First Away3D book: The Essential guide to 3D in Flash

The very first Away3D book was finally published last month by Friends of Ed. Thanx go our to the main authors Rob Bateman and Richard Olsson, as well as Away3D Team members Greg Caldwell, Jens Brynildsen, Peter Kapelyan, David Lenaerts and Alejandro Santander who all made contributions. This has been a lot of work for everyone involved, and is a testament to the dedication of the core team and support of our community. The book serves as an ideal primer for anyone looking to get into 3D in Flash, or anyone who has used Away3D for a short while but is interested in cementing their knowledge. It covers a wide range of topics from basic primitive creation and interaction through to advanced features such as bones animation and 3D text manipulation, using the latest 2.5 & 3.5 double release as its code base. Each chapter is packed full of examples that teach underlying 3D concepts as well as the application of Away3D in a standard AS3 project, and the text provides initial setup assistance for whichever ActionScript editor you favour. A web page at http://flash3dbook.com has been created to document where you can buy the book online, and is also the place we are hosting the errata doc which is keeping track of any minor corrections. Alternatively, go to Amazon or the publisher's own page at www.friendsofed.com, the latter of which offers an eBook option, as well as all the necessary source files for the contained code examples. Feel free to comment your thoughts below if you have purchased the book recently and would like to submit a review - all opinions welcome!