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 [link no longer available], 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.