Flash(tm) 5 Virtual Classroom [Paperback]

Doug Sahlin (Author)

Book Description

Series: Virtual Classroom | Publication Date: January 12, 2001

Flash is a vector-based Web design programme from Macromedia that delivers beautiful animations, music tracks, sound effects and state-of-the-art interface design without requiring a lot of bandwidth. More than 90% of current Web browsers are delivered with Flash plug-ins pre-installed. The Flash Player is also available as a free download. Flash is the standard for Web animations and multimedia effects and the market for Flash-proficient designers will only continue to grow. Despite Macromedia's claims, Flash is not an especially easy programme to master. FlashX is expected to feature significant upgrades and differences from the current version 4. "Flash 5 Virtual Classroom" is aimed at beginning to intermediate users. The CD-ROM included with the book features a dozen short, hands-on demonstrations of specific Flash techniques. Running under Real-Player, which is also included on the CD, the lessons combine streaming video and audio of the author with animated screen shots, active Flash demonstrations, slides and graphics in a complete multimedia experience.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The topic of Flash 5 is enough to sell this book, the premier title in Osborne's new "Virtual Classroom" series. Content-wise, it is much like other introductory books on the ueber-popular Web animation software, offering solid instruction on manipulating objects and importing images, for example. What makes this stand out from its competitors (see Computer Media, LJ 3/1/01) is the accompanying CD-ROM that offers ten lessons in streaming video. Users will need a fairly good machine to run the tutorial and stay in sync with the audio. Libraries needing supplementary Flash 5 guides should purchase Sahlin's guide. (Library Journal )

From the Author

When I began to create interactive content for Web sites, I was armed with a creative mind, Flash 3, and the user's manual. As I began to explore Flash in depth, I became excited by the tools the program provided to create compelling content for the Web, but frustrated by the steep learning curve I faced. When I reached a stumbling block, the user's manual pointed me in the right direction but nothing more. What I needed was a Flash guru by my side, guiding me down the path of least resistance.

As I wrote Flash 5 Virtual Classroom, my goal was to provide a path of least resistance for both newcomers and experienced Flash users. Throughout the book I show readers the easiest way to harness the power of the Flash drawing tools, the Timeline, layers, and ActionScript to create interactive Flash movies. The book is peppered with step-by-step tutorials where readers learn to create shape tween, motion tween, and frame-by-frame animations and use the other features of Flash to create impressive animated movies for their Web sites. The book covers the most popular features of Flash 5 and together with the Virtual Classroom CD ROM provides a well-rounded learning experience for both beginning and experienced users of Flash.

The Flash 5 Virtual Classroom CD ROM comes with over an hour of on-screen video lessons. To begin learning Flash, viewers simply need to pop the CD ROM into their computer's CD tray and select a lesson. Each lesson is presented in split screen format. In one screen I'll be narrating the lesson that takes place in the other screen. The first lesson will quickly get all users up to speed with the new Flash 5 interface. In subsequent lessons, I dovetail several important Flash concepts together, showing viewers how to create a finished real world project that can be added to their Flash repertoire. I enjoyed writing the book and filming the Virtual Classroom lessons. I hope all readers enjoy the book and the Virtual Classroom lessons.

Doug Sahlin

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Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies (January 12, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0072131152
• ISBN-13: 978-0072131154
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,261,670 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Doug Sahlin is a graphic and website designer, photographer, and the author of several books, including How to Do Everything with Adobe Acrobat 8.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Video makes learning a lot easier, January 26, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Flash(tm) 5 Virtual Classroom (Paperback)

I generally find it slow and tedious to read computer books. I get bogged down in trying to follow all the instructions and make them match up with the screen pictures. This book comes with a CD that plays video on your computer. Doug Sahlin, the author, tells you how to do things in Flash, and demonstrates them with moving screen shots. It's like watching over the shoulder of an expert. I am picking Flash up much faster than I ever would have and I hope that more computer books come with great videos like this one.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Flash Book I have seen, July 13, 2001

By 

sara choe (Princeton, New Jersey United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flash(tm) 5 Virtual Classroom (Paperback)

As a Flash fanatic, I own 5 "Bible" to "Reference" Flash books: most of them thick and heavy. I wanted to learn and master Flash as quickly as possible without going to or pay its classes hundreds to thousands of $. So, I didn't (don't) have time nor patience reading through some loquacious-professor-speaking nor I'll-entertain-you w/ nonsensical stuffs.

This is my favorite tutorial/quick reference book in that the contents are clear and concise to the point with pertinent illustrations. The CD-rom is as equally excellent. It is a stream video lessons that are practical and applicable to your sites. I wish I had owned this book as my first Flash book. It would have saved me so much time and money. I look forward to reading more of his books.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fun, clear, concise, with some goofy comedy relief!, April 23, 2001

By 

emagee (Silicon Valley, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flash(tm) 5 Virtual Classroom (Paperback)

I just completed the virtual classroom CD accompanying Doug Sahlin's Flash 5 book. I must say that it was an enjoyable way to spend a few hours. I teach graphics glasses and am always interested in seeing other teaching methodologies for classroom, distance, and self-paced learning environments.

This book could be used in any of those arenas. The author displays a thorough knowledge of the subject in a clear and concise fashion both in the video and the book chapters. The book is laid out in a clean and organized style and although I would recommend this book for beginner/beginners, I added a few new tips to my collection. I enjoyed the video presentations, although I had some sputtering of sound and sound/lip sync problems with the real player.

Tonight I viewed the video again from another computer wondering if the voice over might accomplish the same thing without the video of the instructor as it's really the content in the main window that is important and well presented. However, you can see that the author is a clown and having a good time creating this project for us, and the element of a real teacher can ad that touch of humanity missing in our on-line virtual existance! I value the ability to have my program of flash running simultaneously with the video so I could pause the video and do the lessons.

I have used flash to produce a few company demos and consinder myself an intermediate user. I get stuck on the actionscripting and this book touches on actionscripting enough so one could advance to a book like Foundation Actionscripting with a basic understanding of this robust flash feature.

I recommend this book to flash beginners and anyone who hasn't launched their flash program in a while and wants a good clean organized review.