Creating Visual Experiences with Flex 30 or Introduction to 3d Game Programming with Directx 9 0c

Creating Visual Experiences with Flex 3.0 (Developer's Library Series)

Author: Juan Sanchez

Don’t settle for Flex’s boring, standard user interface: set your Flex applications apart with the breakthrough skinning and programming techniques found in Creating Visual Experiences with Flex 3.0. Leading Flex developers Juan Sanchez and Andy McIntosh show how to build Flex and AIR applications that are stunningly beautiful — and amazingly usable. You’ll learn how to apply state-of-the-art branding and visual design techniques that add value to all your Flex applications, no  matter what they do or who you’re building them for.

Sanchez and McIntosh illuminate every aspect of creating superior visual experiences with Flex 3.0 and AIR: thoughtful planning, design, and architecture; proven user-interface principles; and efficient technical implementation. You’ll learn how to alter the standard Flex interface using all the tools available to you: skins, styling, transitions, effects, filters, graphics built with Adobe creative tools, CSS, and ActionScript 3.0 programming.

The authors reveal the tradeoffs associated with each approach to Flex visual experience design and help you choose the right techniques for your applications. They explain each concept and technique in detail, using real-world examples,  and reinforce your understanding with step-by-step walkthroughs in a complete case study project.

Today there are thousands of Flex and AIR developers, and new Flex and AIR applications are introduced every day. If you want to write applications that are a cut above the rest, this is the book that will show you how.

Table of Contents:

Preface

Foreword

Part I: Introduction

Chapter 1: Rich Internet Applications

Chapter 2: Adobe Flex and AIR

Part II: The Flex 3 Framework

Chapter 3: Dynamic Layout

Chapter 4: Styling

Chapter 5: Graphical Skinning

Chapter 6: Programmatic Skinning

Chapter 7: Lists and Navigation Controls

Chapter 8: Indicators and Cursors

Chapter 9: Fonts and Text

Chapter 10: Filters and Blends

Chapter 11: Effects and Transitions

Part III: Beyond Flex

Chapter 12: Flex and Flash Integration

Chapter 13: Customizing AIR Applications

Part IV: Exercises

Exercise 4.1: Loading a Style Sheet at Runtime

Exercise 5.1: Creating a Graphical Skin with Flash

Exercise 5.2: Creating a Graphical Skin with Illustrator

Exercise 5.3: Creating a Graphical Skin with Fireworks

Exercise 5.4: Creating a Graphical Skin with Photoshop

Exercise 6.1: Creating a Programmatic Skin

Exercise 7.1: Creating a Chat Dialog Window Using a List

Exercise 7.2: Creating a Photo Gallery Using a Tile List

Exercise 9.1: Embedding a Font in a SWF File Using Flash

Exercise 9.2: Packaging a CSS File with a Font as a SWF

Exercise 9.3: Creating a Style Sheet for HTML Text

Exercise 11.1: Applying a Custom Effect

Exercise 11.2: Creating a Transition Between Views States

Exercise 12.1: Creating a Graphical Skin Using the Flex Component Kit

Exercise 12.2: Using Flash Skin Templates

Exercise 12.3: Creating a Custom Container Using the Flex Component Kit

Exercise 12.4: Using MotionXML

Part V: References

Appendix A: Skinning and Styling Diagrams

Appendix B: Filters Cheat Sheet

Appendix C: Resources and Cool Stuff

Index

New interesting textbook: Complete Crockery Cookbook or Chocolate French

Introduction to 3D Game Programming with DirectX 9. 0c: A Shader Approach

Author: Frank D Luna

Presents an introduction to programming interactive computer graphics, with an emphasis on game development, using real-time shaders with DirectX 9.0. It teaches the fundamentals of Direct3D and shader programming, after which the reader will be prepared to go on and learn more advanced techniques. The book is divided into three main parts. Part I explains the mathematical tools that will be used throughout this book. Part II shows how to implement elementary 3D techniques, such as defining 3D geometry, lighting, texturing, alpha blending, and stenciling by using shaders and the HLSL. Part III is largely about applying Direct3D to implement a variety of interesting techniques and special effects, such as working with meshes, character animation, terrain rendering, picking, particle systems, environment mapping, normal mapping, and rendering to textures.