books tagged “flash”

This collection of short-short fiction by Michael Swanwick contains more than 70 stories in fewer than 100 pages. Often humorous, sometimes chilling, always entertaining, these are prime examples of a recently resurrected literary form. The title piece is a five-minute condensation of a classic of Western literature, featuring a cigar-cutter as Mephistopheles, a box of matches in the roles of Helen of Troy, an Angel of the Lord, the Light of Ontology, and a cigar as Faust himself. Swanwick's bravura imagination has resulted in a separate story for every letter of the alphabet and another set of tales for every planet in the solar system. Additionally, there is a clutch of alternate autobiographies, a novella of decadence and corporate politics in a future Venice that has been boiled down to 416 words, Picasso and Philip K. Dick as existential heroes, and a rhyme for orange. [via]

Face it: Poorly designed, static Web sites just don't cut it anymore. The Web (not to mention the technology surrounding it) has been around long enough, and people are used to seeing and expect a little razzle-dazzle when they go online. For just $12.99, this compact guide shows you how to deliver it! Whether your boss wants you to jazz up the company's Web site or you're burning the midnight oil trying to pull together some Web animations for a class project, this tightly focused, project-based guide shows you how to start creating Flash animations in an instant! Using big, bold full- pictures and streamlined instructions, it covers just the need-to-know essentials that will get you animating with the latest version of Flash: using the Flash 8 authoring tool, creating and animating graphics, tweening, adding sound, and more! [via]

Face it: Poorly designed, static Web sites just don't cut it anymore. The Web (not to mention the technology surrounding it) has been around long enough, and people have grown accustomed enough to dealing with it, that folks want (and expect) a little razzle-dazzle when they go online. For just $12.99, this compact guide shows you how to deliver it! Whether your boss wants you to jazz up the company's Web site or you're burning the midnight oil trying to pull together some Web animations for a class project, this tightly focused, project-based guide shows you how to start creating Flash animations in an instant! Using big, bold full-color pictures and streamlined instructions, it covers just the need-to-know essentials that will get you animating with Flash: using the Flash authoring tool, creating and animating graphics, tweening, adding sound, and more.

A spectacular and original novel based on the epic comics series that forever changed the universe of Superman and Batman by the man who created the original tale! Trapped in a timeless limbo, Barry Allen, the Flash, can only watch in silent and helpless horror as, one by one, countless universes fade from existance in order to feed the insatiable need for power of the Anti-Monitor, a being from the anti-matter universe of Qward. Under the guidance of the Monitor, his benevolent opposite, the super-heroes and villains of all realities are brought together for a last, desperate stand against the forces that promise the literal end of all existance. [via]

Kodak workkshop series, KW-12e. Learn to mazimize the camera's built in flash, use modes and settings effectively. Set up flah lighting for portraits.Complete technical info and well-illustrated ideas. [via]

Second volume in DC's reprint series of Geoff John's run on The Flash [via]

Written by Geoff Johns Art by Howard Porter, Justiano, Kevin Cummings and Peter Snejbjerg Cover by Porter A new volume collecting THE FLASH #1/2, 212 and 218-225! The brewing contest between the original rogues gallery and the newest rogues ignites into a conflagration that may result in the destruction of Keystone City and the death of the Scarlet Speedster! [via]

Instead of just "gee-whiz" animation or cool user interfaces, Flash pros need to build truly useful sites that are viable for the long-term. That means interfacing Flash with dynamic content, backend databases, server-based applications, and even with other live users. The key to all these is XML. Now, there's a book that shows you exactly how to build enterprise Flash applications that integrate XML -- and leverage its full power. Flash and XML is structured in 19 progressive lessons. In each lesson, the authors teach a key principle of Flash enterprise integration by first explaining it, and then demonstrating it with working code. The book begins with an introduction to Flash and ActionScript that's ideal for working developers, and also serves as a useful refresher for Flash professionals. Next, the authors introduce XML, review the role of HTTP in Web development, and start writing PHP-based server code for accessing back-end data. Next, they show how to extend Flash and server-side systems to a third-tier, connecting with back-end databases via SQL.Every chapter's code samples build on what's come before, constructing a robust application that encompasses client-side Flash code, server-side XML, back-end remote database access, and even emulated "peer-to-peer" connections. For both Flash professionals (with or without XML experience) and software engineers involved in Web development (with or without Flash experience). [via]

With the help of Golden Age Flash Jay Garrick, Johnny Quick, Jessie Quick, XS, Max Mercury and Impulse, the Flash takes on an army of super-speedsters. By Mark Waid, Humberto Ramos and others. [via]

The seminal book, Flash Math Creativity, completely revised for Flash MX 2004 and ActionScript 2.0!

Macromedia Flash is the industry standard design tool for digital design and web programming. With the release of Flash MX 2004 and its accompanying built-in language ActionScript 2.0, Macromedia yet again upped the standard for creating immersive digital experiences.

This book revolves around Flash and math. Its what you do in your spare time: just take little ideas and mess around with them. This is a book of inspiration, beautiful enough to leave on the coffee table, but addictive enough to keep by your computer and sneak out while no-ones looking so you can go back to that movie that you were tinkering with 'til 3 oclock this morning. Its a fun book!

Flash Math Creativity is a book of iterative experiments generative design. Its a showcase of the 15 authors experiments. The book will explain how these work and how you to can experiment further yourself. Each author does four experiments; each experiment takes up four pages. We give you the code and explain the essence, then you take away your inspiration and run with it. The purpose of the book is to learn through experimentation because you are inspired to do so, not because someone is telling you to do so.

Also featuring: Keith Peters, David Hirmes, Lifaros, Paul Prudence, Pavel Kaluzhny, Ken Jokol

Forget school math class, Flash math is about fun. it's what you do in your spare time - messing around with little ideas until the design takes over and you end up with something beautiful, bizarre, or just downright brilliant.

It's a book of iterative experiments, generative design; a book of inspiration, beautiful enough to leave on the coffee table, but addictive enough to keep by your computer and sneak out while no-one's looking so you can go back to that Flash movie that you were tinkering with 'til 3 o'clock this morning.

In New Masters of Flash the designers told us about themselves and deconstructed their finest effects. Well this time we've gathered the best in one book and simply asked them to go away and do what they do best: play. We give you the code and explain the essence, then you take your inspiration and run with it. [via]

If you're serious about Flash design, and if you want to push your ideas to the very limits of possibility in Flash MX, then this book and CD are your indispensible companions.

The book and CD package combines two vital elements:

1. The most comprehensive and in-depth reference resource for Flash MX ActionScript
2. A collection of rich, practical tutorials on using ActionScript effectively in Flash movie design

We've packed in 20 chapters of tutorials, 100s of detailed reference entries, and 100s of example FLAs and SWFs. The CD reproduces and expands the book's Complete ActionScript Dictionary, providing a comprehensive and portable reference tool.

Our aim has been to make this book the best Flash MX ActionScript resource, bar none - the book that you'll keep on your desk and never exhaust. This book contains:

- The complete reference and illustrated guide to ActionScript
- Over 650 detailed reference entries
- Over 400 fully functional illustrative FLAs
- A-Z coverage of the ActionScript language
- Over 300 pages of addition text content on the CD

It's the real ActionScript Reference you've been waiting for. [via]

Creating web designs and site content in Macromedia Flash MX can be a lot of fun, but there are always tasks that you'll want to do again and again. It's always a bit of a hassle to have to keep recreating and tweaking the same old content or functionality in different projects, so why can't you just reuse what you've created? With components, you can do just that!

Flash MX Components enable the creation of self-contained design building blocks that can be simply dragged and dropped into any Flash movie. They are flexible enough to be easily customized to take care of many different tasks. No fuss, no bother - you can repurpose the standard elements of your design, application, or game, and use them over and over again.

But wait, it gets better! Components can be used by anyone, not just the person who created them. So in this book, weve done all the hard work for you and collected together the Most Wanted components that will make your life easier.

In this book (and on the CD) youll find a perfect combination of creative and functional components from some of todays leading Flash designers and developers. Just look at the fantastic components you get:

- Event Calendar - David Doull
- Text Editor - Josh Dura
- XML News Ticker - Jon Steer
- Tool Tip - Brandon Williams
- Sketchpad - Steve Young
- Video Player - Jen DeHaan
- Image Scroller - Brian Monnone
- Pattern Generators - Paul Prudence
- TabControl - Jeremy Larkin
- Sliding Panel - Todd Marks
- ColorPicker - Jeremy Larkin
- Game Player Selector - Todd Coulson
- Particle Emitter - Jared Tarbell
- Layout Manager - Michael Montagna
- Data Grid - Daryn Nakhuda
- Movie Loader - Aral Balkan
- Image Modulators - Lifaros
- XML-to-ActionScript Converter - Mike Pearce
- Virtual 3D Trackball - James Palmer
- Text Animations - Todd Yard
- Dynamic Text Manager - Peter Elst

Each of these components is included on the accompanying CD, ready to incorporate within your designs, along with plenty of example files giving practical demonstrations of their use. On top of that, each chapter in this book presents a comprehensive designer-oriented guide that will help you to get the most out of using all of the featured components.

If youre a Flash designer, of any ability from novice to professional, this book will increase the power of your Flash designs and enhance your project workflow  instantly! [via]

When Wally West learns The Secret of Barry Allen, it turns out to be more than he wanted. After all, the main thing on his mind is why his wife, Linda, has left, apparently a repercussion of the Spectre's attempt to reestablish Wally's secret identity by wiping it from everyone's minds. That also causes problems with the Justice League, who are now wondering why they no longer know who their teammate is. And that's not even mentioning the rogues' gallery of villains plotting to bring the Flash down. The three-part title story involves a crossover with the famous Identity Crisis story line, and the moral/ethical dilemma surrounding what the League did to Doctor Light proves to be only part of the story. Collects Flash issues 207-211 and 213-217. --David Horiuchi [via]

Learning from the best is always a good idea, especially when the best in the field is adept at explaining his methods. In Flash Web Design, Hillman Curtis, a renowned Web developer (particularly in motion graphics) walks you through nine enlightening Flash projects in order of increasing complexity.

Curtis calls these exercises "deconstructions," and it's an apt term. All the finished pieces can be viewed on Curtis's site (www.hillmancurtis.com/book). With his help, you reconstruct each Flash movie with no step overlooked. They range from type animation (Macromedia Shockzone) to his bandwidth-skinny (20K) navigational, an interactive media site created with action scripting, a streaming visual poem with MP3 audio and many other techniques. The spots are all aesthetically elegant, vibrant, and cutting-edge in terms of design and typography and are even a pleasure to work with.

The author is first and foremost a designer. The book demonstrates the importance of conceptualizing the clients' needs and how to preplan and storyboard the projects. It documents the motivations behind even the smallest design decisions, making this book valuable as a teaching tool and not just a grab bag of hotshot how-tos. Each project takes time, but even beginners can re-create the Flash movies. The steps are clearly explained and illustrated with screen shots. The artwork, however, is not provided. To work along with the deconstructions, readers will have to create similar art, film, and sound files.

Those aware of Hillman Curtis's work will also be familiar with that of the book's designer, Todd Purgason of Juxt Interactive (juxtinteractive.com). The layout for Flash Web Design evokes the layered, motion-through-structure style of Purgason's Web design (lundstromarch.com) and makes one wish the book also existed in movie format. In fact, Purgason's methodology is presented in the last chapter, where he shows the benefits of using Freehand in conjunction with Flash. --Angelynn Grant

Topics covered: Step-by-step case studies re-create existing Flash projects that range in complexity. Projects include type animation, navigational screens, working with wireframe art, converting vectorized video, working with streaming MP3 audio, using action scripting for interactivity, and going from Freehand sketches to finished Flash movies. [via]

An intriguing part of the Flash scripting language is the XML object, and Flash XML StudioLab shows how to use it to build powerful dynamic Web applications. To enjoy this book you need to know Flash, but the XML aspect is explained from scratch. In fact, the first four chapters offer a general introduction to XML, which is useful or irritating depending on how well you know the subject already. Chapter 5 gets onto the real story, introducing ActionScript's XML object. The next chapter gives an example, using XML to manage a set of tarot cards. The same example is continued in the subsequent chapters, showing how to search and examine the XML data, and how to upload and download XML content. Next comes an event-handling example. The scene changes for a look at a Flash chat client using XML along with Perl on the server, and then comes a chapter on integrating an online database using PHP, MySQL, Flash and XML. The final chapter shows how to draw on XML news feeds in Flash. Two appendices offer a general look at advanced XML, including DTDs, Schemas and XSL, and a short Perl primer to help with Web server programming.

A book on Flash and XML is a great idea, and this title will undoubtedly get you started and inspire some creative thinking. It is spoilt by an uneven style and the space given to general XML background that can easily be found elsewhere. Even so, it's a good read for Flash developers who want to use dynamic XML content in their Web designs. --Tim Anderson [via]

Flash guru Sham Bhangal brings us the third edition of everybody's favorite beginner-level Flash scripting book: Foundation ActionScript. With the release of Flash MX 2004, scripting in Flash has moved from being a desirable asset to an essential skill in the world of web design and development. ActionScript is, quite simply, the key to real power in Flash. Flash is now both a design tool and a development tool, and ActionScript can easily scare designers.

This book is for anyone who has ever looked in awe at a cutting-edge Flash site, then taken a look at some code, and run in the other direction. Learning ActionScript with friends of ED will not turn you into a boring programmer, it will turn you into someone who finally has the power to achieve what they want with their web design, and can liberate their creative urges.

This book will take you from knowing nothing about ActionScript to a firm knowledge that will allow you to exercise a previously unimaginable amount of power over your Flash movies. It does this with fully-worked examples throughout, and a case study that will leave you with a cutting-edge Flash site by the end of the book.

The book is practically oriented, and assumes no previous knowledge of coding, making sure that the you can actually use ActionScript to build a working website via real and detailed examples and case studies.

You are not alone. Learn Design with Flash MX employs a unique class-based approach to learning with the goal of establishing core, generic design skills. Each chapter represents a discrete lesson covering a distinct topic of design, and 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. Written from the perspective of the design course's tutor, the context is that of a Design 101 course taught in a classroom environment, where the students act as mouthpieces to ask the common questions that beginner designers are sure to ask. You'll get to know the students in the book and follow the development of these characters as your own skill and expertise evolves too. Learn Design with Flash MX covers the fundamental design principles and skills that every designer needs to master in order to create attractive, aesthetically pleasing work to a professional standard.

This book addresses the shortfall in solid, traditional design knowledge in significant segments of the web design community  specifically, people using Flash. It assumes that the reader is a novice in design terms with no exposure to formal web design principles or training, and little or no Flash experience. 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 sites and content, which will help you learn the trade and get access to the professional web design world. This book should even appeal to those who've read one (or more) entry-level texts on Flash; in fact, it'll complement other tutorials by providing the rich general design context and background that other introductory books lack. This book will teach readers to develop and implement their creative ideas through an understanding of what professional designers in all media see as the prerequisites: composition, color, contrast, light, texture, motion, typography, and many others.

If you're interested in learning design skills following a structured path, or if you've been using some of the tools of the trade, like Macromedia Flash, for some time but have never had the opportunity of a solid tutorial, this introductory level book is for you. Learn Design with Flash MX will answer all the essential design questions that other books ignore - the questions you're too frightened to ask. By addressing the core design skills from a beginner's perspective, in the context of Flash MX, readers will gain a rich, solid, and structured understanding of the what, how, and why's of the fundamental principles of good design.

From experienced self-taught designers who've ever thought, "I wish I knew how to design things more effectively or more coherently ", to anyone who's looked at a cool design and said, "Jeez, I wish I'd taken a design class in school!", this book will show them the money! Anyone in the web design arena who wants overall design skills, and who needs a solid learning vehicle that will help them acquire and embed those skills; anyone who's felt that their lack of knowledge about formal design processes has got in the way of liberating their creative ideas effectively; anyone who's started a creative project in a rush, doodled around, and lost their way& this book will provide the structure that they might lack. Readers will come away from this book with:

A rich, solid understanding of the concepts and basic processes that will enable them to explore further with a degree of confidence that they didn't have before
Insights into universally applicable design processes and techniques
An understanding of how to implement these principles in Flash MX

"Learn Design with Flash MX - the missing link between creativity and technology" [via]

In the form of an illustrated fictional biog raphy, this graphic novel follows the fortunes of Flash from his humble childhood to his noble death, detailing his tran sformation from forensic scientist to one of DC Comics most dynamic heroes. ' [via]

Explore the depth and flexibility of Macromedia Flash 8 with Sams Teach Yourself Macromedia Flash 8 in 24 Hours. Fundamental topics are presented one-by-one in a series of 24 one-hour lessons that will help you master the basics of Flash. Author Phillip Kerman, an internationally-known Macromedia trainer and multimedia expert, offers you a clearly-written, well-organized introduction to Macromedia Flash 8 without becoming too overwhelming. You will cover such subjects as:

• Drawing and Painting Original Art
• Using Motion Tween to Animate
• Animatng Using Movie Clips
• Using Actions to Create Non-Linear Movies
• Optimizing a Flash Site
• Publishing a Creation

Long the industry standard for creating high-impact interactive Web sites, Macromedia Flash has just gotten a whole lot better--faster, easier, even more powerful--with the release of Flash MX. Whether you're a Flash pro looking to get up to speed quickly on this latest release or a novice eager to tap the power of MX for the first time, the task-based visual approach of this Visual QuickStart Guide is just what you need to make the most out of Flash MX.

In this volume, veteran journalist and author Katherine Ulrich covers it all--from the basics of vector animation to sophisticated interaction and transition effects--in the clear, concise prose readers have come to expect from this popular series. Beginners will want to devour the volume from cover to cover, while more experienced Flash users will be able to easily find just what they need, including complete coverage of all of the program's new features: a revamped interface, enhanced integration with Macromedia ColdFusion, dual authoring modes for designers and developers, and more. Loaded with tips and visual aids to reinforce the text, Macromedia Flash MX for Windows and Macintosh: Visual QuickStart Guide will be your constant companion as you use Flash MX to take your Web pages to the next level.

Macromedia Flash is a key technology for designing and delivering low-bandwidth animations, presentations, and web sites. More recently it has become development environment, complete with scripting capabilities and server-side connectivity. Flash has the ability to easily integrate with, and add interactivity to, complex media types with powerful and intuitive tools. Developers can rapidly develop high performance, accessible content using pre-assembled building blocks and expand their authoring capabilities with custom extensions from independent developers.   Macromedia Flash MX Unleashed covers these high-end topics, providing you with a solid and complete reference for building Flash websites and applications. Fundamentals are covered quickly in the first part of the book, with the majority of the content devoted to coverage of ActionScript and how Flash works with varied middleware. You'll also learn how to integrate Flash with several other technologies, including XML and PHP. [via]

Coverage is not critically tied to a particular rev of Flash. Flash to the Core is about the creative process and what Joshua Davis can teach about taking Flash design and development to new extremes. Part one is all about Joshua, the artist: his philosophies, his approach to Flash workflow, how he works with clients, how he explains and explores the world around him through his creative approach to Flash web design, animation and motion graphics. Part two is about the work itself: 12 Flash-based projects Joshua has created in the past year. Some of these have won awards, others have been nominated for awards. Each project is a narrative and deconstruction, with the code used in the project included and explained. A large and growing audience wants to learn advanced Flash techniques from the best in the business. No other book can do this quite like Flash to the Core: An Interactive Sketchbook by Joshua Davis. [via]