As a creative professional or interactive developer, you’ll be amazed at the exciting possibilities presented to you by the features available in Flash 8; but as a busy designer, we know you won't have as much time as you’d like to explore these new additions. Never fear; this book wastes no time looking at timeline basics, tweens, or movie-publishing options—it focuses exclusively on the new Flash 8 features, getting you quickly up to speed with a combination of illustrative tutorials, handy references, and inspirational examples.

By the end of the book, you’ll know that there’s no shortage of new tools to enhance and inspire your Flash development; and since this book is written by some of the community's leading Flash experts, you’ll know you’re in good hands. If you’re looking to master Flash 8 with a minimum of time and effort, then this is the only book for you.

What you’ll learn

• Benefit from exciting new pixel-level control with the new BitmapData API
• Create stunning visual effects with filters and blend modes
• Add interactive video quickly and easily using cue points, video alpha channel support, and the industry-leading On2 VP6 codec
• Take advantage of speed enhancements with bitmap caching
• Communicate easily with browsers using the new ExternalInterface class
• Add support for uploading images directly from Flash 8 with the new File Reference class
• Take advantage of the new text field and drawing improvements