Book description
If you've ever seen an especially cool Flash effect on the web, gone straight to your trusty Flash book to find out how to do it, then turned away empty-handed--Flash Hacks is for you. This unique book offers a collection of expert Flash tips and tricks for optimization, creating interesting effects, ActionScript programming, sound and video effects, and much more--and you don't need to be an expert to use them (although you'll certainly look like one).With Flash technology, you can create compelling web content, expressive user interfaces, and rich applications for the Internet--all of which dramatically enhance the user experience. But Flash is not just practical, it's a wellspring of opportunities to unleash your creativity and have fun. Flash Hacks dives straight into all that's fun and creative about Flash, while presenting useful programming techniques and practical--although never mundane--hacks that can make your work easier.Geared to cover Flash MX, Flash MX 2004, and Flash MX Professional 2004, Flash Hacks begins with hacks on authoring, testing, and web environments. You'll learn how to beat the Flash bloat bug, realistically simulate the web, create a JavaScript-free Flash sniffer, and hack a spellchecker for Flash. Other hacks in the book are grouped in the following areas:
- Primitives
- Timelines
- Symbols
- Flash Assets (sound, video, and bitmaps)
- Code hacks
- Events and event handling
- Advanced animation
- UI design hacks
Table of contents
- Contents
- Foreword
- Credits
- Preface
- Visual Effects
- Color Effects
-
Drawing and Masking
- Create Filled Circles Quickly at Runtime
- Create Synthetic Art
- Create Seamless Tiles
- Fill Areas with Patterns
- Imitate Escher
- Fix Alpha Property Inaccuracies
- Use Complex Shapes as Masks
- Interference Patterns and Ripple Effects
- Feather Bitmap Edges
- Add a Vector Edge to a Bitmap
- Solve the Bitmap-Shift Bug
- A Page-Turn Effect (Exploit Symmetry and Masking)
- Animation
- 3D and Physics
- Text
- Sound
- User Interface Elements
-
Performance and Optimization
- Optimize Filesize and Download Time
- Optimize Graphics
- Increase Code Performance
- Beat Flash File Bloat
- Bandwidth Testing for Complex Sites
- Hide Low-Quality Settings
- Optimize Graphics for Performance
- Benchmark Runtime Performance
- Adjust the Animation Complexity Dynamically
- Performance Budget
- Substitute Bitmaps for Vectors
- Optimize Component Downloading and Usage
-
ActionScript
- Changes in Flash MX 2004
- External Script Editors
- Strict Typing and Casual Scripters
- Code Hints
- Clone an Object
- An Idle Timer (Timeout Event)
- Fast ActionScript Searches
- Lock the actions Layer
- Debug with trace( )
- Undocumented ActionScript
- ASnative( ) Back Door
- Obscure Operators
- Import ASC Files as XML
-
Browser Integration
- Keep Your Site Browser Friendly
- A Universal Flash Plugin Sniffer
- Test Multiple Flash Plugins
- Preferences and Publishing Defaults
- Center Your SWF Without Scaling
- CSS-Based Browser Centering
- Dynamically Resize Content
- Create HTML Links in Flash
- Integrate the Back Button with Flash
- Give the Flash SWF Keyboard Focus
- Add Key Shortcuts to Your Site
- Security
- Index (1/4)
- Index (2/4)
- Index (3/4)
- Index (4/4)
Product information
- Title: Flash Hacks
- Author(s):
- Release date: June 2004
- Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
- ISBN: 9780596153540
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