Sams Teach Yourself Macromedia Flash 5 in 24 Hours

Softcover

ISBN 10: 067231892X ISBN 13: 9780672318924

Publisher: Sams, 2000

Sams Teach Yourself Macromedia Flash 5 in 24 Hours is specifically written for the new Flash user. Not a revision of a previous book, Phillip Kerman's book begins by covering the basics of Flash 5, including the use of the drawing tools, basic animation skills such as tweening, and putting together simple movies. In the second part, the book covers the more advanced techniques of Flash, including interface design, interactivity, collecting data, and delivering movies to the Internet. The final part of the book takes the reader further into the practical uses of the Flash medium, and includes chapters on developing animation skills, further uses of bitmap graphics, advanced delivery to the Web with preloaders, using Flash in the design of CD ROMs, and using Flash in conjunction with other applications.

Review:

Flash 5, the application from Macromedia for creating animation for the Web, is deceptively simple at first, yet has great depth and flexibility. Teach Yourself Macromedia Flash 5 in 24 Hours from Sams Publishing is an ideal introduction to this package, and offers an overview of the entire package, without being overwhelming.

Built around four main sections, the book starts out by teaching us the basics: using the native painting and drawing tools, importing prepared material, and using Flash Libraries for reusing material. During these early chapters, readers are introduced to the tools, palettes, windows, and features of Flash 5.

Screen shots appear on every page, and each step and description is clear even to the novice. Some pages also feature sidebars that offer tips, ideas, and explanations of the task at hand. These are generally one paragraph or so, but often shed light on a difficult concept. After focusing on animation and different ways of animating objects, the book opens the doors to interactivity, where you begin using interactive features, creating animated buttons, and using Actions to create nonlinear movies.

Although it's designed for the beginner, the book touches on some of the more advanced concepts of Flash in its last few chapters. Using Flash in a team environment, optimizing a Flash site to get the most out of the medium, and exploring advanced animation concepts like anticipation, exaggeration, and simulating depth are introduced, although none of these sections gets too involved. It's more of a way to introduce the designer to what's possible and suggest avenues for further study.

Favorite features of the books in the Teach Yourself series are the summary, Q&A, and Workshop sections that are at the end of each hour (or chapter). The summary reinforces everything that was covered, the Q&A section answers about a half dozen of the more commonly asked questions on the material, and the Workshop is generally a quiz or short assignment that's designed to make use of the features or techniques that were just learned. These chapter features make this an excellent course book.

Flash 5 offers the Web-based animator a large array of features, and Teach Yourself Macromedia Flash 5 in 24 Hours is an excellent introduction to most of them. --Mike Caputo

From the Author:

Although I've been using Flash professionally for years, I wrote this book based on my experiences teaching Flash. I purposely expose common pitfalls so the reader will develop a foundation of good habits. In addition to basics, I cover traditional animation, usability, optimization, and methodologies for large projects. This book is targeted to those new to Flash but it quickly ventures into intermediate topics. I doubt anyone will complain the book is "too basic".

The 24 one-hour lessons are task-oriented where specific topics are explored through doing exercises. Follow up discussions provide a way to apply the acquired skills to applications you may encounter on your own. The tasks are carefully designed to cover a specific feature or technique, but throughout the book follow up discussions and suggestions for real-world applications build upon the tasks. This way, the reader has a clear idea how to apply what they've learned.

Flash 5 is an exceptionally deep program. I wrote this for Flash 5 from the ground up (it's not a revised edition). I couldn't cover everything, so I cover just what I think are important foundation skills and habits. Of course I throw in plenty of tips and tricks and my personal opinions, but it's primarily a "basic training". My philosophy is that after developing good habits you'll be free to communicate in a way that will be heard. If you have a creative message to tell the world, I can show you how to use Flash to express it.