Book Description

Physics for Flash Games, Animation, and Simulations teaches ActionScript programmers how to incorporate real physics into their Flash animations, games, user interfaces, and simulations.

• Introduces Flash physics in an accurate, but approachable way, covering what is required to produce physically realistic simulations (as opposed to animations that look roughly right)
• Packed full of practical examples of how physics can be applied to your own games and applications
• Addresses the diverse needs of game developers, animators, artists, and e-learning developers

The book assumes a basic knowledge of ActionScript and Flash. However, no previous knowledge of physics is required—only some very basic math skills. The authors present everything from basic principles to advanced concepts, so you’ll be able to follow the logic and easily adapt the principles to your own applications. The book builds on your physics knowledge, enabling you to create not only visual effects, but also more complex models and simulations.

What you’ll learn

• Basic math and physics you’ll need to incorporate realism into your games, animations and simulations
• How to incorporate a wide range of forces, including environmental forces such as gravity and friction, and forces due to fluids, such as drag and upthrust
• How to build a number of realistic simulations, like submarines and flight simulators Download Now »

Book Description

Starling is an ActionScript 3 2D framework developed on top of the Stage3D APIs (available on desktop in Flash Player 11 and Adobe AIR 3). Starling is mainly designed for game development, but could be used for many other use cases. Starling makes it possible to write fast GPU accelerated applications without having to touch the low-level Stage3D APIs.

Most Flash developers want to be able to leverage GPU acceleration (through Stage3D) without the need to write such higher-level frameworks and dig into the low-level Stage3D APIs. Starling is completely designed after the Flash Player APIs and abstracts the complexity of Stage3D (Molehill) and allows easy and intuitive programming for everyone.

Obviously Starling is for ActionScript 3 developers, especially those involved in 2D game development; of course you will need to have a basic understanding of ActionScript 3. By its design (lightweight, flexible and simple), Starling can be used also be used for other use cases like UI programming. That said, everything is designed to be as intuitive as possible, so any Java™ or .Net™ developer will get the hang of it quickly as well.

About the Author
Thibault Imbert is a Flash Player product manager focused on graphics and rendering. After a few years working for different French agencies as a Flash developer, Thibault became an Adobe Certified Instructor in Paris where he taught ActionScript at an Adobe training center. Download Now »

Book Description

AdvancED ActionScript 3.0 is a fresh look and new approach to utilizing valuable, structural techniques and methods that are commonly used in the field of rich interactive application development. With each method broken down into different strategized explanations, you’ll find the approach most suitable for you. Whether it is an example you can utilize as-is, or one you can start with and develop further, you will have a glossary of definitions and organizational concepts at your fingertips.

Object-oriented programming (OOP) and design patterns are not new to the field, but can often be overlooked in their value. They are, at times, not only overwhelming to learn, but difficult to put into practice. However, they are useful because they create a structure that can be broken down, rebuilt, and reused.

• Provides the building blocks required for the implementation of OOP
• Addresses problems and concerns regarding OOP
• Offers solutions on how to approach and utilize OOP

What you’ll learn

• Understand the benefits of OOP
• How to structure code
• Explore new techniques
• Recognize patterns used by professionals in the field Download Now »

Book Description

Creating standards-compliant animations for the Web just got a lot easier. With this concise guide, you’ll learn how to convert Flash animations into HTML5, using Wallaby—the experimental tool from Adobe. Wallaby makes Flash content available for devices that don’t support Flash runtimes, including the iPhone and iPad.

Developing HTML5 animations is time-consuming with all the coding required. This book shows you how to create compelling content for HTML5 environments with relative ease, whether you know Flash or not. After a quick introduction to simple animation building with Flash, you’ll learn how Wallaby helps you convert those animations into HTML5 code.

• Learn how to create a simple Flash animation, using Flash Professional CS5
• Become familiar with the Flash Library, Stage drawing canvas, and animation Timeline
• Take the right approach to building a complex Flash animation for HTML5
• Get performance tips to optimize animations for desktops and mobile devices
• Use simple JavaScript and CSS code to place the Wallaby animation in a web page
• Add interactivity to your HTML5 animation with jQuery

About the Author
Ian McLean is a Flash Platform enthusiast, speaker and technical writer who has been building enterprise applications for over 10 years. An expert in Flex and AIR Ian is also maintains a strong interest in emerging development tools, processes and practices. Download Now »

Book Description

Did you know you can take your Flash skills beyond the browser, allowing you to make apps for Android, iOS and the BlackBerry Tablet OS? Build dynamic apps today starting with the easy-to-use Android smartphones and tablets. Then, take your app to other platforms without writing native code.

Pro Android Flash is the definitive guide to building Flash and other rich Internet applications (RIAs) on the Android platform. It covers the most popular RIA frameworks for Android developers—Flash and Flex—and shows how to build rich, immersive user experiences on both Android smartphones and tablets. You’ll learn how to incorporate multimedia, animation, and special effects into your apps for maximum visual appeal. You’ll also cover advanced topics, including input methods, hardware inputs, deployment, and performance optimization.

What you’ll learn

• Deployment of Flash and Flex to Android
• How to take your desktop RIAs and adapt them for mobile devices
• How to integrate Android hardware inputs from the camera, GPS, compass, and accelerometer
• How to build an immersive user interface using Android audio and video assets
• How to integrate styling and artifacts from a professional designer
• Best practices for mobile performance tuning and optimization

Who this book is for
This book is intended for developers who are looking to build rich Internet applications (RIAs) for the Android platform, especially Flash and Flex. Download Now »

Book Description

Flash has now arrived to Android — the fastest growing smartphone platform. This offers massive opportunities for Flash developers who want to get into mobile development. At the same time, working on smartphones will introduce new challenges and issues that Flash developers may not be familiar with.

The Flash Development for Android Cookbook enables Flash developers to branch out into Android mobile applications through a set of essential, easily demonstrable recipes. It takes you through the entire development workflow: from setting up a local development environment, to developing and testing your application, to compiling for distribution to the ever-growing Android Market.

The Flash Development for Android Cookbook starts off with recipes that cover development environment configuration as well as mobile project creation and conversion. It then moves on to exciting topics such as the use of touch and gestures, responding to device movement in 3D space, working with multimedia, and handling application layout. Essential tasks such as tapping into native processes and manipulating the file system are also covered. We then move on to some cool advanced stuff such as Android-specific device permissions, application debugging and optimization techniques, and the packaging and distribution options available on the mobile Android platform.

In a nutshell, this cookbook enables you to get quickly up to speed with mobile Android development using the Flash Platform in ways that are meaningful and immediately applicable to the rapidly growing area of mobile application development. Download Now »