Page Flip
The dynamic page flip effect as published on Pixelwit.com in May of 2002:
I've made lots of neat Flash stuff through the years but the interest generated by the PageFlip code has persisted the longest. Though the pace has slowed significantly since its heyday, I still get at least one e-mail a week asking about the PageFlip's use. If you're curious, the original dynamic page flipping source code is available to use as you see fit, free of charge. If you'd like to know how to add more pages or why your "with action" failed, I suggest you read the PageFlip Tutorials.
Although not originally designed as such, the PageFlip file has proven to be an excellent test of one's Flash knowledge. Some of the trickier parts are:
- Finding the book.
- Finding the code.
- Modifying the code.
- Modifying pages.
- Adding pages.
- Understanding the preload structure.
I'm not sure how many people figured everything out on their own, but I can tell you that roughly a billion people contacted me with their questions. I responded to as many e-mails as I could at first but that grew tiresome since most people wouldn't bother to say "thanks" after I took the time to answer their questions. BUT it's important to note that so far about 30 people have gone out of their way to express their appreciation without asking for any favors in return, two have made donations via PayPal and one even went so far as to send me the prettiest looking loaf of pumpernickel bread never to be eaten. You can blame either my particular food preferences or her particular cooking abilities, the jury is still out on that one. Thank you KT wherever you are. 😉
The Flash page flip effect has evolved a good deal since its inception long ago. My first attempt to imitate the turning of a book's page was in March 2002 and it was ugly. Then in early May of the same year I saw the light. Tony Hogqvist of Perfect Fools had combined masking, skewing and alpha gradients to simulate a page "curl" effect so convincing many people believed the image actually curled or warped as it was flipped over. After I learned the visual tricks pioneered by the Perfect Fools page flip, I tried improving their basic concept.
Essentially I took what started out as a timeline based animation and modified it to accommodate a near infinite number of page quantities and sizes by leveraging the features which were only available in the then recently released FlashMX. The new Flash drawing API was used to generate shapes and gradients which in turn were controlled via MX's new dynamic event handlers. I also tweaked the look of the gradient and initial page angle a bit to make the curl look more natural and disposed of the the skewing aspect since it seemed overly complex and added little visually.
My efforts paid off as the code I wrote won a contest on ActionScript.org. As a result, I got a free book of my choosing and a little bit of exposure.
I'm not sure, but I'd like to think my example may have inspired Erik Natzke to make his improved version of the page flip some time later. His version used Trigonometry and inertial easing to create a more interactive and realistic dragging effect.
Some time later, possibly mid 2004, Iparigrafika released a version which added a brand new feature allowing the user to tear away pages and they reintroduced the use of transparent pages which had originally been featured in the Perfect Fools' version of the page flip effect.
I've made all sorts of modifications to the page flip transition for various clients, Hard Covers, One Click Flipping, XML Table of Contents and Odd Page Shapes to name a few. If you have an idea which could be "The Next Big Thing" contact me now to learn how I can help make it happen.
Why I gave it away: Something About Sluggy.
Technical questions: Page Flip Help.
Improved PageFlip: Implements most requested features.
Comments(120)
RSS Feeds
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. It is hard sometimes to have people willing to help others without asking fo something in return. I have mine working properly with no flaws thanx a million!
I want to make a flip on my site could you please explain to me how it can be done.. i have a magazine i want to put on the site
Hi
I’m from Mexico and have a problem, I need to make the flip page work in flash 5, is there a way it can be done?
Searching the web I came across with your work and realize you have been developing the original dynamic page flipping source code since 2002, the Fla of link doesn’t open in flash 5
Thanks in advance for your help.
hello
iam doing B.E (CSE), its superb effect
can i get for low cost, am from india
@Flash Design Guy, maybe you’re looking for a “Barney’s Menu”?
I’m looking for a more modern and also simpler version of a page flip animation , an animation that remains flat, so no 3D simulation, where the pictures are pushed away. does anybody where i could find such an animation
[…] course, none of this applies to Pixelwit (he of Flip-Book fame), but as he’s got a new blog I thought I’d better let you know about it […]
can you please post a demo of the improved PageFlip?
@Lleung, Way to go! Thanks for posting the solution to your problem, it will probably help a few people.
Nice work…Great!
Hi,
It’s me again… I was trouble shooting this error message “Error: A ‘with’ action failed because the specified object did not exist.” for couple of hours without luck… then I remember you mentioned the number of added pages has to be in even number, which was what I did in the code, but then I forgot I HAVE to create the page 10 movie clip to complete the even number as well…. so problem solved. I’m glad. Thanks again… just imagined that I’ve dropped a bottle of Bud Lite here for you…
Hi,
Thanks for your reply… I surfed on your site right after sending the email and I found the tutorial. Thank you so much.
Everything works just fine except when I published it into the swf file, the error message started when I flipped the 9th page but not the previous pages… I guess I’ll have to read the other tutorials to see if there’s a fix for that.
Thanks again.
@Lleung, you can read the Adding Pages Tutorial to learn how to add pages to the PageFlip. You can also find help in the PageFlip Help section.
Hi,
I’m a new comer in Flash animation. I have to say your page flip effect is pretty cool and smooth. Although I’ll sign up for a couple of Action Scripts classes, but I doubt they’ll go deep on flipping page effect. Since I don’t know very much on the codes, I wonder which part of the source codes I should duplicate or change to add more pages on it. I’ll appreciate your kind reply.
New and improve page flip is exactly what my company was looking for. It brought us to the next level. Its easy to work with and I’ve received excellent user support from Sean at Pixelwit. Couldn’t of asked for a better product for its purpose!