Flash 4 Magic [With CDROM]

by J. Scott Hamlin and David J. Emberton

Macromedia Flash 4 contains significant improvements from the previous version, in content creation, interactivity and portability. This text demonstrates the animation program's capabilities with... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Textbook Binding
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0735709491
• ISBN13: 9780735709492
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: New Riders Publishing
• Length: 325 Pages
• Weight: 1.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 10.1" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

This is NOT for Beginners

I have found this book to be the best one I own for Flash, however I already know HOW to use the program. The book is innovative and well written and the examples WITH the source code are remarkable. If you are trying to find a book to teach you to use the program, this is not it. Try the Flash 4.0 Quick Start Guide or have someone teach you the program. When you are ready to take your Flash skills to the NEXT level then, you are READY for this book.

"NO" for beginners, "Absolute YES" for intermediates and up

After you've done your homework in the basics, you've got to get this book to know how to APPLY your basic skills through its step by step examples. As the name implies, this book tells you where the "magic" is!

Flash Elitists Beware!

What first struck me about Flash 4 magic, was the amount of secrets that the authors are giving away. The tips and techniques in this book are amazing. This book reveals a lot of secrets and advanced techniques that newcomers and intermediate users rarely get access to. And considering the deceptive depth of Flash 4, advanced users are sure to find some new ways of doing things, as well as some hidden tricks that they would't have thought of. One of the most interesting things about Flash, is how simple it appears when you first begin using it, but how deep the application really is. It used to take hundreds of hours of playing with the program to really get a grasp of its capabilities. With a book like Flash 4 Magic in hand, you can quickly get up to speed and tackle some of the complexities of creating flash movies/animations/stes/games/etc... Well to come to think of it, I'm not sure if I like the amount of secrets that they are giving away here...

When it's Hot...it's Hot !

There are numerous 'meat and potatoes' books about Flash 4. FLASH 4 MAGIC, however, is 'prime rib', which should come as no surprise to those familiar with other books of Scott Hamlin. Even if you're quite familiar with Flash, don't imagine that you're just going to sit down and whip through this book in a few evenings. But If you really want to dig into FLASH 4 and learn something, this will do the trick. Be prepared to study and scratch your head -- you will actually have to figure some things out. But if you do, you will be a LOT smarter. No one who is serious about using FLASH should be without this book.

Outstanding book for the intermediate Flash user

If you have Flash and have done the tutorials, feel like you have the basics down pretty well, and are wondering how to expand your capabilities you should look at this book. Great tutorials in an easy to follow format. You can learn a lot about the advanced features of Flash, especially Action Scripting (something that most of the other Flash books barely touch on). The FLAs included on the CD are 1st rate (check out the Flash Pack for some very interesting interfaces).