Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Beyond the Basics Hands-On Training [With CDROM]

by Shane Rebenschied and Lynda Weinman

Presents a project based tutorial which helps build an entire Web site in Flash. This work shows how to dynamically load text and images, create scrollable text, build a preloader, add music and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0321228537
• ISBN13: 9780321228536
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Lynda.com
• Length: 500 Pages
• Weight: 2.03 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.5" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Look No Further!

Your search is over. Hands down, the best "how to" book I have ever used! Superb and extremely pertinent exercises that are explained so clearly and consistently that even I, actually a Flash beginner who decided to stretch a bit and start off with an intermediate level book, was able to get into it and be productive immediately. The author's method for creating a "modular" system is so smart that if you follow his lead, all your Flash based projects will download and render at lightening speeds all the while being very easily edited and updated. Bravo!

Perfect for intermediate users

After completing Yeungs intro to flash book, I thought the title of this one would fit me perfectly. I was not dissappointed. Having conquered the basics of flash, the next logical step is actionscript. Shane picks up nicely where Roseanna left off by introducing you to coding a website using actionscript. I found myself constantly nodding and saying "Now I could do the same thing by creating multiple movies but using actionscript makes it so much easier and decreases the file size significantly". He doesn't assume any prior knowledge of actionscript, and brilliantly walks you through the basics of each and every object he uses (even when the command is similiar to ones you have already used). I don't understand how the previous guy had problems understanding the author. I am by no means brilliant when it comes to flash and I found myself skipping over a lot of his explanations because they were too detailed. And the exercises are flawless. I did have some problems working some of them out, but when I retraced my steps I found that it was my error and not Shane's (such as embedding fonts-- I followed the MAC directions when I had a PC). Another thing that guy said is that he doesn't use the LoadMovie command. I don't know how he missed the REASON why he doesn't use that command (it is now or will soon be deprecated). He clearly says this in the book and introduces you to a nice alternative (MovieClipLoader class -- Not the myMC which was just the object that was instantiated from this class). My advice to that guy is Yah Roseanna's book was great, but it's time to move on man. That was an introductory book and I know it's hard to learn new things after you have been taught one way, but this author will not lead you astray. My only complaint is the material is dry. I mean ActionScripting just isn't as fun as tweening movies and making pretty animations but that is something that is unavoidable. Shane's writing style is refreshing and does a great deal to ease this boredom.

This book put it all together

After slogging my way through too many Flash books that start from scratch, and then trying to learn Actionscript by reading Macromedia's limp documentation, I had just about given up getting to the next level of Flash. Being the only "webguy" in our organization with lots of PHP to code doesn't leave me a lot of time to try and learn Flash. This book put it all together. No lengthy tutorials on using the pen tool and designing pretty graphics, this book gets you right off to actually putting Flash to work on the web. I particularly appreciated the opening chapters on arganization of .swf files and the hierarchy used by the author. Actionscript is introduced gradually through the book and everything works as it should. With this book you don't need to complete every tool that is offered. I skipped the MP3 player and Video, although I plan to go back to the video later. I was easily able to incoporate some small Flash apps I had written into the main parts of the Flash site. Most books don't give you options of using anything other than what the tutorials give you, making it hard to incorporate your own stuff. I got through the bulk of what I needed to create a good Flash site in 4 days. However, I'll be going back and re-reading just about everything to reinforce for future projects. One very small quibble. Although I like the author's writing style, I found the use of "smilies" in the book to be unprofessional. Leave that stuff to the internet. :)

Macromedia Flash MX 2004 beyond the basics/hands on

This is a wonderful well thought out book. The exercises were complete and worked EXACTLY as they said they would. I am an experienced Flash developer and I find this book very valuable to me and my department. The book takes you through intermediate steps on actionscript and the new cascading style sheets to be exported into Flash. Finally, a good book that talks more about true flash developing than just learning how to make a button or tweening something. This is a true book for intermediate to professional developers in Flash. You will not be sorry you bought this book.

Take Flash 2004 to the Next Level!

Let me just say that this book is fabulous. This is something the Flash community has needed more than it realizes! I've read a handful of books that get you started, and a handful of books that cover the most esoteric ActionScript programming possible... but there has simply not yet existed a book that covers the middle ground.For someone who knows the basics, even of an older version of Flash, this is the book you want. You learn how to make a complete, real, functional, PRO website using Flash, and you learn all of the must-know techniques that took me forever to figure out! Plus, the author teaches you the best practices for programming correctly in ActionScript 2.0, making this one of the few books to do so.All in all, I would recommend this book to nearly everyone interested in serious website development in Flash. It's a wonderful book.