Foundation Flash Catalyst Book

This book offers an introduction to Flash Catalyst for designers with intermediate to advanced skills. It discusses where Catalyst sits within the production process and how it communicates with other programs. It covers all of the features of the Flash Catalyst workspace, teaching you how to create designs from scratch, how to build application designs and add functionality, and how to master the Catalyst/Flex workflow.

• Introduces Flash Catalyst
• Focuses on production process
• Covers the interrelation between Flash Catalyst and Photoshop/Illustrator/Flex/Flash

Starting from scratch, you'll learn the basic concepts and interface functionality of Flash Catalyst, and get practical experience by working on carefully crafted real-life projects throughout the book. You'll learn every stage of the process, from the first design sketches to the Flex Developer hand over, and how you can make design changes to assets while the developers work on the code. You'll also learn how to make your designs functional by adding simple buttons and scroll bars, and how to make sure that developers can precisely interpret your vision.

• Converting Photoshop/Illustrator artwork to interactive designs
• Sketching designs with interactivity
• Sketching designs with transitions
• Working with the FXG format
• Designing with fluid layouts in Catalyst

This book is for designers experienced with Photoshop, Illustrator, and Fireworks who want to include Flash Catalyst in their workflows. It's also for the general audience looking to design rich Internet applications using Catalyst.

Table of Contents

1. Catalyst Interface
2. Your First Flash Catalyst Project
3. Wireframing in Catalyst
4. Animation in Catalyst
5. Interactions
6. Organizing Artwork and Best Practices
7. Data Lists and Design-Time Data
8. SWFs, Video, and Audio
9. Custom Components and Library Packages
10. Catalyst to Flex Builder