Books for/about - macromedia flash

Sams Teach Yourself Macromedia Flash 8 in 24 Hours (Sams Teach Yourself in 24 Hours)

Publisher: Sams
Authors: Phillip Kerman

ISBN: 0672327546
List Price: $29.99
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Avg Cusomer Rating: 5
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Summary: Excellent text
As a 13-yr-old, homeschooled beginner in Flash, I enjoyed this book very much because of its clarity. I learned a lot of things that other authors didn't say anything about. If you are thinking of buying Flash 8 by Phillip Kerman I highly recommend it. It's a great book for beginners and experts alike. If you're looking for a book about Actionscript though, this is not the one. Yes, it covers the fundamentals of Actionscript, but it teaches you mostly about animating, drawing, layers, the library of Flash, etc.. Sams Publishing is also a great company, and you should not have any doubt about purchasing a book published by them. My rating for "Sams Teach Your Self Flash 8 in Twenty-Four Hours by Phillip Kerman" is too low: I wish there was something higher than five stars.

Summary: Ya gotta love it
I'm a techie not a programmer by trade and I wanted to spice up my company web site, so what the hey lets get some flash on it, <G>..........
I waded thru a couple of other books and didn't feel I was getting a handle on the technology, After the first 2 chapters of Phillips book I felt that on was on the right track. I like to learn thru concrete examples and this book excels at that. You work thru progressively more difficult tasks and in the process gain a solid understanding of the technology. Very nicely done and I recommend this book highly.

Summary: I've been a professional programmer for over 30 years, and I loved it
I probably have a different background than most readers of this book, because I'm a professional web developer. However, on-line banking doesn't require Flash, so I had never developed with it. But now I want to write some web games, and this book gave me all of the groundwork I needed to start working in Flash.

The learning curve for Flash's design tools was the toughest part for me, and the start of this book covers it perfectly. I understood the timeline, layers, keyframes, and all the rest through his clear explanations. The Flash interface is definitely unique, so the explanations made a lot of things clear that otherwise would not have been.

The programming side of Flash seems to give many people trouble, but that was the easiest for me. Either way, his chapters about Actionscript are clear, simple but not simple-minded, and paced properly.

On top of all that, he answers his e-mail promptly.

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Macromedia Flash Professional 8 Hands-On Training (Hands-on Training (H.O.T))

Publisher: Peachpit Press
Authors: James Gonzalez

ISBN: 0321293886
List Price: $44.99
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Summary: Great for a beginner like me...
I had thumbed through several Flash 8 books in the local bookstore before deciding on this one. What drew me to it was that the examples progress from the basics into an end-result project. You can eliminate chapters if need be with no bearing on the final project as the necessary example files are provided on the disc for each chapter.

I'm new to Flash with no experience with any prior version. My intentions were to learn to a point where I am comfortable creating animations (somewhat satisfied by the time I reached chapter 6) as well as interactive web pages (which I haven't yet gotten to in the book).

I would highly recommend this book for anyone trying to learning Flash for the first time on version 8. It might even serve as a good refresher for those with experience on prior versions and whom are looking to keep up to date on version 8.

Summary: A good way to get a strong Flash foundation
A good way to get a good foundation in Flash

Although it took me a while to work through the examples in the book, I was happy with the results. In the end I was able to do most of the nifty animation "eye candy" I wanted to do. I also had a decent idea of what to do get going in ActionScript.

I wouldn't give this book any awards, but it is a good way to start your Flash.

Summary: A good introduction
I almost gave this book 3 stars, but realized that it was just 3 based on my flawed expectations for the book. I had been looking for a good introduction to flash with an eye towards the capabilites of actionscript. Sadly, the action script section of the book was very short and very basic - really just giving you the basics of using the wizard to perform rudimentary tasks. But, the book never professed to offer any great actionscript insights, so, there's that.

As an introduction this book is very good, especially for the beginner. This offers step by step on how to do perform many of the tasks in flash. At times, I think, it's a little too basic, but that may just be me (for example every time they ask you to hit return they say Press Enter (for windows) or Return (for mac) throughout the whole book). But it doesn't really take away from the book.

Everything is very clearly presented, tools are explained, I was impressed that they made very pointed use of keyboard shortcuts. They gave screen shots and images to illustrate most steps which is very helpful in a book like this. The book covers the basics, using the drawing tools, tweening, buttons, movies, importing various media including video.

Each chapter begins with a half page overview, then another page or three of deeper coverage and then several step by step exercises. Most of these are very focused exercises, relying on the provided cd's different pre-made projects to start you off at a point where you can focus on the task at hand. Strewn throughout the exercises are tips and more explanatory text when a subject warrants a half page or page more of description.

I found the book good at presenting a top level view of flash. I suspect that it will not be a book that I go back to frequently as the organization by project doesn't lend itself to convenient referencing. But that's a trade off, great books for reference are very rarely good introductory books. So overall, I'm pretty satisfied that this book achieved what it set out to do.

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	Macromedia Flash�8 Bible (Bible) Publisher: Wiley Authors: Robert Reinhardt Snow Dowd
ISBN: 0471746762 List Price: $44.99 Amazon Price: $28.34 Usually ships in 24 hours Buy this book from amazon.com or from amazon.co.uk	Avg Cusomer Rating: 5 Reviews: Summary: Extremely thorough, understandable, and well-written I am a Computer Science student and purchased this book to learn Flash for use with a project. I am very pleased-I think the book has very thorough descriptions and examples, and also offers great advice about design issues and other important considerations when developing a project. I would highly recommend this book for someone who is new to Flash. As someone with technical background, it was very easy to follow and understand, and also offered insights that I do not get from my classes. I believe even those with limited development experience will find the book very informative, since it does not assume that the readers have prior knowledge about the topics in the book. Great book, highly recommended! Summary: Ok I have not seen the other Flash Bible Books so therefore gave it a 4 star rating. Also i am a tad dissapointed, the book itself has a lot of info (which the first few chapters is basic stuff) but it also seems that this may be the same content as the other Flash Bible books. It does go over some of the new Flash 8 features like the filters, however i was hoping the book would contain the new "BitmapData" and bitmap caching but it did not. Also maybe go over the timeline effects even if it is simple to understand. Had these features been included it would have been 5 stars. Summary: The examples alone inspire ideas. I honestly cannot believe how much information this book has on Flash 8. I mean, when you get your book, just looking at it you can see how much information it has. This book answered all of my questions concerning flash 8, and inspired many new ideas just from the examples in the book. If you want to spend money to make money, this book is definitely where you should start. Summary:

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	The Web Collection, Revealed: Macromedia Dreamweaver 8, Flash 8, and Fireworks 8, Deluxe Education Edition (Revealed) Publisher: Course Technology Authors: James E. Shuman Sherry Bishop Barbara M. Waxer
ISBN: 1418843075 List Price: $62.95 Amazon Price: $62.95 Usually ships in 1 to 3 weeks Buy this book from amazon.com or from amazon.co.uk	Avg Cusomer Rating: Reviews: Summary:

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Macromedia Flash Professional 8 Beyond the Basics Hands-On Training (Hands on Training (H.O.T))

Publisher: Peachpit Press
Authors: Shane Rebenschied

ISBN: 0321293878
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Summary: Best Flash book I ever bought!
I must have over $1000 of Flash books since Flash 5. This book, by Shane Rebenschied, is by far the best I've experienced. I liked the fact that he includes much discussion about why one is performing a task one way as opposed to doing it another way... Shane shows you the correct, professional way. I also like the fact that the exact directions to follow in the tutorial are clearly numbered, often bold and stand out from the basic discussion. I am now going through for the second time and not reading the discussion but just doing another couple sites to get practice with these new techniques and ideas. They make sense because you change things in one place, not open every button timeline. You load one movie into another, allowing for download and cache ahead of time, for all your graphics and fonts you will use in the site. The user's computer is not constantly downloading the same items over and over as you move from one html page to another... you stay on the same one and load one SWF file after another into a master SWF file on the same html page.
If you already know a good deal about Flash or enough to get you in trouble, this Shane Rebenschied book is for you! I hope he writes the next level soon. The added videos are fantastic and very helpful.

Summary: Beyond the Basics is a Good Name for this Book
Beyond the Basics is a good name for this book because the author assumes that you have a basic knowledge of Flash and when you have finished the book, you will have mastered some of the intermediate level Flash features. The author, Shane Rebenschied, takes a modular approach to Flash and ActionScript. In each chapter, you will create a modular component that performs a specific task and then a master Flash file that acts as a controller for these modules. The purpose of this is to keep the file size and download time for your Flash site to a minimum and to make it easier to maintain. Throughout the book, the author uses a working sample website as a teaching aid.

Rebenschied begins by discussing flowcharts, storyboards and the construction process you will use throughout the book and how the master file and shared asset library work. Then you work on components that will run the dynamic parts of the website. You will learn how to use the LoadVars class and to dynamically load external text, in-line animations, Flash SWF and FLV files. You will also learn about the TextField.StyleSheet class, the TextFormat class and how to use HTML and CSS with Flash and web forms. He also discusses how CGI works to process your web form on the server.

Then, you will learn about the MovieClipLoader class and how to use ActionScript to control Flash interface components such as a dynamically loaded slide-show, MP3 player and streaming video player. Finally, you will build a Flash plug-in detector and preloader.

The CD contains exercise files and video tutorials that supplement the book. You also get a 24 hour free pass to the Online Training Library at Lynda.com.

Shane Rebenschied is a freelance illustrator and Flash consultant. He has written Adobe Photoshop Elements 2 and Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Beyond the Basics Hands-on Training. He is also part of the video-based training at Lynda.com.

Summary: A hands-on training program which is the next best thing to the classroom itself
So you have the basics of Macromedia Flash Professional 8 down and want to move to the next level of expertise - but how? Begin with Shane Rebenschied's tutorial, which packs learning exercises and training videos under one cover for maximum results. From learning how to create a video players that allows users to control playback features to creating a Flash plug-in detector and working with Photoshop and other programs for best integration of features, plenty of technical examples and screen shots permeate a hands-on training program which is the next best thing to the classroom itself.

Diane C. Donovan, Editor
California Bookwatch

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	Macromedia Flash Professional 8: Training from the Source Publisher: Macromedia Press Authors: Tom Green Jordan L. Chilcott
ISBN: 0321384032 List Price: $44.99 Amazon Price: $29.69 Usually ships in 24 hours Buy this book from amazon.com or from amazon.co.uk	Avg Cusomer Rating: 1 Reviews: Summary: Not the best choice If you are looking for clear instruction in Flash, this is not the best choice. This book is filled with errors from the start. I'm so surprised that a book subtitled "Training from the source" could be so terrible. It's almost as if the book was written, but never edited for problems. Summary: Complete Garbage This is the worst training manual I have ever seen. What the hell happened? Summary: Ghastly book... Never have I used, or tried to use, a book that has so many errors in it. Did they cut and paste an older version of the book, or Frankenstein a few books together to make this thing? There are three pages of errata at the publishers web site. The entire book has one screw-up through out! Spelling errors, missing words, odd jumps of skill. Even with the errata, I am still finding errors! I hope the guys didn't get paid much to 'write' this thing. It makes me wonder if this book was translated from some other language into English... For those stuck with this book, here is the URL for the errata: http://www.peachpit.com/content/images/0321384032/errata/errata.pdf And you have to rate this book to post a comment. Hence one star... Summary:

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	ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook: Solutions and Examples for Flash Developers Publisher: O'Reilly Media Authors: Joey Lott Darron Schall Keith Peters
ISBN: 0596526954 List Price: $39.99 Amazon Price: $25.19 Not yet published Buy this book from amazon.com or from amazon.co.uk	Avg Cusomer Rating: Reviews: Summary:

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Macromedia Flash Professional 8 Game Development (Game Development)

Publisher: Charles River Media
Authors: Glen Rhodes

ISBN: 1584504870
List Price: $49.95
Amazon Price: $31.47
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Summary: Window into Flash game creation
With Flash 8 Game Development by Glen Rhodes I expected to get a step by step process on how to develop games in Flash in the form of Actionscript examples and tutorials. I didn't expect much in terms of the other processes of game design, but was pleasantly surprised when Glen related the importance of all game components. While the book doesn't go into as much detail with other processes as it does the code (and as it is a game development book it shouldn't), it describes the importance of each part, and gives several extra items beyond what I expected. There is a section on sound, optimization, game physics, portable games and 3D simulation as well as a section by Chris Hildenbrand about game graphics. And you make some fun games as well as explore more complicated versions which are included on the CD that comes with the book.

You should have at least an intermediate understanding of scripting. The basics of Actionscript are not described here - if you need an introduction to Actionscript read another book first. If you are confident with your ability to pick up Actionscript you will do fine, especially given the Actionscript for games primer at the end of the book.

This book gives a lot of helpful information on how Flash works and how to make games with this software. If you're interested in Flash 8 in particular, it details the creation of a tile-based side-scrolling game using the new bitmap class. I learned several methods of number manipulation and Actionscript methodology that will help me save time and processing power on future games. I learned ways of creating games that I hadn't thought of before, and he broke the physics down very simply and made it easy to understand. The tutorials and examples were thorough and easy to follow, with explanations of what each part of the code was doing.

The only qualms I had were a few typos in the code (which are easily fixed), the order of presentation of some topics (I would have liked to read about the physics first before some early examples), a few spots where "why the math works" was not completely explained (but can be found through experimentation) and the process of planning the code/outlining functionality wasn't as prevalent as I would have liked.

Overall though, this book has been extremely helpful in understanding how to implement different types of games. I was making my own version of the popular "Breakout" by Atari in no time. If you are interested in making games with Flash, this book is loaded with ideas and information on how to go about creating them.

Summary: Superb tutorial-style guide
Don't believe the negative reviews of those who don't understand what a second, or revised edition is.

This book is a superb, tutorial-style introduction to programming games with Flash 8 that quickly gives the reader a basis for learning Actionscript. Within one hour, I had my first game tutorial running and was analyzing the actionscript driving it.

Nice work Glen, thanks!

Summary: Very Disappointed
I having been waiting since 2005 for the release of this book and I am very disappointed because so very little was added to this revision and certainly not enough to justify the cost of the book if you purchased the previous edition, Flash MX 2004 Game Development, which I own. The first edition was outstanding. Because I followed the GlenRhodes.com blog and viewed the really cool stuff he is doing like the LightSaber Configurator and the WolfenFlash Game featuring the "Flash Ray Engine", I expected to get more insight into how he is pushing Flash 8 to create such outstanding work! The book would have been much more valuable to me if 4+ games added to the revision and more insight into his current Flash 8 work.

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