Book Description
Explore the depth and flexibility of Macromedia Flash 8 with Sams Teach Yourself Macromedia Flash 8 in 24 Hours. Fundamental topics are presented one-by-one in a series of 24 one-hour lessons that will help you master the basics of Flash. Author
Phillip Kerman, an internationally-known Macromedia trainer and multimedia expert, offers you a clearly-written, well-organized introduction to Macromedia Flash 8 without becoming too overwhelming. You will cover such subjects as:
- Drawing and Painting Original Art
- Using Motion Tween to Animate
- Animatng Using Movie Clips
- Using Actions to Create Non-Linear Movies
- Optimizing a Flash Site
- Publishing a Creation
Not only will you master the basics of Macromedia Flash 8 with Sams Teach Yourself Macromedia Flash 8 in 24 Hours, you will also be better prepared to learn more advanced topics in the future.
Customer Reviews:
Good Info but..........2007-05-12
It takes FOREVER to get to the point and many times there is repitition over the instruction. Sometimes in the same paragraph! A good book that gives information yes, but it could easily have been cut to a third the size.
Not worth it a nickel.......2007-04-18
I bought this book last month due to some good feedbacks. But when I read, it seems the book is too much unnecessary words just to make it look thick but the actual content is thin. I would recommend to learn from the help section of the flash program itself. It's much more clear and right to the point not like this book. From there then google up and you will find a lot of more better tutorials than this book and best of all, it's free!
Great book for beginner........2007-03-18
Hi all, first of all, I just want to thank all the people who had written the comments on this book. It had helped me a lot in making a decision in buying this book. Thanks.
As for the book, I just got it. I am in Hour 2 and so far, it has helped me soooo much. I am new to Flash and I think this will be a great book for all the people who are new like me. I gave it a 4 stars rather than 5 since I haven't finished the book yet and can't comment on the whole book. But base on the first 2 hrs, I think once I am done with the book, my rating would be a 5 star.
flash for dummy!.......2007-03-17
u cannot finish this on 24 hours. I have Flash background but I finished "chapter 5" in 13 hours, which was supposed to finish in 5 hours. Sooooooo many text and difficult for ESL students. Not step by step and not too many graphic. No CD or resource files to do tutorials.
I recommend flash 8 24 hours........2007-03-09
I recommend Flash 8 24hours...I believe it will take more than 24 hours to get through the book. But it is a good buy and I found it helpful in understanding flash.
Book Description
Available for both the Mac and Windows, Macromedia's Dreamweaver 8 is a professional web design and development program used by millions of Internet professionals to build high-quality static and dynamic database-driven web sites. It offers drag-and-drop simplicity, streamlined HTML coding tools, and powerful database integration features. But Dreamweaver 8 is missing one vital component: a printed manual.
Enter Dreamweaver 8: The Missing Manual, the completely revised fourth edition of this bestselling book by experienced web site trainer, Macromedia Certified instructor, and Dreamweaver Advisory Council member David McFarland. This book enables both first-time and experienced web designers to create visually stunning and highly interactive web sites.
With crystal-clear writing and much welcome humor, this new edition offers features such as:
- Live examples: With McFarland's step-by-step annotated tutorials, you'll learn how to construct a state-of-the-art commercial web site, complete with working forms, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and dynamic databases.
- Tricks of the trade: The book is bursting with undocumented workarounds and shortcuts for easing the process of building, maintaining, and updating professional web sites.
- Design guidance: You'll learn to create virtually every modern web feature, including forms, animations, cascading menus, and more--and you'll find out which browsers you need to provide special coding or do extra testing with.
No matter what your level of expertise is, you'll also learn how to manage your entire web site-whether you've just launched or if it's been around for awhile and takes up thousands of pages. Beginners with no web design experience will appreciate the step-by-step guide to designing, organizing, building, and deploying a web site; long-time Dreamweaver users will appreciate the advanced, real-world techniques for controlling the appearance of their web pages with CSS.
With more than 500 illustrations, a handcrafted index, and the clarity of thought that has made bestsellers of every Missing Manual to date, this is the ultimate atlas for the complex and powerful Dreamweaver 8.
Customer Reviews:
Helping me start my own business.......2007-09-16
This manual has helped me catch up on the entire web design movement with Cascading Style Sheets that I need to brush up on. As an owner of my own graphic design business, I needed to refresh my skills on Dreamweaver 8 and this manual with its easy-to-follow tutorials and sense of humor sprinkled throughout certainly helped me do that. David Sawyer McFarland helps you each step of the way. Definitely recommended.
Dreamweaver-Missing Manual.......2007-09-04
This book works through every aspect of the Dreamweaver program, but is still a bit difficult to understand unless you are an experienced website creator.
This is THE Dreamweaver book.......2007-08-20
I went through every book review, then checked out all the books at the local Book Superstore and ended up getting this, although I wondered why it only had 4.5 stars.
It is the perfect book for DW8 and fully deserves 5 full stars! I had been using DW4 for five years and it is nice that this book is both understandable and not over simplified.
Thank god for this book........2007-07-21
I've never taken the time to review anything on the web before and have always been amazed by the numbers of people who do. That being said, I had to tell people how much I love this book. The last site I designed was a tiny static site back in 2001 using golive and I recently committed to building two database sites. I went though many, many books + tutorials and none are as good as this one. [...].
Definitely a Keeper.......2007-07-10
I very seldom take the time to write reviews, and usually do so to warn people away from an awful book. This is the exception; I loved this book.
To give some perspective to my review, I am a professional programmer but a complete "newbie" to web design and development. I've taken on the task of creating and maintaining a web site for a local summer swim team. I needed help and I needed it quickly.
My first stop was "Macromeda Dreamweaver 8" by Short and Green. This is a good book for beginners to get their feet wet with Dreamweaver 8. However, after doing all the exercises, I did not get the feeling that I actually could design a nice web page and knew for sure that I couldn't create a form with a working submit button.
Then I bought this book, "Dreamweaver 8 The Missing Manual". The first few chapters cover the basic building blocks of using text, images and links. The next section deals with how to design a web page; first using tables and then using CSS. Other sections of the book deal with forms and how to set up Dreamweaver to manage your remote site and a testing site. (I find it much easier to let Dreamweaver figure out what files are out of date rather than use a stand-alone FTP program.) The last section of the book deals with dynamic web pages and was the answer to my quest for a functioning "submit" button on my web forms. This section is what sealed the 5-star rating for me. The book's tutorials use the ASP server model, but you can download equivalent tutorials for PHP/MySQL from the author's web site. I found all the tutorials to work (and I did almost every single one), but do check the author's errata page.
For you programmers out there who are getting into the web, this book mostly stays with the Dreamweaver wizards and does not delve into code view (probably a good thing for the non-programmers). If you are into coding and PHP, a good next step is "PHP for Dreamweaver 8", by David Powers. The Powers book covers a lot of the same dynamic web ground as "The Missing Manual", but is not afraid to dive into code view.
All in all, I was very happy with "Dreamweaver 8 The Missing Manual". It's a big book packed with information, but easy to read. Based on what I've learned, I was able to create a decently attractive web site, some very useful forms and private areas for team administrators and coaches.
Book Description
Well before Ajax and Microsoft's Windows Presentation Foundation hit the scene, Macromedia offered the first method for building web pages with the responsiveness and functionality of desktop programs with its Flash-based "Rich Internet Applications". Now, new owner Adobe is taking Flash and its powerful capabilities beyond the Web and making it a full-fledged development environment.
Rather than focus on theory, the ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook concentrates on the practical application of ActionScript, with more than 300 solutions you can use to solve a wide range of common coding dilemmas. You'll find recipes that show you how to:
- Detect the user's Flash Player version or their operating system
- Build custom classes
- Format dates and currency types
- Work with strings
- Build user interface components
- Work with audio and video
- Make remote procedure calls using Flash Remoting and web services
- Load, send, and search XML data
- And much, much more ...
Each code recipe presents the Problem, Solution, and Discussion of how you can use it in other ways or personalize it for your own needs, and why it works. You can quickly locate the recipe that most closely matches your situation and get the solution without reading the whole book to understand the underlying code. Solutions progress from short recipes for small problems to more complex scripts for thornier riddles, and the discussions offer a deeper analysis for resolving similar issues in the future, along with possible design choices and ramifications. You'll even learn how to link modular ActionScript pieces together to create rock-solid solutions for Flex 2 and Flash applications.
When you're not sure how ActionScript 3.0 works or how to approach a specific programming dilemma, you can simply pick up the book, flip to the relevant recipe(s), and quickly find the solution you're looking for.
Adobe Developer Library is a co-publishing partnership between O'Reilly Media and Adobe Systems, Inc. and is designed to produce the number one information resources for developers who use Adobe technologies. Created in 2006, the Adobe Developer Library is the official source for comprehensive learning solutions to help developers create expressive and interactive web applications that can reach virtually anyone on any platform. With top-notch books and innovative online resources covering the latest in rich Internet application development, the Adobe Developer Library offers expert training and in-depth resources, straight from the source.
Customer Reviews:
The title should be FLEX ActionScript 3.0.......2007-09-26
I bought this book because I wanted to learn how to use AS3 over AS2. This book claims to be a ActionScript 3.0 which it is, but ONLY if you have the Flex Application.
I don't have Adobe Flex but I would like to learn ActionScript 3.0 - this is too advanced for me and the applications aren't what I thought they would be.
This book may be good for advanced users of ActionScript but for someone like me who was just getting used to ActionScript 2.0 and wants to learn how AS3 works- it's the worst book you can buy.
As much as I like O'Reilly books, I feel this book is misleading.
Novice to Advanced users may think otherwise.
A Poor Sequel to Actionscript Cookbook.......2007-09-17
Here's an example of why this book deserves just one star (if that!):
Cre{2}l matches creel but not crel or creel
This example was taken from the section on regular expressions. There are other inaccuracies on that page. Overall, this book is riddled with inadequate, poor explanations that appear to typify the worse of IT personnel - bad communications skills. Anyone who gives this book high marks has not read the book entirely and is relying only on reputation.
Here's another example:
var example:RegExp = /(\d)abc(\d*)/;
var result:Array = example.exec( "7abc" );
// Displays: 3
trace( result.length );
// Displays: 7abc
trace( result[0] );
// Displays: 7
trace( result[1] );
// Displays:
trace( result[2] );
Notice that the last display is missing. Really sloppy work. Not convinced? Try it at your own peril.
Skip this book.
Disappointing.......2007-09-13
I have many O'Reilly books and I sorry to say this is my first diappointment. Many of the recipies are simply slight extensions of obvious constructs that are essentially just part of the Actionscipt language rather than interesting examples of how to put Actionscript to work or clever work-arounds as can be found in, for instance, the Perl Cookbook. To take one example, the multi-dimensional array recipe pretty much rehashes the Flash documentation - an array declared at 'compile time' - rather than expanding on it and showing the less trivial example of, for instance, a dynamicaly declared array.
What is normally useful about the Cookbooks is that they are an excellent way to learn a new language for people who prefer to learn by example, deconstructing code rather than trawling through an enumeration of the elements of a language in a manual-type book. Most of the examples in this are sadly not complex enough to work this way - they're too close to a one-concept-at-a-time manual - to show you how different elements of the language can acually work together to tackle full real-world programming tasks.
Great book on Actionscript..........2007-09-05
I've been learning Flex 2 and wanted to know a bit more about Actionscript and this book delivered! Plenty of good examples that have given me a MUCH better understanding of Actionscript. I never really learned much about Flash and so never wrote one line of Actionscript until I started to learn Flex (if you haven't heard about Flex yet go to Adobe.com and read up about it, it's pretty cool) and the books I had would show about 1/2 Actionscript and 1/2 mxml. So after getting a good understanding in mxml and basic Actionscript I wanted to learn more and this book was a big help. If you're even remotely interested in learning Actionscript this is the book to get!
The end of a tunnel.......2007-08-04
I consider myself as an early adopter of anything in interactive communication. I founded my company Falcomedia in 1989 with only one goal: to produce interactive multimedia communication. By then only possible on Mac's with programs like Hypercard, Supercard (in color) or Macromind's Director (called Videoworks by then). I definately see AS3 as the end of a tunnel and the start of really great things to come. It's possible now, no workarounds, pure OOP and this book is basic.
Read als Keith Peter's Actionsript 3.0 Animation and let your visions flow. I can't see anything stopping us from bringing good UI, quality design, functionalty, efficient production and scalability to the next generation of the web.
Peter Bohny, Falcomedia Systems AG, Switzerland
Book Description
In September 2003, Macromedia released Flash MX 2004, and with it, ActionScript 2.0, a dramatically improved version of Flash's programming language. ActionScript 2.0 introduces a formal object-oriented programming syntax and methodology for creating Flash applications. From a developer's perspective, the new OOP-based techniques in ActionScript 2.0 make applications more natural to plan and conceptualize, more stable, more reusable across projects, easier to maintain, change, and expand upon, and much more. In short, they enhance the entire development process. In Essential ActionScript 2.0, bestselling author Colin Moock--one of the most universally respected developers in the Flash community--covers everything you'll need to know about the new ActionScript language and its methodologies for producing movies, animation, and applications on the web. Moock guides readers through this important new territory with his trademark easy-to-understand style and expertise. Moock's goal throughout the book is not just to get you to use object-oriented programming in your daily Flash work: he wants you to reap the benefits of OOP; he wants you to understand ActionScript 2.0 completely. And without question, Moock is the author who can make this happen. Essential ActionScript 2.0 begins with a tour of the language, including the fundamentals of object-oriented concepts, syntax, and usage. Those who are new to OOP will learn the basics and how to apply their understanding. Those who are familiar with OOP will leverage their prior experience to learn about Flash-based OOP. The next part of the book shows how to structure entire applications with ActionScript 2.0, teaching you best practices and techniques to build scalable, extensible, stable apps. Next, you'll explore a variety of approaches to various programming situations by applying object-oriented programming strategies, known as design patterns, to Flash. Experienced Flash developers and programmers coming from other languages will enjoy the sheer depth of Moocks's coverage and expertise in Essential ActionScript 2.0. Novice programmers will appreciate the frequent, low-jargon explanations that are often glossed over by advanced programming books. As usual, Moock guarantees quality and accuracy by working closely with Macromedia Flash engineers, including Rebecca Sun, lead developer of ActionScript 2.0. Whether you're ready to make the move to ActionScript 2.0 now or simply assessing it for the future, you'll find everything you need to know within this book. Essential ActionScript 2.0 is the one book every ActionScript coder must own.
Customer Reviews:
Good book, but..........2007-06-19
As my headline suggested, the book is good. It provides lot of information about OOP using ActionScript. However, I wish its layout was done somewhat better, more intuitive.
Lots of important information should have been highlighted. More specifically, it is hard to find certain crucial concepts, because they look no different from ordinary texts.
Those are just some of my thoughts.
Top-Tier Computer Science Course in a Book.......2007-05-14
I took a Java course at the University of Texas @ Austin, which has a well regarded CS program, and I walked out of it knowing what classes, subclasses, and instances were, but no idea how to practically use them. After reading Moock's book, I not only better understand the theory behind object-oriented programming, but how to use it following best practices. I wish I hadn't taken the Java course, because in 500 pages Moock takes you through 3 semesters worth of material.
Of course, Essential ActionScript 3.0 is coming out soon, so you might want to wait for it, but make sure you buy at least one of them.
Excellent book for in-depth actionscript 2.0 and OOP programming alike.......2007-05-03
As an occasional actionscript programmer, I try to stay to keep myself updated with the language as it evolves, as it has become the standard tools for my digital/artistic works.
A year ago I dove into "ActionScript for Flash MX : the Definitive Guide" - I must admit I didn't understand some parts of it at first read - and got my poor programming skills to improve themselves at least a few notches up.
I was a bit discouraged at all this Flash evolutions, thinking I'd be left behind (not to mention Flex 2 and Actionscript 3 right now), when I almost reluctantly bought this book.
Well, it actually got me excited. Not only I feel way better in Actionscript programming now, seeing and understanding the improvements of the language (I still use the Definitive Guide for its handy and complete language reference while I code), but it also actually taught the principles of Object Oriented Programming.
It does use some plain metaphors at first like all OOP stuff for dummies I've read here and there, but the author has a way of putting things in a relevent way that makes you actually understand what is what, what goes where, and why. It's clear.
It's easy, going along his explanations and tutorials, and he also shows you thoroughly the possibilities and limitations of every concepts in the (relative to the Flash environment) he ever talks about, yet remaining accessible even to non-savvy programmers.
A must have, like all his books I guess.
Excellent Action Script Book.......2007-03-14
My purchase of this book really helps mne a lot. It added up more knowledge and technique on my present expertise with Flash. Highly recommended for all Flash Action Scripters.
hard to understand for beginners.......2007-03-09
I am a beginner, I should understand that. But i wanted to buy it still thinking it would have been good. Its probably great for advance people but i found it personaly very difficult to understand as i am just a low beginner.
Book Description
ActionScript is the native scripting language of Flash. ActionScript knowledge is essential within the world of Flash design and development, as Flash remains a leading tool for cutting-edge interactive design and development. ActionScript is what gives Flash its power, but with that power comes a certain level of complexity, which can be intimidating. This beginners book, significantly updated since the last edition, covers all of the basics of ActionScript using the latest version of Flash, Flash 8. The skills acquired by working through this book will enable you to move on to more advanced friends of ED books such as Foundation PHP 5 for Flash, Foundation ActionScript Animation or Foundation XML for Flash. This book contains all you need to understand and make use of ActionScript, and to have some fun while learning. The Foundation series teaching style is ideal if youre a non-programmer who wants to learn Flash programming quickly and thoroughly. The authors teach the basics, and provide you an all-around proficiency in ActionScript, as well as Flash components within Flash 8. Youll gain the practical skills to build ActionScript based Flash projects, including making initial design decisions, structuring code, and testing. An ongoing case study means that by the end of the book, youll have constructed a cutting-edge Flash site to showcase your newly learned skills. Summary of Contents:
- Chapter 1 Interactive Flash
- Chapter 2 Making Plans
- Chapter 3 Movies That Remember
- Chapter 4 Movies That Decide for Themselves
- Chapter 5 More Power, Less Script
- Chapter 6 Movies That Remember How to Do Things
- Chapter 7 Objects and Classes
- Chapter 8 Objects on the Stage
- Chapter 9 Reusable Code and Realistic Movement
- Chapter 10 Games and Sprites
- Chapter 11 Drawing API
- Chapter 12 Adding Sound to Flash
- Chapter 13 Loading Dynamic Data with XML
- Chapter 14 Finishing the Futuremedia Case Study
- Chapter 15 Advanced ActionScript: Components and Classes
Customer Reviews:
A Great ActionScript Book By Designers For Designers.......2007-07-24
This is a great book for the designer interested in getting deeper into Flash through ActionScript 2.0. Primarily centered around web-based projects, with the occasional game project, Sham et al. lead the reader through basic programming fundamentals from a designer perspective. The reader is assumed to be mildly frightened by looking at code, but still interested in learing it. I can sympathize that many designers could be in this boat.
The language of the book is very non-technical and it's presented in a light-hearted manner to ease you into some difficult concepts. The authors do a great job of tricking you into getting excited about programming. So if you're a web designer who has always been impressed by what programmers can do, but were a little uncomfortable trying to just jump in on your own, this is THE book for you.
I have two warnings and one critique.
The first warning is that this is a Flash 8 book - hence ActionScript 2.0. The second warning is that almost all the projects in the book are web-based instead of game-based. Now it's Flash, so it kind of comes with the territory, and there is a full chapter devoted to making a game. However, the perfect book for me would be this exact same book, but centered almost completely around game-based projects. If you're strictly looking for that, this book isn't for you. I don't care as much, and there's still a lot to learn, so I don't regret purchasing the book.
My critique is regarding the book-long project where you make a website that uses ActionScript (the Futuremedia site). It's a case study where you can apply some of what you've learned to a "real" project. My problem with it is that you don't seem to learn a whole lot about ActionScripting by going through it. The authors (or whichever individual wrote the project) seem to be really proud of this project - proud in the sense that they like themselves for it - and you can tell by going throug it. Plus, its more content-oriented. There's much more to learn from everything else, so I'm just skipping the project and skimming over it whenever it's time to work on it a little (which isn't a whole lot anyway).
Overall, it's a great book so far (I'm about 1/3 done) and I'd recommend it to anyone who's new to programming and wants to learn it through ActionScript 2.0. Sham has an awesome ability to explain programming to a designer.
Well structured, No boring Jargon and Everything you need in one book........2007-05-13
I am new to actionscript, have watched a few Total Training dvd's, but they don't really go into indepth actionscript. Unless you buy all the dvd's which are expensive.
This book was great. And has given my mind more of an understanding, especially of the process, of programming.
I'm more a graphic designer, who is getting into web design, so if I can go from first page through to the end in 3 weeks and juggle a screaming 2yr old at the same time.....well then anyone can.( I am a stay at home dad!....by the way)
Good to keep for reference. Buy it.
Excellent Beginner ActionScript Guide.......2007-03-19
I was completely foreign to ActionScript before picking up this book. I had previously read one book on understanding the basic flash interface (i.e. using the drawing/tweening tools), but this was my first crack at ActionScript. Getting through this book was very easy. Each chapter is setup in a way that explains a specific topic, runs you through a few examples using what you just learned, and then continues on with an ongoing website project that you develop throughout the book.
Strengths: Writing is clear and concise, and doesn't feel like a programmer wrote the book. The context is a nice mix of theory and hands on practice to keep you interested while your learning some of the more complex topics. The teaching method looks to provide you with skills that you can apply and expand upon quickly, as opposed to just learning some commands and then throwing you out into the wild. The book projects are very well constructed and explained.
Weaknesses: Some of the later chapters advance quickly. I blew through the first 350 pages, but after that had to significantly slow down to fully understand each topic. I also noticed that one or two of the online downloads are missing files for the book project. These are not neccesary if you are writing everything from scratch (correctly), but it did sometimes get in the way of comparing my solutions to the books.
Overall I have been extremely satisfied with this book, and will most likely buy another Foundation guide.
Great Book for Beginner on up ...........2006-12-06
I am a current animation student in California and Flash is one of the tools we are using. While I have developed some proficiency animating in Flash, the scripting tends to turn my brain to mush after a while.
I picked up Foundation Flash 8 to learn some of the basics and have been using Foundation Actionscript for Flash 8 to gradually explore scripting. I am not a programmer but got through the first few chapters easy enough. The second half of the book is somewhat tougher but but filled with interesting chapters -especially the game chapter (chapter 10).
I haven't quite cleared the hurdle of the later chapters, find them more challenging, but I keep the book on my desk to pick at stuff. It is well written and comprehensive. From my perspective as a non-programming 'art head' I'd say it covers beginner to advanced level topics by the end of the book; that's pretty cool because many books seem to be simple rehashings of the product manuals designed to part you from $40-$50 while giving you no new info.
A diamond amongst coal........2006-12-02
As an old UNIX hack I have read quite a few programming manuals, from the original C (Kerninghan & Richie - when it was new!), to the present. Very few, if any, (including the O'Reilly series), have come close to being so informative, easy to read, and enjoyable as the 'ActionScript for Flash 8' book. I consider myself a poor programmer partly because I never found 'print Hello World!' that interesting. In any event, this book has taken me from rank Actionscript beginner to (dare I say it...) semi-advanced! Basically, cannot recommend it highly enough! For me, I enjoy the graphical nature of Actionscript and I am glad I finally found the right book to take me there. I think beginners and experienced Object-Oriented types will get a lot or something from it. Thanks Friends of ED!
Book Description
Forget school math class, Flash math is about fun. It's what you do in your spare time - messing around with little ideas until the design takes over and you end up with something beautiful, bizarre, or just downright brilliant. It's a book of iterative experiments, generative design; a book of inspiration, beautiful enough to leave on the coffee table, but addictive enough to keep by your computer and sneak out while no one's looking so you can go back to that Flash movie that you were tinkering with 'til 3 o'clock this morning. In "New Masters of Flash" the designers told us about themselves and deconstructed their finest effects. This time we've gathered the best in one book and simply asked them to go away and do what they do best: play. We give you the code and explain the essence, then you take your inspiration and run with it.
Customer Reviews:
Great book.......2007-05-26
Though it's in ActionScript 2.0, this book is very good if you're into creating visualizations via programming (not only ActionScript). It shows the creative and logical process behind the code (I think that's much more important that the code itself). And it's also a beautiful book to add to your collection :-)
And you can also download all the .fla used in the examples.
Math and Flash combine to provide interesting animations.......2006-10-30
This book is stunning visually and is just overflowing with inspiration. This is a book intended to show us what the Flash community has been able to come up in terms of creation and allows us to tinker around with the code. If you like to take a basic principle and see it evolve given enough time and interest, then this is the book for you. If you enjoy seeing "how" things function rather than "why" they work, you have the opportunity to tinker and toy with the variables to see exactly "how" it changes the overall look of the final piece. To get the most from this book the reader is expected to understand the basics of ActionScript as well as the techniques common in most projects. This is not intended to deter the beginner, as you will surely learn much.
The book is laid out pretty straightforward. There are 15 chapters with each one dedicated to a certain individual who goes through each of his creations and iterations.Suggested reading by the people at "Friends of Ed" is to grab the source files, run them, and then read the chapters. Some of the source files are adequately commented so in some, the book isn't even needed. That is not to say, however, that this book is not necessary to understand what's going on. The book gives you quick insight to the authors' mindset and thinking, and each chapter begins with an overview of where they are from, what they do, how they have come to do this, and interests.
There are actually two parts to the book. The second part consists of the last three chapters and has what you'd consider an "application" or an "engine" for viewing the creations and being able to manipulate them directly. The first part of the book is dedicated to finding a variable, which for the most part is explained in the book, changing it to your liking, viewing the results, and reviewing the code. At the end of the book there is a Tangents page which provides 54 links to explore.
In case you are wondering where the math fits in, it's scattered throughout the book. However, sometimes, we are not presented with the reasons for using "128" for variable "p" to multiply by var "b" which has the value of "14". You may often be left scratching your head and asking why, but that isn't the point. Sine and Cosine are presented quite clearly in the first chapter and there is a terrific example from Gabriel Mulzer, but if you are looking to the find the mysteries behind using atan2 to get an angle, then this book will not answer that question. It is up to you to play the part of explorer to find those answers. You are presented with a wealth of methods that people use, inspiration for them, and experiments that the reader is encouraged to break. You are given a chance to use these methods to have fun and use them as springboards to access that creativity that lurks in each and every one of us.
In conclusion, if you enjoy going through code with a fine toothed comb and if you want to pick up valuable techniques for doing certain things with Flash, as well as be dazzled by some of the innovators of our time, get the book. It is the perfect culmination of what Flash ActionScripting can do. I would show the table of contents at this point, but all of the chapters are named after the innovators themselves, and would provide little insight to the contents.
actionscript and Math.......2006-08-21
I appreciate the book and it helps to understand how to create nice animations by using maths.
I think it needs more Classes writing and not only timeline.
People, it's called flash math CREATIVITY.......2005-10-13
The Flash Math books are great. But not if you want an O'Reilly cookbook of answers to your design problems. It's all about inspiration. Being able to look at something and say "wow, that's so beautiful" and either need to make it yourself just on principal, or see that maybe one day you can use the idea yourself on all those practical things you're so worried about. If you get all juiced up creatively from the things you see around you, this is a perfect book. It's 4 instead of 5 because it doesn't come with a CD. But you can go to the website for the book and see things in action.
That probably appealed to the left brain folks.
For the right brain ones among you. No, this will not teach math. No it won't explain much in the math department at all. It does give the code, it allows you to experiment with what Flash will do, it might renew your interest in Flash. Kind of like watching one of the a-lister Flash kids talk at a Flash Forward conference, it might do that more than looking at a Hockney photo collage (both work for me). If you don't work that way, buy it and give it to one of your left brain Flash friends.
It will be great fun for them, they will get to feel like they remember their math and are much better at it now. And it will make pretty things.
Some Assembly Required.......2005-10-07
The book is great. I find the negative reviews puzzling because this book is like a $30 kit for a working spaceship, but you have to weld the wings on yourself. Big deal. What's wanting in so many Flash books are examples of the astonishing things you can do with Flash. This book shows what can be done, then hands you the code on a platter. I guess if you're more the designer type and you want to do great stuff using the math functions in Flash, you, um, er -- need to learn some math. But don't complain that every author hasn't lined up to correct your particular brand of ignorance. Read a book.
Book Description
Written by two of the industry’s top Flash experts, this new edition of the best-selling classic has been revised and enhanced to cover the very latest release of Macromedia Flash. User-friendly, yet in-depth this is the book that serves as an indispensable reference for anyone -- from the web novice to the accomplished web worker -- and functions as the perfect, real-world guide to the workings and capabilities of this powerful program. The accompanying CD-ROM includes trial software, custom components and finished examples.
- Totally enhanced and revised edition of the all-time Flash classic reference!
- Everything you need to know to learn and master the Macromedia Flash 8 -- the most comprehensive Flash reference available
- Includes a CD-ROM packed with files from the book and valuable tryouts.
- Co-author Robert Reinhardt is one of the two or three top stars in the Flash developer community, speaking regularly at FlashForward, the Macromedia User's Conference, WebTEK, Macromedia's traveling user seminars, and major universities. No other title matches this one in both comprehensiveness and author reputation.
- Includes expert tutorials from the world's leading Flash gurus
- Includes tips for integrating Flash with other programs
- Includes unpublished tricks, techniques and time-savers
"When I'm planning the FlashBelt conference, Reinhardt is the first one I call. His knowledge reaches to the farthest corners of the software."
-Dave Schroeder, Director, FlashBelt conferences; Owner, PilotVibe Music and Sound Design
"Its range and depth make the Flash Bible a must-have for designers, developers and producers of Flash content." -- Matthew Carroll, designer, Wieden + Kennedy
Customer Reviews:
Great Book.......2007-09-03
The book arrived in perfect condition, However the CD that came with it was broken in half. I contacted the publishing company and in 4 days They had a new CD in my Hands. I would definitly purchase more books and plan to in the near future.
Jim L. A Satisfied Customer
Great Book for Great Software.......2007-05-09
If you are not already familiar with Flash then this book is going to be a thick read. The software itself makes the subject hard to learn. Macromedia does things their own way, so you'll be learning all kinds of new ways to do things. This book can help, but don't get in a hurry unless you've already got some experience with the software. For the experienced and expert Flash user this is a great reference tool. A bit overpriced, but then again I'm not sure there's a book of this type that isn't.
Up LATE with FLASH 8.......2007-05-07
haven't finished it yet. but i hope to. this thing is packed with tons of helpful information and sparks my creative juices which i had thought were dry.
Dont waste your money........2007-03-18
What a waste of money. Sure the book has absolutely everything you need to know about Flash, but so what. It is completely boring. Why put yourself through the painful process of reading this 1300 page book-stop. It has no hands on training, which is what really matters, especially for me. If you are new to Flash and really want to learn it, try Macromedia's Flash Professional: Hands on Training. it is a much better buy.
Great for beginners and wow great for advance.......2007-03-09
I am studying in a design school in Milano, they didn't provide me many information, lessons and tutorials of flash. Well, this book is lovely, absolutely the best book! Buy it and make it your girlfriend ! Its more than a bible! I am still reading the last pages and I am so much enjoying it that I am getting sad knowing that i am finishing to read it!
Its really a great book!
I want to say thank you to the autors !!!
Book Description
To create Flash applications that sizzle, you have to learn the code. In this comprehensive guide to the latest version of ActionScript, the object-oriented scripting language for Macromedia Flash, you'll get the detailed instruction and step-by-step tutorials you need to write robust code and create sophisticated interactive animations. Work with objects and components, interoperate with JavaScript, create games, and more - it's all here in this informative book for developers, programmers, and designers.
Inside, you'll find complete coverage of Flash 8 ActionScript Master the basics of ActionScript expressions, functions, and variables Work with numbers, arrays, and strings Transform your movie clips with colors and filters Program sound and manage video Manage data with Web Services and Flash Remoting Call ActionScript functions from JavaScript Learn scripting for the Flash stand-alone player
Bonus Companion Web site!
Find code downloads and example files at: www.wiley.com/go/actionscriptbible
Download Description
To create Flash applications that sizzle, you have to learn the code. In this comprehensive guide to the latest version of ActionScript, the object-oriented scripting language for Macromedia Flash, you'll get the detailed instruction and step-by-step tutorials you need to write robust code and create sophisticated interactive animations. Work with objects and components, interoperate with JavaScript, create games, and more - it's all here in this informative book for developers, programmers, and designers. Inside, you'll find complete coverage of Flash 8 ActionScript Master the basics of ActionScript expressions, functions, and variables Work with numbers, arrays, and strings Transform your movie clips with colors and filters Program sound and manage video Manage data with Web Services and Flash Remoting Call ActionScript functions from JavaScript Learn scripting for the Flash stand-alone playe Bonus Companion Web site! Find code downloads and example files at: www.wiley.com/go/actionscriptbible
Customer Reviews:
Excelent resource.......2007-09-20
The book covers all of the bases. buttons, interactivity, sound and websites, more importantly, it is easy to comprehend and get the gist of actionscript 2 which will make it easier to pick up actionscript 3.
Good for begginers.......2007-08-24
If you don't know anything of Action, I recommend this book. Who knows a little bit, half of the book is great for you. That's it.
Great resource for the intended audience.......2007-05-08
Do not attempt to be able to learn from this book without first knowing how to create Flash documents. Of course, you should also know how to program (logic can't be taught) and JavaScript seems to be very similar to ActionScript (although knowing any object-oriented language and event-driven programming will suffice).
This book does what it sets out to do, which is to get you familiarized with ActionScript. Its explanation on creating empty movies and ordering of layers (which during the runtime don't actually exist) was not as good as other references but overall, an excellent reference book.
*Snore*.......2007-03-24
What a horrible introduction to such a great programming language. I lost all motivation to learn anything about ActionScript after trying to stay awake for a couple of hours. Not good for those using Flash for artistic purposes. Maybe good for programmers who just need a reference. I've had good teachers, and bad teachers. This one puts you in a coma due to a lack any type of human emotion or social skills. If you have spent your life in front of a computer, not communicating with anyone other than your 10th level paladin/wizard and his cohort of wood nymphs, this book is for you!
Perfect.......2007-03-01
If you are familiar with flash and/or programming at all then this book is for you. Together with the online Flash documentation from Adobe's website, I can find out how to do anything I want to. The book gives great examples of everything that it discusses. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to make killer Flash content.
It's true that it requires a little bit of programming background to understand what this book is saying sometimes but let me emphasize that it takes minimal experience.
Book Description
Sure you can animate using motion tweens, in fact we'll help you do that with our Flash Cartoon Animation book, but isn't there something extra special in making things move with just a few lines of code? In this book Keith Peters guides us through some basic animation theory and then demystifies the math and physics behind creating realistic animation, looking at trigonometry, velocity and acceleration, and bouncing & friction. This book will teach you how to use Flash ActionScript to move the objects in your movies, rather than letting Flashs tween engine do it for you. The benefit of this is smaller, more realistic, more dynamic interactive movies that seem to come alive on your screen. Almost all of the code featured in this book will work fine in either Flash MX 2004 or Flash 8, and with a few minor adjustments, most of it can even be applied to Flash MX. Although the text covers many advanced math and physics concepts, making for very realistic motion, theres no need to worry, even if youre a relative newcomer to programming and the last math class you took was in high school (and even if you barely remember that!). This book first covers everything you need to know to get started: the principles of animation, and the basics of ActionScript, trigonometry, and Flash rendering methods. Youll work your way slowly from using code to move a single object across the screen to creating complex systems that really push Flashs capabilities with topics covered including collision detection, particle attraction, and kinematics. The book concludes with looking at 3D animation techniques, including building a basic 3D engine, 3D lines, fills and solids, and matrix math. Once you come to grips with the ideas presented here, youll find yourself creating all manner of exciting animations and games! Summary of Contents
- Part I ActionScripted Animation Basics
- Ch. 1 Basic Animation Concepts
- Ch. 2 ActionScript Basics for Animation
- Ch. 3 Trigonometry
- Ch. 4 Rendering Techniques
- Part II Basic Motion
- Ch. 5 Velocity and Acceleration
- Ch. 6 Bouncing and Friction
- Ch. 7 User Interaction: Dragging and Throwing
- Part III Advanced Motion
- Ch. 8 Easing and Springs
- Ch. 9 Collision Detection
- Ch. 10 Bouncing off Angles
- Ch. 11 Billiard Ball Physics
- Ch. 12 Particle Attraction
- Ch. 13 Forward Kinematics
- Ch. 14 Inverse Kinematics
- Part IV Three D
- Ch. 15 A Basic 3D Engine
- Ch. 16 3D Lines, Fills, Solids
- Ch. 17 Advanced 3D: Backface Culling and Lighting
- Ch. 18 Matrix Math
- Part V Tips and Tricks
Customer Reviews:
Must Love Actionscript.......2007-09-22
I will atest that this is a great book IF you are an actionscript junkie, but if your not you will hate this book. I was looking for a book to help my students with thier Flash animations and this book was way beyond where I wanted to take my students.
Incredibly well written.......2007-09-10
I bought this book along w/ about 4 others that I needed. This one was the splurge... I was simply going to browse through it and see what I could pick up from it - not really thinking I could fully grasp the advanced concepts.
To my suprise, this book brought you all the way back to those good ole Trig classes and explained what you'd need to recall (or re-learn) and why. Every concept was very well explained and one concept builds upon the next.
It's definitely no light read, but if you really do have a desire to learn, this is the book.
Indeed a great tool for making animations.......2007-07-12
I was looking for a script animation book and I finally found the one that cater to my needs.
Just what I was looking for..........2007-07-12
I started learning Flash 8 about 6 months ago, hoping to make some physics simulation programs and games. I started out by buying Foundation Actionscript for Flash 8 and was quite disappointed to find that the subject of math was avoided at all costs. After reading 100 pages or so, I finally decided I'd just buy this book and hope I had learned enough to get me by. Now I regret not buying this in the first place.
Peters starts with the very basics of physics and takes you step by step on how to translate it into Actionscript. As it goes, it explains what the code means and how it works, making it possible to actually learn a lot about Actionscript in general. Although he explains how the physics works, he makes an effort to keep it at reasonable level and I never found myself the slightest bit bored or confused. This book teaches by example, which is the easiest way for me to learn. Nearly every major and minor topic mentioned has its own example with code in the book (which can also be downloaded off the website).
As can be seen from the table of contents, he gets into some relatively complicated topics and even in these, he does a great job of explaining how it works and how to keep your code efficient, making sure to mention any shortcuts that can make things easier.
So to sum things up
-this book is great at teaching you how to program realistic physics-based motion
-it's amazing at explaining what each bit of code does and how it works to the extent that it can be used as a beginning guide to Actionscript in general.
Great for designers getting a bit skilled and willing to save some time.......2007-05-03
This excellent books helped me save a lot of time understanding the importance - and basics - of physics and physics-related tricks in Actionscript.
Easing, elasticity, and all the fancy stuff I'd seen on hot websites listed on theFWA and such, are now accessible to the mere designers-turned-programers. And that is just plain awesome!
Book Description
Updated to cover Flash MX, the newest version of Macromedia Flash, ActionScript for Flash MX: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition is the one book no serious Flash developer should be without. ActionScript is Macromedia's programming language for Flash MX, the popular authoring tool for creating rich internet applications and animations for the Web. With Macromedia's new focus on application development, ActionScript now includes a direct drawing API, loading of external MP3 and JPG files, improved sound control, an extensive set of text formatting tools, complete support for component development using movie clip subclasses, local data storage, accessibility features, and much more. And ActionScript for Flash MX: The Definitive Guide is the most complete, up-to-date reference available for the latest version of this language. Author Colin Moock, one of the most universally respected developers in the Flash community, has added hundreds of new code examples to show new Flash MX techniques in the real world: how to draw circles, save data to disk, convert arrays to onscreen tables, create reusable components, and preload variables, XML, and sounds. The book's language reference alone has nearly doubled from the first edition, with more than 250 new classes, objects, methods, and properties. You'll find exhaustive coverage of dozens of undocumented, under-documented, and mis-documented features. Along with the new material, Colin Moock has meticulously revised the entire text to conform to Flash MX best-coding practices. In particular, objected-oriented programming and the new event model get special attention in light of changes to Flash MX ActionScript. From sending data between two movies to creating getter/setter properties, the new edition of this book demystifies the often-confusing new features of Flash MX, giving developers easy access to its powerful new capabilities. ActionScript for Flash MX: The Definitive Guide is structured so non-programmers can learn how to use ActionScript and programmers can take their skills to new heights. If you are in the market to really learn about the hows and whys of ActionScript, then this is the book for you.
Customer Reviews:
Cover ActionScript2 which will not run on Flash CS3.......2007-09-24
This book looks pretty good and the first chapter was very promising. However I must tell my experience so at least people don't waste time and get frustrated like I did.
The very first example of the book, the Multiple-Choice Quiz will NOT run on latest Flash CS3. It turns out that Flash CS3 (ActionScript3) decided to kill backwards compatibility and throw away the onRelease method for its buttons. So you get a bunch of compile errors. I managed to find out by myself that with AS3 you must use addEventListener to handle clicks to SimpleButton.
Anyways, the line:
totalOutput_txt.text = "Your final score is: " + totalCorrect + "/2.";
Is not compiling either with the error:
1120: Access of undefined property totalOutput_txt.
The totalOutput_txt is being created by "reflection" with the line:
createTextField("totalOutput_txt", 1, 150, 200, 200, 20);
But it looks like Flash CS3 does not like this. Again, another compatibility problem with CS3...
There goes my first star out. Now comes my second start out:
This book assumes that you DO KNOW how to play with FLASH, how to play with the timeline, etc. It does make a good effort to guide you through the steps to create the movie frames, etc, but I felt that I needed a flash designer near me to explain me what was going on.
Anyway, I was looking for a book like: Flash + AS for Java Programmers, but I guess I am asking too much. If anyone has a recommendation for me, please reply in this comment!
A difficult read but good for AS references.......2007-08-19
This book proved to be valuable for looking up new ways of implementing Action Script into my Flash projects. There were many examples of action script that can easily be found in the books index.
Glad I didn't throw it away.......2007-07-03
Was going through my books looking to get some space on the shelf for new ones and had this in my hand ready to go but for some reason couldn't do it. I hadn't done Flash/Flex (Flesh? Flax?) in a couple of years (moved mostly to C#) then recently I got a chance to do the quirky & kludgey beast of computing again with Flash8 and This Old Book Still Had The Goods.
If you don't own it, buy it. If you are thinking it's past its prime... buy it anyway :)
Oh, gotta say this: if you're thinking of buying into FMS... buy Wowza instead - it's more flexible and it's not priced as arrogantly as the ancient "Adobe" server.
The best.......2007-06-27
Hands down, the best ActionScript book in my library. Good for building a solid understanding of AS, but definitely not for someone looking for a few quick tricks, effects or tutorials.
A good book for coders, but designers will probably want something far less intense.
Best ActionScript foundation.......2007-06-21
It is a book that directly is recommendable for whatever it wants to program with ActionScript.
It is not necessary to enter the details of the book because everything is recommendable.
All the proportionate examples are practical and functional.
The author is a recognized programmer of ActionScript and has the Web www.moock.org.
It is necessary to consider that includes neither the components nor classes MX.
To be a programmer it is necessary to know how everything what the book author explains.
Directly recommendable, whatever the direction that is wanted to give later to the programming with ActionScript.
Next to this book also it is recommendable "Essential ActionScript 2.0" of he same author.
Books:
- Sandworms of Dune
- Son of the Morning Star
- Standing in the Spaces: Essays on Clinical Process, Trauma, and Dissociation
- Stephen Hawking's Universe: The Cosmos Explained
- Superconductivity: Part 2 (In Two Parts) (Superconductivity)
- The Divine Matrix: Bridging Time, Space, Miracles, and Belief
- The Divine Matrix: Bridging Time, Space, Miracles, and Belief
- The Extravagant Universe: Exploding Stars, Dark Energy, and the Accelerating Cosmos (Princeton Science Library)
- The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe
- The Historical Development of Quantum Theory
Books Index
Books Home
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Flash
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Sams Teach Yourself Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 in 24 Hours (Sams Teach Yourself)
Macromedia Flash 8 @work: Projects and Techniques to Get the Job Done (@Work)
Dreamweaver 8: The Missing Manual
Macromedia Flash 8 Bible
Foundation ActionScript for Flash 8 (Foundation)
