Sams Teach Yourself Macromedia Flash 5 in 24 Hours [Paperback]

Phillip Kerman (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 067231892X | ISBN-13: 978-0672318924 | Publication Date: November 27, 2000 | Edition: 1

Sams Teach Yourself Macromedia Flash 5 in 24 Hours is specifically written for the new Flash user. Not a revision of a previous book, Phillip Kerman's book begins by covering the basics of Flash 5, including the use of the drawing tools, basic animation skills such as tweening, and putting together simple movies. In the second part, the book covers the more advanced techniques of Flash, including interface design, interactivity, collecting data, and delivering movies to the Internet. The final part of the book takes the reader further into the practical uses of the Flash medium, and includes chapters on developing animation skills, further uses of bitmap graphics, advanced delivery to the Web with preloaders, using Flash in the design of CD ROMs, and using Flash in conjunction with other applications.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Flash 5, the application from Macromedia for creating animation for the Web, is deceptively simple at first, yet has great depth and flexibility. Teach Yourself Macromedia Flash 5 in 24 Hours from Sams Publishing is an ideal introduction to this package, and offers an overview of the entire package, without being overwhelming.

Built around four main sections, the book starts out by teaching us the basics: using the native painting and drawing tools, importing prepared material, and using Flash Libraries for reusing material. During these early chapters, readers are introduced to the tools, palettes, windows, and features of Flash 5.

Screen shots appear on every page, and each step and description is clear even to the novice. Some pages also feature sidebars that offer tips, ideas, and explanations of the task at hand. These are generally one paragraph or so, but often shed light on a difficult concept. After focusing on animation and different ways of animating objects, the book opens the doors to interactivity, where you begin using interactive features, creating animated buttons, and using Actions to create nonlinear movies.

Although it's designed for the beginner, the book touches on some of the more advanced concepts of Flash in its last few chapters. Using Flash in a team environment, optimizing a Flash site to get the most out of the medium, and exploring advanced animation concepts like anticipation, exaggeration, and simulating depth are introduced, although none of these sections gets too involved. It's more of a way to introduce the designer to what's possible and suggest avenues for further study.

Favorite features of the books in the Teach Yourself series are the summary, Q&A, and Workshop sections that are at the end of each hour (or chapter). The summary reinforces everything that was covered, the Q&A section answers about a half dozen of the more commonly asked questions on the material, and the Workshop is generally a quiz or short assignment that's designed to make use of the features or techniques that were just learned. These chapter features make this an excellent course book.

Flash 5 offers the Web-based animator a large array of features, and Teach Yourself Macromedia Flash 5 in 24 Hours is an excellent introduction to most of them. --Mike Caputo

Review

"Contains one of the best intros to Flash scripting you are likely to find."Computer arts

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 608 pages
• Publisher: Sams; 1 edition (November 27, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067231892X
• ISBN-13: 978-0672318924
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,265,429 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I've been teaching Flash since version 3 and writing books since version 5. I also do contract development (programming).

My early experiences in photography have a direct correlation to my job today. The feeling I get when I see a project that I assemble come to life is the same I'd get watching a photograph develop in the darkroom.

While I understand that great projects involve the work of many dedicated
people, I'm not shy to point out that I was the primary programmer for the following projects:
. the original Millennium Three site (archived at
http://www.deepplay.com/sites/m399/),
. a real-time Flash auction that consistently sells over $5
million in cattle during a typical 90-minute sale (http://www.stampedecattle.com),
. the site for the "other" cool office chair (http://www.allsteeloffice.com/number19/movie.asp),
. the Witness to History kiosk featured in the Communication Arts 11th Annual Interactive Exhibition (http://www.commarts.com/ca/interactive/cai05/36_ia05.html).

The short story of my rise from mere mortal to being in charge of everything at
phillipkerman.com LLC goes like this:
. I was a student photographer for Sunset High School's newspaper and yearbook
. I rode my bicycle from Portland, Oregon, to go to college in Rochester, New York
(and got all 2 years' worth of physical education credits waived in the process)
. I graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology with a bachelor of science in imaging and photographic technology
. I worked for Sinar Bron, Inc., selling premier professional photographic equipment
. I worked for The Human Element, Inc., doing Authorware (version 1) development
. Finally, I drove back to Portland, Oregon, where I've been doing contract work and teaching for more than 10 years.

For details about all the projects I've worked on, see archives of my newsletter at www.phillipkerman.com/newsletter

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Logical instruction order, friendly writing style, January 11, 2001

By 

Jackie Bishop (Boston, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself Macromedia Flash 5 in 24 Hours (Paperback)

I am pretty much a self-taught software user (Quark, Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver) and firmly believe in the use of manuals. However, I found the tutorial included with Flash 5.0 software jumped around from topic to topic that I was lost after a few hours. Flash is a complex program and if you have little or no experience with Macromind Director, you'll need all the help you can get. That's when I decided to search Amazon for a better resource and found the "Sam teach yourself series". This is the first time I have ever purchased a book in this series and it is the best $25 dollars I have ever spent. It is well worth the investment -- make time to go through the book at your own pace. The instruction is taught in a logical order, and the writing style is easy to follow. I am currently at hour 12 and cannot wait to go through the rest of the exercises. Buy it and have fun learning! jb

53 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 24 hours is a definite possibility., November 29, 2000

By 

Peter A Sylwester (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself Macromedia Flash 5 in 24 Hours (Paperback)

Having used and taught Flash since its earliest versions, I can sincerely vouch that learning Flash is a considerable undertaking. The latest upgrade to version 5 only compounds this fact, yet Phillip Kerman has nonetheless written an excellent resource for getting a good, solid jumpstart. It is very fortunate that this book does NOT gloss over the fundamentals nor spare the reader important exposure to Flash's more complex features. This book is written by someone who intimately understands this product and multimedia development in general. As this book is also thorough and sensitive to the neophyte, I am recommending it as the textbook in my future coursework.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Curt Nichols, January 2, 2001

By 

"animator135" (Little Rock, Arkansas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself Macromedia Flash 5 in 24 Hours (Paperback)

I just spent the last 6 days going through this book from front cover to back. Phillip Kerman has done an incredible job of explaining such a sophisticated and deep program as Flash. Each chapter builds on the last and he does a credible job of explaining the process as you follow along. He also introduces some very important topics near the end of the book dealing with project management and teamwork, two invaluable concepts not always covered in other software how-to books. I feel as though I can now create a reasonably complex Flash site whereas a week ago I felt completely overwhelmed by the power of Flash. There were very few spelling mistakes and all examples worked as described when instructions were followed explicitly. Phillip Kerman has proven himself to be an excellent author and teacher. I look forward to more works from this author in the future.