Book Description
This exceptional, full-colour Autodesk Maya Press title - produced by Autodesk, the software's creators - uses Sony's full-length animated "Open Season" for the book's all-new hands-on tutorials for Maya 8. By following the step-by-step tutorials, readers will learn the Maya interface and the basics of modeling, texturing, animating, and visual effects using real-world production files from a full-length feature film. The DVD provides further reinforcement with instructor-led tutorial videos and other resources for extended learning.
With this book readers will:
- Become familiar with the Maya User Interface
- Work in 3D space
- Model with NURBS (Spline)
- Model with Polygons
- Set Keyframes and Motion Paths
- Learn to use Trax Non-linear animation
- Apply Forward and Inverse Kinematics
- Deform surfaces
- Set cameras and lights
- Create Shaders and Textures
- Discover rendering techniques
- Explore particles and Dynamics
- Begin to use MEL (Maya Embedded Language)
Customer Reviews:
Excellent beginners book with some advance topics.......2007-10-15
After reading numerous reviews for beginners books for Maya, I chose to try this Foundation book, and I am glad I did. This book covers all the basics to get started in Maya, with numerous examples for you to build. The DVD includes all the completed examples so that you can see how well you are doing.
By the time you finish this book, you should have a complete working knowledge on how to create an animation scene from start to finish.
When I say 'advance topics', they were advanced to me since I did not have any prior experience with Maya. One example is the chapter on the Maya Embedded Language (MEL) and scripting.
If you have a good working knowledge of the basics of Maya, this book will probably bore you. Instead, I would recommend "Mastering Maya 8.5", which I also purchased. That book covers the more advance topics without boring you with basic Maya functionality.
Great step by step.......2007-08-31
This book is an amazing beginner book. Within the first few lessons you have an understanding of how to use maya and the Projects are excellent.
I have learnt so much from this book.
Follow it page for page and you will be able to master Maya
Helpful Book.......2007-08-10
This book is well structured and easy to use for reference. It is set at a good level for beginning learning. If you want a book that goes more in depth about more advanced things in Maya, this might not be for you. This book contains a good foundation for learning, but does not go in depth when it comes to critical processes such as skin weights.
An Excellent Way to Learn Maya.......2007-08-07
I purchased this book recently for a 3D animation class I am taking at school, and I have found it to be an excellent way to learn Maya. Although this book is for Maya version 8, I use version 8.5 and have noticed only very minor differences (nothing to worry about).
This book is in full color, which makes the screenshots easy to follow. The introduction starts out with a general overview of all aspects of Maya, which helped me to understand better how things worked together from the very beginning. Each of the five major projects in the book focus on reproducing elements from Sony Picture's CG movie Open Season, as shown on the book cover. These projects are completely new from the Maya 7 version of this book. It was kind of cool to create things that were used in a real movie.
I felt the learning curve was pretty well thought out. The writers of the book realize how complex the Maya software is, and they give you instructions on how to perform certain tasks several times before expecting you to remember on your own. The book also comes with a supplementary DVD which contains lots of extras, including the completed Maya files from every chapter in the book, just in case you get stuck or want to skip ahead.
This book is an excellent learning tool for someone new to Maya, or perhaps an intermediate user who wants to more fully understand how to use the software.
for beginner.......2007-07-23
this book shows very easy way to study maya program.
colorful and thoughful.
Book Description
ActionScript is the native scripting language of Flash. ActionScript knowledge is essential within the world of Flash design and development, as Flash remains a leading tool for cutting-edge interactive design and development. ActionScript is what gives Flash its power, but with that power comes a certain level of complexity, which can be intimidating. This beginners book, significantly updated since the last edition, covers all of the basics of ActionScript using the latest version of Flash, Flash 8. The skills acquired by working through this book will enable you to move on to more advanced friends of ED books such as Foundation PHP 5 for Flash, Foundation ActionScript Animation or Foundation XML for Flash. This book contains all you need to understand and make use of ActionScript, and to have some fun while learning. The Foundation series teaching style is ideal if youre a non-programmer who wants to learn Flash programming quickly and thoroughly. The authors teach the basics, and provide you an all-around proficiency in ActionScript, as well as Flash components within Flash 8. Youll gain the practical skills to build ActionScript based Flash projects, including making initial design decisions, structuring code, and testing. An ongoing case study means that by the end of the book, youll have constructed a cutting-edge Flash site to showcase your newly learned skills. Summary of Contents:
- Chapter 1 Interactive Flash
- Chapter 2 Making Plans
- Chapter 3 Movies That Remember
- Chapter 4 Movies That Decide for Themselves
- Chapter 5 More Power, Less Script
- Chapter 6 Movies That Remember How to Do Things
- Chapter 7 Objects and Classes
- Chapter 8 Objects on the Stage
- Chapter 9 Reusable Code and Realistic Movement
- Chapter 10 Games and Sprites
- Chapter 11 Drawing API
- Chapter 12 Adding Sound to Flash
- Chapter 13 Loading Dynamic Data with XML
- Chapter 14 Finishing the Futuremedia Case Study
- Chapter 15 Advanced ActionScript: Components and Classes
Customer Reviews:
A Great ActionScript Book By Designers For Designers.......2007-07-24
This is a great book for the designer interested in getting deeper into Flash through ActionScript 2.0. Primarily centered around web-based projects, with the occasional game project, Sham et al. lead the reader through basic programming fundamentals from a designer perspective. The reader is assumed to be mildly frightened by looking at code, but still interested in learing it. I can sympathize that many designers could be in this boat.
The language of the book is very non-technical and it's presented in a light-hearted manner to ease you into some difficult concepts. The authors do a great job of tricking you into getting excited about programming. So if you're a web designer who has always been impressed by what programmers can do, but were a little uncomfortable trying to just jump in on your own, this is THE book for you.
I have two warnings and one critique.
The first warning is that this is a Flash 8 book - hence ActionScript 2.0. The second warning is that almost all the projects in the book are web-based instead of game-based. Now it's Flash, so it kind of comes with the territory, and there is a full chapter devoted to making a game. However, the perfect book for me would be this exact same book, but centered almost completely around game-based projects. If you're strictly looking for that, this book isn't for you. I don't care as much, and there's still a lot to learn, so I don't regret purchasing the book.
My critique is regarding the book-long project where you make a website that uses ActionScript (the Futuremedia site). It's a case study where you can apply some of what you've learned to a "real" project. My problem with it is that you don't seem to learn a whole lot about ActionScripting by going through it. The authors (or whichever individual wrote the project) seem to be really proud of this project - proud in the sense that they like themselves for it - and you can tell by going throug it. Plus, its more content-oriented. There's much more to learn from everything else, so I'm just skipping the project and skimming over it whenever it's time to work on it a little (which isn't a whole lot anyway).
Overall, it's a great book so far (I'm about 1/3 done) and I'd recommend it to anyone who's new to programming and wants to learn it through ActionScript 2.0. Sham has an awesome ability to explain programming to a designer.
Well structured, No boring Jargon and Everything you need in one book........2007-05-13
I am new to actionscript, have watched a few Total Training dvd's, but they don't really go into indepth actionscript. Unless you buy all the dvd's which are expensive.
This book was great. And has given my mind more of an understanding, especially of the process, of programming.
I'm more a graphic designer, who is getting into web design, so if I can go from first page through to the end in 3 weeks and juggle a screaming 2yr old at the same time.....well then anyone can.( I am a stay at home dad!....by the way)
Good to keep for reference. Buy it.
Excellent Beginner ActionScript Guide.......2007-03-19
I was completely foreign to ActionScript before picking up this book. I had previously read one book on understanding the basic flash interface (i.e. using the drawing/tweening tools), but this was my first crack at ActionScript. Getting through this book was very easy. Each chapter is setup in a way that explains a specific topic, runs you through a few examples using what you just learned, and then continues on with an ongoing website project that you develop throughout the book.
Strengths: Writing is clear and concise, and doesn't feel like a programmer wrote the book. The context is a nice mix of theory and hands on practice to keep you interested while your learning some of the more complex topics. The teaching method looks to provide you with skills that you can apply and expand upon quickly, as opposed to just learning some commands and then throwing you out into the wild. The book projects are very well constructed and explained.
Weaknesses: Some of the later chapters advance quickly. I blew through the first 350 pages, but after that had to significantly slow down to fully understand each topic. I also noticed that one or two of the online downloads are missing files for the book project. These are not neccesary if you are writing everything from scratch (correctly), but it did sometimes get in the way of comparing my solutions to the books.
Overall I have been extremely satisfied with this book, and will most likely buy another Foundation guide.
Great Book for Beginner on up ...........2006-12-06
I am a current animation student in California and Flash is one of the tools we are using. While I have developed some proficiency animating in Flash, the scripting tends to turn my brain to mush after a while.
I picked up Foundation Flash 8 to learn some of the basics and have been using Foundation Actionscript for Flash 8 to gradually explore scripting. I am not a programmer but got through the first few chapters easy enough. The second half of the book is somewhat tougher but but filled with interesting chapters -especially the game chapter (chapter 10).
I haven't quite cleared the hurdle of the later chapters, find them more challenging, but I keep the book on my desk to pick at stuff. It is well written and comprehensive. From my perspective as a non-programming 'art head' I'd say it covers beginner to advanced level topics by the end of the book; that's pretty cool because many books seem to be simple rehashings of the product manuals designed to part you from $40-$50 while giving you no new info.
A diamond amongst coal........2006-12-02
As an old UNIX hack I have read quite a few programming manuals, from the original C (Kerninghan & Richie - when it was new!), to the present. Very few, if any, (including the O'Reilly series), have come close to being so informative, easy to read, and enjoyable as the 'ActionScript for Flash 8' book. I consider myself a poor programmer partly because I never found 'print Hello World!' that interesting. In any event, this book has taken me from rank Actionscript beginner to (dare I say it...) semi-advanced! Basically, cannot recommend it highly enough! For me, I enjoy the graphical nature of Actionscript and I am glad I finally found the right book to take me there. I think beginners and experienced Object-Oriented types will get a lot or something from it. Thanks Friends of ED!
Book Description
Sure you can animate using motion tweens, in fact we'll help you do that with our Flash Cartoon Animation book, but isn't there something extra special in making things move with just a few lines of code? In this book Keith Peters guides us through some basic animation theory and then demystifies the math and physics behind creating realistic animation, looking at trigonometry, velocity and acceleration, and bouncing & friction. This book will teach you how to use Flash ActionScript to move the objects in your movies, rather than letting Flashs tween engine do it for you. The benefit of this is smaller, more realistic, more dynamic interactive movies that seem to come alive on your screen. Almost all of the code featured in this book will work fine in either Flash MX 2004 or Flash 8, and with a few minor adjustments, most of it can even be applied to Flash MX. Although the text covers many advanced math and physics concepts, making for very realistic motion, theres no need to worry, even if youre a relative newcomer to programming and the last math class you took was in high school (and even if you barely remember that!). This book first covers everything you need to know to get started: the principles of animation, and the basics of ActionScript, trigonometry, and Flash rendering methods. Youll work your way slowly from using code to move a single object across the screen to creating complex systems that really push Flashs capabilities with topics covered including collision detection, particle attraction, and kinematics. The book concludes with looking at 3D animation techniques, including building a basic 3D engine, 3D lines, fills and solids, and matrix math. Once you come to grips with the ideas presented here, youll find yourself creating all manner of exciting animations and games! Summary of Contents
- Part I ActionScripted Animation Basics
- Ch. 1 Basic Animation Concepts
- Ch. 2 ActionScript Basics for Animation
- Ch. 3 Trigonometry
- Ch. 4 Rendering Techniques
- Part II Basic Motion
- Ch. 5 Velocity and Acceleration
- Ch. 6 Bouncing and Friction
- Ch. 7 User Interaction: Dragging and Throwing
- Part III Advanced Motion
- Ch. 8 Easing and Springs
- Ch. 9 Collision Detection
- Ch. 10 Bouncing off Angles
- Ch. 11 Billiard Ball Physics
- Ch. 12 Particle Attraction
- Ch. 13 Forward Kinematics
- Ch. 14 Inverse Kinematics
- Part IV Three D
- Ch. 15 A Basic 3D Engine
- Ch. 16 3D Lines, Fills, Solids
- Ch. 17 Advanced 3D: Backface Culling and Lighting
- Ch. 18 Matrix Math
- Part V Tips and Tricks
Customer Reviews:
Easy to use and understand, even for the novice.......2007-10-15
I was tasked with producing eight Flash simulations for an engineering dynamics course this past summer. I programmed the simulations using ActionScript with algebra and calculus introduced to control the behavior of a variety of objects -- no small task if you consider that I am an English teacher and not a programmer or engineer.
By doing and redoing the problems posed by Peters, I could eventually understand them well enough to be able to program similar modules for my project. No idea seems too difficult for him to explain in a manner a beginner can understand, particularly with the working models at the FriendsofED.
I purchased nine books on the subject at the beginning of the project. I ended up using this one more than all of the others combined.
I also recommend his ActionScript 3.0. Being the same book written for two different versions of ActionScript, the two books give us a really good opportunity to compare and contrast the two languages.
Must Love Actionscript.......2007-09-22
I will atest that this is a great book IF you are an actionscript junkie, but if your not you will hate this book. I was looking for a book to help my students with thier Flash animations and this book was way beyond where I wanted to take my students.
Incredibly well written.......2007-09-10
I bought this book along w/ about 4 others that I needed. This one was the splurge... I was simply going to browse through it and see what I could pick up from it - not really thinking I could fully grasp the advanced concepts.
To my suprise, this book brought you all the way back to those good ole Trig classes and explained what you'd need to recall (or re-learn) and why. Every concept was very well explained and one concept builds upon the next.
It's definitely no light read, but if you really do have a desire to learn, this is the book.
Indeed a great tool for making animations.......2007-07-12
I was looking for a script animation book and I finally found the one that cater to my needs.
Just what I was looking for..........2007-07-12
I started learning Flash 8 about 6 months ago, hoping to make some physics simulation programs and games. I started out by buying Foundation Actionscript for Flash 8 and was quite disappointed to find that the subject of math was avoided at all costs. After reading 100 pages or so, I finally decided I'd just buy this book and hope I had learned enough to get me by. Now I regret not buying this in the first place.
Peters starts with the very basics of physics and takes you step by step on how to translate it into Actionscript. As it goes, it explains what the code means and how it works, making it possible to actually learn a lot about Actionscript in general. Although he explains how the physics works, he makes an effort to keep it at reasonable level and I never found myself the slightest bit bored or confused. This book teaches by example, which is the easiest way for me to learn. Nearly every major and minor topic mentioned has its own example with code in the book (which can also be downloaded off the website).
As can be seen from the table of contents, he gets into some relatively complicated topics and even in these, he does a great job of explaining how it works and how to keep your code efficient, making sure to mention any shortcuts that can make things easier.
So to sum things up
-this book is great at teaching you how to program realistic physics-based motion
-it's amazing at explaining what each bit of code does and how it works to the extent that it can be used as a beginning guide to Actionscript in general.
Book Description
This pioneering textbook details how construction drawings are used to implement the construction process. It offers an overview of construction drawing basics as well as thorough coverage of standard construction sequence, including site work,foundations, structural systems, and interior work and finishes.
Customer Reviews:
Great primer for students, architects, and engineers.......2004-06-28
Bisharat's book is a must for any student (experienced technician or school neophyte) of the design and construction process. It is well illustrated, factual, and accurately explains how the architect /engineer's ideas get transferred to paper and then into reality.
Construction Consultant.......2004-06-11
If you are a student, a craftsperson, superintendent, manager,or designer-this book should be open on your desk (and not on your bookshelf).
Book Description
This exceptional, full-color Maya Press title - produced by Alias, the software's creators - is a comprehensive mid-cycle revision that uses the award-winning short film Blue as the basis for the book's all-new hands-on tutorials. Artists, students, educators, and hobbyists will appreciate this book's comprehensible coverage of 3D and Maya basics. Project-focused lessons use actual production files from the film Blue to teach you most of the tools available in Maya Complete. The companion DVD includes instructor-led tutorials, scene files, artist interviews, and Maya PLE. Also includes Alias's Sketchbook Pro Version 1.1.1, $129.99 value.
Customer Reviews:
Maya 7.0.......2007-10-15
i am pleased with my new book. It has every subject that i was expecting and is a high quality product
Definitely for Beginners.......2007-08-22
If your goal is to design a basic character and a simple environment, then this book is definitely for you. It covers all the basics and helps you to get familiar with where the tools are located.
However, if you are already familiar with MAYA, then you'd be better off just going online and finding some tutorials.
Good for students.......2007-08-12
Im a teacher computer, and recomend this book for new students of animation and modeling 3D.
perfect book to learn maya 7.......2007-04-07
This book is the best one I have bought because it explains to you every detail step by step. It also comes with videos explaining how to do each lesson.The best part is that in bonus it brings the software = alias sketchbook pro.
FANTASTIC.......2007-02-26
This book is straight forward, easy to read, and a joy to follow along on the screen to. I am quite impressed with the attention to detail on each of the steps in this book. "Foundation" will give anybody who hasnt used a 3d package before the nessacary skills and information needed to follow on and create their own models.
6 out of 5 stars for such a good book.
(real name is my mothers, i am the one actually working through the book)
Average customer rating:
- Great Overview of PHP and MySQL, with even some gotchas for your ActionScript
- Everything I was looking for
- What a great book!
- OVER RATED FOR NOVICES!
- Very good book on integrating php and mysql with Flash
|
Foundation PHP 5 for Flash (Foundation)
David Powers
Manufacturer: friends of ED
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Similar Items:
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Foundation ActionScript Animation: Making Things Move! (Foundation)
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Foundation XML for Flash (Foundation)
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Foundation ActionScript for Flash 8 (Foundation)
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Object-Oriented ActionScript For Flash 8
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Foundation PHP for Dreamweaver 8
ASIN: 1590594665 |
Book Description
David Powers has been professionally involved with the electronic media for some 30 years, mostly in radio and television—he was BBC Tokyo correspondent in the late 1980s and early 1990s—but more recently with the Internet. He built his first site in 1995, and was instantly hooked. Eventually, the sheer tedium of updating content convinced him there must be a better way. After a brief flirtation with ASP, he experimented with PHP, and found himself hooked yet again.
A fluent Japanese speaker, Powers specializes in building Japanese-English bilingual websites, writing about Japan, and translating Japanese (he’s translated several plays). He co-authored Foundation Dreamweaver MX 2004 (1590593081) and PHP Web Development with Dreamweaver MX 2004 (1590593502). Powers also worked as technical reviewer on a number of web-related titles for Apress.
Customer Reviews:
Great Overview of PHP and MySQL, with even some gotchas for your ActionScript.......2007-05-14
I came to this book with a basic knowledge of ASP and Microsoft SQL Server. Using back end technologies with Flash is quite a change from (X)HTML, and this book really helps you get your head around the change in logic needed to effectively use Flash with a back end.
I haven't quite finished the book, but everything I've read so far has been great. Highly recommended.
Everything I was looking for.......2007-04-06
I'm a Flash developer transitioning into creating RICH applications and decided you use PHP for that technology. I wanted a book that would guide me from the ground up with integrating PHP into Flash. This book did the job!!!!
It showed me step by step how to create my own local Apache and MySQL servers with ease, and clearly explained the configuration woes a newcomer when face. Very impressive!!!
The book then guides you through several examples of using Flash and PHP together. In fact you'll end up with a pretty cool game on HangMan once you're done.
What a great book!.......2006-09-22
"Foundation PHP 5 for Flash" by David Powers is a great book, as I've come to expect from both David Powers and his publisher, Friends of ED.
The word "Foundation" in the title may lead you to think this is a beginner's book; it decidedly is not. As stated on the back cover, the book is aimed at the "reasonably experienced Flash user who has mastered the basics." I'd even say that it takes a mastery of more than just the basics to get the most out of this book. Without a very good knowledge of ActionScript, much of the material would be difficult to follow.
That being said, this book is not about ActionScript. It's not even really about Flash. It's a book about PHP -- and a very, very good book about PHP at that. It's also a book about MySQL. Prior to the most advanced chapters, the tie-in with Flash (and ActionScript) is said in one word: LoadVars. Once you get past that, you can pretty much forget about ActionScript for much of the book and focus on learning PHP and MySQL. Although the book does show by example how to get variables between your Flash user and LoadVars in ActionScript, you really do need to be comfortable with the ins and outs of Flash in general and ActionScript in particular in order to make full use of those examples, and this is not the book for learning that part of it. In the more advanced chapters, more ActionScript comes into play, and it can get confusing if you're not already comfortable with it. (I'd liken diving into this book without knowing ActionScript or PHP to learning to speak Spanish and Italian at the same time: at some point, you're going to say "dónde" when you mean to say "dove.")
What this book does cover extremely well is everything that happens on the back end, outside of Flash. The chapters that introduce PHP do much more than just introduce it: they are an excellent tutorial in the language that would even be a great resource for people who just want to learn PHP without having anything to do with Flash. Concepts are explained clearly and completely, and the examples are extremely useful and illustrative. The same can be said for the MySQL chapters: You really do learn MySQL, and not just by breezing through one or two superficial examples as in most PHP books.
The nuts-and-bolts chapters are particularly brilliant. David Powers's walk-throughs on installing Apache, PHP and MySQL are legendary. You simply couldn't ask for a better guide! The appendices -- including 20 whole pages on various things that might go wrong and what to do about it -- are indispensable.
My only criticism is of the often convoluted examples. The author's style is to build up the examples iteratively, retracing and revising the code, step by step, over many pages as you learn new techniques. He will often walk you through the "obvious-but-wrong" way of doing something, then make changes little by little, introducing new concepts along the way. While this is perhaps a good way of learning, it sometimes feels like you're reaching over your head with your right hand to scratch your left ear.
As usual, the Friends of ED name on the cover means you're buying quality. Everything from the paper to the layout to the typography is top-of-the-line. While black-and-white printing usually doesn't work well for Flash books, it's perfectly fine for this book (remember, I told you that this isn't really a book about Flash). The author is very active in the Friends of ED readers' forum, so you can be certain that any questions you have about the examples (or about pretty much anything else for that matter) will be answered by the author himself in great detail if you address them on the forum.
So if you know ActionScript and want to learn how to put a database behind it, or if you're a skilled PHP programmer looking for another way to apply your knowledge, or even if you have no real interest in Flash but want to gain a deep understanding of PHP/MySQL, this is a great book for you. Be prepared to spend lots of time with it -- it's nearly 700 pages and it has zero fluff -- but it is time very well spent indeed.
OVER RATED FOR NOVICES!.......2006-09-17
On the upside, the tutorials on installation are excellent. Apache, PHP 5 installation and if you get that far, the MySQL installation are all well described and carefully written. The forum works, if you happen to be a programmer. Theres quick help for those seeking answers but not so quick if you are novice...
When you get into trouble is when you realize that version changes make understanding the complex code jargon very difficlut to understand- though coded exaples for the Flash version that I have were provided. The examples are impossibly long and complicated and when you finally sift though them Eureka, it does not work. FRUSTRATING. Though said to have working examples, I could not get the tedious long examples to work on my computer- and spent many hours re reading the entire book to find out why. I did not expect a quick and easy solution to learning but after two months, I made no progress and found my incompetnce with programming becomiing overwhelming. This book may kill your desire to learn, even if you are willing to spend the time.
This book is a time bandit. Phenomonally complicated for beginners, it's written for experienced programmers, though said to be for novices. It has been my experience to see most programmers who write books, write at a level that is not possible to understand by beginners. It's like going into a new city and asking for directions from a local resident, " it's easy to find and you can't miss it " is the norm. Powers may leave you sleeping on the street.
Very good book on integrating php and mysql with Flash.......2006-07-26
I was very pleased with the book. I like the author's style, and I especially like how the projects are more than your typical "hello world" examples. Yes, some of them do take a little time, but you can type them out or read along as you wish, and they don't take that much time. I thought the book was absolutely excellent at accomplishing what it sets out to do - show you how to integrate flash with PHP and MySQL. Very nice job.
Book Description
Foundation Flash 8 is the book you need if you're looking for a solid foundation in Flash 8 Basic and Flash 8 Professional.
Thousands upon thousands of designers have already learned from its previous editions and it's easy to understand why.
The fourth edition of friends of ED's legendary beginner Flash book, Foundation Flash 8 uses a series of structured exercises and detailed discussions to help you start your exploration of Flash. The detailed tutorial style will ensure that you retain the knowledge you gain and are able to draw upon it throughout your Flash career. Foundation Flash 8 features a running case study that evolves into a fully functional Flash website as you work through the tutorials, so you'll immediately see everything that you learn being used in a practical project.
This book focuses on the core skills that you need to get started working with Flash 8: understanding the interface, becoming familiar with the creative tools and their capabilities, grasping the relationships between the different components that make up a Flash movie, and getting insight into how to put all the pieces together to create your own Flash-based website.
Summary of Contents
- Chapter 1: Flash Movie Essentials
- Chapter 2: The Flash Tools Panel
- Chapter 3: Flash Symbols and Libraries
- Chapter 4: Managing Content
- Chapter 5: Working with Color and Images
- Chapter 6: Motion Tweening
- Chapter 7 Shape Tweening
- Chapter 8: Masks and Masking
- Chapter 9: Advanced Animation, Effects, and Commands
- Chapter 10: Actions and Interactions
- Chapter 11: Intelligent Actions
- Chapter 12: Multimedia: Sound and Video
- Chapter 13: Optimizing
- Chapter 14: Publishing
- Chapter 15: Intermediate ActionScript, Part 1
- Chapter 16: Intermediate ActionScript, Part 2
- Chapter 17: High-Level Site Design
- Chapter 18: Futurescape
Customer Reviews:
Solid foundation for all types of Flash novices.......2006-09-08
"Foundation Flash 8" by Sham Bhangal and Kristian Besley is, overall, an excellent introduction for all new Flash users, be they right-brained artists who think a line is something you draw in a picture or left-brained techies who think a line is something you write in a program.
Right-brained readers will be enthralled by the first half of the book's focuses on Flash's drawing and animating features, with exhaustive treatment of symbols, colors, tweening, and masks. There's even an excellent section on text and text animation. Left-brained readers will drool over the second half of the book, which runs from simple behaviors to intelligent actions to "intermediate" ActionScript. Somewhere in the middle, there is lots of talk about buttons -- and artists will be thrilled with all the things they learn to do to make them look pretty and programmers will be equally thrilled with all the things they learn to do to make them do neat things when pushed.
Of course, if artists didn't learn some ActionScript (or at least some basic Flash behaviors), or if programmers didn't learn animation, then there would be no point to learning Flash. Bhangal and Besley manage, in "Foundation Flash 8," to teach the full range of foundation Flash functionality to the full range of novice Flash users. While programmers might yawn a bit during the first few, graphics-intensive chapters (and, I imagine, while artists' eyes might spin somewhat during the last couple of ActionScript chapters), there's plenty in this book to keep everybody happy. Conveniently, the authors have structured the ongoing case study -- and have provided intermediate project files -- so that skipping sections or chapters is possible.
The authors make no assumptions about the level of knowledge of readers, other than that experienced Flash users are not their target audience. Everything is taught from square one (or, sometimes a bit frustratingly, from square zero). Straightforward and moderately complex topics are explained well throughout, and the more advanced scripting topics are equally well presented. One shortcoming is the less-than-stellar handling of complex, abstract graphics topics, such as advanced gradients and Bézier curves; as the authors put it on page 63, "It's easier to do than to explain!"
Friends of ED publishes what are probably the best design-oriented books in the business, and "Foundation Flash 8" certainly fits their usual high standards. The paper is thick and bright, the typography is pleasant, and the writing style is friendly -- at times bordering on plucky (page 132: "Colors, fills, and gradients are the extra paprika on the already tongue-tingling dish that is Flash"). This particular volume does suffer a bit from its two-column layout, which results in figures -- particularly screenshots -- being a bit too small for comfort, and from its one-color printing, which is not so much a problem in a book on, say, Dreamweaver or PHP but which is a significant disadvantage in a book dealing with a drawing and animation tool. (As the authors themselves acknowledge on page 132, "It's never going to be entirely satisfactory to discuss color in a book printed in black and white...")
Pluckiness and monochromicity notwithstanding, "Foundation Flash 8" does exactly what its name suggests -- it gives the reader a solid foundation in Flash 8 -- and it does it well. The book is comprehensive, accurate, clear, and well organized, and most importantly, it bears the "Friends of ED" cachet and is backed up by the best support in the business: the Friends of ED readers' forum, a lively and helpful online community frequented by authors and other experts always willing to answer question and to help solve problems. "Foundation Flash 8" is a fine choice for anyone eager to get his hands wet with Flash. I strongly recommend this book.
Solid book for beginners.......2006-06-28
I am an animation student at Brooks College and Flash is part of the curriculum. One of the challenges of these intensive courses is that we cover so much material, so fast, that it is hard to get any depth before we are off to the next tool. I looked around the net for tutorials and other resources to supplement class materials and having had previous good experiences with this publisher I picked up Foundation Flash 8 as a beginner book (and ActionScript for Flash 8 as my next step up).
I found this to be a very solid book. The early chapters are, in effect, the manual that didn't come with my Education Version product. All the basics that we zoomed through in class were right there when I needed them and I found myself enhancing my homework assignments by doing what was required, looking up topics when I was stuck and adding extras to the projects that helped me nail an A in the class.
I reviewed many programming books a few years back, and my first impression was that these books felt a bit different. I think some of the complaints one or two have voiced may be related to this. But upon review of the material and test projects I find this book friendly and well laid out. The material covered served both as a ready reference and as a good foundation for more advanced material. It starts at raw beginner and moves into some meatier intermediate stuff that I am still using to get ready for the more advanced ActionScript I am interested in.
About the only complaint I can register is that my personal interests lie more towards producing games and animated cartoons so I would have found an emphasis on that more `fun' - but that isn't a reflection on the book, just my childish nature. ;)
I recommend this book for beginners as a good reference and foundation for more advanced Flash topics.
Overall a Useful Learning Tool.......2006-05-06
This book covers a lot of ground and does so in a detailed and friendly way. It's organized and laid out logically enough, getting you started with the interface, tool types and basic animation, and then working its way through more and more complex topics. The book's working examples are appropriate for each level the book advances through,and the writing style is approachable enough that a wide range of users should find it worth their while.
I gave this book four stars and not five because it wasn't proofed well in some areas. For example, the chapter on Flash video notes incorrectly, that Mac users -even prior to the days of OS X- could download a free version of iMovie to start making movie content. The actual situation is that iMovie has only been available since OS X arrived, and only to those who have purchased a new Mac with a super-drive, or purchased the iLife suite. It is not and has never been available as a free download.
Another flaw this book has is that many of the screenshots are scaled down so much, that you cannot read the dialog text without squinting or looking very closely. (I don't wear glasses btw : ) Not all the screenshots suffer from this problem, but enough do to make it frustrating at points. A better idea for the next edition is cropping out the empty space or unimportant parts of a given dialog box, rather than scaling the whole dialog box -even the parts with important text- down.
Overall still a good book, and worth owning if you only have time or resources for one Flash Book. I prefer this book's learning style to that of the Lynda.com type books, which seeminly are all made from the same cookie cutter. When an author becomes and industry unto themselves, look out. : )
A Pretty Good Book.......2006-01-31
Being a novice designer, I learn most effectively when I have experts telling me the ins and outs of how things work in a program, explaining the logic behind a certain sequence of actions, and sharing the tips and tricks from their wealth of experiences using the program. And this is how I exactly felt embarking on the exciting exploration of the Flash world using the Foundation Flash 8 book by Sham Bhangal and Kristian Besley.
The book covers Flash 8 from its basic tools and techniques in dealing with shapes, text, colors and animations to the more advanced action/interactions and ActionScript. Rather than just prescribing step by step procedures to use the many tools and functions in Flash 8, the authors reveal what is behind the scene - from simply how terms such as "Tweening", "Onion Skins" and "Masking" came about to the underlying mechanisms of ActionScript. In addition, I found also most useful the many "rules of thumb" of using Flash that the authors share throughout the book.
The book proved to be very helpful for me as a novice Flash user to gain some solid foundational skills and a well-formed beginning understanding of how things work in Flash. The authors achieved this through their well-written explanations and illustrations, plus hands-on practices for the users, which consist of numerous mini exercises in each chapter of the book and a larger project that the users continuously build on throughout the chapters. The final few chapters also provide some nice additions including how Flash works with the Internet, principles of good design, and so on. These help put learning Flash in context and making it fit nicely in the large picture of Web design.
In the end, the five hundred plus pages of the book were fairly easy to go through, (also thanks to the light humors intermittently found in the writing). I felt more confident working with the powerful program, and I just cannot wait to roll up the sleeves and get started with some real work using Flash!
Solid Beginner to Intermediate Book.......2006-01-18
I just finishing reading Foundation Flash 8, co-authored by Sham Bhangal and Kristian Besley. The technical reviewer was Todd Yard, a role that he has played in 11 other Friends of ED books. I was checking out Todd's company website, and was very impressed. He works for Jeremy Allaire, former CTO of Macromedia. You might recognize him as the creator of the product that made Dreamweaver so great - Allaire Homesite. I digress, back to the book review.
First of all, let me specify who this book is for: Those looking to get a handle on Flash, starting from square one. One fellow gave it a really harsh review, probably expecting it to be something along the lines of Flash 8 Essentials. That being said, Foundation Flash 8 is a very good book in its own right. Sure, the first few chapters are elementary, but considering that this text is supposed to take you from beginner to intermediate in your skill-level, it's right on target. It takes you step by step through each part of the interface, and then builds from there. By the end, you're making simple video games.
Even seasoned veterans could benefit from reading through the introductory chapters, because of some of the significant changes to the way Flash works. For instance, object drawing used to cut out shapes that overlapped each other, which was an annoyance those who were used to a different graphics program.
This was always confusing to me, being a big fan of Macromedia Adobe Fireworks, the interface of which looks very similar to Flash. Now that this has been tweaked, the two cousin programs behave more similarly. This book does a good job of pointing out things like this, that while simple, could possibly prove confusing for those already used to the previous behavior. You could say that before, Flash was in "quirks" mode, and now it's more streamlined.
One of my favorite section of the book was chapter 12, which covers sound and video optimization. Flash 8 goes leaps and bounds beyond where its MX 2004 predecessor had been. I like that fact that the authors emphasize that you should tweak, listen to, and watch your projects as you work on them. While Flash has some heavy-duty compression by default, you would do well to choose specific settings for each media file you use, as this will help you get the best sound / picture clarity, while keeping your file size as low as possible. As is the case with most things in digital / physical art, practice makes perfect.
Another thing I appreciate about this book is its emphasis on learning real code. Some of the Flash books I've read in the past tend to gloss over this as too difficult for newer users. This may be true, but it does them a disservice not to teach it. Thankfully, these guys encourage the reader to delve in further, and draw the line between beginner or expert at the point of ActionScript...
"You can use a drag-and-drop behavior. It's fast and efficient, but at the expense of reducing your understanding of the problem, and it offers a solution that addresses problems that may not be part of your particular task. It's also a 'one size fits all' solution - and how many times have you bought a one-size-fits all shirt and thought 'Mmm, fits perfectly, almost as if it was tailor-made for me?' Me neither." - Page 302
The above quote pretty much sums up the jist of all web-based design. I can't tell you how many times I've got an email or been asked in person, even by experienced visual designers: "What program do you use to make your CSS websites?" What they mean is: How can I point-and-click my way through it? The short answer is: You can't, not of you intend on learning anything. Most people are disappointed to find out I use Araneae for all of my hand-coding.
Likewise, if you want to really harness the power of dynamic animations in Flash, you need to get comfortable with ActionScript. For those of you who are familiar with JavaScript already, it shouldn't be too hard to pick up because AS syntax is modeled after JS. If you're new to both, fear not, because Flash comes in with a built-in code assistant, similar to that in Dreamweaver.
The authors start out the ActionScript chapters using the code assistant, and then gradually steer the reader towards typing out code by hand. You could think of it this way: at the beginning of the book, you're riding a tricycle, but by the end you're handling a Harley Davidson.
My advice is this: as you're reading this book, take it all with a small grain of salt. They tend to hail Flash as the final point in web evolution, and sort of treat HTML as a necessary step for embedding your SWF file. I would swing the pendelum back towards the center, treating Flash as part of a wholistic solution to the web, using the most logical solutions where appropriate. Sometimes we over-complicate things, and lose the beauty of simplicity. As long as you maintain a larger perspective, you will learn much from this book.
Book Description
Entity-relationship (E-R) diagrams are time-tested models for database development well-known for their usefulness in mapping out clear database designs. Also commonly known is how difficult it is to master them. With this comprehensive guide, database designers and developers can quickly learn all the ins and outs of E-R diagramming to become expert database designers. Because E-R diagrams are so fundamental to database design, this book is also an indispensable text for teaching computer science students the basics of database development. Database Design Using Entity-Relationship Diagrams clarifies E-R diagramming by defining it in terms of requirements (end user requests) and specifications (designer feedback to those requests). The book explains how open communication between designers and end users is critical to developing usable, easy-to-understand E-R diagrams that model both requirements and specifications. The authors explain, in an intuitive, informal manner, how to develop an E-R diagram, how to map it to a database, and how the resulting database can be tested. This definitive guide is a basic component for any database course, and is also an invaluable reference that database professionals can use throughout their careers. introbul>Features
Customer Reviews:
Great book.......2004-05-13
This book is totally a best buy. It is simple enough for newbies as it explainly the concepts rather clear. It helps in designing a good database. Great book, two thumbs up!
Good book for quick explanation of complex database concepts.......2004-02-24
Very good book that can be used as a text book for the beginners as well as a reference for experienced DBA's to refresh basic concepts and ideas. Worth buying and reading. Good job....Authors!
Book Description
XML is a completely platform agnostic data medium. Flash is able to make use of XML data, which is very useful when you are creating Rich Internet Applications -- it allows you to populate Flash web interfaces with data from pretty much any source that supports XML as a data medium, be it databases, raw XML files, or more excitingly, .Net applications, web services, and even Microsoft Office applications such as Excel and Word! In this book, Sas Jacobs first introduces XML itselfwhat it is, its syntax, its associated technologies (such as CSS and XSLT,) and how to get XML out of your applications in a format Flash can use. Then she shows how to use the XML object to stream XML data into Flash, and how to use the XMLConnector component and XML Sockets to build advanced Flash/XML applications. Numerous example applications are built throughout the book, including an MP3 player, XML photo gallery, an Excel-driven web catalog, Access and Word-driven content management systems, and an XML-driven chat application.
Customer Reviews:
Great Book.......2006-12-26
I really do not understand what the negative reviews are all about for this book. Even if you do not want to use office to generate your xml, you can still read over those chapters use the xml file created and learn HOW TO USE xml in flash which is what this book is about. I would probably not use office but I learned alot about processing the xml files that were created by the office program. Anyways this book took me from 0 knowledge about xml in flash to becoming fairly copmpetent in this subject. I highly recommend this book.
Horrible Book.......2006-10-27
I had to purchase this book for a class I'm taking, and now it's 8 weeks into the semester, and I seriously got nothing at all from this. I'm having better luck looking for tutorials than reading this worthless book. Pictures are horrible, chapters drag on forever, and it's just plain not worth the 40 bucks i lost for this. Find a different book if you're just learning xml and flash, worst purchase in my college years!
Not exactly what I expected..........2006-07-13
I was actually hoping that it would be the perfect companion to the 'PHP for Flash' & 'Advanced PHP for Flash' series but it's more on the intergration between XML/Flash/MSOffice which in the web-designing industry is kinda/sorta useless since seeing that most of the technology used is PHP/ASP and MySQL.
The book is great for learning the basic functionality of XML with Flash but doesn't really give you the in-depth functions that are so widely used today.
Hopefully there will be an 'Advanced' series out soon.
Happy flashing!!!
Learning to use XML structured data in Flash projects.......2006-04-10
This clearly written and well-organized book provides an overview of XML and how to use XML structured data in a variety of Flash projects. Anyone who is interested in working with XML in Flash and would like to learn more about how to get started will benefit from the easy-to-follow examples and the range of topics that the author has chosen to cover. Beginning with an overview of XML the chapters quickly move on to show how Flash can use XML data. The content is addressed to both Flash designers and developers. While Flash developers may already be familiar with the uses and specifications for XML schemas, Xpath, and XSLT; many Flash designers will gain an appreciation for many of the complexities of XML, as well as insight into the Web Services model. Later chapters, for example, reveal how to use Microsoft Word, Excel and Access to create XML content.
As one who can manage Flash ActionScripting, but who does not have a strong programming background, I found the background into the various XML types to be quite helpful. The book does an excellent job of explaining entities, relationships, schemas and how to navigate an XML object in order to show the how to use XML content with Flash. I was particularly interested in the many applications for e-learning and found the blend of author's screenshots, code examples and main text to provide a nice balance of learning styles.
I learned a lot from this work and am sure that it would be useful to people who are already familiar with Flash and want to learn more about how to use XML with this program.
Really nice book.......2006-03-10
How to use the XML in the Flash? This is one of the doubts most recurrent in lists and forums of quarrels. Who already tried work in Flash with XML created in one of programs of the Office Package definitively already lost the patience, much calm is necessary to reach the accurate node of the correct skill.
Sometimes we obtain alternatives, but almost always having to lose much time to carry through simple tasks. There the book "Foundation XML for Flash" of the Friends of ED publishing company enters, it presents simple solutions for who works with this type of archive, shows as to work with archives of the Word, Excel, Access besides instruct to work with Web services and much more.
It is a perfect book for who wants have complete reference regarding about the Flash and XML theme.
Book Description
In this book you'll learn:
- The basics of video editing using Movie Maker 2, iMovie, and more
- How to import your video into Flash
- How to work with Flash Video components
- Several of the new features of Flash 8, including alpha channels, filters, and blends How to master several amazing video effects, such as green screen superimposing, video walls, getting your users into the thick of the action with webcams, and much more!
Do you want to master Flash video work, and work your way toward creating awesome, mind-blowing, interactive web applications? Well, don't go any furtherthis full color book is all you need to step into the future. When Flash Professional 8 was released, it seemed as if we'd embarked on a web video revolution almost overnight. Up until then, web video was a morass of competing players, technologies, standards, codecs, and playback quality. The inclusion of the On2 VP6 codec, the FLV Playback component, alpha channel video, and the Flash 8 Video Encoder has ended the infancy of web video, creating an instant benchmark with no stops in between. And this book is the ultimate guide to Flash 8 videoit offers practical advice, technical guidance, and a full series of creative projects ranging from the dead simple to the complex in a manner that talks to you as an equal and makes only one assumption: basic familiarity with the Flash interface. We start with the basicshow to edit video in some of the most popular packages available (such as iMovie and Movie Maker 2) and create a Flash video file and import it into Flash. Next, we move on to the good stuffcreating a custom video player; creating an alpha channel video and using it in some spectacular projects; turning your creativity loose by applying filters and blend effects to video using the Flash interface and ActionScript; creating video walls, menus, and stunning masking effects; and exploring how Adobe After Effects 7 and Flash Professional 8 are poised to become a motion graphics powerhouse. Best of all, you will discover something the authors had discovered by the time they started writing this book...this stuff is fun! Summary of Contents:
- Creating FLVs using the Video Wizard and the Flash 8 FLV Encoder
- The Basics of Video Creation
- Alternate FLV Creation tools: Sorenson Squeeze 4 and Flix Pro 5
- Creating Flash Video using the FLV Components
- Creating a "Talking head" video using Alpha Channels
- Adding Filters and Blend Effects to Flash Video
- Masking Video
- Creating a Video Wall
- Choosing and Playing Multiple Videos
- Using the Camera Object to Involve the Audience
- Actionscript and Flash Video
- Video Delivery to Cell Phones
Customer Reviews:
Huge Disappointment.......2007-06-27
I bought this book being a big fan of the Friends of Ed series and expecting that an entire book on just Flash Video would cover all I need to know and then some. Wow, was I wrong. There is hardly anything to be learned here.
I'd be willing to bet you'll learn a lot more from a video chapter in a general Flash book like Flash Bible than you will from this.
As an example, one thing I wanted to do is display a video's current and remaining time (like YouTube does). None of the current FLV skins support this, only the Media Player component which you can't customize. This is not covered anywhere in the book. Maybe its just me but I think that is a HUGE omission. The chapter on customizing your skins is short and elementary...nothing new to learn. And that was the main reason I bought the book. I emailed the author about the time thing, and got back a link of an FLV showing only the current seconds in decimal form. Much like the book, no effort was put into this.
Luckily in an online forum someone was good enough to post their code on how to link up text boxes with the current and total playing time of an FLV, in conventional time format. Honestly I learned more from those 3 small blocks of code than I did from this entire book.
Steer clear and save your money for an ActionScript book. You won't learn anything from this book.
A Solid Foundation.......2007-04-19
This is a well-written and enjoyable immersion into the nuts and bolts of creating and publishing video on the web using Flash 8. Aimed squarely at those beginning to work with Flash Video, the book is quite thorough for that audience. Most importantly, it covers all the essential principles one needs. From data rates for encoding videos to alpha channel effects to using the BitMapData and other classes, this book will set you up to launch that internet tv channel you've been thinking about.
However, if you're looking for the mind-bendingly master kung-fu video tricks that break existing rules of reality, I'm afraid you'll have to look further. Or write it yourself!
I like the clear organization and simple instructions the writers give. The book serves as a handy reference for those just starting to use video and other related objects in Flash. The code is broken down and explained for the reader and one can use these building blocks in combinations to stunning effect. Especially helpful is the section on playing multiple videos.
The writers make the whole thing fun and light. Hell, we're all playing around figuring out what we can do with these toys. I'd like more heavy, serious passages as well, though. Still, worth the cover preice, though.
A Good Place To Start.......2007-04-17
Title: Foundation Flash 8 Video
Author: Green & Chilcott
Publisher: Apress/FriendsofEd
Begins with an overview of video file formats with brief descriptions of each. The various steps involved in creating an FLV file are covered using the Video Wizard and the Flash 8 Video Encoder. Ample screenshots with settings selected are provided, as are descriptions of all the menu options, etc. Basic video editing is described using readily available programs like MovieMaker and iMovie. Alternative FLV creation tools such as Sorenson Squeeze and ON2Flix are covered also, with start-to-finish examples provided for both. FLV components as well as the video object are introduced also.
Alpha channels and keying are described with various tutorials using Premiere Pro, After Effects, and FinalCut Pro. Using a single clip, users learn how to remove background from video with these applications. The keying plugins used in the Adobe program tutorials are specific to the Creative Suite Production Bundle. Users of the standalone versions of these programs will be able to achieve the same results using other included plugins.
Filters, blend effects, and masking provide an insight into the creative potential of Flash video. One compositing tutorial I found particularly useful used a single FLV file to demonstrate the different effects possible using drop shadows. Others use Illustrator shapes to create masks, and ActionScript code samples enable the manipulation of mask color as well as creating motion. Other useful topics with their own chapters include creating video walls and choosing and playing multiple videos. Bandwidth issues and their importance are stressed several times here.
Streaming video using the camera object is described in detail, as well as creating a video box and flipping video. The creative possiblities seem endless. If you have a webcam installed, you can see yourself on multiple billboards in Times Square using the Chapter 10 tutorials. The last two chapters get further into ActionScript and motion graphics using After Effects.
The book itself provides a solid introduction to Flash video, and demonstrates the many ways Flash now increasingly interacts with other programs. The tutorials are straight-forward and practical, and keep the reader interested. Like other FriendsofEd books, all the source files are
This is the fun stuff!!.......2007-04-04
Foundation Flash 8 Video
by Tom Green and Jordan Chilcott
Publisher: Friends of Ed
Copyright: 2006
ISBN:-13(pkb): 978-1-59059-651-7
If you need some inspiration, this is a good book to read. It starts out basic and gets becomes advanced.
It explains the whole video process from scratch. One part that I liked was the description of buffering. The book explains that the key to successful playback is the data rate and storing enough packets before the video starts.
This author has fun with video. He is always showing you the amazing things you can do with a very small amount of code. He starts with showing you what the components can do and then ramps up with a very simple code sample that is required
to connect a video object to a web server.
Next Tom and Jordan go into Alpha Channels. They show you how to make a video clip with a green screen mask, attach it to a video object and add a drop shadow. Other exciting topics are: trim a video and use it like an ad banner, play video on video, adding cue points to trigger Flash events, and having someone walk across your web page in a browser. You can do amazing things like having a talking head discuss car models and adding a race car in another video zooming by in the background.
Filters are discussed and how they are added to a video embedded in a movie clip. He warns you that adding filters can be processor intensive.
Some of the things you learn are: moving your mouse across a video and creating trail of blur as you go. Also projecting a video onto an underlying image
with a screen blend mode.
Masking videos is discussed. You can create a mask in Illustrator, drag it into Flash and make it a mask layer. In Illustrator you would apply the roughen filter to 0.5 and the chalk scribble brush stroke. This would be placed as another copy above the mask to enable the details of the artwork to show.
Tom and Jordan show you how to fill Times Square with your own videos by removing the ads, and making masks for your own video feeds.
There is quite a lot of information about building a video wall. He explains getting the Flash Media Server 2 for no charge.
One of the crucial things about working with video the authors say is "Watching the pipe". This means always considering how much bandwidth you are using.
This book is not a complete resource on the Flash Media Server 2 or After Effects but, it touches on them just enough to get you interested.
The authors even leave you with a bit of information on video cameras and how to hook them up with just 2 lines of code. I enjoyed the fun approach in this book and its simplification of a complex topic.
Great Start for Video.......2007-03-01
Highly recommended this book informs you about key points in Flash Video from Date Rate to frame rate it also shows some of the more sought after function. It will help anyone new to Flash video get up to speed then move on the the next book Poetry in motion for more advanced techniques
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