Bruce Von Stiers
There are all kinds of books out that deal with Macromedia Flash. Some publishers just have writers put together material without any input from Macromedia. One publisher that works directly with Macromedia to produce accurate and insightful books is Peachpit Press. They distribute the Macromedia Press books under their publishing umbrella. One of the latest titles to be published in this set up is Macromedia Flash Training From The Source. The author of the book is Chrissy Rey.
This book is designed to be a lesson driven tutorial of Flash 5. There are twelve chapters that act as individual lessons. There are also four appendixes that complement the text. The book also has an eight page index that will assist you in finding an item on a specific page.
The book comes with a companion CD-ROM disc. This disc contains all of the lesson files and a trial version of Flash 5 that can be installed in case you don't already have the program.
Each lesson begins with a brief introduction. Then there is a listing of the
things that you will learn during the course of the lesson. You are given an
approximate completion time for the lesson as well. And the book tells you which
files are needed from the CD-ROM disc and what the completed project files will
be.
The end section of each lesson is a quick review of what you were supposed to
have learned. But unlike some other books of its nature, this one doesn't offer
up a pop quiz for you to test your knowledge.
By the end of the book, you will have put together a Flash web site for a fictitious
company called Neptune Resorts. There will be various interactive parts to this
site and several simple Flash movies.
The first lesson takes you through the basic work environment of Flash 5. It
shows you how to open the various panels that will be used during your lessons.
You will be taught how to modify basic strokes and fills for the colors that
are being used. You will be shown some very simple things to do with the pen
and subselection tools. Learn how to rotate and scale elements. It also shows
you where to get help when it is needed.
The second lesson has you designing artwork for your Flash movie. It also shows how to import artwork into Flash. You will learn how to work with groups of objects. You will be also shown a seven step process to add text to a Flash movie. Lesson 3 has you learning all about the Flash symbols and what the Library is. Here you will learn how to convert an image to a symbol. You will be shown how to share libraries and the symbols they contain.
Beginning with Lesson 4 you will be taught the things that really make Flash do its thing. Lesson 4 takes you through things like making a mask so that some elements of the screen are blanked out. Then it shows you how to do a tween animation. This type of animation has you drag an element from one point on the screen to another. The path between the two points is the tweening animation.
Lesson 5 shows you how to incorporate sound files into your Flash movie. Learning things like importing sound files is simple and easy to understand. Lesson 6 is all about learning how to add interactivity to your Flash content. Add actions to buttons and create a form.
Lesson 7 gives you some basic programming skills with ActionScript. This is the programming language for Flash 5. With this language you can go further than the general program elements let you. Lesson 8 delves deeper into the nuts and bolts of the program. Learn things like changing movie clip depth and turning actions off. Lesson 9 expands on the audio aspects of a Flash movie.
Lesson 10 has you put together a Guest Journal for Neptune Resorts. Here you will learn how to grab elements from an external file, take input from users and output it all into a file. This file can be used as a guestbook type of entry in the Guest Journal.
Adding content with Generator is the topic of Lesson 11. By the end of the lesson you should be able to add text to the Flash movie using Generator. Then you should be able to print various parts by placing and using a Print action in your Flash movie.
The last lesson shows you how to finish up a Flash movie and prepare it for output. Learn how to create a preloader and export a movie. You will also learn how to imbed a Flash movie into a HTML document.
Macromedia Flash Training From The Source is a quick and easy way to learn Flash 5. Although the lessons are fairly simple, there is a lot of information covered in the book. And it really helps that the CD disc has all of the source files that you need to work with.
You will be able to grab a copy of Macromedia Flash Training From The Source at most major book sellers. The list price is $ 44.99.
For a listing of other Macromedia Press titles, visit the Peachpit Press web
site at www.Peachpit.com.
You also might want to check out the Macromedia site as well. It can be found
at www.Macromedia.com