Flash MX Studio takes your raw Flash talent and multiplies its potency by focusing it on
real-world web design situations. In the heady days of the late 1990s designers were trying
their hand at anything and everything they could lay their hands on. Now the marketplace is
seriously focused and serious Flash designers have to know exactly what they're doing and why.
These days it's all about functionality over experimentation justification over style. It's
all about maturity. The design must fit the job specs and this book shows the reader how to
fulfill these requirements and more. This book examines all the avenues open to professional or
aspiring professional Flash MX designers. It takes a look at advanced uses of the new MX
features such as components and the Drawing API and gives guidance on building whole new
structures for animation Dynamic Content PHP ColdFusion MX XML video audio and
audiovisual formats. Never before has so much power been so accessible to the web designer.
This book is designed to put that power in your hands. Flash MX Studio has been broken into
four sections to address the most common needs for the Flash designer. First off Jamie
McDonald provides five chapters on site presentation and the principles of web design. These
opening chapters take a look at how to create slick professional-level sites involving Flash
MX's new drawing and motion capabilities and interactive techniques. The second section
concentrates on ActionScript. Flash's resident coding environment is crucial to master and
taps into Flash's great strength-intuitive and interactive applications. Keith Peters and Todd
Yard have buddied up on this section and examine some of the most advanced ActionScript
techniques around. Be warned-this section is not for the faint-hearted! Section three takes a
look at Flash MX's greatly improved visual audio andaudiovisual capabilities. Its three
chapters written by Jez Turner and Alex White concentrate on building a single site aimed at
displaying rich media content. The final section is devoted to expounding a few myths about
dynamic content using Flash. Its four chapters talk about general practice before focusing in
on specific areas including introductions to PHP and XML together with a look at Macromedia's
brand new ColdFusion MX.
