Flex 2 represents something of a revolution in web applications. It is the next evolutionary step of Flash, which has grown from a web animation tool to a powerful enterprise web design and development tool with nearly 98% of all web browsers and cellular phones running the Flash player needed to use Flash and Flex applications, knowledge of Flex is indispensable for any serious web designer and developer. This book will show you how to create powerful, rich Internet applications using Flex 2 and ActionScript 3.0. After learning how to install and becoming familiar with the basics of the Flex Builder 2 software, you will explore in depth how ActionScript 3.0 interacts with Flexs powerful XML-like design language: MXML. the text will take you through all the powerful features of Flex using a series of strictly practical exercises.

Are you ready to jump into the world of game development? "Game Development with ActionScript" is the guide that can show you the way! You?ll cover the basics of programming with ActionScript and will explore the incredible development possibilities offered by Macromedia Flash MX 2004. You'll develop the animation techniques you need to keep players coming back for more. Transform your game as you learn how ActionScript can be used to create amazing sound effects that flow seamlessly into your game?s script. When you?re ready, move on to advanced math and components topics that can take your game to new levels of realism. By the time you're finished, you'll be able to put everything you've learned together and begin creating amazing, eye-popping games!

There are a number of manuals available on Flash, but too many of them get bogged down in details about ActionScript or interactivity. Frustrated with wading through such information in other Flash manuals, author/illustrator Mark Stephen Smith set out to make the book he wished he had when he started learning Flash. This book is both a practical primer in the fundamentals of classical, hand-drawn 2D screen animation and a basic introduction to Flash's expert handling of recyclable symbols that make independent, web, and television animation both more affordable and more efficient. It is conveniently divided into two parts. Part I is for those who are new to the terms and techniques of hand-drawn animation, character design, and storyboards. Part II covers scanning and digitizing artwork into Flash, as well as setting up scenes and symbols.

This is the definitive exam study guide that will help you review what you need to know to pass the Certified Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 Developer Exam. Designed specifically to simplify exam preparation for intermediate to advanced Dreamweaver developers, each subject is presented in clear and direct language, with useful and well-explained code examples. The guide includes 24 concise, focused chapters with extensive notes, tips, and cautions. Each chapter concludes with sample questions and answers designed to facilitate review.

Intermediate Dreamweaver developers will get the grounding they need to complete the Macromedia certification process, and veteran users will find coverage of all the new Dreamweaver 8 features you need to keep your certification up to date: visual authoring with XML data, improved CSS support for media types (unified panel, rendering improvements, layout visualization, and style rendering toolbar), integrated accessibility, improved WebDAV, and more.

Understand MXML containers Create transitions
Create data-driven applications with XML
Interface Flex with ColdFusion
Understand the power of states

Flex 2 represents something of a revolution in web applications. It is the next evolutionary step of Flash, which has grown from a web animation tool to a powerful enterprise web design and development tool. with nearly 98% of all web browsers and cellular phones running the Flash player needed to use Flash and Flex applications, knowledge of Flex is indispensable for any serious web designer and developer.

This book will show you how to create powerful, rich Internet applications using Flex 2 and ActionScript 3.0. After learning how to install and becoming familiar with the basics of the Flex Builder 2 software, you will explore in depth how ActionScript 3.0 interacts with Flex’s powerful XML-like design language: MXML. the text will take you through all the powerful features of Flex using a series of strictly practical exercises.

Foundation Flash 8 is the book you need if you're looking for a solid foundation in Flash 8 Basic and Flash 8 Professional.

Thousands upon thousands of designers have already learned from its previous editions and it's easy to understand why.

The fourth edition of friends of ED's legendary beginner Flash book, Foundation Flash 8 uses a series of structured exercises and detailed discussions to help you start your exploration of Flash. The detailed tutorial style will ensure that you retain the knowledge you gain and are able to draw upon it throughout your Flash career. Foundation Flash 8 features a running case study that evolves into a fully functional Flash website as you work through the tutorials, so you'll immediately see everything that you learn being used in a practical project.

This book focuses on the core skills that you need to get started working with Flash 8: understanding the interface, becoming familiar with the creative tools and their capabilities, grasping the relationships between the different components that make up a Flash movie, and getting insight into how to put all the pieces together to create your own Flash-based website.

Video is one of the hottest things on the Web today, and a lot of web developers want to use it to produce mind-blowing interactive experiences for their users. However, there is a shortage of information on how best to do this; friends of ED aims to remedy this with books like From After Effects to Flash: Poetry in Motion Graphics.
After Effects ands Flash represent the most obvious choice of technologies to work with web video–After Effects is one of the most popular video editing tools available, and Flash provides the perfect platform for deploying video on the Web easily and efficiently.

This book, which supports the latest versions of After Effects and Flash, provides the world's first and best guide to marrying these two technologies together, starting by taking you through the creation of a video project from concept right through to upload, with emphasis on making your workflow as efficient as possible. The rest of the book focuses on specific techniques and special effects that you can walk through and build and then adapt for use on your own projects.

In this book you'll learn: -The essentials of Flash Lite 1.1 and 2.X -How to create mobile applications and games -Best practices for structuring your mobile applications, from starting out to final deployment -How to integrate graphics, sound, and video into your mobile content
-How to consume live data over HTTP and socket connections and make use of phone-specific features
With a growing number of mobile devices offering Flash support, it is an increasingly viable platform for the development of mobile applications. Foundation Flash Applications for Mobile Devices is just the book you need to learn how to take advantage of this new audience of mobile application users. Inside, it covers every facet of mobile Flash, from the essentials of the Flash Lite 1.1 and 2.X platforms and writing applications to testing your work and deploying to mobile users.

Foundation PHP for Flash shows how to add dynamic content to Flash movies, by using PHP server-side scripting and the MySQL open-source database. Some knowledge of Flash is assumed, but PHP and MySQL are explained from scratch.
The advantage of combining these technologies is that Flash movies can interact with data on the Web server. A simple example, explained in the first chapter, is a user registration form. On the Flash side, ActionScript is the key ingredient that makes this kind of interaction possible. The author begins by showing how to send and receive external data from Flash movies. Next comes an introduction to PHP, from the basics of variables, statements and operators, through to functions, string handling, and regular expressions. There is also a chapter on cookie handling, often a vital part of a Web application. A mailing list example illustrates how to access external files from Flash and PHP. Finally the book introduces MySQL, showing how to get started with a system for serving up dynamic news items. That leaves space for three extensive case studies: online voting, an event planner, and a discussion forum. An appendix covers installation, and offers a brief guide to object-oriented programming.

With its friendly approach and practical examples, this is an excellent book for Flash designers looking to get started with dynamic content. It is not so good for existing PHP developers, as much of the material will already be familiar. Flash and PHP are a great combination, and this title offers plenty of ideas that you can take up in your own projects.

Today's ActionScript-based applications require increasingly sophisticated architectures and code. This book aids intermediate and advanced ActionScript developers in  learning how to plan and build applications more effectively. You'll learn how to apply design patterns as solutions to common programming scenarios. Beyond a reference, Advanced ActionScript with Design Patterns is a practical guide complete with sample mini-applications illustrating each design pattern. The accompanying CD includes a trial version of Flash 8 along with all the lesson files needed to work with the text.