Flash 4 Magic (WITH CD-ROM) [Textbook Binding]

David J. Emberton (Author), J. Scott Hamlin (Author), Larry D. Larsen (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0735709491 | ISBN-13: 978-0735709492 | Publication Date: January 2000

For courses in Flash, Graphics Applications, and Director, Authorware, and PowerPoint Applications. 21 Flash 4 projects. Inspirational. Fully customizable. And brought to you by a team of 7 developers and designers who are among today's best Flash designers. Flash 4 Magic offers games and utilities. And more. Just follow the steps. Take a look at the graphics. Check out the CD that includes all the project code. Each New Riders Magic book has been created with you, the computer graphics student, in mind. Complete effects, adaptable solutions, time-saving techniques, and practical applications. Because computer technology books-like the souls who use them-aren't all alike.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Flash has moved beyond Java and even Shockwave because it's inexpensive, accessible, and powerful. If you need a specific Flash solution or you learn best by getting your hands dirty, the project-based Flash 4 Magic will work well for you.

The authors have assembled 15 utilities-based projects (a calculator and an online book search animation, for example) and six games (one of which is a memory/match game similar to those found all over the Web these days). Each project is presented step by step and includes text and complementary screen shots. At the end of each lesson, a "How It Works" section gives insight into the software mechanisms and serves as a review. A brief discussion of how the project can be modified to fit the readers' needs follows. All the files, libraries, images, and even finished Flash .fla files and .swf movies are provided on the accompanying CD-ROM, helping readers follow along and debug their multimedia experiments.

Not only do the projects highlight features that are popular on the Web today (a poll animation, a shopping cart, a guestbook, and a product catalog, for instance), they are visually attractive, using hip graphics and well-executed animations that make the learning experience both realistic and enjoyable.

The book eschews jokes and lengthy discussion; readers are expected to be familiar with the software, and beginners will need to consult a reference manual occasionally, though there is a primer in the appendix on Action scripting. Another appendix lists URLs with third-party add-ons (for example, FlashJester's Creator utility that converts Flash files into screensavers). The book also treats more advanced users to projects that use external PHP scripts and JavaScript.

In addition to the finished and project files, the CD-ROM includes a demo version of Flash 4, some third-party demos (like Freehand 8 and Dreamweaver 2), and FlashPack 1 from NavWorks (a compilation of customizable Flash art and audio). --Angelynn Grant

Topics covered: Step-by-step instruction on 21 interactive Flash animation projects, including utilities like password keypad, jukebox, product catalog, poll, and shopping cart as well as games such as pong, whack-a-mole, hangman, and others. CD-ROM includes all finished and project files necessary to work along with the text, demo versions of Flash 4, other third-party software, and additional resources.

From Library Journal

This is the best Flash book on the market. It offers step-by-step instructions on 21 interactive Flash projects: lava lamps, jukeboxes, e-commerce (product catalogs, shopping carts), guestbooks, games, games, and more games. The CD-ROM includes demos of Flash 4, source code, and other third-party software. However, this is not for beginners; readers should be familiar with the software. Intermediate and advanced web designers will be inspired by the authors' considerations of Flash's aesthetic and technical potential.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Textbook Binding: 325 pages
• Publisher: New Riders Pub (January 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735709491
• ISBN-13: 978-0735709492
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (71 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,963,154 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth every penny I paid, March 21, 2000

By 

Dylan (Calgary Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flash 4 Magic (WITH CD-ROM) (Textbook Binding)

As an intermediate Flash user, this book was just what I was looking for. After reading some of the previous reviews by people, I noticed many were dissapointed the book just simply gave you 21 tutorials to refer to. I believe many people were expecting something else from Flash 4 Magic, but how the authors go very in-depth through 21 unique tutorials, they all teach you something very different through each one. The point of these is simply for users to learn the various techniques the authors illustrate and to not just use them to build what is shown in the book, but to take these techniques and use them in variety to produce whatever kind of advanced flash job you are doing. Flash is software that lets you use your imagination, and here the authors help you expand your work and bring your innovative flash ideas to life.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Only for Advanced Programmers, July 19, 2000

By 

Jefferis Peterson "ScholarsCorner.com" (Butler, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Flash 4 Magic (WITH CD-ROM) (Textbook Binding)

The examples in this book are outstanding. So are the graphics. The problem is, you cannot take the examples and learn from them unless you are already an advanced programmer or a mathematician. I have been using Flash for over 2 years, so I am at least intermediate in my knowledge, but I was confounded by the book and frustrated because I hoped for something more. Advanced Flash uses 3D grahics, duplicating Move Clips, and advanced Action Scripts [algebraic functions for plotting, e.g.]. The examples give you the algebraic scripts, but the book doesn't explain how or why they work, so for someone who is a novice in this area, like me, I could not apply the examples to my own sites. In other words, I could cut and paste the code, but I didn't actually learn how to do it for myself. By contrast, I'm told by friends who are already programmers, they've learned a lot from the examples. So if you know ASP, PHP, or C, you can probably use the book to great effect. If you don't, I would learn to program first before buying this book.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Tutorials not very clear, May 5, 2000

By 

Wood "Billburg" (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Flash 4 Magic (WITH CD-ROM) (Textbook Binding)

I have a very basic background in Flash but there are many aspects to this book that make it difficult to follow. Several times it omits information in its example, such as labelling a script or instance. Terseness is not a virtue in a step by step tutorial. For action scripts you are just given the script and you have to figure out how to entered it. If you have a good flash background, I guess this is no big deal, but if not you will be lost and your final product will not work. After alot of backtracking through the examples I worked on and referring to other books, I managed to get through the tutorials, and I guess did learn the hard way. Nonetheless, more detailed explanations would have been very helpful and alot less frustrating. I looked forward to this book when I bought it, but it just does not explain how to use action scripts at all, even though this is the heart of the lessons. If you want to learn flash programming, look elsewhere.