Whenever anyone asks me to recommend a good book to learn ActionScript 3, I always tell them to run on over and buy a fresh copy of Keith Peters’ Making Things Move. In fact I was quite gutted when the first AS2 version came out; I’d spent the previous 2 years working out how to do most of that stuff for myself from scratch. If only it had come out earlier I would have saved all that effort!

So I was delighted when those charming chaps at FriendsOfEd asked me to be the Technical Reviewer for the latest version of the book!

Not only do I get to see the book before anyone else, I also get paid for it! Oh and I do have to actually suggest some stuff every now and again.

I must say it’s looking pretty damn good so far… of course I can’t reveal the exact content of the book, but you can read all about it here, and even pre-order it here!

And here’s Keith’s take on it. Oh and some bullet points, just to get you excited :

• ActionScript for Flash Player 10 3D and Inverse Kinematics
• New drawing API commands and PixelBender
• Isometric world creation
• Artificial intelligence including pathfinding and steering/flocking behaviors
• Numerical integration for real world physics
• Advanced collision detection

And if that doesn’t get you excited, I don’t know what will! (And yes, maybe I should get out more…) It’s due out 1st December.

Related posts:

1. Learn how to program Flash games
2. Making a multi-track recorder in Flash part 2
3. Simple Flash 3D drawing API

Part two of my particle tutorial in Computer Arts is featured in issue 152, August 2008.

Using the skeletons on the Plug-in Media website as an example, I take you through how to blow things up in Flash!

Source files are included on the CD – let me know how you get along and show me what you’re blowing up!

[UPDATE] You can now find this tutorial free online here.

Related posts:

1. Flash particle tutorial in Computer Arts magazine
2. Computer Arts Particle Article now online
3. FITC Hollywood Session – AS3 Particle effects