Macromedia Flash MX 2004: The Complete Reference, Second Edition (Osborne Complete Reference Series) Book

Brian Underdahl's Complete Reference for Macromedia Flash MX serves as a solid cornerstone for the library of new Flash designers. Covering every aspect of building interactive Flash projects from a beginner's perspective, this handy tome is an ideal reference guide for the interactive designer starting his Flash journey.Underdahl wastes little time getting the reader up and animating with Flash MX and things start to really happen in the "Adding Animation" section of his book. He opens with a short description of Flash's approach to animation, then quickly launches into a short set of tutorials. Before the end, you'll be moving, rotating and scaling objects all over the screen. The largest part of this seven-part volume is all about efficiency. Tool-by-tool descriptions fill up the first chapter in this section, but the author falls short here by not including the keyboard shortcuts for each tool when they're described. His descriptions and examples, though, are clear, and most are matched with screenshots demonstrating the tool at hand.Graphics and sound are thoroughly covered, especially importing and optimising sounds and using them efficiently within a Flash movie. This is critical, since the misuse of sound files can inflate the size of a Flash movie, as well as impact performance. ActionScript, the underlying programming engine that drives Flash interactivity, is presented clearly in a non-programmer manner. Flash is a unique application that bridges the gap between an animation tool and a programming environment, and lucky is the artist who can plant his feet on both shores. The enclosed CD contains project files and art elements for every chapter, as well as demo versions of Canvas 8 and the Windows versions of ToonBoom Studio and Swift 3-D. The CD does not, however, have a searchable PDF version of the book with color pictures. This omission is exacerbated by the lack of colour pages, making any discussion of colour palettes or colour schemes (chapter 6) somewhat theoretical. Complaints aside, this "Complete Reference" for Flash MX serves as a solid reference book, and should be seriously considered for any novice Flash designer looking for an encyclopedic tome on Flash MX. --Mike Caputo, Amazon.comRead More