Byte-Size Flash MX:
Adventures In Design Optimization

By Genevive Garand, David Hirmes, Cody Lindley, Kip Parker, Keith Peters, Robert Reich, Roy Tanck

Please note that this title is now out-of-print, and so availability is likely to be limited.

Have you ever poured all your creativity into a Flash movie, but found your friends grumbling at the download size? Have you tried to use just one tiny picture in your movie, and seen the file size go through the roof? Is it possible to do anything remotely effective in a small file?

More than you could possibly imagine! This collection shows you just exactly what can be done with tiny Flash files, using some of the hottest Flash designers around. These authors pull designs out of the top drawer and show you exactly how you can go about creating great SWFs with the smallest amount of download pain.

You've dabbled a little with Flash, but are beginning to wonder why people are getting tetchy at the download time. You're willing to start learning some ActionScript tricks to fight the file flab, and you're not afraid to become addicted to optimization!

We will look at:

creating incredible generative designs so small you can use them for wallpaper
producing 3D animations that roll in at under 5k in size
creating sound toys in the smallest possible file space
de-mystifying the use of JPEGs and photographs while keeping your Flash movies small
strategic use of back-end technology to keep your delivery times down to nanoseconds!
changing the boundaries to look at new ways of delivering entire sites!
Table of Contents

1 Generative Animation
2 JPEG Delivery
3 Drawing Application
4 Math-based animation and Recordable Drawings
5 Sound Toys
6 Interactive 3D Animation: City Blossom
7 Developing 3D Animation
8 JavaScript & Flash
9 Site Structuring with XML