Publisher: O'Reilly Media
Authors: Joey Lott Darron Schall Keith Peters
List Price: $39.99
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ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook: Solutions and Examples for Flash Developers
Publisher: O'Reilly Media |
| ISBN: 0596526954 List Price: $39.99 Amazon Price: $25.19 Not yet published |
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Programming Flex 2: The Comprehensive Guide to Creating Rich Media Applications with Adobe Flex
Publisher: O'Reilly Media |
| ISBN: 059652689X List Price: $54.99 Amazon Price: $34.64 Not yet published |
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Macromedia Flash MX 2004 ActionScript Bible
Publisher: Wiley |
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| ISBN: 0764543547 List Price: $49.99 Amazon Price: $31.49 Usually ships in 24 hours |
Avg Cusomer Rating: 3 Reviews: Summary: This book is not for beginners! I am no dummy when it comes to using software or teaching books, but this one is over my head. I am a beginner with Flash MX 2004. I would prefer hands on, step by step tutorials....at least until I have a grasp of the basics. At over 1200 pages, I am sure that I will be using this book as a reference in the future. For now, I need to start a little slower. Summary: Excellent Guide and Reference This book is an excellent reference for even the most experienced ActionScript developer. Summary: Not for newbies. In my opinion, this book is more for a reference than it is for a new person to a language(which I am a newbie to any language). The basics are just breifly gone through. But almost everything is covered though even for a brief bit. The book goes through almost if not all of the classes and thier properties and methods. I just wish there were more on the basics, which I got from other sources. Summary: |
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Flash 8 Cookbook (Cookbooks (O'Reilly))
Publisher: O'Reilly Media |
| ISBN: 0596102402 List Price: $44.99 Amazon Price: $28.34 Usually ships in 24 hours |
Avg Cusomer Rating: 5 Reviews: Summary: Excellent source As an intermediate Actionscripter, I find this book incredibly useful on a daily basis. It's well-organized and well-written, with several juicy tips and tricks. Summary: Basic Flash information presented as a 'cookbook' Hardly any information that would constitute as worthwhile if you have a decent grasp of Flash. There is entirely too much elementary information here. One recipe is a small excerpt on how to create an invisible button by only putting content in the hit state of the button. Also, although the cover reads "Using the Flash IDE to build Flash animations and applications", it includes entirely too much information on Swift3D in a Chapter discussing 3D in Flash. The chapter should probably have been renamed "Creating 3D in For Flash using Swift 3D" instead of the misleading name "Simulating 3D in Flash". Summary: Excellent book covers all aspects of Flash problems & solutions This book focuses primarily on how to use the Flash IDE to build Flash animations and applications, but additional Flash Platform technologies are discussed when deemed appropriate and within the scope of the book. This book is intended for anyone who wants to learn solutions to specific tasks using Flash regardless of experience. Like all books in O'Reilly's cookbook series, this book is not a typical reference book or training guide, thus it is assumed that you are already familiar with the basics of Flash. It is also assumed that if you are reading this book, you are most interested in Flash-based, authoring time, non-ActionScript solutions. For example, it is technically possible to animate programmatically with ActionScript; however, the non-ActionScript solution is emphasized in this book. It's possible that an ActionScript solution is either necessary or better in some circumstances, and, in those cases, the ActionScript solution is provided either by itself or in addition to a non-ActionScript solution. If you are looking for a book that focuses on ActionScript solutions, you probably want to look elsewhere. Thus, the vast majority of solutions provided for each "Recipe" are in the form of numbered steps that tell you which options within the Flash IDE to select. However, there are also detailed discussions in addition to the "How-To" steps for each recipe. The book starts out answering the most basic questions about drawing simple geometric shapes and proceeds on to topics such as interactivity, structuring and laying out movies, using 3D in flash, and animation. My favorite chapter is "Deploying Flash on Mobile Devices", since all published material on that subject is now very outdated. Amazon does not show the table of contents, so I do that here: Chapter 1. Drawing in Flash Chapter 2. Importing and Exporting Artwork Chapter 3. Structuring Movies and Laying Out Content Chapter 4. Creating Animation Chapter 5. Simulating 3D in Flash Chapter 6. Composing Images with Bitmaps and Masks Chapter 7. Working with Text Basics Chapter 8. Working with Dynamic Text Chapter 9. Adding Interactivity Chapter 10. Managing Playback Chapter 11. Managing Movie Clips Chapter 12. Creating Presentations and Slideshows Chapter 13. Building Flash Forms Chapter 14. Building Advanced Flash Forms Chapter 15. Customizing UI Components Chapter 16. Loading Images and Flash Content Chapter 17. Working with Sound Chapter 18. Working with Video Chapter 19. Using Data Chapter 20. Building Preloaders Chapter 21. Publishing Flash Chapter 22. Deploying Flash on Mobile Devices Chapter 23. Making Movies Accessible Summary: |
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Learning ActionScript 2.0 for Macromedia Flash 8
Publisher: Macromedia Press |
| ISBN: 0321394151 List Price: $49.99 Amazon Price: $31.49 Usually ships in 24 hours |
Avg Cusomer Rating: 3 Reviews: Summary: Good Reference for Serious AS Programmers "Learning ActionScript 2.0 for Macromedia FLASH 8" is an official Macromedia Press publication and was written by Jan and Peter deHaan, both of whom are clearly ActionScript experts. The book is targeted at individuals with at least some Flash development experience. However, as mentioned later in the book Action Script 2.0 should be primarily of interest to intermediate and advanced Flash programmers. The authors state that ActionScript will seem familiar if you have previous scripting language experience (i.e. JavaScript), but if you have no programming background ActionScript basics are easy to learn. This may be true. However, I found that this book really requires that readers already have a good foundation of programming background -at least in terms of concepts, syntax, and scripting language structure. For example in Chapter 4: Data and Data Types, I found the code examples to be too abstract without some working knowledge of programming languages and a description of what the code syntax is supposed to be doing. This book is well organized for topical reference, but is intended for linear reading (though I doubt anyone would actually do this) since many chapters build off of the previous ones. The topical structure of this book is actually its best feature, with each of the 19 chapters addressing a specific Flash feature and how ActionScript 2.0 drives and controls it. Chapter 5: Syntax and Language Fundamentals, however, seems out of place for those of us unfamiliar with scripting languages. This chapter should be moved up front to at least precede the previous chapters on "Writing and Editing AS 2.0" and "Data and Data Types." The chapter topics are outlined below to show how the book is organized: o Chapter 1: What's New in ActionScript 2.0 o Chapter 2: Writing and Editing AS 2.0 o Chapter 3: About ActionScript o Chapter 4: Data and Data Types o Chapter 5: Syntax and Language Fundamentals o Chapter 6: Functions and Methods o Chapter 7: Classes o Chapter 8: Inheritance o Chapter 9: Interfaces o Chapter 10: Handling Events o Chapter 11: Working with Movie Clips o Chapter 12: Working with Text and Strings o Chapter 13: Animation, Filters and Drawings o Chapter 14: Creating Interaction with AS o Chapter 15: Working with Images, Sound and Video o Chapter 16: Working with External Data o Chapter 17: Understanding Security o Chapter 18: Debugging Applications o Chapter 19: Best Practices and Coding Conventions for AS 2.0 o Extensive Appendices The book is equally well structured and written at the chapter-level. Each chapter starts off with a brief definition and explanation of the topic to be covered and contains references for locating more detailed or additional information elsewhere in the book. Highlighted "Notes" and "Tips" are used extensively throughout the book to emphasize key points and best practices. I often found these to be good 'knowledge nuggets' that broadened my overall understanding of Flash and ActionScript. The real focus of this book is on the 'nitty gritty' of working with ActionScript. Each chapter contains extensive topical examples and associated ActionScript 2.0 code. Many of the code examples are nicely presented in the form of step-by-step exercises. The authors do a nice job of describing what the code is doing as at key points along the way and also have you modify and test the code as you work through their examples and exercises. There are literally hundreds of ActionScript programming examples and exercises contained in this book. The breadth and depth of these highlight an incredibly wide range of useful ActionScript programming features and capabilities. The trick here is to dig through all of this and figure out how to apply it to your particular needs. However, if you are already an experienced AS programmer, the very granular topical structure of this book should make it very usable for you. Having no scripting language background, I found the handful of AS programming examples that I worked through difficult to understand. For me, this was due to the fact that many of the examples and exercises in this book illustrate abstract programming concepts, such as the manipulation of various code properties then testing the movie and analyzing what the ActionScript is doing via the Output panel. Having more concrete examples for applying ActionScript and seeing how content on the stage responds would be helpful for non-programmers like me. It would also be helpful if some of the examples focused on working with Flash 8's pre-scripted behaviors, which provide a lot of nice functionality. If you are an experienced programmer you should be able to find the AS samples and exercises very useful in your day-to-day workings with Flash. One thing that this book does not have that would be helpful is a companion CD that contains the ActionScript examples covered in the book. Many of the code samples are fairly long and being able to cut and paste many useful code samples directly into Flash would be nice. In summary, this a good reference book for creating and manipulating lots of ActionScript functionality within your Flash applications. It will be most useful to those already familiar with ActionScript or if you at least have a good understanding of scripting language programming fundamentals. It is well laid-out for easy topical reference and probably should be used as such, rather than as an end-to-end read through. As a new Flash programmer, I will be looking for additional ActionScript books that focus more on learning ActionScript basics, as well as scripting language fundamentals. However, I will certainly keep my copy of "Learning ActionScript 2.0 for Macromedia FLASH 8" handy. It does contain quite a bit of good material relevant to any new Flash developer who is serious about learning ActionScript. Summary: Okay, but not the best The is the second book I bought from Macromedia Press dealing with Action Script. The first one I bought was Flash MX Professional 2004 application development. ISBN 0-321-23834-6 I would by that versus this one if you are looking for a well written intermediate read for Application Development for Flash. This book is disjointed and it references itself in places you haven't read yet. I also have found a number of code typos, so if you are new to Action Script, pay close attention. Summary: OK, but could be better It's an alright book that teaches you some great pieces of actionscript, but it doesn't neccesarily show you how to put the pieces together. It sometimes seems like it was written for people that have a grasp on AS already, not someone who is just starting out. Summary: |
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ActionScript Cookbook
Publisher: O'Reilly Media |
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| ISBN: 0596004907 List Price: $49.95 Amazon Price: $31.47 Usually ships in 2 to 3 weeks |
Avg Cusomer Rating: 4 Reviews: Summary: extremely helpful, even under Flash 8 / AS2 The Actionscript Cookbook is an extremely useful resource for aspiring and veteran designers. I've been designing/developing since Flash 4 and I still found this book very insightful and full of great hints and explanations. A decent book for beginners but better for intermediate to advanced developers and designers. I'd recommend Colin Mook's Actionscript for Flash MX (also by O'Reily) which explores more fundamental concepts in Actionscripting 1 which are still pertinent in many cases to AS2. I appreciated the code examples, although admittedly I think I did remember finding a few errors, however the errors were on the nitpicking typo level and I usually found after getting annoyed thatI hadn't written the code correctly. Their example on Storing Persistent Shared Local Objects (flash cookies) was particularly useful. Well organized and clear (and no, I'm not affliated with O'Reilly, lol) Summary: Great reference book This book is one of the few Action Script books that specifically covers Flash Communication Server. Using this book I was able to build a chat server as well as a flash movie that could connect to it and have many clients interact with each other. Good Book! Summary: warning this is a great book but it will not work with macromedia mx 2004 unless you set the export setting to flash player 6. I got this notice from the author himself. mx 2004 cookbook should be comming out in september 2005 ~mark Summary: |
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Macromedia Flash MX ActionScript for Dummies
Publisher: For Dummies |
| ISBN: 076451637X List Price: $29.99 Amazon Price: $20.39 Usually ships in 24 hours |
Avg Cusomer Rating: 5 Reviews: Summary: Very thorough index & easy to use Table of Contents. A previous reviewer stated that this book is 'useless'. To prove her point she said the following regarding one of this books instructions: "For example, an instruction would say: Click Actions>>Movie Control and then double-click "goto". Sounds simple, except there is no Actions>>Movie Control>>goto. I don't understand how an entire book could be published with so much improper information." That woman just trashed this book. It just doesn't seem fair to me. I don't know about you but to me it seems plain mean and stupid. Like she's blaming the book for her own shortcomings. Maybe she is and maybe she isn't but in reading a technical book (even one for dummies) some common sense and critical thinking on the readers part must be assumed. Do you know how to use an index? I do. And consequently I know where the Actions panel is. It's conveniently located with all the other panels under the "Window" menu. If you don't believe me just look it up for yourself. In this books 19-page index. Where it's listed 16 times. Or a quick look at the Table of Contents tells me that on page 32 I'll find information on "Navigating the Actions Panel" and "Opening an Actions book". Now I know what you're thinking. That's rocket science there and I must be some kind of genius. Well, it's not rocket science and, sorry to say, I'm no genius. It's just a little common sense and a willingness to take responsibility for my part of the learning process. In case you're wondering, I don't know the author. I wish I did. I was just looking for a good beginner's ActionScript book and came across this one. In deciding on whether or not to buy a book I'll look at the Table of Contents and the Index. Maybe you do too. I guess that's why Amazon lists them. They both seem pretty thorough to me in this book. Summary: Useless ActionScript is the key to doing cool stuff with Flash, but the key this book provides doesn't fit the lock. For example, an instruction would say: Click Actions>>Movie Control and then double-click 'goto'. Sounds simple, except there is no Actions>>Movie Control>>goto. I don't understand how an entire book could be published with so much improper information. Summary: |
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Flash 8: Projects for Learning Animation and Interactivity (O'Reilly Digital Studio)
Publisher: O'Reilly Media |
| ISBN: 0596102232 List Price: $34.99 Amazon Price: $22.04 Usually ships in 24 hours |
Avg Cusomer Rating: 4 Reviews: Summary: A Good Channel through which to learn Flash interface and action script As the title states, this project-based approach to learning Flash 8 covers everything from becoming familiar with the interface to using both vector graphics versus pixilated images to the power of writing action script. For the beginning Flash 8 user, this book starts from scratch on how to draw objects. It begins by having the reader draw a simple box; by then end of the third chapter, what started as one object has become a movie, complete with alpha effects, motion effects, and even a first stab at action script. The remainder of the book builds off these core aspects of Flash. As a beginner, the book made it easy to follow through the step-by-step processes required to make Flash 8 work as desired. Not only does the book walk Flash users through the step-by-step processes, it also includes very useful sidebar notes and separate comment boxes (not to mention the wide sidebar space that just happen to be perfect for note-taking). These features are helpful in understanding how Flash `thinks' about the commands given in the projects. Also, the side notes will oftentimes refer the reader to the chapter in which a process is discussed in more detail to aid those more experienced users who have skipped around rather than reading the book cover-to-cover. Another handy feature of Flash 8: Projects for Learning Animation and Interactivity is the appendix titled "Tips and Resources," which lists some optional websites to extend Flash 8s possibilities; there is also a list of sites to practice with more tutorials. One potential downside of working through these projects comes with any book that uses the project-based approach: time. It takes time to work through the examples, even the ones that start out with some of the background work already done for you. However, this approach also gives a more thorough understanding of Flash 8 and should be beneficial to anyone who prefers a hands-on approach to learning the software. As such, it may be best suited for beginning users, but definitely has some information throughout that all semi-experienced Flash users should know. Summary: Good Content, Poor Layout 'Flash 8: Projects for Learning Animation and Interactivity' by Rich Shupe is a nice book content-wise but I really dislike the layout chosen for this book. When I think Flash, I think dynamic, hot, exciting... FLASHY!!! Well, for this book, the best words that comes to mind are grey, grey, and more GREY. YAWN... BOOOORING!!!! The only bit of color that touches this book resides on the front cover folks... that's it. I would expect this from an old-style O'Reilly book but not from a book in the O'Reilly family where cousin books are loaded with color. This might not seem like a big deal, but for this type of book, the choice to use a pure black and white layout is a very poor choice. Anything in Flash that isn't a video will be some kind of animation that is made, and the application is known for slick vector graphics and a wondrous interface. None of that stands out here and it makes the book very lackluster when reading it. On the positive side of things, the projects outlined here are solid and the content is decent but I have trouble really recommending this book. If you are a dedicated Flash worker who does this for a living I would recommend taking a look at all Flash books on the market, but if you just looking to learn or pick up some more tips and tricks, I would look at other books first. Summary: Combines good design techniques with learning Flash 8 This book is a unique one on Flash 8 because it tears down the wall between artistic design books and technical manuals and succeeds at being both. It starts out simple by showing you how to draw elementary figures. It then moves on to customizing your properties and automating your workflow so that you can design quickly. Next, animation is presented along with all of the techniques you will need to be efficient plus how to perform various effects. This book is particularly good at showing the reader how to import sound, graphics, and video, and how to use scripting via AppleScript to control it all. The lessons are done via unique and creative projects. By the end of the book you won't be an expert on Flash, design techniques, or AppleScript, but you will be pretty good at putting the 3 together to perform interesting tasks in Flash and doing so efficiently. A good companion book to this one is "Flash 8: The Missing Manual". It explains all of the technical nuts and bolts of Flash that there is not room to accommodate in this book. I notice that Amazon does not show the table of contents, so I do that next: 1. Getting Started, Right Out of the Box Drawing Your First Box 1 Coloring Fills and Strokes 7 Merging and Stacking Shapes 16 Creating Reusable Graphics 22 2. Creating Quickly: Customizing Your Workspace Designing Your Own Panel Layout 27 Customizing Movie Properties 32 Aligning Objects on the Stage 33 Behind Every Good Symbol Is a Good Editor 37 Automate Your Workflow 39 3. Your First Animation 45 Layers and the Timeline 46 Keyframes and Tweening 50 Preparing Text for Animation 52 Staggering Animation 57 Alpha Effect 58 Motion Effects 58 Your First Script 63 Publishing Your Movie 65 4. Buttons and Interactivity Buttons as Symbols 69 Scripting Your Button 73 Components and Behaviors 79 Navigation 83 More Fun with Buttons 90 vi Contents 5. Working with Graphics Importing Pixels 95 Working with Pixels 101 Importing Vectors 106 Using Scenes 109 Working with the Library 110 6. Movie Clips and Interactivity Drawing a Cartoon Character 115 Controlling the Character with ActionScript 128 More Movie Clip Control 131 7. More Animation Techniques Morphing with Shape Tweens 135 Frame-by-Frame Animation 139 Using Masks 143 Timeline Versus ActionScript Animation 155 8. Using Sound Importing Sounds 161 Controlling External Sounds 169 Scripting Your Own Sound Control 172 9. Using Video Importing Video 181 Controlling External Videos 184 Scripting Your Own Video Control 190 10. Compositing and Bitmap Effects Runtime Bitmap Caching 197 Bitmap Filter Effects 199 Blend Modes 210 11. Working with Text Text Types 217 Using Fonts 221 Loading and Styling Text 223 FlashType 230 12. Loading Assets on the Fly Using ActionScript to Modularize Content 235 Preloading 240 13. e-Learning with Flash Creating a Quiz: Getting Started with Templates 249 Sending Results with a Form 254 Saving and Retrieving Local Data 260 14. Flash for CD-ROM and Handhelds Flash on CD-ROM 271 Flash on the Run 277 vii Contents 15. Think Outside the Box Exporting to Video 291 The Drawing API 299 Extending Flash 303 The Rest Is Up to You 311 A. Tips and Resources Index Summary: |
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