Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Hands-On Training [Paperback]

Rosanna Yeung (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0321202988 | ISBN-13: 978-0321202987 | Publication Date: December 26, 2003

You¿ve seen its potential¿its new extensible architecture, its faster run-time performance, its redesigned interface. Now it¿s time to tap it! When you¿re ready to sit down with a trusted instructor and learn the ins and outs of Macromedia¿s extensive upgrade to its popular interactive tool Flash MX 2004, this is the place to turn. Using lessons based on real-life projects, this friendly guide takes you by the hand and leads you through the world of Flash MX 2004, covering its new interface, its drawing and color tools, animation basics, symbols and instances, motion, bitmaps, buttons, movie clips, ActionScript, sound, components and forms, video, and more. You can follow the book¿s clear, step-by-step exercises at your own pace and view the techniques in action on the accompanying CD¿s QuickTime tutorials. (The CD also includes project and sample files.) In next to no time, you¿ll be integrating video, text, audio, and graphics into immersive, rich experiences with Flash MX 2004.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Rosanna Yeung

Whoever told Rosanna that teaching was "work" sure hasn't witnessed her professorial multimedia magic at the Art Institute of California, where she teaches Web Design and Development classes. She's got this innate love for the creative freedom of the Web, and you can see the transference of her passion in the eyes of her students.

Rosanna's creative energy doesn't only exist in the classroom or on the Web. Don't be surprised if you see her donning Rasta braids with a flock of friends on boards, surfing the sea or the snow. She's done her time in the business world as well-starting her creative adventures behind the camera and microphone in radio, TV, and film and then transitioning to multimedia and Web design in the corporate sector before heading off to the teaching world. Her work at Ingram Micro is actually where her love for teaching began-by no one's fault but her own, Rosanna found herself working with other departments and their Web content almost daily. Her knowledge of the Web and patience and passion for teaching made her the integral link from a print medium to a dynamic Web resource.

When she's not writing on the chalkboard or surfing the Web, sea, or snow, you'll find her with her trusty companions-her husband, Alan, and her black Labrador, Forever-as they restore their new Eichler home in California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 984 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press (December 26, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321202988
• ISBN-13: 978-0321202987
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.3 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #840,550 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great intro, April 30, 2004

By 

Robert T. Nicholson (Sunnyvale, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Hands-On Training (Paperback)

I'm a professional software developer, and I have little patience for most programming books and classes. I recently decided to learn Flash, and decided to try this book based on the "hands on" exercises. I'm completely satisfied! The descriptions and overviews are clear and well written, and the step by step exercises walk you through the important tools and techniques. I skipped a few exercises that seemed redundant, but others may want the additional reinforcement.

There's a LOT to Flash, and an intro book can't possibly cover it all. I'm already forgetting a few things from the first exercises. But based on this book, I now feel comfortable and competent to develop basic Flash animations and interactive files, and to explore further on my own.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn Flash.

53 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Its not just for animations any more!, January 23, 2004

By 

Courtland J. Carpenter (Fort Wayne, Indiana United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Hands-On Training (Paperback)

Once upon a time in the world of computers, there was just a scant few languages, mostly just text displays, and the Internet the sole domain of universities. Things became complicated fast, and today it seems like you need a specific tool to do anything. Unless you spend a lot of time reading computer magazines, and just keeping up, it's hard to know what tools are useful. Flash, was a nice product to spruce up, and enhance a boring website a few years ago. It had a few extra features beyond that, but it was still just more of a niche product. How things have changed in a few years.

Today you can build many websites from the ground up with flash. It has many of the programming features of JAVA, and even subscribes to the object-oriented programming model. The animation features are now easier than ever to implement, making even the less creative among us, seem a little more artistic. It is still lacking in the world of database connectivity, but that is rumored to be coming.

This book does a nice job with Flash MX basics, expanding later to the more detailed features. As a programmer, when I first learned Windows-based programming, I had to search through hundreds of books, to find one that covered the basics. It seemed like every book assumed you already knew how to program Windows! I had programmed Macintosh, and the Windows method was much different. Here I'm thankful to get a book, which just doesn't assume I'm already a Flash Guru.

Hey, I know most of us are a bit turned off by the prospect of another, nearly 1000-page book. Still, the interactive CD ROM lessons get you up, and running quickly. The detail of the book is not just another printed reference. It's a real explanation on how to use features, step by step, and to create something. The smaller books, either only do high-level features, or cut parts they think will be seldom used. It always seems like the features they cut down on, are the ones I need to use in a project. Kudos here to the author, on writing a book that's useful, despite its massive girth.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get Me Another HOT Book!, September 24, 2004

By 

R. LeFebvre "mac geek" (Anchorage, AK United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Hands-On Training (Paperback)

This book makes me want the next one. There are over 100 step by step instructions in this hands on training book. It begins with a discussion of the basics, covers some tech issues with PC and Mac files (most cross platform books barely acknowledge the Mac platform), and has tons of files to learn from, play with and use in your own projects. In addition, and this is a great extra, there are many movie files that show you step by step how to complete some of the trickier activities in the book. It's amazingly helpful to watch an expert walk through the steps to a lesson or tutorial, via movies of their own screens.

From the intro and the wonderful companion website, I gathered that these books are written by actual teacher/instructors, rather than computer geeks. well, they actually are computer geeks, but they also are teachers. People with the talent and skill to actually explain and teach concepts in a structured and systematic way. I think this really contributes to the success of this book. Most of the time, the author had already anticipated my questions, and answers them somewhere in the lesson itself.

The entire book is organized into sections that build upon one another, using files and designs built around a snowboarding company. Unlike other books that use a common theme or singe site/topic to illustrate points, I didn't feel like i just learned how to create one specific kind of Flash project. Each lesson helped me understand the concepts behind the steps, so i feel comfortable in taking the skills and techniques into my own projects.

Topics include the interface, drawing, animation basics, symbols, bitmap and vector creation and manipulation, buttons, video and more advanced topics like movie clips, components and forms. It even includes a section on ActionScript basics, which is invaluable to learn if you want to move on in Flash design and creation.

All in all, I highly recommend this book for anyone who either knows a little Flash, but wants more, or for a beginner to Flash creation. With easy to read, straightforward writing and specific content geared to the novice and more experienced designer alike, Flash MX 2004 Hands On Training is one heck of a volume. Like I said, I can't wait to get my hands on the next book in the series, Flash MX 2004 Advanced H.O.T. I'd be willing to bet that any of the other books in the H.O.T. series would be as effective as this one.