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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Can't Fail, July 16, 2009
This review is from: Learning Flash Cs4 Professional (Adobe Developer Library) (Paperback)
First I have to tell you that I have NEVER used Flash. We were in a meeting, and we were trying to figure out how to deliver a presentation on our construction company's portfolio to a tech-savvy client. I said, "let's make a Flash-movie slideshow with the photos we have and we'll e-mail it out to them". I said I could make something basic but still slick, in the 2 weeks we had until they wanted to make contact.
Again, no Flash experience, and I just committed to getting this important marketing piece done - now concerned that I might have been overselling my abilities. What did I do? Besides downloading a 30 Flash CS4 day trial from Adobe's website, I did what I always do - I bought a book! I made a whole stack at the bookstore, and sat in the cafe in the store looking through all of them to make sure I got the best book - the one that would make me successful. Some were very high-tech, one looked like greek, one was too cartoony and silly, and then Rich Shupe's book "Learning Flash CS4", the companion book to "Learning ActionsScript 3.0", just stood out. His tone was calm, the instructions were basic, and it included a book-long project with several major Flash components like embedded movie clips, kinematics, sound with controls, tweening. Pretty much everything someone might want to do, with sample files available at each stage from their website, to help check your work.
Any expert would say the book was light on explanations and detail, but when you are starting out, you need just enough to get it working, and you know someday you'll understand because Rich tells you so; sprinkled around are subtle encouragements like "you'll learn more about that in a later chapter, for now just do it this way" kind of statements. And at the end of each chapter there is a review, and an explanation of how what you learned fits in to what you are about to learn.
I am a learn by doing, learn by example kind of person. I dabble here in anything they'll let me try. By Chapter 6, I had an intro page, 5 icon buttons to navigate with, a short interval of tweened animation (a silhouetted airplane flying in - large at stage right, to small at stage left, as though it is flying in over your shoulder), two slideshows with their own controls, a page that launches to our corporate website, and an animated intro where our logo fades in, with a slogan appearing one word at a time, and then dropping stage right with an intro message.
Also, now I know just enough ActionScript to be dangerous from this book, but I plan to buy the companion book, Learning ActionScript 3.0, as well - it is a few months older, but ActionScript 3.0 is what Flash CS4 uses, so I can't imagine there is any issue there.
This book is just enough instruction to be successful and understand all the concepts, not overwhelmed with detail. The author speaks plainly but without condescension. You are encouraged but not overtly cheerfully. It gives you the concepts and assumes you will know how to apply them to your own work - just my style. I am not sure I would have been as successful with another book - this one was perfect.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Book Review Learning Flash CS4 Professional, July 11, 2009
This review is from: Learning Flash Cs4 Professional (Adobe Developer Library) (Paperback)
Learning Flash CS4 Professional, Getting Up To Speed With Flash by Rich Shupe is the all in one Flash manual that takes you through every part of the current Flash program and its use for basic and advanced Flash animations for web developers.
Contents 22/25
Ease of Understanding/Practicality 20/25
Pictures/Illustrations 23/25
Additional Features 15/25
Total 80/100
Learning Flash CS4 Professional is not quite the all you need manual for the entire Flash program but it does contain plenty for basic programming and plenty of help to program Flash. The book is a companion to Learning ActionScript 3.0 if you want to take your Flash animations to the next level but for basic and main stream animations and video this book is more than enough.
Learning Flash CS4 does not go into depth for handheld device websites or other Flash features as it is just too big a subject to contain in one book. It does go through flash animations and website design using Flash CS4 so you can create your own Flash videos with sound and even webpages.
Learning Flash CS4 Professional will take you from installation of the up to date Flash CS4 program to the final publishing of your Flash animation to Dreamweaver or into a file. The book will walk you through steps necessary to create, edit and work on an animation, movie or video that you create with Flash to make your websites and projects professional.
While the book takes you through their project you can easily adapt what you learn or use chapters and sections for your own projects just as I have done. From first opening and organizing Flash you can easily get used to and familiar with the windows, menus and parts of Flash easily and quickly.
Learning Flash CS4 takes you from importing their project files just as you would any images or parts of an animation from your files or the internet and start to organize and work on a final project for a website. You can readily adapt the project they have to any one you may want to create as all the aspects and techniques they use would be the same for any given project you may want to create.
Instead of working on their project I went directly to mine and used their steps throughout the book to get my own Flash animation up and running. Using the book is pretty easy to answer questions, get help and as a general reference and how to guide for simple to complex animations and full websites based on Flash.
Learning Flash CS4 has plenty of helpful advice and does take you through processes like creating simple flash animations, developing movement for animations like robotic arms and even on to using basic ActionScript. ActionScript is the programming language of Flash and having a basic knowledge of it will help you understand and be able to use and troubleshoot problems in Flash better.
The book does contain enough ActionScript basics to use for simple animations and up to the more complex things like Kinematics or motion like that robotic arm but does not go into detail. For further detail if you need it you would should purchase that Learning ActionScript book but I found that this book serves well for basic animations and using Flash.
Don't let the inverse kinetics part fool you or worry you though, the book starts off simple and gives you detailed yet intelligent information about setting up and using Flash CS4 from the start. It goes through not in a step by step tutorial fashion but tells you all you need to know to get from one part to the next in clear language that is not dumbed down nor too hard to understand.
I had no problems not having a clue about Flash before installing it and picking up this book to learn how to use this animation program. I have never used flash before, only installed Flash player on computers for use in browsers so I know that this is good enough for this complete beginner of Flash to learn with.
The book tells and shows you all you need to know for simple animations and the more complex parts of sites such as animated text, sound and 3 dimensional animations. The book also goes along with the companion website [...] so you have a place to go for questions and help if you don't understand something in the book.
You can even see the project website as it is created throughout the book from this website so if you do not have a website to host the project on conveniently you can see in real time on the internet what the project looks like. The website is a real treasure trove of up to date information about Flash CS4 and helpful hints, tips and a way to contact the author for additional help.
Learning Flash CS4 Professional may be a bit intimidating if you pick up the book and flip through the pages, lots of code and several chapters with lots of programming language. The author steps you through all this from the simple starting point of importing the project files, or your own graphics and files, and moving on in a logical sequence that will have you working in Flash like a pro in no time.
This is one program that just screams manual required to do anything in and Learning Flash CS4 Professional is just the in depth and basic knowledge filled book to meet that need. If you own or work with Flash CS4 this is just the kind of book you need not only as a first time manual and guide but as a great reference to keep handy for those questions and problems in Flash that crop up all the time.
I highly recommend Learning Flash CS4 Professional by Rich Shupe as a great manual for Flash CS4 to really help you understand and use animations in your website.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Organic food for the Flash mind, June 22, 2009
This review is from: Learning Flash Cs4 Professional (Adobe Developer Library) (Paperback)
Coming back to Flash after a five-year hiatus (Flash 5) and knowing how much it has evolved, I needed a solid introductory text to review and update my knowledge. Rich Shupe has given us a great one!
The clarity and depth of explanation, smooth progression of topics, anticipation of questions (at least this student's), and the general feeling of organic wholeness make reading and using this book a joy. Besides the new features of Flash CS4, I've already learned some things about core Flash concepts that I've never seen explained in any other introductory book I've read (e.g., a detailed explanation of how merged drawing's editing behavior actually works).
You can't judge a book by its thickness. This one is like a great tasting power bar--all the goodness and flavor without the non-nutritional fillers. For example, you'll find no long-winded "Click OK" step-by-steps in the tutorial sections. Instead the author treats you with intelligence and encourages you to experiment.
It's all here. A great book by a real teacher.
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