Foundation Flash 8 Video

When Flash Professional 8 was released, it seemed as if we'd embarked on a web video revolution almost overnight. Up until then, web video was a morass of competing players, technologies, standards, codecs, and playback quality. The inclusion of the On2 VP6 codec, the FLV Playback component, alpha channel video, and the Flash 8 Video Encoder has ended the infancy of web video, creating an instant benchmark with no stops in between.

And this book is the ultimate guide to Flash 8 video it offers practical advice, technical guidance, and a full series of creative projects ranging from the dead simple to the complex in a manner that talks to you as an equal and makes only one assumption: basic familiarity with the Flash interface.

We start with the basicshow to edit video in some of the most popular packages available (such as iMovie and Movie Maker 2) and create a Flash video file and import it into Flash.

Next, we move on to the good stuffcreating a custom video player; creating an alpha channel video and using it in some spectacular projects; turning your creativity loose by applying filters and blend effects to video using the Flash interface and ActionScript; creating video walls, menus, and stunning masking effects; and exploring how Adobe After Effects 7 and Flash Professional 8 are poised to become a motion graphics powerhouse. Best of all, you will discover something the authors had discovered by the time they started writing this book...this stuff is fun!