Product Description

Face it: Poorly designed, static Web sites just don't cut it anymore. The Web (not to mention the technology surrounding it) has been around long enough, and people are used to seeing and expect a little razzle-dazzle when they go online. For just $12.99, this compact guide shows you how to deliver it! Whether your boss wants you to jazz up the company's Web site or you're burning the midnight oil trying to pull together some Web animations for a class project, this tightly focused, project-based guide shows you how to start creating Flash animations in an instant! Using big, bold full- pictures and streamlined instructions, it covers just the need-to-know essentials that will get you animating with the latest version of Flash: using the Flash 8 authoring tool, creating and animating graphics, tweening, adding sound, and more!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #217733 in Books
• Published on: 2005-12-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

About the Author
David Morris began creating Web sites in 1995 and has developed Web sites in corporate, non-profit, and educational arenas. In addition, he was an original member of the Macromedia Fireworks development team as well as product manager for Fireworks and Freehand.

Customer Reviews

Not recommended
All words are written in large, childlike print, to give an impression that this book is easy to read and thus also easy to execute. But the execution instructions are not very well described. Some steps have missing photos. The book is also way too short for the kind of book it is supposed to be: visual introduction to flash for beginners. It also has no troubleshooting nor any FAQ. This edition is identical to the newer one for Flash MX 2004(ISBN: 0-321-32125-1).I do not recommend starting learning flash from this book, it is for more advanced learners.

Would have been great but ...
It seems like the other people who gave this book a low rating did so because it lacked detailed info as to why some of the steps were done. Well guys, maybe you should have read the front and back cover of the book before you bought it. This book was designed to walk you step by step through the process of creating a website in Flash 8. That's what it does... sort of. The problem is (and this is the only reason I'm not rating it 5 stars) that it is RIDDLED with errors. Some of the steps just don't work and you really have to spend a lot of time figuring out where the author has screwed up.

That said, it's still a nice little primer and worth the nominal cost for beginners.

Informative, but arduous
This is a good primer or refresher for Flash 8.

This book serves two purposes: (1) Acquaints the reader with fundamental Flash principles and (2) demonstrates what you can do with Flash.

The author could have made the book a lot better by writing a paragraph at the outset of each mini-lesson giving an overview of the point of the lesson and the steps.

Retention with this book is difficult because it drones from one lesson to the next in linear fashion. If the book were broken down with reference points and summary overviews, it would even be a great little reference book.

Another reviewer noted that some of the steps do not function. He is correct. It appears that there are a few instances where the author is either unclear about the steps or loses track of whether the reader is to work within a symbol or the main stage. I just hacked my way through it.

Also, Flash is such a dynamic program that the learning curve is lengthy. To learn Flash, you MUST dedicate time and effort. It gets easier once you make up your mind to make the effort.