# Processing and Keith Peters' "Foundation Actionscript 3.0 Animation: Making Things Move!"

**URL:** <https://discourse.processing.org/t/processing-and-keith-peters-foundation-actionscript-3-0-animation-making-things-move/29787>\
**Category:** Project Guidance\
**Created:** [May 2, 2021, 11:06am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/processing-and-keith-peters-foundation-actionscript-3-0-animation-making-things-move/29787 "2021-05-02T11:06:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 13\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mario60](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@mario60](https://discourse.processing.org/u/mario60)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2021, 11:06am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/processing-and-keith-peters-foundation-actionscript-3-0-animation-making-things-move/29787/1 "2021-05-02T11:06:24Z")

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Hi

I am reading the book by Keith Peters _[Foundation Actionscript 3.0 Animation: Making Things Move!](https://www.amazon.com/Foundation-Actionscript-3-0-Animation-Making/dp/1590597915)_  
(which is indirectly referenced at [https://processing.org/examples/bouncy](https://processing.org/examples/bouncy))

It seems to me that all its codes could be rewritten in Processing, and pretty straightforwardly.  
Also, the book itself could be adapted to a nice intro to the basics of Processing animations.  
Most likely, somebody has already done it. If so, I would enjoy to check it out.  
Your comments are welcome.

Thanks  
Best wishes  
mario

MASK UP!

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**Author:** ![micuat](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.processing.org/micuat/32/19407_2.png) [@micuat](https://discourse.processing.org/u/micuat)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2021, 4:12pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/processing-and-keith-peters-foundation-actionscript-3-0-animation-making-things-move/29787/2 "2021-05-02T16:12:27Z")

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sounds interesting but without the book it’s hard to judge 🙂 Are you recommending the book, or asking people for help to implement the examples in Processing?

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**Author:** ![mario60](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@mario60](https://discourse.processing.org/u/mario60)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2021, 5:30pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/processing-and-keith-peters-foundation-actionscript-3-0-animation-making-things-move/29787/3 "2021-05-02T17:30:57Z")

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The second one. Or better, since a couple of examples have already been ported (see link in my first post), I am asking if anybody has already ported the entire book or most of it. (maybe in some classes somewhere).

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**Author:** ![micuat](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.processing.org/micuat/32/19407_2.png) [@micuat](https://discourse.processing.org/u/micuat)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2021, 5:51pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/processing-and-keith-peters-foundation-actionscript-3-0-animation-making-things-move/29787/4 "2021-05-02T17:51:17Z")

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not sure if there is any attempt besides Processing website but you can search and find a few examples from the website

> **[processing/processing-website](https://github.com/processing/processing-website/search?q=keith+peters)**
>
> h

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**Author:** ![Chrisir](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.processing.org/chrisir/32/45_2.png) [@Chrisir](https://discourse.processing.org/u/Chrisir)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2021, 6:56pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/processing-and-keith-peters-foundation-actionscript-3-0-animation-making-things-move/29787/5 "2021-05-02T18:56:44Z")

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Nice idea!

The book is from 2007.

Flash is dead I assume so is ActionScript.

Did you ask the author to send you the codes as a file via email?

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**Author:** ![mario60](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@mario60](https://discourse.processing.org/u/mario60)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2021, 6:58pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/processing-and-keith-peters-foundation-actionscript-3-0-animation-making-things-move/29787/6 "2021-05-02T18:58:10Z")

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I see, thanks. I’ll check.

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**Author:** ![mario60](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@mario60](https://discourse.processing.org/u/mario60)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2021, 7:06pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/processing-and-keith-peters-foundation-actionscript-3-0-animation-making-things-move/29787/7 "2021-05-02T19:06:05Z")

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No, do you know how to get in touch with author?  
(for AS3 I am not sure, but it would be nice to show that Processing can do whatever AS3 does as well).

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**Author:** ![Chrisir](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.processing.org/chrisir/32/45_2.png) [@Chrisir](https://discourse.processing.org/u/Chrisir)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2021, 7:32pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/processing-and-keith-peters-foundation-actionscript-3-0-animation-making-things-move/29787/8 "2021-05-02T19:32:21Z")

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You need to google how to contact the author

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**Author:** ![tabreturn](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.processing.org/tabreturn/32/3697_2.png) [@tabreturn](https://discourse.processing.org/u/tabreturn)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2021, 8:56pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/processing-and-keith-peters-foundation-actionscript-3-0-animation-making-things-move/29787/9 "2021-05-02T20:56:21Z")

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I still have some old ActionScript books I refer to today for Processing material 😃

_Friends of Ed_ published some great ActionScript books (the _New Masters of Flash_ series, etc.), and there are also old Flash showcase websites (like [http://levitated.net/](http://levitated.net/)) that are still running. There’s a lot of inspiration for Processing if you explore this content.

Adobe rebranded the Flash IDE as _Adobe Animate_. They’ve added support for HTML5 canvas, so you can publish for web browsers without having to rely on the Flash plugin. You can now write JavaScript in the Animate IDE (although ActionScript was always pretty close, anyhow).

Even in Flash’s heyday, many ActionScript 2 developers moved over to MTASC for a Flash IDE alternative, and later onto [Haxe](https://haxe.org/). The latter is similar to AS3 and can target Flash in addition to other platforms.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chrisir](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.processing.org/chrisir/32/45_2.png) [@Chrisir](https://discourse.processing.org/u/Chrisir)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2021, 9:38pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/processing-and-keith-peters-foundation-actionscript-3-0-animation-making-things-move/29787/10 "2021-05-02T21:38:09Z")

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Thanks for that great explanation!

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**Author:** ![n1ckfg](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.processing.org/n1ckfg/32/119_2.png) [@n1ckfg](https://discourse.processing.org/u/n1ckfg)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2021, 7:38pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/processing-and-keith-peters-foundation-actionscript-3-0-animation-making-things-move/29787/11 "2021-05-05T19:38:22Z")

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I think this is a great idea, and that book is a classic. Given that ActionScript was close to JavaScript, it might make sense to port this to p5.js first, and then port the p5.js set to Java if there’s interest? I’m pretty sure I have a copy of the book around so if somebody wants to create a repo and start in, happy to contribute some ports.

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**Author:** ![debxyz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/58956e/32.png) [@debxyz](https://discourse.processing.org/u/debxyz)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2021, 8:17pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/processing-and-keith-peters-foundation-actionscript-3-0-animation-making-things-move/29787/12 "2021-05-05T20:17:21Z")

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Hello @mario60

You could try reaching out to him via **LinkedIn** …

**And/or** try via the company his book is published by. I work in publishing and it is possible for a reader to send a letter to the publishing house asking that it be forwarded to an author. I did a quick search and the publisher is Apress in NYC. Call their customer service and they will likely be able to give you an email or snail mail address.

Good luck!  
🤓

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mario60](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@mario60](https://discourse.processing.org/u/mario60)\
**Post date:** [May 8, 2021, 5:27pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/processing-and-keith-peters-foundation-actionscript-3-0-animation-making-things-move/29787/13 "2021-05-08T17:27:16Z")

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Nice proposal, but unfortunately, I do not have any free time to take any commitment. I will enjoy to see somebody to take the challenge and could help a little.  
It seems to me that it would not be so difficult to port every one of Peters’s examples.  
Could be something to be done as a Tutorial on [openprocessing.org](http://openprocessing.org)? I am not familiar with it.

Note: Peters wrote a [sequel](https://www.amazon.com/AdvancED-ActionScript-Animation-Keith-Peters/dp/1430216085/) too, is it as good?

It is a different business to rewrite all of his text (which is indeed very clear and stepwise, I really like his recaps of basic trig), since editing can be very time consuming, if you are not a professional writer.

Thanks for the replies, I’ll stay in touch  
mario