Macromedia Flash MX Production Techniques (With CD-ROM)
by M.D. Dundon
Macromedia Press
January 2003
ISBN: 0321123980
So - you are new to Flash? Then this book is going to help you out and is a lot of fun to use at the same time. Learn the Flash MX interface from the ground up and get your feet wet with the capability of the Flash program itself. From setting up your workspace to understanding the way in which the timeline and user controls work to the more difficult tasks of incorporating sound and optimizing your documents better, this book will help you learn the basics. Heavily focused on animation, "Macromedia Flash MX Production Techniques" walks you through the steps to produce static, keyframe and tweened animation. Make a stick figure walk and learn how to work with text through clean and concise tutorials and the included FLA files.
When this book came across my desk I was very excited to get going on the review. I have been working in Flash for several years now and am always looking for new production techniques and methods. I was hoping that this book would provide me with some great advanced techniques and ideas. After all it is "Flash MX Production Techniques." Admittedly, I felt as though I was misled by the book title. For an advanced user, this book is not a useful purchase. However, pick this book up if you are starting off in Flash or if you are still having a hard time with animation and file size optimization. If you have never worked in Flash before, this book will be great for you - if you have had the program open for more than a couple of days, you might not get much out of it. The most useful part of this book is the section of standard keyboard shortcuts.
"Macromedia Flash MX Production Techniques" includes a CD containing samples and the project files referenced throughout the book as well as a trial version of Macromedia Flash MX. For a beginner's walk through of Flash functionality, this is an easy to read, easy to follow primer on the basics. A great help on your way to learning Flash and its' near limitless capability.
If you are already familiar with Flash and want to push your skills to learn some more advanced techniques I would recommend picking up Flash MX Savvy by Watrall and Herber a great desktop resource. For purely working in and learning ActionScript, O'Really puts out one of the best - ActionScript for Flash MX The Definitive Guide.
IN A NUTSHELL
Chapter 1: Setting Up Your Workspace
Chapter 2: Illustration, Selection and Editing
Chapter 3: Animation Poreparation
Chapter 4: Animation
Chapter 5: Animation Special Effects
Chapter 6: Importing
Chapter 7: Timeline and User Controls
Chapter 8: Single-Timeline Interfaces
Chapter 9: Using Sound in Flash
Chapter 10: Flash and HTML
Chapter 11: Optimization
Appendix A: Macromedia Standard Keyboard Shortcuts
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