Byte-Size Flash MX: Adventures in Optimization [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

by Genevieve Garand (Author), David Hirmes (Author), Cody Lindley (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Have you ever poured all your creativity into a Flash movie, but found your friends grumbling at the download size? Have you tried to use just one tiny picture in your movie, and seen the file size go through the roof? Is it possible to do anything remotely effective in a small file?

More than you could possibly imagine! This collection shows you just exactly what can be done with tiny Flash files, using some of the hottest Flash designers around. These authors pull designs out of the top drawer and show you exactly how you can go about creating great SWFs with the smallest amount of download pain.

We will look at:

creating incredible generative designs -- so small you can use them for wallpaper
producing 3D animations that roll in at under 5k in size
creating sound toys in the smallest possible file space
de-mystifying the use of JPEGs and photographs while keeping your Flash movies small
strategic use of back-end technology to keep your delivery times down to nanoseconds!
changing the boundaries to look at new ways of delivering entire sites!


From the Publisher
Who is this book for

You've worked with Flash, but are wondering why people are getting tetchy at the download time. You're willing to start learning some ActionScript tricks to fight the file flab, and you're not afraid to become addicted to optimization!

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Friends of Ed; illustrated edition edition (December 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1904344097
• ISBN-13: 978-1904344094
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 8.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,671,071 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic!, January 5, 2003

By	"si-w" (Cheltenham, UK) - See all my reviews

Finally somebody's seen fit to gather these kinds of techniques. It says on the cover youre looking at files under 4 KB, but most of these are like under 2. It's got a really good balance, going from some staple stuff to begin -- mouse trails and smoke effects and fireworks through simple scripting. After that, it passes into the really useful things, like an animated photo gallery, with gorgeous wipes and fades. I haven't yet got on to the later stuff that I've just never seen anywhere before -- an interactive 3D city, and sound! A big thumbs up, and it should have been called bit-size.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I LIKE THIS BOOKS, March 7, 2003

By	ErwinSchiphouwerAkADeamothul (Groningen, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews

i have just bought this book, i began actionscripting about two or three months ago.
This book showed me some bad mistakes i made in programming just by doing the first three tutorials(the mouse follower, fire, smoke,fireworks)

I'm taking it step by step, but one thing is sure this book is the book for me.it explains things i like and in a way i want to see it explained.
In some of the first examples in the book one of the authors explaind emitters, particles movement, waves and amplitude.

this are some of the things in the first chapter and i really like likelikelike IT.
This book isn't a good book 4 people who don't know nothing of flash(as), but you really don't have to be a flash(as) or math expert to understand a lot of the things.
(i havent got through the whole book though, i trying to learn the examples one by one and i want 2 make sure i don't go through it to fast)

Very Good book, buying it is definitely no mistake

4.0 out of 5 stars size is everything, March 4, 2003

By	Todd M. Yard (Astoria, NY United States) - See all my reviews

Well, isn't THIS a fun book! The material is extremely diverse-- some is merely cool, though not altogether useful, while other material (such as the great chapter on separating form from function) can go a long way to helping you produce more functional, configurable sites. All through the book the reader is offered insight on techniques that will keep the file size down, and since this is the most important aspect of the book, I would have perhaps liked a checklist near the top or an index at the end of these of these ideas. As it stands, you have to go through each tutorial (although they are all interesting) to get a full list of byte-saving techniques. Not a major drawback, but a small chapter that gathered all of the authors' tricks together would have been useful.