Foreword

The Flash community as a whole is at a crossroads. There is no other application out there that has the power to take down a visitor's computer while looking so spiffy. With the release of Flash 8, we as a community have the ability to change the look and feel — and the performance — of the Web like never before. Flash as a rich media environment is being assaulted from all sides: DHTML, AJAX, Microsoft's Sparkle and Avalon, and so on. No longer is Flash alone in this space. This is a good thing because competition drives innovation and sends the message that web-based multimedia applications are here to stay.

Macromedia has focused the majority of changes in Flash 8 around the design aspect of Flash. Flash 8 has much improved font rendering, graphic effects, and a whole host of other changes. These changes improve the workflow for the designer, but more importantly give the designer many new options for expressing his or her creativity.

There are lots of great Flash sites out there in the world. There are also just as many bad Flash sites that leave a bad impression of Flash in users' minds. One of my rules of thumb is that if a "skip" button is necessary, the application is probably not necessary. The days of intro movies has passed (thankfully) and it is time we begin to create rich applications using Flash 8. In the Flash 8 Bible , Robert Reinhardt and Snow Dowd encapsulate all of the changes in the newest version of Flash in such a concise, easy-to-follow manner, that the quality of your Flash design and development will reach this higher level.

Flash enables designers to develop, developers to design, and novices to create professional experiences. No other application available today can rival Flash for its ease of use, powerful development capabilities, multimedia features, and design power.

The book you are holding in your hands can help you avoid all of the common pitfalls that arise when just starting out in Flash, while explaining all the new features. Designers have been given many more tools, such as FlashType, blend modes, and bitmap caching. Mac users will notice increased performance within the Player, which is a welcome update. ActionScript gurus will appreciate the ability to control design elements at run-time, and improved debug and file uploading capabilities. Video performance and quality have been vastly improved over previous versions. Dynamic loading of GIFs and PNGs are a welcome addition as is the alpha channel support for video, stand-alone video encoder, and all the other video improvements. Robert explains how to make the most of these updates in clear and concise language.

This is a very exciting time for Flash developers and designers, new and old, as Flash 8 arrives in all its glory. With the Flash 8 Bible in your library, you will be able to leverage the new features and use the power Macromedia has given us in a responsible way. Let's show the world what Flash is capable of and no longer use Flash simply to have Flash on a page. Let's build Flash applications that the users feel they cannot live without; design rich media experiences that go beyond the intro movie, the slide show, and the audio player and instead truly immerse the user in ways never before possible on the Internet.

Tom Crenshaw
Technical Manager
Rich Internet Application Development
AOL

Note: Some features discussed in this Foreword are only available in the Professional version of Flash 8. Please check your documentation to verify which capabilities are available within your version of Flash.