4.7. What's Next?

The display list is among the most important new introductions to ActionScript 3.0. It is worth the effort to explore the properties, methods, and events of the various display list classes—starting with the contents of this chapter, and then delving into the Flash help system, and additional resources, as you gain experience. Experimenting with the display list will show you that it is easy to use and, if you have experience with prior versions of ActionScript, you will soon find that it’s much simpler and more consistent than equivalent methods in ActionScript 1.0 or ActionScript 2.0.

Next, we’ll discuss timeline control. Regardless of whether you are creating lengthy linear animations or single-frame applications, you are likely to require some degree of control over the main timeline or movie clips. ActionScript 3.0 offers a few new features for you to try out.

In the next chapter, we’ll discuss:

• Controlling playback of your animations and applications by moving the playhead with ActionScript

• Parsing frame label names from timelines and scenes

• Changing the frame rate of movie playback for the first time