Customer Reviews

Flash Actionscript F/X and Design

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I'm a designer/developer and I've been putting off learning ActionScript--until now! I have never seen a book that is so clear, understands what I need so well and carefully explains and illustrates everything. I have used Flash professionally, but sooner or later I needed to learn ActionScript, and I'm glad I waited until Flash 5. What little ActionScript I used (goto and play/stop was about it) gave me far more flexibility and control than I had using Flash without ActionScript.

The back of the book says it's for Intermediate and Advanced users, and I suppose it is. However, if you're new to ActionScript but have experience with Flash you'll love this book. Each of the projects and examples is very carefully crafted down to the color schemes. The author integrates ActionScript into the examples and projects rather than just laying out the ActionScript in ways that I would not use it in the real world. The author explains the concepts but he never talked down to me (as a reader) and all of the parts come together. In going through the examples, I not only learned how to use ActionScript effectively, I learned a lot of new Flash 5 tricks. My programmer friends (who keep borrowing it) and I both like the Example Glossary in the back where I can look up stuff quickly. It's great for reminding me about the exact format of the different actions and I don't have to re-read entire sections to be reminded that I need a double equal (==) when I use conditional statements. (I'm even talking like one of THEM now.)

I ran into a little trouble in Chapter 2, and I fired off a very nasty email to the author. He responded almost immediately, sorted out my question and didn't mention the fact that I acted like a jerk in my email. He was extremely helpful and even sent me an extra FLA to play with. After getting the hang of things, I've been having a lot of fun with AcitonScript, and not just using the examples. I really have learned how to use ActionScript, and the book still has a lot more for me. So if you want a carefully crafted, thoughtful, well written book on AcitonScirpt and not some computer science tome, get this book, learn ActionScript and a lot of added Flash 5 material to boot.

I got this book about a week ago and I must say it has cleared up many questions I had about ActionScript. If you are questioning whether this book is right for you, you just need to answer the question; Do you want to be an intermediate Flash developer or an advanced Flash developer? Anyone wanting to be a the top of Flash development will realize the need to understand ActionScripting.

The book tries to explain how you can write scripts that increase interactivity for your users. The book covers everything from Variables and Data Types, to Conditionals and Loops, to Built In Objects and XML Objects.

If this book falls short anywhere its that it could be longer. At barely 300 pages the author tries to be too brief in explaining a subject that could occupy a book twice this size.

The fact that you won't find any other books that cover ActionScripting as well as this book is why I would advise purchasing it now. You could wait until late Jan/Feb 2001 and see if "Flash 5 Magic ActionScript" will be better, but that was a chance I was not willing to take.

This book presents a comprehensive overview of Flash 5 actionscripting. The author uses language that is easy to follow (great for the non-developer types like me) and keeps each lesson interesting. I would recommend this book to anyone new to actionscripting, looking to sharpen their actionscripting skills, or making the transition from Flash 4 to Flash 5.

I consider this book a must-have for developers at all levels because it covers the basics of learning and understanding ActionScript from ground zero, so it may be a good book for future reference. The book is rated intermediate to advanced, but trust me, it's a beginner's book. (but a good one).

As I've mentioned before the basics are covered :

-logic understanding, variables, expressions, conditional clauses, loops, flash's own methods,properties and functions, how to create your own functions, how to pass variables to an external javascript.

But more advanced topics are MISSING:

- creating and using smartclips;

- flash5 library can now share symbols : export|import|via url

- debuging and watching, remote debuging

- flash5 parser for XML and its objects

- flash5 can communicate with server-sided solutions like ASP, PHP, COLDFUSION and data bases. Each aplication treat its variables in an certain way, so these variables must be formated for flash5 to receive them. How???

- tips and tricks for achieving visual fxs using actionscript.

Flash is finally become a full-featured object-oriented (OO) programming tool to create fascinating user experience on the web and great user interfaces. This is one of the few books dedicated to the powerful side of Flash, which is ActionScript. With Flash 5, this powerful side is now mature enough. Yet this book does not hit the target. You will still wonder if this is all ActionScript can do. You will miss some of its core power. ... On the other hand, this is the first real tentative to go beyond "how to draw with Flash" and "This is your first animation in page 200 and something". This is not another artist with its adhoc technique book. Not another "Freehand with animation" book. This one is different. You will not be sorry.

I am a fairly experienced programmers who wanted to learn actionscript. So, I bought the only actionscript book I could find. Unfortunately, the book is aimed at *COMPLETE* beginners - this is "actionscript for super dummies". For people who find programming scary, like many designers, they probably find the extreme hand holding and snail pace of this book quite comforting, although many of them may even find it patronising.

However, at the end of this 300 or so page book, it still hasn't covered a LOT of ground and leaves you at beginner level still. Wanna understand about loadVariables? Sorry, on your own. How about onClipEvent? Only very basic coverage.

The stuff it does cover is aimed at doing "neat" tricks, there's no depth. Actionscript in flash 5 has turned flash into an incredibly powerful tool capable of some really quite amazing functionality. But you wouldn't know it from reading this book.

I found this book a nice read while making the transition from Flash 4 to Flash 5. It's written in a clear conversational manner which I found comfortable. Gave me a good feel for the new Flash 5 actionscripting. It's true that it doesn't go into the XML stuff unfortunately, but I didn't really care while I was reading it. I was more interested in just learning how to do in 5 what I could already do in 4, and what else might be possible. I didn't look at the cdrom though - the tutorials seemed clear enough to me from the reading.

The book is a Flash 5 book. In the editorial material, the title of the book and elsewhere on this page no mention is made of that fact. So just in case you were wondering what version of Flash ActionScript the book covers, rest assured that it is Flash 5 ActionScript. (I hope Amazon.com moves my comments to the section where the authors can tell what they were up to when penning their tomes.)

I bought the book to bring me into the world of actionscript with Flash 5, being old-hand at Flash 4 actionscript. It didn't let me down, there are numerous examples and excercises to demonstrate the various concepts. I wouldn't recommend this book to someone new to Flash, but would instead recommend "Flash 5, Creative Web Animation". It would also help to know some javascript (which I do), since the syntax of Flash 5 actionscript is very similar.

If you want to really take advantage of the advances in Flash 5, this is the book to buy. I've been using Flash since version 3, and I'm amazed at how Macromedia has made it more flexible and interactive with each new version. Unfortunately, I've tended to stick with the carryover elements and not explored the full potential of Flash 5's innovations. This book is a fast study in utilizing Flash 5's potential. If you already know the basics of previous Flash versions, start with the Handling Events chapter to get a feel for what the new features can do for you. Then move on from there to Conditionals and Operators and your websites will never be the same. Flash 5 is a big advance over previous versions, and this book is the guidebook to use.