Customer Reviews

Flash CS3 Professional Advanced for Windows and Macintosh: Visual QuickPro Guide

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There is so much that you can do with the Adobe Flash built-in features such as components and tweeing that it is easy to stop there. But Flash can be used to create some very advanced applications. It just takes a little ActionScript. Once you start writing your own code, you can move up to creating more complex animation, dynamic interaction and server-side programming.

This book by Russel Chun will give you the foundation you need to master advance Flash design and development. Like all the Visual QuickPro Guides, it has a task-based format with step-by-step instructions and illustrations. The author starts with a discussion of his approach to building a Flash project as a collection of components. Of course, he begins by discussing programming logic and the many built-in tools Flash has for ActionScript. After these basics are covered, he jumps right into object-oriented programming with ActionScript. Event handling is the back-bone of building an interactive Flash project and Chun teaches you how to code your programs to listen for events and respond to those events. He begins with the SimpleButton class and ENTER_FRAME event. Next, you move on to coding more complex movie control using multiple timelines.

The best way to keep the download time for your Flash movie to a minimum is to build a modular project made up of a main movie that controls several external movies. The author shows you how to do this by coding Flash to communicate with external files and applications such as a browser, printer, email program and other Flash movies. He also covers how to build a stand-alone Flash player which does not need a web browser and can be used for CD, DVD and other mobile projects. Next, you learn how to create, display and animate graphics and to add sound and video to your movie.

Server-side programming is needed when creating Flash movies that collect, display, manipulate and store user input. Chun covers the basics of using variables, expressions and conditional statements in ActionScript. In order to collect user input and display dynamic feedback to your users, you need to control text. You will learn how to code object-oriented classes such as the TextField and TextFormat classes and how to manipulate data with the Math, Point, Array and Date classes. In the final chapter, Chun covers troubleshooting and strategies for programming the most effective Flash.

You can download the supporting FLA and SWF files from the publishers website. Russell Chun is a developer, writer and teacher of Flash and new media. He has taught at Columbia University and City University of New York.

Flash CS3 can still create SWFs with Actionscript 2 and I noticed a lot of the books out there on CS3 cover how to use it with AS2. One thing to point out is, if you want to develop in AS3 YOU CAN USE NO AS2!! IT IS NOT BACKWARDS COMPATABLE!! If you are familiar with AS2 and want to learn how to update your code to AS3 this is the book for you. It also does an awesome jobs of easily explaining all the new features. Direct and to the point in a development environment with samples. I would also recommend Essential AS 3 by Colin Moock. He is the man and wrote a great reference (800+ pages) for AS3.

As a new Flash designer/developer I found this book to be most helpful for when I needed to do something specific to my project at hand. The step by step details were good and the layout of this book makes it so easy to find what you're looking for. A great reference book!

If you're looking for a true beginners Flash CS3 book I recommend Flash CS3 for Dummies. Yeah, I know it's a Dummies book which some have hesitations about. I have to admit, I was hiding it at my desk as I didn't need my co-workers giving me a hard time for learning such a technical application from a Dummies book, but hey, it taught me in a couple of weeks the fundamentals of Flash CS3 and now I'm off to making great animations. The book is truly for the beginner and explains how Flash CS3 works in an easy to understand, non-intimidating manner characteristic of other Dummies books. This quickstart book was a nice "next step" book as I can pick and choose out of it the advanced things I need to know specific to my projects rather than be overwhelmed with information I don't need right now.

If you're looking for an ActionScript 3.0 beginners book, I recommend ActionScript 3.0 for Adobe Flash CS3 Professional by Todd Perkins. If you want to see more about this book, check out the video chapters on Lynda.com. It comes with a training CD to help explain the lessons etc. I hope this information was helpful to you!!!

I was looking for a book or video to bridge between Flash 8/AS2 and Flash 9/AS3. I found just what I needed with "Flash CS3 Professional Advanced: Visual QuickPro Guide" by Russell Chun. Chun has done an outstanding job with the use of diagrams to explain concepts as well as providing a generous number of screenshots. I've even learned a few unexpected things along the way. Having co-authored two books myself ("Director and Lingo Bible" versions 7 and 8), I know he must have put a great deal of work into this and it shows.

The Visual QuickPro Guide Flash CS3 Professional Advanced, the follow-up to the Flash 8 book*, is a great tool for anyone trying to make the transition from ActionScript 2 (Flash 8) to ActionScript 3 (Flash CS3). I am Flash 8 Certified, and as I make the push to re-certify for ActionScript 3, this is the book I am studying. It is more concise and compact than the Flash Bible, yet still contains the information needed to build great Flash apps and to pass the expert exam. It covers all the big differences between AS3 and AS2 in a clear, concise manner. But newbies shouldn't be put off by the title: beginner topics like 'what is a Movie Clip' and how to do timeline animation are also covered. The only complaint is the lack of a companion CD-ROM containing tutorial files. But even without a CD, this is still a fantastic resource for the Flash aficionado, professional or student. (*Anyone buying this book might also consider the Visual QuickPro guide for Flash 8, which is also excellent--and still relevant. The Flash 8 book deals with ActionScript 2, which is widely used for developing mobile / cell phone apps.)

First, in response to the first person who reviewed the book who had problems because he had strict mode turned on. Flash comes defaulted with strict mode off. The author has no need to tell us about it, considering it comes off. You somehow had it on. I had no problems because I never changed it, and it was already off.

Now, the book is a good buy, especially compared to some other things that are available. However, I wish that it had more content and more examples that someone would use in their work; for instance, I would like if it showed you how to make a working scrollbar and slider instead of just teaching the actionscript of each term plainly. It is hard when you have not learned enough of the language to conceptualize the required code to do something that seems very abstract. Also, it might just be that I'm not good at abstract coding.

Book Table of Contents:

Part 1: Approaching Advanced Animation

Chapter 1: Building Complexity
-Motion Tweening Strategies
-Shape Tweening Strategies
-Creating Special Effects
-Animated and Complex Masks

Chapter 2: Working with Video
-Embedding Video into Flash
-Progressive Download Video into Flash
-Rotoscoping


Part 2: Interactivity

Chapter 3: Getting a Handle on Actionscript
-What is Actionscript 3.0?
-About Objects and Classes
-About Methods and Properties
-Writing Dot Syntax
-More on Punctuation
-The Actions Panel
-Editing Actionscript
-Using Objects
-About Functions
-Using Comments

Chapter 4: Advanced Buttons and Event Handling
-Listening for Events
-Mouse Detection
-Simple Button Class
-Invisible Buttons
-Animated Buttons and the Movie Clip Symbol
-Complex Buttons
-Button-Tracking Options
-Changing Button Behavior
-Creating Buttons Dynamically
-Keyboard Detection
-The Contextual Menu
-Creating Continuous Actions
-A Summary of Events

Chapter 5: Controlling Multiple Timelines
-Navigating Timelines with Movie Clips
-Target Paths
-Absolute and Relative Paths
-Using the with Action to Target Objects
-Movie Clips as Containers
-Using Frame Labels

Chapter 6: Managing Outside Communication
-Communicating Through the Web Browser
-Loading External Flash Movies
-Controlling Loaded Flash Movies
-Loading External Images
-Communicating with External Video
-Using Projectors and the fscommand Action
-Communicating with the Printer
-Detecting Download Progress: Preloaders


Part 3: Transforming Graphics and Sound

Chapter 7: Controlling & Displaying Graphics
-Understanding the Display List
-Changing Graphic Properties
-Controlling Scaling and Distortion
-Modifying the Color
-Blending Colors
-Applying Special Effects with Filters
-Creating Drag-and-Drop Interactivity
-Detecting Collisions
-Generating Graphics Dynamically
-Controlling Stacking Order
-Creating Vector Shapes Dynamically
-Using Dynamic Masks
-Customizing your Pointer
-Putting it Together: Animating Graphics with Actionscript
-About Bitmap Images
-Creating and Accessing Bitmap Data
-Manipulating Bitmap Images
-Using Filters on Bitmap Images
-Putting it Together: Animating Bitmap Images

Chapter 8: Controlling Sound
-Using Sounds
-Playing Sounds from the Library
-Loading and Playing External Sounds
-Controlling Sound Playback
-Modifying Volume and Balance
-Detecting Sound Events
-Working with MP3 Song Information
-Visualizing Sound Data
-Putting it Together: Sound Controls


Part 4: Working With Information

Chapter 9: Controlling Information Flow
-Using Variables and Expression
-Loading External Variables
-Storing and Sharing Information
-Modifying Variables
-Concatenating Variables and Dynamic Referencing
-Testing Information with Conditional Statements
-Providing Alternatives to Conditions
-Branching Conditional Statements
-Combining with Logical Operators
-Looping Statements

Chapter 10: Controlling Text
-Input Text
-Dynamic Text
-Selecting Text Field Options
-Displaying HTML
-TextField Properties
-Generating Text Fields Dynamically
-Modifying Text in Text Fields
-Formatting Text Fields from an External Style Sheet
-Detecting the Focus of Text Fields
-Controlling the Focus and Selections within Text Fields
-Analyzing Text
-Modifying Text

Chapter 11: Manipulating Information
-Making Calculations with the Math Class
-Calculating Angles
-Creating Directional Movement
-Calculating Distances
-Generating Random Numbers
-Ordering Information with Arrays
-Keeping Track of Objects with Arrays
-Using the Date and Time

Chapter 12: Managing Content and Troubleshooting
-Sharing Library Symbols
-Sharing Fonts
-Including External ActionScript
-Using the Movie Explorer
-Tracing Variables in the Output Panel
-Determining a Variable's Data Type
-Optimizing Your Movie
-Avoiding Common Mistakes

Appendix/index

When actionscript 3.0 (Flash CS3) came onto the scene, it caused great consternation among interactive designers who were used to working directly in the Flash IDE and coding AS 2.0 on the timeline. Almost all the new books/threads on the topic, including Moock's 'Essential 3.0', showed a bias in demonstrating AS 3.0 in the context of OOP and Flex. Granted, that is where the true power/purpose of AS 3.0 lies. BUT, this also created the sentiment in the non-developer camp that AS 3.0 is severely verbose and not as flexible and fun as AS2. This is simply not the case as AS 3.0 was created to embrace BOTH designers and developers.

I think Adobe was so preoccupied with wooing the developer crowd that it failed to reassure existing beginner/intermediate 2.0 users that 3.0 works just as well on the timeline and that you CAN still make a banner ad, personal portfolio site, microsite without building/executing your codes as Classes or authoring them in Flex/Components.

Having said that, if you are hardcore OOP developer and need to build an enterprise level web app using AS3, this book is NOT for you. In fact, you have no business using the Flash IDE or coding on the timeline.

Russell Chun takes nothing for granted and starts by giving a quick overview of the program's tools. Then you'll be taken through a series of exercises that is very easy to follow. By the end of the book, you will have learned enough to build a decent interactive web page. You will also have the foundation to move onto OOP.

I have owned a number of Russell Chun's books since MX2004 and will vouch for its effectiveness. Its generously illustrated, concise, clearly written examples will help beginners and intermediate 2.0 users EASE into 3.0.

Get this book and you'll see that AS 3.0 can be just as fun.

Constantly refer to this book as a reference while coding. This book provides short, but well explainded "How To" on esssential Actionscript 3 coding topics. I own several Actionscript 3 books, but this is the one I refer to again and again.

This is a very good book. This line of book is great for learning Flash. It's important that you get the previous book first because this one gets Advanced in a hurry. Overall, I really like it.

I suppose this book may be fine for anyone wanting to learn a broad overview of AS3 ("Flash" is a misnomoer; Flash is ActionScript). But for anybody like myself trying to build a website with specific components, the book is worthless. This is because the author, instead of showing the steps to create a complete component (dropdown menus that LINK; scrolling thumbnails that LINK), shows you instead how to build shells that do nothing, and says, "we'll discuss the rest in a later chapter." Then doesn't, at least not in a way directly applicable to the previous instructions. Why not just show us how to create something that actually works, all in a single lesson? Forgive me if that's too much to ask.