ActionScript for Animate ?

[StrongBeaver]

I have some older Adobe Flash books with relation to ActionScript is this information still relevant in Animate ? As far as I understand Animate uses a hybrid approach where it uses Flash and HTML5 (Canvas) ?

[kglad]

if your books contain actionscript 3 info, it's still relevant and can be used an animate.

animate can publish files that use actionscript3 and it can publish files that publish html5 using createjs.

animate can also publish as3 files for the web, ios and android.  so, it might be better to think of it as a multi-purpose program rather than a hybrid of something.

[Rich Winnie · Accepted solution]

Hello! Yes, your old ActionScript books still apply with Animate for any project you create that targets Flash Player, AIR for Desktop, or AIR for iOS and Android. The ActionScript language has been stable for several years and those books will still work.

For HTML projects, you would be working with JavaScript (specifically CreateJS) which has many similarities to ActionScript (It was originally designed by Grant Skinner) but there are a number of key differences that you should invest in specific books on CreateJS and Animate CC.

Things that might be in older ActionScript books that you should be aware of is if there is any mention of ActionScript 2, or the Flex framework. If the books rely on these technologies, then they are not going to be very helpful with your project. Also, some of the books that talk about Flash Builder may have some interop workflows that are out of date an are no longer supported.

Hope that helps!

DougW

[StrongBeaver]

Thanks for the help, I'm going to lean towards CreateJS more so then AS3.

[StrongBeaver]

One more question, if you use AS3 and you publish your Animate final product is it dependent on the Flash plugin ?

[kglad]

not necessarily. it could be dependent on air.  eg, ios and android apps can have air embedded into the project so the dependency isn't even known to the user.

[StrongBeaver]

I wasn't even aware using AS3 would not require the flash plugin when publishing within animate.

[Colin Holgate]

In browsers it would need either a plugin or support from the browser, which IE, Edge, and Chrome already do, and Safari and Firefox can have the plugin installed.

But there are desktop and mobile apps, and those are self contained, they don't need Flash Player to be present on the system you're running on.

[StrongBeaver]

Thanks for the help, everyone