Jerome Turner

The Flash MX video object is a wondrous thing, but 90% of people seem to be happy keeping it constrained in a small, square window. Why? Video can be anything that you want it to be, and then some. The experiments in this book will take you through simple video manipulation, kaleidoscopes, emulating TV effects, 360-degree displays, animating vectors over film, dynamic masking, fake blue-screening, blur and focus, combining video with the Comms Server, and much more. But it's not just for fun. As the world turns broadband, video becomes a more and more obvious choice for content delivery. This is where the web goes another stage further than passive TV though, Flash allows video to be truly interactive and grab viewer imagination. In this fickle world, no-oneís going to sit still for very long to watch videos play straight across their desktop. So, nowís the time to get inspired by some of the hottest designers around, and see what is possible when it comes to adding a twist of creativity to the mix. This book is about learning key skills without realizing it, and producing fantastic results. All of the assets and FLAs needed to recreate the effects are on the CD that ships with the book.

Macromedia Dreamweaver MX merges the faultless visual layout tools of Dreamweaver and the powerful yet easy-to-use database integration offered by UltraDev into a product that is simply the most vital piece of software any web designer can own. Unlike many other books, Foundation Dreamweaver MX concentrates on both sides of this alliance, looking to the future. No matter what your background, this book will give you a solid foundation in graphic design and layout issues as well as a full grounding in the powerful database integration features that Dreamweaver MX offers. The truth is that database integration is no more of an extra in today's climate than faultless visual design, and this book is here to guide you through this new world, covering dynamic scripting with PHP and the popular MySQL database. This book is suitable for both PC and Mac (OS X needed) platforms. Book Info:Strong emphasis on Foundation treatment. Includes key concepts and skills. Provides a case study throughout the book to reinforce the learning in a realistic application. Softcover. From the Publisher Whether a complete novice or a past user, after reading this book, youíll be fluent in the full breadth of Dreamweaver MX's powerful functionality, a unique learning curve backed up by solid real-world case studies and tutorials. What this book covers: Site design and layout principles Using templates and Cascading Style Sheets to create advanced site designs Adding interactivity to pages with script Setting up PHP and MySQL to create powerful dynamic database-driven applications Dreamweaver MX makes this all possible, and Foundation Dreamweaver MX makes it easier than you could have imagined.

How does your work stand up in the freshly competitive environment of the Flash MX marketplace? How can you streamline your ideas to give them greater usability? Where can you take your ideas next? Macromedia 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 theyíre doing and why. These days itís all about functionality over experimentation, justification over style. Itís all about Maturity. The design must fit the job spec, and this book shows the reader how to fulfil 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. Book Info Based around a single hands-on project for readers to build-constructing an effective Flash web site from scratch for a major commercial client. Softcover. CD-ROM included. From the Publisher Macromedia 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 MXís new drawing and motion capabilities and interactive techniques. The second section concentrates on ActionScript. Flashís resident coding environment is crucial to master, and taps into Flashís great strength ñ 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 ñ this section is not for the faint-hearted! Section three takes a look at Flash MXís greatly improved visual, audio and audiovisual 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 Macromediaís brand new ColdFusion MX.