Foundation Flash 5

by Amanda Farr, Patrick Rey, Bhangal

A Flash movie is an exciting component of Web sites. This guide teaches Flash with tutorial based chapters and a step-by-step visual lesson. Includes hands-on studies that demonstrate its full... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1903450314
• ISBN13: 9781903450314
• Release Date: November 2000
• Publisher: Apress
• Length: 644 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 7.5" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

The Best Flash Book Out There!

Foundation Flash 5 is the absolutely the best Flash book on the market. Even though it is for the beginner to intermediate user, there is not a flash designer/devoloper who could not benefit from this exception book. The authors did a remarkable job in their unique way. I own hundreds of computer books and never have a ran across one to this caliber. No, there is not a CD with this book but I must tell you I did enjoy going to the site and checking the codes from there. I really feel I am a friend of ed. I had gotten to chapter 4 and ran right out, before the bookstore closed, to purchase Foundation Actionscript.What a wonderful book, I just wish there were a lot more out there with this style!If you know Flash, or you want to learn Flash, or even if you just think you are interested in Flash this is the book for you! When you finish this book, you will understand and know exactly what you are doing.I give this book a 10! Truly awesome!!!

An Absolute Must Buy !!!!!!!!!!!!

My name is Brian. I am certified in MCP, A+, I-Net+, M CIW D (Master Certified Internet Webmaster Designer) and a CTT(Certified Technical Trainer). I do web site design, consultation and I do corporate training for a living. All I can say is YES!!!!! Buy this book and do it now!!! I have recommended other books on here but this one is really a cut above! I just finished it and it really helped put the polish on my skills! Do you really want to learn Flash 5? Are you lost in a sea of confusion, trying to decide which direction to go? Do you want me to recommend step by step what books to buy? Ok, buckle up Spanky.... here we go..... BOOK 1)- As far as what is published right now I would tell you to start with this book! It gives you an excellent foundation of the tools, interface and abilities of Flash 5. It gives you smart ideas, suggestions and best practices for using Flash 5 alone and with a website, on top of teaching it. They go into sound and tweaking, layers, scenes, events and everything else!!! It even goes into modest depth on ActionScript!!! It gives you real world examples. The book takes you through Flash 5 step by step but at the same time has you building your own "Flash 5 website"! Cool huh?! You will actually put your skills to work! You do not need to complete the website to learn it though. It has plenty of pics to guide you. They are just black and white..nothing fancy! The book has a companion website that provides the file samples to practice with, a forum to post questions, a Developer's corner where you can really learn the ropes and other info. This book takes you from learning the interface to showing you how to publish your "movie" via FTP to a website. At the end of the book they have recommendations on how to get jobs in the Flash 5 arena, do's and don'ts for production, and where to look for inspiration.BOOK 2)- After you are finished this book ((and believe me it will go by quickly)) buy the next book in this series - "Foundation ActionScript". If you really enjoyed and devoured Foundation Flash 5 like I did then this book will give you more of what you are seeking! Foundation ActionScript gives you heavy duty introduction into programming theory, Flash best practices and gets you up to the intermediate to advanced user level in ActionScript fast! BOOK 3)- After all that the choice is up to you where you go and how far you develop your Flash 5 skills but I would recommend "Flash 5 Bible"...not as a learning tool but more as an excellent reference. It offers in depth instruction on each Flash ability and even goes so far as to instruct you in how to use Flash 5 with other software like Quicktime, Poser, and many other 3rd party programs. This was extremely valuable for me! I actually had to borrow a friends copy at work to save my rear!I hope I have helped you through the murky waters today. My last recommendation...go and review the book first person at a local bookstore and read the first chapter or two just to s

foundation flash provides solid instruction

Wow!! What a find! Foundation Flash is a wonderful book which was the ideal match for my stage of development in my flash career.Before this book, I was a flash advanced-beginner...meaning I have produced a few commercial flash demos as the graphic designer in the UI team for my company. I have an understanding of the drawing tools (I teach photoshop), but have minimal skills in action scripting and am basically programming-illiterate! I opened the book at my computer and went through every exercise step by step in a few nights. I agree with the reviewer who emphasized that this book is not a basic flash resource but truly a tutorial from start to finish to be studied in a linear structure. You can't miss one paragraph or your final result may be incorrect - prohibiting you from continuing on to the next chapter. But I found that to be a challenge as it taught me to analyze my code and I felt elated when I discovered my mistake - despite several instances of thinking it must be the author's mistake - ha!. I have read many Flash4 books, attended the Flash Forward Conference 2000 in SF, downloaded numerous .fla tutorials from the web, but was still daunted by action scripting. This book approaches action scripting in a methodical, informal, and happenstance way - relating it to everyday activities such as making a cup of coffee or tea. My success with Foundation Flash prompted me to open the next logical book in the series:Foundation ActionScript (the author co-authored Foundation Flash). I started into the land of dot syntax last night and can say that I'm 1/3 the way - up to the variables chapter and so far, understand much of the tutorial. This, from a mind that up until no was not able to understand logic in any format!!! Thank you Foundation Friends of Ed for creating such superb books. I would not recommend them as the *only* book for the absolute beginner, but they are suitable as a classroom textbook with a teacher proficient in the exercises and understanding of concepts. Foundation Flash compliments those books that teach basic flash drawing and animation skills such as the Macromedia Flash5 Manual, Visual Quick Start books, and many others...Don't let these books pass by your studio.Now I'm waiting for the Foundation Director 8.5 book.Thanks Friends of Ed, I'm a fan! mganeles

A different and nice Flash basic book

There are many books on Flash and a whole lot more coming up on Flash 5. Nearly all of them covers only the basic stuff. When things start to get interesting, you will find out that "this is beyond the scope of this book". In some books you will get the impression Flash is a sort of Freehand with some animation tool built-in. Other "artists tell their Flash techniques" sort of books will make you inspired with so many nice ideas. But then too often you will soon find out that you are just about to learn an adhoc Flash solution. There is a huge gap between the power of Flash 5 and all the existing and coming generation of books. This is all very compeling to me, because it may finally get me down to use my skills and experience in object-oriented technology and databases to show what Flash 5 can do to professional, mission-critical web sites and everybody, who knows or at least may know it, wants to keep to themselves. Yet this one book fits very nice in the picture. It is one of the very few and successful attempts to cover basic Flash in a smart and proper way. It does not stop at the "Freehand with animation" border nor at the "this is your first animation" one. It has a nice balance and explores areas other basic Flash books did not dare to touch. The web site kept by two of the authors shows the breadth of their understanding and it is by itself a reference to the quality of this book. You will have a fine book in your hands that will help you to get ahead in ways other basic Flash books just don't do.

Foundation Flash 5 heralds new wave of Flash authors

Lately, Macromedia is giving birth to newer versions of its applications at faster rate than the Alien Queen in the Sci-fi classic movie, Aliens. So...it's only natural that a flurry of new books would be released to capitalize on those newer release version. That's to be expected. What's different in this case is that such a high quality book as Foundation Flash 5 is one of the first Flash 5 books out of the gate.At the time of this review (November 22, 2000), there are only three other Flash 5 books currently out (Flash 5 for Windows and Macintosh: Visual QuickStart Guide by Katherine Ulrich, New Masters of Flash (WITH CD-ROM) by Yugo Nakamura, et al, and Flash 5 Fast & Easy Web Development by Howie Green)with nearly 30 more books looming on the horizon in the next three months.However, Foundation Flash 5 has the punch of a book released at the height of an application version's mautrity instead of at its infancy. The trio of authors (Sham Bhangal, Amanda Farr and Patrick Rey) are part of the new wave of dynamic Flashers who can both create Flash works that qualify as pure art while being able to find a way to teach those very same skills and techniques to both Flash beginners and seasoned veterans.Foundation Flash 5 covers it all: Essentials, Tools, Motion and Shape Tweening, ActionScripts, Actions & Interactions, Sound, Optimizing, Publishing, Design, Content and much more.At more than 600 pages, this book definitely has space for plenty of examples. Screenshots are used very effectively with code samples and text that can help any Flasher of any level understand the concepts being presented. Foundation Flash 5 is easy to navigate with informative appendices on Sound Sampling and the melding of HTML and Flash. A glossary is also provided to help newbies familiarize themselves with Flash terminology.If you want to learn to use Macromedia Flash 5, and to use it well, this is the book to get for your library. If you are already versed in Flash and want to enhance your skills, this is also the book for you. With a very reasonable price for a book this size and with so much useful content, Foundation Flash 5 is a true bargain.I just hope that Farr, Rey and Bhangal are called upon again to author the Flash 6 version of this book whenever Macromedia releases that incarnation of Flash.I recommend Foundation Flash 5 highly.