Flash 3D Cheats Most Wanted [Paperback]

Aral Balkan (Author), Josh Dura (Author), Anthony Eden (Author), Brian Monnone (Author), James Dean Palmer (Author), Jared Tarbell (Author), Todd Yard (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1590592212 | ISBN-13: 978-1590592212 | Publication Date: July 24, 2003 | Edition: 1

Why is this book called "3D Cheats"? Unlike committed 3D applications (like Maya, 3D Studio Max, Swift 3D), Flash MX doesn’t have an internal 3D engine, and therefore if a designer wants include realistic 3D effects in their Flash designs they must either import from one of these other 3D applications (can be complex, expensive, and time-consuming), or rely on "pseudo-3D" effects – 2D graphics rendered to mimic realistic 3D imagery. This book teaches users how to employ 3D principles without having to learn the official names for everything. Digital 3D is a tricky area – and until the day someone makes 3D TV commercially viable, it’s going to remain a tricky area. What is 3D? Can you genuinely render 3D on a flat screen? Do you have to spend a year’s wages to get a dedicated piece of 3D software? Do you have to conjure up a bunch of complex math techniques to make the grade? Is anyone going to answer these interminable questions? Well, listen: we’re not out to work ourselves into the ground here. We want 3D and we want it fast, and we want to use Flash to get it. In a series of clear and concise demonstrations, this book shows you exactly what can be achieved in Web 3D. Some of the most cunning designers around have put their heads together to present these: the most wanted 3D cheats in Flash.
This book will show you that you can:
- Lie your way into 3D with simple drawing techniques.
- Cheat a 3D interface with cunning use of light and shadow. 
- Fool Flash into thinking it can render genuine 3D, and con the Internet into delivering it for us in double-quick time. 
- Hoodwink visitors into thinking they’re witnessing focus and depth of field. 
- Improve your depth of deception with an innovative slice engine to create convincing 3D objects. 
- Trick users into thinking they’re moving through a 3D space.

 

Editorial Reviews

Review

From the reviews:

"Every desktop designer would love to uncover the secret to easy 3D, and if this book isn't it, it comes pretty close." - Design Graphics

"This book is really well done, it has a nice and clear layout and I found every chapter very well explained. … Highly recommended to everyone interested in the subject." - gotoAndPlay()

"The book is really well done, it has a nice and clear layout and I found every chapter very well explained and clear. The promise of revealing all the 3D Flash tricks is widely fulfilled and I think every intermediate to advanced Flash developer will enjoy it. Also the many color pictures and diagrams that you will find will greatly help you in better understanding the concepts being explained. … Highly recommended to everyone interested in the subject." (Lapo, gotoAndPlay, May, 2004)

"Flash 3D Cheats Most Wanted is … clear and concise, offering you a simple yet informative introduction to the fundamentals of creating 3D graphics, buttons and so on in Macromedia’s application." (Computer Arts, December, 2003)

About the Author

Aral Balkan--An interstellar marauder since age 12… oh, wait, I wasn’t supposed to mention that! What I meant to say is: Born in Turkey a little over a quarter of a century ago, I spent most of my childhood and early teens in a tropical paradise called Malaysia and currently live in the murky wetlands of London (oh yes, the weather is that bad thank-you-very-much!). Coding and design both grew out of hobbies that started at age seven, when my Dad brought home an IBM XT instead of a Commodore 64, leaving me to either write my own games or go without (thanks Dad!). My true passions in life are acting and singing, both of which I want to pursue professionally. In between my globetrotting, I got the chance to produce a musical in North Cyprus (Jesus Christ Superstar) and grab a Master of Arts in Film & Video (emphasis Multimedia Design) from American University in Washington, DC. Nowadays, I run my own company in London called "Bits And Pixels", specializing in Flash for web and mobile applications.

Josh Dura --Josh Dura started his career as most web developers do, designing simple HTML pages with a little graphics here and there. About 3 years ago, Josh started coding ColdFusion, learning basic OOP skills through that language, which brought him to learning ActionScript. Josh currently works for ReadyHosting.com out of Richardson, TX, doing most of the web, graphic/print design work for them. His personal website, www.joshdura.com , is a basic weblog/photography/open source Flash project. Josh also currently owns and runs Dura Media, LLC ( www.duramedia.com) with his brother Daniel.

Anthony Eden -From an early age Anthony developed a love of interaction with mathematics and computational languages, along the way gaining an appreciation of any given natural environment and the ability to transform his environment into a digital construct. Inspiration for his latest project, www.arseiam.com (essentially an ActionScript anthology of his Flash work) is testament to this philosophy. The last decade has included commercial roles with Microsoft, Disney, Toyota, and Adobe providing a sound framework in which to explore and diversify his project development lifecycle skills. Spare time? If he’s not thinking about it he’s doing it!

Brian Monnone --Brian Monnone is the Senior Multimedia Producer/Developer for Tocquigny Advertising in Austin, Texas USA. Tocquigny Advertising received the Austin Business Journal's Top 25 Web Developers #1 position for 2002-2003 in web design and development in Austin. While computing for over 17 years, Brian has found himself doing what he loves to do, "making really cool stuff". Brian works on projects with AMD, Dell, HP, USAA, GlobalScape, and a host of other companies creating Flash demos, websites, video, and many other types of multimedia. Brian has won awards for his works and many accolades for his personal site, www.monnone.com. Nestled in the hills, he finds inspiration for his work and plenty to do with his wife and children. He enjoys creating interactive content and hopes in the future to become a filmmaker.

James Dean Palmer--James graduated in 1998 from the Texas A&M Computer Engineering program. In 2000 he completed his M.S. degree in Computer Visualization. Deeply technical and profoundly visual, James has been working professionally both in print and the web since 1994. James founded Caramba Designs in 2001 to develop web-based applications and end-to-end solutions for unique problems.

Jared Tarbell --Jared Tarbell is originally from the high deserts of Albuquerque, New Mexico. He is most interested in the interactive visualization of large data sets, and the emergent, life-like properties of complex computational systems. Jared sits on the board of the Austin Museum of Digital Arts, amoda.org, where he actively assists in the growth and development of the digital arts kingdom. He holds a degree in Computer Science from New Mexico State University.

Todd Yard--After studying theatre in London, then working for several years as an actor in the US, Todd was introduced to Flash in 2000 and was quickly taken by how it allowed for both stunning creativity and programmatic logic application – a truly left-brain, right brain approach to production – and has not looked back. He now works as Creative Director for Daedalus Media in New York City, which specializes in the creation of Flash-based corporate presentations primarily for clients in the investment banking industry. His more frivolous work and experimentation can be found at his personal Website, www.27Bobs.com.

 

 

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (July 24, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590592212
• ISBN-13: 978-1590592212
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 8.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,768,144 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Trigonometry background required in some chapters, February 22, 2005

By 

Carlo R. Montoya "Toy photographer" (Cebu City, Cebu Philippines) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Flash 3D Cheats Most Wanted (Paperback)

TOC:

Chapter 1 Introduction to Flash 3D
Chapter 2 Light and Shadow
Chapter 3 Scaling for 3D
Chapter 4 Isometric 3D
Chapter 5 Focus and Depth of Field
Chapter 6 Parallax Scrolling
Chapter 7 Text Effects in 3D Space
Chapter 8 Drawing API and Math for 3D
Chapter 9 3D Slice Engine
Chapter 10 Departure Lounge: Moving beyond Flash 3D

Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 10 don't require a trigonometry
background. One of Chapter 6 topics uses XML though.

The best chapters for me were 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6.

I gave the book 5 stars because it has something for everyone.
Some people use Flash to create digital art while others use it
for practical purposes. This book delivers to both people.
Unfortunately, I belong to the latter kind and some of the topics
aren't for me.

I also think that some chapters are impractical unless you're
really a math geek. For example, I think Chapter 8 - Drawing
API and Math for 3D -- is unnecessary because you can import
Swift 3D files.

Some of the authors also show you Actionscript without really
explaining what it does (I think they assume you do know trig).
I work for a software engineering firm (not as an engineer
though) but I do know that it's bad practice to embed magic
numbers -- literals that don't have apparent meaning -- in
any code. It's better to put them in constants.

One of the authors (the Chapter 4 author I think) said to get
a good book on trigo. I don't think I will because there are
plenty of free trigo tutorials on the web. I agree though that
to get the most out of Flash and this book, learning trigo is a
must.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A work of art! Opens all new possibilities to script builders, September 12, 2005

By 

Just Me "Dilbert" (Foster City, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flash 3D Cheats Most Wanted (Paperback)

This is the best book I have read in years! If you know the basics of ActionScript and you know sine and cosine, this book opens up whole dimensions of possibilities for both games and business applications of Flash.

It is clearly written and reads more smoothly than most programming books. While it does assume a basic literacy with ActionScript, it does not leave you flailing with complex 3D concepts. You may have to pull out your definitions of sine and cosine, but beyond that, it is pretty light lifting.

The genious of the book is that it violates commmon assumptions, and this results in simple, elegant techniques that are also powerful for a wide range of problems. The common assumption is that Flash doesn't do 3D. Don't believe it anymore. If you are willing to use some basic limitations to your application (such as keeping your polygon count down), you can have some smoothly flowing, useful 3D applications with relatively little effort. And unless I'm mistaken, those applications will run equally well on a browser running on a Mac, Windows or Linux.

The solutions are simple and eclectic. The authors have created a variety of 3D engines - each optimized for a given purpose. The engines are simple enough that (in theory) you can take the source and enhance it to your needs. Each technique is backed up by source code that you can download from the publisher's web site. But don't shortchange yourself with only the sample code - the explanations in the text are worth the cost of the paper book.

Here are my favorite techniques:

* ch 8 (P 195) - Drawing API and Math for 3D - here they explain and provide a working polygon 3D engine. The demos work smoothly (at least 20-30 frames per second) on my cheap Dell laptop. The demos include a oragami bird and a rocket ship with at least 10-20 polgons each. It doesn't support bitmapped textures, but it does offer fill color and shading support.

* ch 9 - 3D Slice Engine - this is the more clever, powerful and non-obvious technique of the book. Check out "dad.swf" in the binary samples from the web site to get an idea of the power of this approach - the author has made a 3D talking head of his father from a photograph! The idea here is that if you can view your 3D world as a topographical map, then you can model it with a set of parallel planes, where each plane represents a certain cut through the entire 3D model. This approach, though not immediately intuitive, is extremely powerful in Flash because it plays on the strenghths of Flash. Each plane is represented by two "movieclip" objects, with one embedded in the other. The first one handles scaling, and the second handles rotation, within the scaled clip. The hidden surface problem is finessed because the planes are parallel - so you only reverse the rendering order once every 180 degrees of change in viewer angle. This enables you to handle full bitmap detail of your scenes, and the result is pretty dazzling! The basic rendering engine requires only about 50 lines of ActionScript!

* Ch 6 - Parallax Scrolling - This name is misleading - it really goes beyond a scrolling 2D game model. In the Wyvern's Claw" example, it explores the idea of building a 3D world like a movie set - with a set of strategically placed flat surfaces (like the fronts of buildings in the studio sets). Each surface is a movieclip, and your script manages the proper scaling and shading as the viewer moves through. The demo then shows an animated walk-through of a small town rendering in such a way. This seems very cool for a potential game.

I'm already using the Chapter 9 slice engine for a work-related project - multidimensional data browsing. So for me, the book was not only stimulating to read but valuable!

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good golly, December 2, 2003

By 

Nettlewine "Nettlewine" (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flash 3D Cheats Most Wanted (Paperback)

This has to be about the best book I have ever seen. The 3D cheats in it are amazing -- and you surely wouldn't know you were cheating. There are some incredibly insightful techniques, and some more staple things if you're not quite steady on your feet yet.

I think I am, but this book showed me how much more there was to know!