual development artist for companies such as Pixar, DreamWorks, and Sprite Animation Studios. He has also taught for many years at universities across Asia, the USA, and the UK.

Interaction for Designers shows you how to connect a product with its users, whether it's a simple toaster, a complex ecosystem of intelligent devices, or a single app on your smartphone. This book covers the entire design process so you can start with an idea and carry it through to an engaging final design. It carefully leads you step by step and richly illustrates each stage with examples drawn from business communication, social media and the social economy, consumer electronics, architecture and environments, health care, psychology, art and culture, education, athletics, automotive design, entertainment, fashion, the family home, and a wealth of others. You'll learn how to brainstorm ideas, research them, explore them, evolve them into finished designs, pitch them, all with the goal of helping you make things that people love. Includes over 200 color images, a glossary, and links to web resources highlighting design concepts and designer interviews. http://interactionfordesigners.com/

Game AI Pro3: Collected Wisdom of Game AI Professionals presents state-of-the-art tips, tricks, and techniques drawn from developers of shipped commercial games as well as some of the best-known academics in the field. This book acts as a toolbox of proven techniques coupled with the newest advances in game AI. These techniques can be applied to almost any game and include topics such as behavior trees, utility theory, path planning, character behavior, and tactical reasoning. KEY FEATURES Contains 42 chapters from 50 of the game industry's top developers and researchers. Provides real-life case studies of game AI in published commercial games. Covers a wide range of AI in games, with topics applicable to almost any game. Includes downloadable demos and/or source code, available at http://www.gameaipro.com SECTION EDITORS Neil Kirby General Wisdom Alex Champandard Architecture Nathan Sturtevant Movement and Pathfinding Damian Isla Character Behavior Kevin Dill Tactics and Strategy; Odds and Ends

The Routledge Companion to Critical Approaches to Contemporary Architecture convenes a wide array of critical voices from architecture, art history, urbanism, geography, anthropology, media and performance studies, computer science, bio-engineering, environmental studies, and sociology that help us understand the meaning and significance of global architecture of the twenty-first century. New chapters by 36 contributors illustrated with over 140 black-and-white images are assembled in six parts concerning both real and virtual spaces: design, materiality, alterity, technologies, cityscapes, and practice.

The book contains 16 papers and one invited talk presenting the latest research in computer animation and simulation. Special focus is given on the modelling and animation of complex phenomena. This includes the modelling of virtual creatures-from their body-parts to the control of their behaviour-and the nomination of natural phenomena such as water, smoke, fire, and vegetation.

Create imaginative and lively animation for the web with Essential Flash 5.0 fast!The latest release of Macromedia's Flash, version 5.0, adds new features to the popular web applications software - such as enhanced colour controls, better selection highlights, draggable guides, pen tool, shared libraries, new panels, and expanded ActionScript capabilities. Essential Flash 5.0 fast provides a simple yet thorough introduction to the world of Flash. With clear and concise examples, Fiaz Hussain explains: - The Flash development environment- How to create simple and complex objects- Using the shape editing tools and colour- All about symbols and their instances- Layers and animation- Interactivity, including ActionScripting- How to optimise Flash movies for fast downloads

This book presents state-of-the-art methods in computer graphics rendering. The 29 papers in this volume were selected after careful review by an international committee of experts. Included are a wide variety topics related to the generation of synthetic images: methods for local and global illumination, techniques for acquisition and modeling from images, image-based rendering, new image representations, hardware assisted methods, perception, shadow algorithms, visibility, texturing, and filtering.