Paul Prudence

Creating web designs and site content in Macromedia Flash MX can be a lot of fun, but there are always tasks that you'll want to do again and again. It's always a bit of a hassle to have to keep recreating and tweaking the same old content or functionality in different projects, so why can't you just reuse what you've created? With components, you can do just that! Flash MX Components enable the creation of self-contained design building blocks that can be simply dragged and dropped into any Flash movie. They are flexible enough to be easily customized to take care of many different tasks. No fuss, no bother - you can repurpose the standard elements of your design, application, or game, and use them over and over again. But wait, it gets better! Components can be used by anyone, not just the person who created them. So in this book, we've done all the hard work for you and collected together the Most Wanted components that will make your life easier. In this book (and on the CD) youíll find a perfect combination of creative and functional components from some of today's leading Flash designers and developers. Just look at the fantastic components you get: - Event Calendar - David Doull - Text Editor - Josh Dura - XML News Ticker - Jon Steer - Tool Tip - Brandon Williams - Sketchpad - Steve Young - Video Player - Jen DeHaan - Image Scroller - Brian Monnone - Pattern Generators - Paul Prudence - TabControl - Jeremy Larkin - Sliding Panel - Todd Marks - ColorPicker - Jeremy Larkin - Game Player Selector - Todd Coulson - Particle Emitter - Jared Tarbell - Layout Manager - Michael Montagna - Data Grid - Daryn Nakhuda - Movie Loader - Aral Balkan - Image Modulators - Lifaros - XML-to-ActionScript Converter - Mike Pearce - Virtual 3D Trackball - James Palmer - Text Animations - Todd Yard - Dynamic Text Manager - Peter Elst Each of these components is included on the accompanying CD, ready to incorporate within your designs, along with plenty of example files giving practical demonstrations of their use. On top of that, each chapter in this book presents a comprehensive designer-oriented guide that will help you to get the most out of using all of the featured components. If youíre a Flash designer, of any ability from novice to professional, this book will increase the power of your Flash designs and enhance your project workflow ñ instantly! From the Publisher This book is for experienced Flash users and novices alike. That is the beauty of Flash components, they are so easy to use that those who are fairly new to Flash can use them to create movies that would ordinarily be out of their reach, whereas the more experienced designer can use them as great time-saving tools, cutting the time needed to create their applications and improving their productivity.

'Figured Stones' is a masterpiece of natural philosophy and a vital contribution to the emerging field of vibrant materialism. It is both a manual of visionary geology and a treatise on lithic scrying; a manifesto on rock veneration and an exploration of deep-time consciousness. In vivid and lucent prose, Paul Prudence crosses the 'blood-brain barrier of dimensionality', condensing and expanding both space and time by drawing the extremities of scale into paradoxical alignment. Vast landscapes become visible in miniature surfaces, and, liberated from our reductive impressions of time, rock itself becomes pliant, mercurial and alive. In this expanded state, the lithosphere is self-aware, memorising its own telluric activity, from weather patterns to the fluid dynamics of rivers.With Prudence as a guide we encounter rocks as messengers, talismans and oracles. Stones become portals to other worlds and act as intermediaries to the domains of gods, demons and spirits. Geology acts as a divinatory system for decoding dreams, or as a tool for connecting us to our greater ancestral consciousness. At a time when we are barely cognisant of the lives of other-than-human beings, Prudence resuscitates the pre-Socratic doctrine of hylozoism - that all matter has life. Throughout the pages of 'Figured Stones', rocks become agents for studying planetary introspection and geological sentience - they reveal an 'inter-animating spirit of mind and matter where biological and mineral kingdoms collude'.'Figured Stones' is destined to become an important book in a new movement that acknowledges and embraces more-than-human life at a critical time in our global ecology.

This book takes an in-depth look at purposing your Flash skills towards developing fully functional Flash Applications. Taking its lead from the design element, each chapter takes you a step further into evolving your design skills into application development. It will look at: - Focusing your interface design for ease of use - Shaping up the back end to keep things simple - Delivering complex content, including video Using a blend of instructional and inspirational chapters, this book looks at Flashís strengths ñ graphical dynamism, interactivity, back-end punch and multimedia delivery. - Make gorgeous sites in tiny files with the Drawing API - Look at the marriage of data and beauty with a Flash Family Tree - Create real-feel interfaces that mimic different media - Make XML do the donkey-work in site structure - Ease up you navigation with PHP - Create an entire drawing application - Deliver video and make it interactive with Flash ...and so much more! From the Publisher This book is for people who want to hone their Flash skills to make their code really work for its supper. With one look at these inspiring interfaces, youíll see that everything pitches in to the final design. Itís foxy and functional, and will show you some indispensable techniques.

So you think you've got to grips with the new features of Macromedia Flash MX? Welcome to this inspirations upgrade from friends of ED. Upgrade your thinking, upgrade your attitude, and upgrade your standards to take on board the host of exciting features incorporated into the latest version of Flash. With this title we run the gamut of new features, from the Drawing API ("to die for"), through new Video compression, Scriptable Masks and Components. We explore the new territory with Experimental Interfaces, check out the improvements in the 3D arena, and quarry the backend technologies to see what gems we can turn up! Some of the best designers in the Web community have concentrated their efforts on this project. This has resulted in the highest caliber of work, including an exclusive insight into the creation of Jim Armstrong's New York Flash Film Festival Final piece. From the acclaimed team that brought you Flash Math Creativity comes this inspiring volume, full of brand new effects and discussion on what Flash MX is going to do for designers -- and where we go from here. Book Info Provides the competent Flash user the means to become an advanced user in terms of creativity, and also the ability to become an advanced MX user by working with the new tools.