Customer Reviews

Learn Adobe Flash CS4 Professional by Video: Core Training in Rich Media Communication

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
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Book Review by Pasha Parvaneh

I am a college professor and teach and write curriculum for IT courses into Print and Digital programs using Adobe Design Applications such as InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver and Flash. In such a changing field I need to keep updated at all times to be at least one step ahead of my students.

Last time I taught Flash was the CS version. Recently I have had a contract to update the Flash CS curriculum to CS4 for a post secondary college into Graphic and Web Design 2 year Diploma Program. First, I was very uncomfortable to accept the contract for I knew many things have changed in this application and my knowledge was too outdated. Then, I found Adobe Flash CS4, Professional, Learn by Video. I took a relief breath because I found it so easy and quick to bring me right up to the current. The information on the video and in the booklet were very well organized and the demonstrations and pictures were so easy to understand that anybody with no prior knowledge could understand and follow the steps.

I just loved that the video started with "What is Flash for". Frankly, there are many, I mean many applications and even ordinary products in the market and online that are hard to understand what they are for! I believe any application should start with "What it is for", "What one can do with it" and, "How to use it"; and, last but not least, the description of the lingo used for that application.

I've been teaching Flash for about 5 years now at a local university. Over the years I've gone through many books to help students learn all aspects of Flash from the basics of using the timeline, creatign and using symbols, managing tweening, and everything else. Of course I can show the students everything there is to know about Flash but I always found it hard to find a complete training tool that students can use in the classroom and at home to complement my teachings.

I pretty much went through every book on the market, whether in be the 'Visual Guide' series or the ones from Adobe or anything in between. I mean literally close to probably 40 or 50 books in that timespan. I even use vidoes by [...] and other. Trust me, you name, I have bought to try for my class. But always I find I need to use more than 1 book/video series to have my students buy that would cover everything I wanted them to know. Usually I ended up writing up a few lessons to supplement the material as well.

But, I can honestly say, I found the most complete learning tool for Flash.

This video DVD, combines multiple video series from [...], plus material from multiple books and puts it into one learning tool. I am guessing the DVD framework was created with Adobe Air, because the interface looks fantastic (nothing I ever have seen before). There are seperate menus for videos all broken down into multiple sub categories, there are review questions and quizes and review material. I really can't say enough good things about this DVD, other than if you buy anything else you are wasting your money.

There is also a Dreamweaver DVD that I purchased that is equally impressive as well.

A must and only buy if you want to learn or help teach Flash CS4.

I bought this to get up to speed on using flash. This was so excellent I am buying another video for a family member who wants to learn flsh. This is a must have for self learners who want to use flash!

If you want to learn Flash CS4, this is it! I have many books and other video's on this subject, but this is by far the best training instrument to learn Flash CS4. They cover everything, including all the tools and their purposes.