Yesterday morning at about 9:30 a.m., I typed the last words of Chapter 19 of ActionScript Animation: Making Things Move, hit Control-S, and clicked the little red “x”, closing Microsoft Word.
God did that feel good. Nine months of writing, re-writing, editing, coding, re-coding, editing code, re-writing, editing, writing…
But it is done. Still a few chapters left for final edits, but it is essentially over. Should be in the stores in October.
More here:
http://www.bit-101.com/blog/archives/000177.html
and
http://www.bit-101.com/blog/archives/000138.html
Or, if you are already sold, pre-order here:
Congrats… I look forward to my signed copy 🙂
Congratulations! Isn’t that an amazing feeling?
I can’t wait for my copy of your book. I’m sure it’s going to be outstanding!
Does your new book investigate some of the features of Flash 8, like the bitmap class? Also, do you cover any tween classes/libraries (extensions or build your own)? I’ve owned a number of Friends of Ed books, and they’ve always focused on the fundamentals of animation (which is ultimately what they’re for), but never mention the availability of AS tween libraries, which helped me significantly once I discovered them.
I was happy to share the moment with you!
Ryan, yeah, I saw your ebay listing already! 🙂
Rich, it touches on BitmapData, but only a bit. It’s more concerned with code for motion than rendering techniques. It also doesn’t touch on the MM tween libraries. It covers simple easing an refers to Robert Penner’s classes and website (he wrote the MM classes).
Sam, yes, that was special wasn’t it?
Congrats Keith! Looking forward to checking it out! -Rob
keith,
thats awesome. congrats! i’ve been relying too much on tween classes lately. i think your book will inspire me to dig in and do some real coding.
can’t wait,
josh k
I have a question about the Inverse Kinematics stuff. I just tried to make a movie with the “Reaching” code in the Flashforward conference workbook, but it didn’t exactly work. If I move the mouse fast, there are frames in which some arm segments aren’t connnected at all. This seems to be happening because each arm connects to the arm below it, then the arm below it moves away, creating gaps. Also, when I add more arm segments, the arm quivers violently. I looked at example17.swf and it didn’t seem to have the same problems, but I’m still using Flash MX, so I couldn’t look at the source code. If you could send me a Flash MX version of example17.fla or a text file with the code, I would appreciate it. Thanks.
Wicked.. A Book from a pro.. Excellent.
kutz, I know exactly what you are talking about. I’m pretty sure the code in the book does not have that issue. It works backwards to find the targets and rotations, and then works forward to position everything. A little more CPU intensive, but makes sure that everything stays in place.