Customer Reviews

After Effects for Flash / Flash for After Effects: Dynamic Animation and Video with Adobe After Effects CS4 and Adobe Flash CS4 Professional

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Adobe seems to be doing a comprehensive job of tying together its tool portfolio. This book describes the integration of After Effects and Flash. Each is treated separately, at first. So if you wish, you can just focus on learning each tool in standalone mode. At this level, there is plenty to keep you busy. But it should be said that if you just want to deal with each in separation, try consulting the books in this Adobe series that deal just with each, Adobe Flash CS4 Professional Classroom in a Book and Adobe After Effects CS4 Classroom in a Book.

The current book has several projects (aka. case studies) that demonstrate how to tie together both tools. The topics covered are broad, and range from handling analog film clips (and converting these into digital form) to vector drawing and raster animation. Much thought appears to have gone into designing projects that emphasise a powerful commonality of integration.

The final product can also have a high degree of interactivity. This involves actual programming, using ActionScript code, and may appeal to those readers coming from a computing background, as opposed to a graphics background. Here, too, if you need a definitive ActionScript text, try this other book, ActionScript 3.0 for Adobe Flash CS4 Professional Classroom in a Book.

Any seeking to learn Adobe Creative Suite 4 will find it holds powerful animation tools which offers specialized features and make for integration challenges and options. Basic and advanced uses for each application in the suite are covered in chapters which teach how to create content, manage projects, and create professional-looking videos with polished results. From creating 3D environments to converting Flash to broadcast and creating interactive controls, this is a dynamic interactive guide (with DVD) perfect for any Flash user.

So many teaching books boil down to: Here's what you'll create, how's how to create it. In between the steps you may get a few insights into why the author chose a particular approach over another but generally you're left with more questions than answers. Luckily there are a few books out there that address the "why" and the "what is...?" as much as they do the "here's how" and Mr. Harrington and Mr. Geduld's book is one of them.

This book will serve a beginner but it's best in the hands of an advanced amateur, someone who can "wing it" and create animated titles or flip-books in AfterFX, who can draw and animate vector shapes in Flash, who can even author a DVD without burning coasters. But to go from "winging it" to "skillful" you'll have to be proficient with +all+ the tools that are available. You need to know the strengths and weaknesses of each program and establish an efficient work flow. You should know what to expect from the various file types you'll encounter, when and how best to transcode your video assets and which program is better suited for a particular aspect of your project. To accomplish this takes time and practice. With experience you'll know how files behave inside these programs and what advantages each one offers. This is especially important for video files. Codecs and containers all have their idiosyncrasies; some are easier to work with in Flash, some in AfterFX. Knowing how to incorporate Adobe Media Encoder (or Handbrake, QT, Squeeze etc.) is an important part of the work flow. This book is a great shortcut to understanding all of that because it explains and illustrates the process so well.

If you find yourself changing your work flow from one project to the next, or you don't know the best way to render/publish your files, whether for DVD, mobile phone or the cloud, or if you simply suspect there are better, more refined ways to accomplish your goals inside AfterFX (using expressions perhaps?) and Flash (IK? AS?), this book is for you. It will be an invaluable part of the foundation you'll build as you progress in digital content creation.

After completing this book - and especially if you build the projects outlined in it - you'll have a firm grasp of all the tools available inside Flash and AfterFX. You'll be able to create Flash-based games and vector animations that are interactive; you'll know how to composite and "sync" videos you create so that music and narration happens when you want it to. You'll understand the core concepts of video including aspect ratio, resolution, square and non-square pixels, progressive vs interlaced frames and much more.

My only regret is that I didn't buy this book sooner.

I have have been a video editor for many years and recently bought CS4 Production Premium. The books I have found for the creative suite didn't quite meet my needs for an integrated approach. This book covered Flash and advanced features in After Effects as well as how to develop a work flow with the other programs. I would like to see another book in the same vein covering more great ways to use all the tools in this great toolbox.