Digital 3D is a tricky area &emdash; and until the day someone makes 3D TV commercially viable, its going to remain a tricky area. What is 3D? Can you genuinely render 3D on a flat screen? Do you have to spend a years wages to get a dedicated piece of 3D software? Do you have to conjure up a bunch of complex math techniques to make the grade? Is anyone going to answer these interminable questions? Well, listen: were not out to work ourselves into the ground here. We want 3D and we want it fast, and we want to use Flash to get it. In a series of clear and concise demonstrations, this book shows you exactly what can be achieved in Web 3D. Some of the most cunning designers around have put their heads together to present these: the most wanted 3D cheats in Flash. This book will show you that you can: Lie your way into 3D with simple drawing techniques Cheat a 3D interface with cunning use of light and shadow Fool Flash into thinking it can render genuine 3D, and con the Internet into delivering it for us in double-quick time Hoodwink visitors into thinking theyre witnessing focus and depth of field Improve your depth of deception with an innovative slice engine to create convincing 3D objects Trick users into thinking theyre moving through a 3D space Summary of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction to Flash 3D Chapter 2 Light and Shadow Chapter 3 Scaling for 3D Chapter 4 Isometric 3D Chapter 5 Focus and Depth of Field Chapter 6 Parallax Scrolling Chapter 7 Text Effects in 3D Space Chapter 8 Drawing API and Math for 3D Chapter 9 3D Slice Engine Chapter 10 Departure Lounge: Moving beyond Flash 3D

Why is this book called "3D Cheats"? Unlike committed 3D applications (like Maya, 3D Studio Max, Swift 3D), Flash MX doesn’t have an internal 3D engine, and therefore if a designer wants include realistic 3D effects in their Flash designs they must either import from one of these other 3D applications (can be complex, expensive, and time-consuming), or rely on "pseudo-3D" effects – 2D graphics rendered to mimic realistic 3D imagery. This book teaches users how to employ 3D principles without having to learn the official names for everything. Digital 3D is a tricky area – and until the day someone makes 3D TV commercially viable, it’s going to remain a tricky area. What is 3D? Can you genuinely render 3D on a flat screen? Do you have to spend a year’s wages to get a dedicated piece of 3D software? Do you have to conjure up a bunch of complex math techniques to make the grade? Is anyone going to answer these interminable questions? Well, listen: we’re not out to work ourselves into the ground here. We want 3D and we want it fast, and we want to use Flash to get it. In a series of clear and concise demonstrations, this book shows you exactly what can be achieved in Web 3D. Some of the most cunning designers around have put their heads together to present these: the most wanted 3D cheats in Flash.
This book will show you that you can:
- Lie your way into 3D with simple drawing techniques.
- Cheat a 3D interface with cunning use of light and shadow. 
- Fool Flash into thinking it can render genuine 3D, and con the Internet into delivering it for us in double-quick time. 
- Hoodwink visitors into thinking they’re witnessing focus and depth of field. 
- Improve your depth of deception with an innovative slice engine to create convincing 3D objects. 
- Trick users into thinking they’re moving through a 3D space.

 

We brought together some of the most cunning designers around to show you how to create astonishingly realistic web 3D the low-cost, low-pain way. In a series of clear and concise demonstrations, we reveal how to achieve the great 3D effects that you want most.

Digital 3D is a tricky area &emdash; and until the day someone makes 3D TV commercially viable, it’s going to remain a tricky area.

What is 3D? Can you genuinely render 3D on a flat screen? Do you have to spend a year’s wages to get a dedicated piece of 3D software? Do you have to conjure up a bunch of complex math techniques to make the grade? Is anyone going to answer these interminable questions?
Well, listen: we’re not out to work ourselves into the ground here. We want 3D and we want it fast, and we want to use Flash to get it. In a series of clear and concise demonstrations, this book shows you exactly what can be achieved in Web 3D. Some of the most cunning designers around have put their heads together to present these: the most wanted 3D cheats in Flash.

This book will show you that you can:

Lie your way into 3D with simple drawing techniques

Cheat a 3D interface with cunning use of light and shadow
Fool Flash into thinking it can render genuine 3D, and con the Internet into delivering it for us in double-quick time
Hoodwink visitors into thinking they’re witnessing focus and depth of field
Improve your depth of deception with an innovative slice engine to create convincing 3D objects
Trick users into thinking they’re moving through a 3D space
Summary of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction to Flash 3D
Chapter 2 Light and Shadow
Chapter 3 Scaling for 3D
Chapter 4 Isometric 3D
Chapter 5 Focus and Depth of Field
Chapter 6 Parallax Scrolling
Chapter 7 Text Effects in 3D Space
Chapter 8 Drawing API and Math for 3D
Chapter 9 3D Slice Engine
Chapter 10 Departure Lounge: Moving beyond Flash 3D

Bonus Chapter available for download: 900k 2MB

Digital 3D is a tricky area &emdash; and until the day someone makes 3D TV commercially viable, it’s going to remain a tricky area.

What is 3D? Can you genuinely render 3D on a flat screen? Do you have to spend a year’s wages to get a dedicated piece of 3D software? Do you have to conjure up a bunch of complex math techniques to make the grade? Is anyone going to answer these interminable questions?
Well, listen: we’re not out to work ourselves into the ground here. We want 3D and we want it fast, and we want to use Flash to get it. In a series of clear and concise demonstrations, this book shows you exactly what can be achieved in Web 3D. Some of the most cunning designers around have put their heads together to present these: the most wanted 3D cheats in Flash.

This book will show you that you can:

Lie your way into 3D with simple drawing techniques

Cheat a 3D interface with cunning use of light and shadow
Fool Flash into thinking it can render genuine 3D, and con the Internet into delivering it for us in double-quick time
Hoodwink visitors into thinking they’re witnessing focus and depth of field
Improve your depth of deception with an innovative slice engine to create convincing 3D objects
Trick users into thinking they’re moving through a 3D space
Summary of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction to Flash 3D
Chapter 2 Light and Shadow
Chapter 3 Scaling for 3D
Chapter 4 Isometric 3D
Chapter 5 Focus and Depth of Field
Chapter 6 Parallax Scrolling
Chapter 7 Text Effects in 3D Space
Chapter 8 Drawing API and Math for 3D
Chapter 9 3D Slice Engine
Chapter 10 Departure Lounge: Moving beyond Flash 3D

Bonus Chapter available for download: 900k 2MB Digital 3D is a tricky area &emdash; and until the day someone makes 3D TV commercially viable, it’s going to remain a tricky area. What is 3D? Can you genuinely render 3D on a flat screen? Do you have to spend a year’s wages to get a dedicated piece of 3D software? Do you have to conjure up a bunch of complex math techniques to make the grade? Is anyone going to answer these interminable questions? Well, listen: we’re not out to work ourselves into the ground here. We want 3D and we want it fast, and we want to use Flash to get it. In a series of clear and concise demonstrations, this book shows you exactly what can be achieved in Web 3D. Some of the most cunning designers around have put their heads together to present these: the most wanted 3D cheats in Flash. This book will show you that you can: Lie your way into 3D with simple drawing techniques Cheat a 3D interface with cunning use of light and shadow Fool Flash into thinking it can render genuine 3D, and con the Internet into delivering it for us in double-quick time Hoodwink visitors into thinking they’re witnessing focus and depth of field Improve your depth of deception with an innovative slice engine to create convincing 3D objects Trick users into thinking they’re moving through a 3D space Summary of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction to Flash 3D Chapter 2 Light and Shadow Chapter 3 Scaling for 3D Chapter 4 Isometric 3D Chapter 5 Focus and Depth of Field Chapter 6 Parallax Scrolling Chapter 7 Text Effects in 3D Space Chapter 8 Drawing API and Math for 3D Chapter 9 3D Slice Engine Chapter 10 Departure Lounge: Moving beyond Flash 3D

Easy 3D has long been the holy grail for desktop designers, and this book provides an exciting overview of the most wanted 3D effects using Macromedia Flash MX. 3D is a tricky area. The specialist software is expensive, it’s complex, you can’t deliver it on the web with any great ease, and it’s not exactly interactive. This book is for Flash users who want the whole subject sorting out! It is devoted to setting 3D straight, by showing you the simple, powerful, and sometimes downright mind-blowing 3D effects Flash is capable of. Sometimes, as this book shows you, all you need is the right idea, and Flash is capable of delivering some of the most incredible material. Here we look at light and shadow effects, isometric 3D, parallax effects, methods of focusing, plus an innovative slice engine that delivers the most incredible and convincing 3D models! Clear step-by-step instructions show you how to replicate the effects and give you an insight into how you might use them for your own designs. From the Publisher This book is aimed at people who are quite comfortable with Flash MX, and know a little ActionScript. It provides detailed step-by-step tutorials, and boasts complete technical support from the friends of ED website.

I’m lovin it!

I didnt buy this book to learn about flash coding, or web development. I bought this book because I am interested in Software rendered graphics. That is, applications that dont utalize OpenGL or Direct 3D for rendering to the screen. I bought this book for the techniques it discusses in "faking" 3d, and also producing real 3d. So far it has done a perfect job in giving me ideas and techniques that I can use in my applications. For anybody interested in producing anything that is real time, and 3d, I would reccomend this book.

A work of art! Opens all new possibilities to script builders

This is the best book I have read in years! If you know the basics of ActionScript and you know sine and cosine, this book opens up whole dimensions of possibilities for both games and business applications of Flash.

It is clearly written and reads more smoothly than most programming books. While it does assume a basic literacy with ActionScript, it does not leave you flailing with complex 3D concepts. You may have to pull out your definitions of sine and cosine, but beyond that, it is pretty light lifting.

The genious of the book is that it violates commmon assumptions, and this results in simple, elegant techniques that are also powerful for a wide range of problems. The common assumption is that Flash doesn’t do 3D. Don’t believe it anymore. If you are willing to use some basic limitations to your application (such as keeping your polygon count down), you can have some smoothly flowing, useful 3D applications with relatively little effort. And unless I’m mistaken, those applications will run equally well on a browser running on a Mac, Windows or Linux.

The solutions are simple and eclectic. The authors have created a variety of 3D engines - each optimized for a given purpose. The engines are simple enough that (in theory) you can take the source and enhance it to your needs. Each technique is backed up by source code that you can download from the publisher’s web site. But don’t shortchange yourself with only the sample code - the explanations in the text are worth the cost of the paper book.

Here are my favorite techniques:

* ch 8 (P 195) - Drawing API and Math for 3D - here they explain and provide a working polygon 3D engine. The demos work smoothly (at least 20-30 frames per second) on my cheap Dell laptop. The demos include a oragami bird and a rocket ship with at least 10-20 polgons each. It doesn’t support bitmapped textures, but it does offer fill color and shading support.

* ch 9 - 3D Slice Engine - this is the more clever, powerful and non-obvious technique of the book. Check out "dad.swf" in the binary samples from the web site to get an idea of the power of this approach - the author has made a 3D talking head of his father from a photograph! The idea here is that if you can view your 3D world as a topographical map, then you can model it with a set of parallel planes, where each plane represents a certain cut through the entire 3D model. This approach, though not immediately intuitive, is extremely powerful in Flash because it plays on the strenghths of Flash. Each plane is represented by two "movieclip" objects, with one embedded in the other. The first one handles scaling, and the second handles rotation, within the scaled clip. The hidden surface problem is finessed because the planes are parallel - so you only reverse the rendering order once every 180 degrees of change in viewer angle. This enables you to handle full bitmap detail of your scenes, and the result is pretty dazzling! The basic rendering engine requires only about 50 lines of ActionScript!

* Ch 6 - Parallax Scrolling - This name is misleading - it really goes beyond a scrolling 2D game model. In the Wyvern’s Claw" example, it explores the idea of building a 3D world like a movie set - with a set of strategically placed flat surfaces (like the fronts of buildings in the studio sets). Each surface is a movieclip, and your script manages the proper scaling and shading as the viewer moves through. The demo then shows an animated walk-through of a small town rendering in such a way. This seems very cool for a potential game.

I’m already using the Chapter 9 slice engine for a work-related project - multidimensional data browsing. So for me, the book was not only stimulating to read but valuable!

Trigonometry background required in some chapters

TOC:



Chapter 1 Introduction to Flash 3D

Chapter 2 Light and Shadow

Chapter 3 Scaling for 3D

Chapter 4 Isometric 3D

Chapter 5 Focus and Depth of Field

Chapter 6 Parallax Scrolling

Chapter 7 Text Effects in 3D Space

Chapter 8 Drawing API and Math for 3D

Chapter 9 3D Slice Engine

Chapter 10 Departure Lounge: Moving beyond Flash 3D



Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 10 don’t require a trigonometry

background. One of Chapter 6 topics uses XML though.



The best chapters for me were 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6.



I gave the book 5 stars because it has something for everyone.

Some people use Flash to create digital art while others use it

for practical purposes. This book delivers to both people.

Unfortunately, I belong to the latter kind and some of the topics

aren’t for me.



I also think that some chapters are impractical unless you’re

really a math geek. For example, I think Chapter 8 - Drawing

API and Math for 3D -- is unnecessary because you can import

Swift 3D files.



Some of the authors also show you Actionscript without really

explaining what it does (I think they assume you do know trig).

I work for a software engineering firm (not as an engineer

though) but I do know that it’s bad practice to embed magic

numbers -- literals that don’t have apparent meaning -- in

any code. It’s better to put them in constants.



One of the authors (the Chapter 4 author I think) said to get

a good book on trigo. I don’t think I will because there are

plenty of free trigo tutorials on the web. I agree though that

to get the most out of Flash and this book, learning trigo is a

must.

Trigonometry background required in some chapters

TOC:

Chapter 1 Introduction to Flash 3D
Chapter 2 Light and Shadow
Chapter 3 Scaling for 3D
Chapter 4 Isometric 3D
Chapter 5 Focus and Depth of Field
Chapter 6 Parallax Scrolling
Chapter 7 Text Effects in 3D Space
Chapter 8 Drawing API and Math for 3D
Chapter 9 3D Slice Engine
Chapter 10 Departure Lounge: Moving beyond Flash 3D

Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 10 don’t require a trigonometry
background. One of Chapter 6 topics uses XML though.

The best chapters for me were 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6.

I gave the book 5 stars because it has something for everyone.
Some people use Flash to create digital art while others use it
for practical purposes. This book delivers to both people.
Unfortunately, I belong to the latter kind and some of the topics
aren’t for me.

I also think that some chapters are impractical unless you’re
really a math geek. For example, I think Chapter 8 - Drawing
API and Math for 3D -- is unnecessary because you can import
Swift 3D files.

Some of the authors also show you Actionscript without really
explaining what it does (I think they assume you do know trig).
I work for a software engineering firm (not as an engineer
though) but I do know that it’s bad practice to embed magic
numbers -- literals that don’t have apparent meaning -- in
any code. It’s better to put them in constants.

One of the authors (the Chapter 4 author I think) said to get
a good book on trigo. I don’t think I will because there are
plenty of free trigo tutorials on the web. I agree though that
to get the most out of Flash and this book, learning trigo is a
must.

Good golly

This has to be about the best book I have ever seen. The 3D cheats in it are amazing -- and you surely wouldn’t know you were cheating. There are some incredibly insightful techniques, and some more staple things if you’re not quite steady on your feet yet.

I think I am, but this book showed me how much more there was to know!