Customer Reviews

Flash Web Design

5 star:		(81)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I had the opportunity to meet Hillman, and this book definitley reflects his vast knowledge and conceptual thinking of design before any project is even started within Flash.

You need to pay close attention to those elements of the book. Read them over and over and learn it! It's not because you need that background to do the projects in the book, in fact Hillman makes it quite easy to follow along with him on the projects. It is because you want to be able to learn why and how, so you can develop and tweak your conceptual, planning, and design skills.

Bottom line is, this is the best Flash book that I have. (I've got a lot of them)

If you don't have it, GET IT!

Thanks to Hillman for taking the time to share his talents and knowledge with all of us in this book.

Where most would consider the Flash Bible as the "meat and potatoes" of Flash technology, this book can easily be qualified as the icing on the cake. Or perhaps that is not the best way to describe this wonderful book by Hillman Curtis since there is little or no fluff contained therein.

Mr. Curtis has taken the medium to new heights in "Flash Web Design," a simply titled book that delivers exactly as promised. This is "the" how-to for designing a great Flash website. It not only covers the mechanical aspects, but teaches the visual design as well. If you read this book and still produce "ugly" sites, the fault does not lie on Hillman Curtis!

And Mr. Curtis brings these aspects of design into the book itself, creating a visually spectacular, easy-to-follow guide to illustrate every lesson. With a little basic knowledge of Flash, one can take the lessons contained within and begin producing wonderful sites within a few days.

This is a great resource for anyone from the novice user to the professional.

For those who complain that there's not any actionscripting or more technical knowledge covered and that the book is just about design then you're not getting it, THIS BOOK IS ABOUT DESIGN (and it actually looks like a designer's book, something else I love about it). This isn't a technical manual by any means, though there is some insightful info on the Flash techniques used to vectorize video and optimizing movies for the web (among other things). Hillman Curtis talks about the process behind some of his work, how things are conceptualized and put together, and some of his basic theories behind motion design and Flash animation. If you're buying this looking for a bunch of how-to's then you'll probably be dissapointed, but if you're looking for an inspirational look into some of the most effective animation on the web then look no further. I strongly recommend this book, and I'd suggest picking up Flash 4 Magic as well. The two together cover the creative and technical spectrum of Flash design and complement each other perfectly.

"Flash Web Design" is clearly intended for the intermediate/advanced Flash user. Although I bought this book as a beginner myself, I first read the Flash 4 Visual Quickstart Guide to master the basics and familiarize myself with the Flash interface. The overall design of the book is excellent. If you read it and work through some of the projects you will not only learn how to create certain effects, but also when and why you might want to use them. However, be aware that the author assumes that you have access to software other than flash. Some of the projects require you to have access to some form of video editing software or 3D software. Without these applications you will probably not be able to complete all of the projects. I made it through chapter 5 and had to stop. To make matters worse, their is no project cd included with the book. While it is true that you can view and download projects from the book's web site, not all of the lessons are available for download, specifically chapters 6, 7, and 9. That being said I still highly recommend this book as an addition to your Flash library because of the design insight it offers. However, it should not be the first or the last book on Flash you purchase.

This is really the best Flash book about web design. Don't buy if yuo want an how-to starting guide. It's the best in the approach to work and for entering in the design dimension. You cannot find very much book of this kind out there. Here you find REAL project with REAL problem to solve about conceptual Flash design. Here you don't waste your time with all those user interface description wich anyone can reach by himself. This is a must have book for any flash designer along with a good reference guide.

New Flash 4 books are starting to appear quickly, after the success of this product faced a scarcity of books and tutorials in the market. Different from the introductory and drawing-based nature of the other books, this book gets even better than "Flash 4 Magic" (the second best).

While it's nice to see a little design in Flash books finally, Flash Wed Design pulls the ol' trick of giving you so much glitz and glitter that you're fooled into thinking there's content in the book. To be fair, there was some decent info on Quicktime and 3D with Flash, but beyond that Flash Web Design is woefully behind the standard of books like Flash 4 Magic and Graphics, Animation, and Interactivity: with Flash 4.0 in all areas except design. The lack of a CD is devestating and is it just me or does someone have a serious ego trip going here (the motion blur employed on the author's mug on the cover is actually telling because most of the techniques within the book are brutally fuzzy at best). I'm puzzled at all the five star reviews. Either there's a lot of people who want a good looking coffee table book, or Curtis has a lot of friends pullin' for him. As for me, I can't recommend the book and I am ashamed of falling for the design over substance trick.

I think by far most of the people who rave about this book are not people who actually USE Flash, as evidenced by the frequency of comments to the effect that other Flash books "had too much information" or were "too difficult". This is more of a coffee table type book, a nicely printed PR piece for one particular person's relatively shallow exploration of what is possible using this software. Of the very small number of actual techniques discussed, there is scant mention of anything to do with ActionScript, or anything interactive to the degree necessary to make something more than the kind of "skip intros" most web users are doubtless tired of by now. Even taken as examples of "motion graphics" (IE: for "design" purposes only, not for making useful web applications), these examples have little to offer that a study of what people like Kyle Cooper are doing, or Saul Bass, or any of dozens of the Flash people out there who are pushing Flash way past the apparent range of what Hilman Curtis is (barely) doing.

In any event, this is probably a great book for people who merely 'dream' of doing Flash. Once they start actually working with it, they will probably leave this particular book to collect dust on the coffee table with back issues of ID magazine or something.

Hillman Curtis is pushing Flash in a direction few have dared tread. His work is breath taking and he is generous enough to share his knowledge. His book is completely unpretentious. He takes the reader from the concept to publishing. The downside of the book is no CD. I would not recommend this book for beginners or people that aren't familiar with multiple software programs. This book is for those that have some Flash skills and want to get serious about designing more complex animation. I found one of the best things about this book was it helped me to set up my project in an organized manner. I was able to keep my file size down for a tour I did for a client without sacrificing the final outcome.

Thanks Hillman Curtis!

For the intermediate beginner - who knows the basics and can adjust for mistakes that moving/copying frames can cause - this is a great book to easily create some pretty cool animation! The basics given are enough to customize to your own projects. I don't understand the critiques - which are probably from FLASH gurus. So - maybe if you are really hot with FLASH - you won't like this - but I loved it! I have 10 FLASH books and this is one of my favorite. Very useful examples and step-by-step instructions. A CD would have been nice, but nothing beats inserting the stuff, frame-by-frame to really learn the application. Lots of fun! Highly recommended!