Sams Teach Yourself Adobe LiveMotion 2 in 24 Hours

by Molly Holzschlag

Overview

LiveMotion is Adobe's premiere Web graphics and animation design tool. It allows designers to work with vector and raster graphics in an easy-to-use environment, with an interface that is designed to be both intuitive and familiar to those who use other Adobe products. A new version of LiveMotion is expected to be released in the first quarter of 2002. It includes powerful new scripting capabilities, using the industry standard, JavaScript. And it has greatly improved integration with other Adobe products like GoLive, Photoshop, and Illustrator. Sams Teach Yourself Adobe LiveMotion X in 24 Hours offers a clearly written, approachable tutorial that carefully steps the reader through the basics of creating Web graphics and animations with LiveMotion. The book has been thoroughly reorganized and revised to better cover all the most important features of LiveMotion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780672323126
Publisher:	Pearson Education
Publication date:	05/13/2002
Series:	Sams Teach Yourself
Pages:	480
Product dimensions:	7.40(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Coined "one of the greatest digerati" and deemed one of the Top 25 Most Influential Women on the Web, Molly E. Holzschlag leaves little doubt that in the world of Web design and development, she is one of the most vibrant and influential people around. With more than 20 Web development book titles to her credit, Molly is also a popular columnist and feature writer for such diverse publications as Macworld, PCMagazine, IBM developerWorks, WebReview.com, and Builder.com. She is an engaging speaker and teacher, appearing regularly at such conferences as Comdex, Internet World, CMP's WEB shows, and Web Builder.

As a steering committee member for the Web Standards Project (WaSP), Molly works along with a group of other dedicated Web developers and designers to promote W3C recommendations. Currently, she is serving as the Associate Editor for Digital Web Magazine. Molly also acts as an advisory board committee member to numerouse organizations, including World Organization of Webmasters.

In more academic arenas, Molly teaches Webmaster courses at the University of Arizona, University of Phoenix, and Pima Community College. She wrote the very popular column "Integrated Design" for Web Techniques Magazine for the last three years of its publication, and she spent a year as Executive Editor for WebReview.com.

Table of Contents

(NOTE: Each chapter concludes with a Summary, Q&A, Quiz, Quiz Answers and Activities.)

Introduction.

I. CREATING LIVEMOTION OBJECTS.

Hour 1. Creating Simple Objects.

Exploring Objects in LiveMotion. Drawing an Object-A Simple Rectangle. Deleting an Object. Modifying an Object. Creating a Rounded Rectangle. Using the Ellipse Tool. Working with Polygons. Drawing Free-Form Objects Using the Pen Tool.

Hour 2. Importing Photos and Artwork as Objects.

Understanding Image Objects. Getting the Graphic Goods. Importing Your Art. Placing Graphic Files. Pasting External Graphics. Dragging and Dropping Art.

Hour 3. Setting Type with LiveMotion.

Basic Typographic Principles. Creating Text Objects. Setting a Font. Sizing Type. Tracking Type. Controlling Leading. Aligning Type.

II. MODIFYING OBJECTS.

Hour 4. Combining, Grouping, and Editing Objects.

Understanding Group and Combine. Grouping Objects. Combining Objects. Working with the Intersect Command. Editing Objects. Undoing What You've Done. Alignment and Distribution.

Hour 5. Selecting and Transforming Objects.

Selecting and Deselecting Objects with LiveMotion Tools. Moving Objects. Resizing Objects.

Hour 6. Working with Object Layers.

All About Layers. Using the Object Layers Palette. Arranging Layers. Modifying Object Layers with the Layer Palette.

III. COLOR, SHAPE, AND STYLE.

Hour 7. Using LiveMotion's Color Tools.

All About Web Color. General Color Tools and Techniques. Working with the Color Palette. Tapping into the Power of Color Schemes.

Hour 8. Working with the Library Palette.

The Importance of Shape. Using LiveMotion's Library Palette. Adding Custom Shapes to the Library. Deleting LiveMotion Library Files.

Hour 9. Applying LiveMotion Styles.

All About LiveMotion Styles. Exploring the Styles Palette. Customizing Preset Styles. Adding Styles to the Style Palette. Removing Styles from the Palette.

Hour 10. Textures, Gradients, Distortion, and Effects.

Using the Textures Palette. Applying Gradients. Distorting Objects. Working with 3D Effects. Using the Adjust Palette.

Hour 11. Matting and Masks.

Understanding Mattes. Channels and Masks. Cropping Images.

IV. CREATING IMAGES FOR THE WEB.

Hour 12. Designing Static Web Graphics.

Building Backgrounds. Working with Logos. Creating Headers. Designing Rules. Navigation Buttons. Working with Spot Art.

Hour 13. Image Mapping and Rollover Techniques.

Linking Images to Web Pages. Mapping Images. Advanced Web Palette Techniques. Designing Rollovers.

Hour 14. Creating Remote Rollovers.

About Remote Objects. Designing a Simple Remote Rollover. Designing a Complex Remote Rollover.

V. FLASH SWF ANIMATION AND MULTIMEDIA.

Hour 15. Exploring the Timeline.

Animation Fundamentals. Exploring the LiveMotion Timeline.

Hour 16. Designing Animations.

Designing Basic and Looping Animations. Cell-Based Sequential Animation. Importing and Sequencing Photoshop Layers.

Hour 17. Working with Movie Clips.

About Movie Clips. About Movie Clip Groups. Movie Clips and LiveMotion Animation.

Hour 18. Adding LiveMotion Audio.

Understanding Audio. Where to Get Audio. Working with Audio in LiveMotion. Adding Audio to the Sounds Palette.

Hour 19. Creating a Multimedia Presentation.

About Multimedia. A Concept, a Plan, a Script. Designing Presentation Components. Production Tips.

VI. DESIGNING AND OPTIMIZING ADVANCED WEB PRESENTATIONS.

Hour 20. Professional Applications of LiveMotion.

Planning the Site. Deconstructing a LiveMotion Web Site.

Hour 21. Optimizing and Exporting LiveMotion Files.

Export Features and Formats. Previewing and Optimizing Your Work. Exporting Your Designs. Working with LiveMotion's Generated Code.

VII. ADVANCED TECHNIQUES: SCRIPTING.

Hour 22. Scripting and LiveMotion.

About JavaScript. About ActionScript. About Automation Scripts and Live Tabs. LiveMotion Scripting Tools Overview.

Hour 23. Adding Scripts.

About the Script Editor. Understanding Labels. Understanding Script Keyframes. Understanding Event Handlers. Learning About State Scripts.

Hour 24. Scripting Project.

Planning and Organizing Your Project. Beginning the Animation. Adding Audio. Animating Objects Along a Specified Route. Adding a Scripted Component.

Appendix A. Learning LiveMotion Features.

Getting Familiar with LiveMotion Menus. Exploring the Toolbox. Working with Palettes. Using Context Menus in Windows. Working with Script Tools.

Appendix B. Setting Preferences and Working with the Composition Area.

Calibrating Your Monitor. Setting LiveMotion Preferences. Opening an Existing File. Creating a New File. Modifying the Composition Area. Saving Files to Default LiveMotion Settings. Summary.

Appendix C. Understanding Web Graphics.

About Computer Graphics. Exploring Common File Types. Suitable Web File Formats. Graphic Interchange Format (GIF). Joint Experts Photographic Group (JPEG). Portable Network Graphics (PNG).