Creating a Web Site with Flash: Visual QuickProject Guide [Paperback]

David Morris (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0321321251 | ISBN-13: 978-0321321251 | Publication Date: March 31, 2005 | Edition: 1

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 have grown accustomed enough to dealing with it, that folks want (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-color pictures and streamlined instructions, it covers just the need-to-know essentials that will get you animating with Flash: using the Flash authoring tool, creating and animating graphics, tweening, adding sound, and more.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

A graphic designer with more than fifteen years experience, David Morris began developing Web sites in 1995. An original member of the Macromedia Fireworks development team, David was responsible for user interface design and function of Web development features for versions 1-3. His later work as product manager for Fireworks and FreeHand, allowed him to work closely with professional Web developers gaining a clear understanding of the challenges and opportunities that Web development provides. David has developed Flash-based web sites in corporate, non-profit and educational arenas.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press; 1 edition (March 31, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321321251
• ISBN-13: 978-0321321251
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.1 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,235,425 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gain familiarity with the Flash tools and workspace, April 13, 2005

By 

Diane Cipollo (Editor at BellaOnline.com) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creating a Web Site with Flash: Visual QuickProject Guide (Paperback)

When you begin to use new software like Macromedia Flash, you can expect a considerable learning curve. So, you read 50 or 60 pages in that big, thick, "everything you wanted to know about Flash" book, you put the book down, take some aspirin and say "There has to be an easier way". Well, the easier way is a book like this one by David Morris.

This book will not teach you everything about Flash, but it will take you step-by-step through the process of making a web site with Flash. The book has many illustrations, the instructions are easy to follow and when you are done you will be familiar enough with Flash that you can make sense of that big, thick book that you were trying to read. Basically, that is the purpose of this little book. So what does this book help you to do? You will create a small website for an imaginary business, use most of the basic Flash tools and gain familiarity with the Flash workspace.

First you draw a few lines and rectangular shapes filled with colors or gradients. Then you add some graphics and text. This becomes the background for the web pages. Next, you are introduced to what layers and symbols are and why they are so important to working efficiently in Flash. The Timeline is what makes the Flash animations, slide-shows and movies work. You will use this Timeline to control the animated text effects that make up the introduction to the website. Next, you make interactive, rollover effects for the menu buttons and use the Flash programming language called ActionScript to dynamically display web pages. Of course, it wouldn't be a Flash website without fancy animation, so you make a slide-show to display the product images for the imaginary business. Finally, you make one of those "loading . . ." progress bar animations and the website is complete.

David Morris has been a website and graphic designer for many years. He was product manager for Macromedia Fireworks and Freehand, as well as part of the Fireworks development team.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Great idea; DISMAL execution, September 19, 2005

By 

GJ "GJ" (Wisconsin) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creating a Web Site with Flash: Visual QuickProject Guide (Paperback)

I got this book, captivated by the smart idea: a simple, illustrated guide to Flash, introduced through a brief, manageable project guide, with step-by-step instructions, and screen-shot visuals in color. So far so good. I am not a total newbie - am very proficient with Maromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004, and with Fireworks, and quite competent with Adobe CS2, especially Photoshop and Illustrator. So, I thought, getting up to speed with Flash (which I have, but never needed to use) should be a snap.

And it may have been, if it weren't for the very sloppy execution of the book. First, the step-by-step instructions often MISS steps, e.g., on p. 6 there is a process of defining and adding colors for the project swatch; the instructions tell you to type the hex value for the color, and then click the Options menu, and choose "add swatch"; of course the only thing that will happen, is that you will become frustrated - the instructions "skipped" telling you to first press ENTER after typing in the hex color value, and THEN click on the Options menu. Without this step, you will not be able to add the new color. Of course you need to press ENTER in Fireworks too, so after one failed attempt following the book literally, I figured it out on the second try intuitively, but "true beginners" will be totally stuck. Similarly, on the p. 22 after adding a new layer, the author directs the reader to use the marquee of the selection tool to select a previously drawn line; well, not so quickly - since after adding a new layer, the new, empty layer is selected, you can drag the marquee all you want, and you will select nothing, unless you first switch to the lower layer - again, a step is missing from the instructions. There are many additional inconsistencies - on the p. 25 you are told to create a new folder in the layers panel and "drag all the other objects" there. On the next page the screenshot image still shows the layers panel without the new folder you just suposedly created shown on top of the layers panel. We could go on - the author - for whatever reason, does not use the vertical guides, which results in difficulty getting the right width of drawn objects; he also uses odd / cryptic naming conventions without any explanation; for example, is there really a reason to name a new layer "bkgd objects"? Why not "background objects"? Especially that the actual image is called "background" not "bkgd"? I there some low limit on layer names length? Alas, the list goes on. Some instructions produce results other than expected a times. If you are familiar with other Macromedia products, you may (although not without some degree of frustration) figure it out intuitively in the end; if you are a true "beginner", you will never get past page 10 of this confusing booklet. I am accustomed to Peachpit books being very carefully written (own quite a few), and well edited, so all those mishaps here were quite an (unpleasant) surprise. What a dud!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Can't recommend it, February 22, 2006

By 

P. Arden (San Francisco CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Creating a Web Site with Flash: Visual QuickProject Guide (Paperback)

I wanted to explore Flash from a site-building perspective, and since I've done some animation in the past -- meaning I'm already familiar with concepts like "key frames" and "tweening" -- I figured that this book would be a great way to explore the technology. I'm a great fan of the Visual Quickstart Guide series, and since "Creating a Web Site with Flash" is from a related imprint, it seemed likely that I'd be able to follow closely what they did in the book and then apply those techniques to a project I had in mind.

Fat chance. I'd read some of the earlier reviews and although several of them were negative, I imagined that being reasonably intelligent and technically savvy, I wouldn't get stuck the way the book's other readers had. Nor did I: I got stuck in entirely different but equally frustrating ways. Often I'd find myself instructed by the authors to perform a particular action, but have no way of completing it because that menu choice wasn't available. (Often it would be visible but greyed out, meaning I'd have to do something else first -- but what?)

I will admit I don't like the user interfaces that Macromedia comes up with (for Flash, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, etc.) but that's precisely why I wanted a step-by-step guide like this one. I figured all the full-color illustrations would make it fool-proof. Unfortunately, at least least twice in the first few chapters, this fool got to the point where he just couldn't make Flash do what the authors said it should be doing. I finally stopped about half-way through in frustration, without either the demo website or any understanding of what I did wrong.

The publisher does provide chapter-by-chapter "snapshot" versions of the files you're supposed to be constructing (on its website), but I don't consider that a useful substitute for clear instruction. Sure, handholding someone through a complex application like Flash isn't an easy task, but I'm wondering whether Peachpit Press actually road-tested the book with a true novice, or just had people already familiar with Flash simply spot-check it for any obvious errors.