Foundation Flash 5

By Sham Bhangal, Amanda Farr, Patrick Rey

Please note that this title is now out-of-print, and so availability is likely to be limited.

Foundation Flash 5 gives you all the skills you need to get started in the latest version of Flash. It takes you from your first drawing and animation project in Chapter 1, through to a strong foundation for exploring the sophisticated ActionScripting capabilities now built into Flash 5. It is a thorough and practical, tutorial led book, where each chapter helps to build up a case study project- reinforcing what you've learnt in that section and how it can be applied in real design projects. By the end of the book you'll have built a working, Flash-rich website, and you'll have the skills to develop and modify your own Flash 5 effects. Professional level design with Flash has taken a quantum step up with Flash 5. Foundation Flash 5 provides you with all the climbing gear you need for the steeper learning curve. You'll break a sweat. But when you get there the view from the top is really worth the effort!

Who is this Book for?
Foundation Flash 5 assumes no prior knowledge of Flash or web animation. It is not however a 'make-it-simple' and 'leave-out-the-hard-bits' type of computer book. It is for serious and aspiring web-designers who want to expand their skill set and learn the latest software design tools in depth. The Foundation series does not talk down. It addresses the urgent fact that the techniques underlying the best web design are becoming ever more sophisticated, and recognises that you need a solid foundation to build your knowledge upon.

What does the Book cover?
This book guides you through the fundamentals of the Flash 5 interface. It shows you how to create, manipulate and arrange your movie content and then how to publish your movie. Along the way it covers the basics of ActionScripting, and then in Part 3 moves onto more sophisticated ActionScripting and the principles of good site design.

Summary of Contents

Part I – Flash Basics
0. Introduction
1. Flash Movie Essentials
2. Flash Toolbox
3. Symbols
4. Grids, Alignment, Object Manipulation
5. Colors, Fills, Bitmaps and Fonts

Part II – Flash in Action
6. Flash Animation, Tweening and Motion Guides
7. Shape Tweens
8. Masks and Masking
9. Introductory ActionScript
10. More on ActionScript
11. Sound
12. Optimization
13. Publishing

Part III – Intermediate Flash
14. Intermediate ActionScript 1
15. Intermediate ActionScript 2
16. High-Level Site Design
17. Futurescape – where do I go next?

Reviews

www.teamphotoshop.com

Review by Chris Figat

Foundation Flash 5 is one of several Flash 5 titles published by Friends of ED, and if they keep making books this good I'm just going to have to keep buying them.

Foundation Flash 5 is the best thing I've seen thus far for not only teaching but truly helping the user to understand Flash 5 and what it does. The book starts with the very basics, teaching you how to use the timeline, draw symbols, and create a simple Flash movie. It builds from there, systematically taking the different tools and functions in Flash and explaining what they do and how in a clear, concise fashion. By the end of the book the user has progressed into publishing a complete movie and even into some basic ActionScripting that's very easily applicable to real world projects.

As a competent Flash 4 user I wasn't quite sure what to expect in this book, but I found Foundation Flash 5 a huge help in getting up to speed in Flash 5. While some of the concepts covered are fairly basic, I gained a lot of knowledge on the new tools in Flash 5 (as well as ones that I hadn't used much in Flash 4) just by skimming the more basic chapters. Later chapters have some solid information on Flash optimization as well as some tips on publishing, actionscripting tutorials, and case studies that all levels of users will find extremely helpful.

Overall this is by far the best introductory Flash 5 book I've found and gets a solid recommendation from me for new to intermediate Flash designers.

www.pixelsurgeon.com

Review by Tony Volpe. 9 out of 10

This book is targeted at those who are completely new to Flash, and aims to set you off on the right foot. It starts with info on the program itself, the authoring environment, how the timeline works, and key-framing. Then it covers text, curves and fills, and then the library and symbols; swiftly moving on to include importing bitmaps, motions and shape tweening, masking, sounds and finally actionscripting.

The structure and layout of the book is very good and is much like learning math in school. You learn a concept, and build upon it as you move from one chapter to the next. The concepts and instructions are explained and presented in a step-by-step, user friendly manner and there are numerous illustrations to aid your journey. The book contains countless screen shots and graphics to help new users familiarise themselves with the Flash interface.

For example, let's look at Chapter 7 on shape tweening. This concept is introduced roughly half-way through the book, so you already have your teeth stuck into the basics; you've done some animation and timeline work, and you're now wondering about something a little more advanced. The chapter begins with an explanation of what shape tweens are and how they work, and right after you've been given the concept of the chapter, you are shunted right into the implementation with twelve easy-to-follow steps! Other examples in the chapter include tweening to and from text, shape hints, and then a 17-step example illustrating a slick effect for your flash project.

Personally, the most pleasing aspect of this book is that once the last few chapters are reached, basic to Intermediate actionscripting is explained! Foundation Flash 5 will teach you basic scripting concepts from scratch, and also shows you how to use them to accomplish increasingly complex tasks. For me, the value here is the use of dot notation in Flash 5, which makes accessing properties and variables a piece of cake! This used in conjunction with if statements can lead to many visually attractive effects, and better functionality within a Flash page.

My only suggestion to the authors would be, that along with the if statement, they could also have introduced while loops as a method to achieve a larger range of effects. However, I have to admit, the last couple of chapters are laced with so many concepts and so much information, that in conclusion, the book is more than adequate for its intended audience. FF5 is for new Flash users from all backgrounds and disciplines; If you're a coder who is looking to get into Flash, this book will cover all the traditional methods of vector creation and animation. If you're a designer, it will teach you how to use the time line effectively and how to start using actionscripting to enhance the interactivity of your flash work.

I personally am a self-taught Flash user, and FF5 did a fantastic job of filling in the gaps. I receive many emails every week with questions from beginners, and from now on intend to point them towards this book. If you're new to it all, FF5 will show you the way!

TONY RATING: 9/10

This book is part of friends of ED's 'Foundation' series

The Foundation series is perfect for beginners to a technology, because it doesn't assume any previous knowledge. Each book in the series takes you step by step through your chosen technology, starting with the absolute fundamentals and working through all aspects of the technology, ultimately providing you with a firm grasp of the basics that will enable you to create your own applications or web sites. You will learn by following complete examples at every stage of your journey, often by extended case studies that you will build upon throughout the book. The Foundation series will give you the broad and solid base you need in order to progress to a higher level of expertise.