1: many tools for animation
Flash animation is by now a mature technology, and Adobe continues to refine it. The CS4 version described by the book has a plentitude of tools. So much so that perhaps it can be confusing to a newcomer. In this relatively slim narrative, Adobe explains Flash from scratch.
In essence, Flash data is a collection of frames. The software lets you manipulate this collection in very general ways. Making it easy to insert frames, make layers, and organising layers into a timeline; just a few of the methods, but maybe the most basic ones.
There are also ways to work on the graphics of still images. So there are various types of ways to render [shade], write text in different fonts, sizes and colours etc. Here, the tools in Photoshop seem far more extensive, as those are usually meant for stills.
Higher value Flash tools are also available. These focus more on making animation of objects easier. Hence the use of inverse kinematics in applications like articulated motion. ActionScript, now in its 3.0 version, is defined, to further extend Flash's abilities. Here is where the book actually talks about computer programming. ActionScript is not a full purpose language, but it is optimised to drive Flash and it doesn't seem that hard to pick up.
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