Flash Hacks

Rating:
Summary: Homebrew ambience
Review: Flash is to making web multimedia as Photoshop is to editing static graphics. And like Photoshop, Flash has a devoted coterie who swear by it. But even such fans may find new, nifty things in this book. One might even suggest that such a group is the audience that might benefit the most.

So I started thumbing through the book, to see what caught my eye. [Obviously, your needs will differ.] One method was the construction of a speech synthesiser. Bhangel gives a simple, ingenious way to make a poor man's synthesiser. The sound quality does not match that of commercial synthesisers, like IBM's or Dragon's. But there is a homebrew ambience to this hack that some will find attractive.

A related hack uses a recent improvement to Flash. Finally, there is a way for the end of the playing of a sound to invoke a callback. In other words, you can now synchronise another operation to start after the sound ends. The lack of this has greatly hampered the interactive use of sound in Flash. The author then gives a hack of a lip synching animation. Cute!

Rating:
Summary: Broaden your use of Flash MX2004
Review: Have you seen the Hacks series from O'Reilly? Great stuff! I've yet to be disappointed with this series. While most of the information does not really qualify as a hack in the traditional sense, meaning you are not mucking with the actual API or backed of the tool, the books are chock-full of little workarounds, fresh attacks on old problems, and some incredible tips that most users won't have found on their own.

Sham Bhangal delivers 100 excellent tips on using Flash MX 2004 and Professional. I think my absolute favourite is Hack #61, Amit's Dials. This little gem shows how to create some interactive controls for tweaking visual and dynamic effects during the authoring process. The idea is to build the basic functionality of your effect through scripting, add these controls so you can fine-tune the effect, and copy the settings back into the script for permanent hardwiring. There are tons of uses for this tip alone, and it's not complicated. The beauty of this hack is in the fact that it's something most, if not every, designer and developer should know about, but very few use. The time and frustration savings are immense.

But the book is overflowing with things like this. Tips on optimizing and working within performance constraints; deciding when to use math versus traditional animation; caveats and gotchas and hidden bits of wisdom... It's in here! How about adding speech synthesis to your Flash application? Need an autocomplete function for a text field? How about tapping into some undocumented ActionScript? Well, keep reading - you'll find all of that in Sham's book.

The greatest value of Flash Hacks is the insight from someone who has been with Flash for a long time. Bhangal identifies both common and unusual circumstances that designers and developers might encounter, and provides not only great solutions, but good explanations on why a problem exists and the logic behind coming up with an answer. After working through a few of the hacks, you begin to see Flash in a new light, and new problems or challenges are not quite so daunting. A little perspective shift, maybe step outside of Flash for a bit, and you have a whole new toolbox at your disposal.

Structurally, the Hacks books are similar to the Cookbook series, also by O'Reilly. However, the intent is a bit different in that the information tends to be much more flexible and covers a wider variety of challenges. The hacks are numbered and grouped logically, and the index makes a good attempt at referencing not only the hack titles, but some identifying keywords that are more generic, thus more likely to be looked up. Of course, we'd all like an index that pretty much includes every word in the main text, but I digress... Smile

Sham's language is easy to follow, though there are some leaps of faith here and there. Some of the descriptions assume a higher level of familiarity with either ActionScript or web architecture in general, but this shouldn't be much of a problem for anyone who is paying attention. The hacks are appreciably short and compact, while still getting the major points across. This is a good book to thumb through from time to time if you need a little inspiration or want something new to work on. Each hack shouldn't take long to build, and most of the code is available in the companion web site. But don't make the mistake of just cutting pasting code in - the point of this book is to get you working better, creating things on your own, and expanding your approach to Flash.

That all being said, I can't really identify any deficiencies in this book. I'm not sure this book is for everyone, though. Many people are happy with the skills they already have, and enjoy trying to hammer out solutions on their own. Others may just need some bare essentials in coding and design. This book is really aimed at people who are comfortable with Flash, learn by doing, and are interested in tinkering at the fringes of their own capabilities. While Flash Hacks is not necessarily a cutting edge technique book, it's excellent for intermediate to advanced developers who are looking for new approaches. It encourages deeper exploration on both design and coding fronts.

If you are looking to add a few new tricks to your bag, and maybe get a fresh perspective on some old thoughts, grab yourself a copy of Flash Hacks. Most useful for intermediate to advanced Flash users, but not out of the realm for some eager novices.

Rating:
Summary: One of the most important techniques guides available
Review: Macromedia Flash is one of the most important multimedia Web applications on the market and Flash Hacks is one of the most important techniques guides available for using it. Designers and scripters who want more than the average Flash users will find this an essential guide to creating and using shortcuts, using Flash for unusual, fun applications, and achieving the most from Internet applications. Flash Hacks cover Flash MX, MX2004, and MX Professional 2004 as well as ActionScript 2.0, so it's got the latest tools and techniques.


Rating:
Summary: 100 useful Flash tips and tricks
Review: The art of making a great Flash movie is all about taking a restricted set of graphics tools and using tricks to make it look as if amazing things are happening. And about finding a way to do that in a small movie that loads quickly. This is no easy feat and it boils down to finding innovative solutions. This book comes with one hundred of these innovative solutions. And if you are a Flash developer it's well worth the money to get these unique techniques wrapped up in this tight form. I strongly recommend this book for any Flash developer.