Away3D 3.6 Cookbook

Over 80 practical recipes for creating stunning graphics and effects with the fascinating Away3D engine

• Invaluable tips and techniques to take your Away 3D applications to the top
• Reveals the secrets of cleaning your scene from z-sorting artifacts without killing your CPU
• Get 2D objects into the 3D world by learning to work with TextField3D and extracting graphics from vector graphics
• Learn essential topics like collision detection, elevation reading, terrain generation, skyboxes, and much more
• Gain an exclusive and practical introduction to Molehill, the next generation of 3D APIs for the Flash platform – by creating a rotating sphere from scratch.
• Part of Packt’s Cookbook series: each recipe is a carefully organized sequence of instructions to complete the task as efficiently as possible

In Detail

Three dimensions are better than two–and it’s not a secret anymore that 3D is here to stay. Gone are the days when Flash was just used for 2D animations. In the last few years online Flash content has undergone a revolution with the introduction of real-time 3D engines for Flash. Away3D is the big daddy of them all–which makes it the ultimate resource for top-rated 3D content development and for powering today’s coolest games and Flash sites. Away 3D 3.6 Cookbook is your answer to learning all you need to take your Flash or Away3D skills to the next level– and having fun doing it.

This book is your practical companion that will teach you more than just the essentials of Away3D, and will provide you with all the tools and techniques you need to create a stunning 3D experience. You will find recipes targeting every possible field related to Away3D, 3D development pipelines, and best practices in general. You will find practically relevant content exploring advanced topics, which will clear your way to developing cutting edge applications–not to mention saving hours of searching for help on the internet.

The recipes in this book will teach you diverse aspects of 3D application development with Away3D. They will guide you through essential aspects like creation of assets in external programs and their integration into Away3D, working with material, animation, interactivity, special effects, and much more. Each topic is packed with recipes targeting different levels of complexity so that even experienced Away3D developers will find a lot of useful and unique information.

By the time you are done with this book, you’ll be creating your own awesome Away 3D applications and games in less time than you can say “design”..

What you will learn from this book

• Learn how to prepare and get into Away3D external models of diverse formats (DAE, MD2, 3DS, Obj)
• Manage your assets by loading 3D models right from the database via AMF binary stream or compressing them into SWF resource containers
• Have fun with special effects such as geometry explosions, 3D clouds, and sound visualization
• Rig characters in 3DsMax and learn how to control it in Away3D
• Animate with Tween engines and Away3D generic tools
• Dive into 3D math by learning advanced interactivity concepts like virtual trackball, moving objects in 3D space based on mouse input, and how to create a fully interactive vehicle
• Transform 2D objects into the 3D world by learning to work with TextField3D and extracting graphics from vector graphics
• Optimize your application implementing such techniques as depth of rendering, selective rendering, LOD Objects, and the low poly modeling approach
• Explore Prefab, and see how it helps to speed up the development process
• Get to know essential 3D terminology , such as normal maps, light maps, texture baking, and UV Mapping and how to create these assets
• Discover the secrets of cleaning your scene from z-sorting artifacts without killing you CPU
• Integrate external libraries like JigLibFlash, FLINT, BOX2DFlash, FLARToolkit, and more
• Get introduced to Away3DLite- lightest and fastest Away3D junior brother on the market
• Skin your geometry with PixelBender shaded materials and learn how to set a video from Adobe FMS as a source for Away3D VideoMaterial
• Manipulate Away3D cameras and learn how to set up first- and third-person controllers, get introduced to advanced camera transformations, and discover the power of Quaternions
• Learn what BSP trees really are and how to use them for creating complex geometry indoor scenes with a minimal impact on performance

Approach

The book consists of recipes, each of which delivers a detailed solution to a specific problem scoped inside a broader topic of the chapter. Each recipe contains a detailed guide of what you need to set up for the solution to work, the full example code, rendered images, and step-by-step explanations so that you will be able to fully understand the mechanics of the program. Many recipes don’t stop at giving only one solution to the problem but also suggest alternative or more advanced approaches to the same problem giving you much a broader set of options in your development process.

Who this book is written for

The book is written for experienced Flash developers who want to work with the Away3D engine as well as for those who are already acquainted with the engine but wish to take their skills to the next level.

Basic knowledge of Away3D and familiarity with ActionScript 3.0 and OOP concepts is assumed.