Flash CS3 Professional Advanced for Windows and Macintosh: Visual QuickPro Guide [Paperback]

There is so much that you can do with the Adobe Flash built-in features such as components and tweeing that it is easy to stop there. But Flash can be used to create some very advanced applications. It just takes a little ActionScript. Once you start writing your own code, you can move up to creating more complex animation, dynamic interaction and server-side programming.

This book by Russel Chun will give you the foundation you need to master advance Flash design and development. Like all the Visual QuickPro Guides, it has a task-based format with step-by-step instructions and illustrations. The author starts with a discussion of his approach to building a Flash project as a collection of components. Of course, he begins by discussing programming logic and the many built-in tools Flash has for ActionScript. After these basics are covered, he jumps right into object-oriented programming with ActionScript. Event handling is the back-bone of building an interactive Flash project and Chun teaches you how to code your programs to listen for events and respond to those events. He begins with the SimpleButton class and ENTER_FRAME event. Next, you move on to coding more complex movie control using multiple timelines.

The best way to keep the download time for your Flash movie to a minimum is to build a modular project made up of a main movie that controls several external movies. The author shows you how to do this by coding Flash to communicate with external files and applications such as a browser, printer, email program and other Flash movies. He also covers how to build a stand-alone Flash player which does not need a web browser and can be used for CD, DVD and other mobile projects. Next, you learn how to create, display and animate graphics and to add sound and video to your movie.

Server-side programming is needed when creating Flash movies that collect, display, manipulate and store user input. Chun covers the basics of using variables, expressions and conditional statements in ActionScript. In order to collect user input and display dynamic feedback to your users, you need to control text. You will learn how to code object-oriented classes such as the TextField and TextFormat classes and how to manipulate data with the Math, Point, Array and Date classes. In the final chapter, Chun covers troubleshooting and strategies for programming the most effective Flash.

You can download the supporting FLA and SWF files from the publishers website. Russell Chun is a developer, writer and teacher of Flash and new media. He has taught at Columbia University and City University of New York.

Flash CS3 can still create SWFs with Actionscript 2 and I noticed a lot of the books out there on CS3 cover how to use it with AS2. One thing to point out is, if you want to develop in AS3 YOU CAN USE NO AS2!! IT IS NOT BACKWARDS COMPATABLE!! If you are familiar with AS2 and want to learn how to update your code to AS3 this is the book for you. It also does an awesome jobs of easily explaining all the new features. Direct and to the point in a development environment with samples. I would also recommend Essential AS 3 by Colin Moock. He is the man and wrote a great reference (800+ pages) for AS3.

As a new Flash designer/developer I found this book to be most helpful for when I needed to do something specific to my project at hand. The step by step details were good and the layout of this book makes it so easy to find what you're looking for. A great reference book!

If you're looking for a true beginners Flash CS3 book I recommend Flash CS3 for Dummies. Yeah, I know it's a Dummies book which some have hesitations about. I have to admit, I was hiding it at my desk as I didn't need my co-workers giving me a hard time for learning such a technical application from a Dummies book, but hey, it taught me in a couple of weeks the fundamentals of Flash CS3 and now I'm off to making great animations. The book is truly for the beginner and explains how Flash CS3 works in an easy to understand, non-intimidating manner characteristic of other Dummies books. This quickstart book was a nice "next step" book as I can pick and choose out of it the advanced things I need to know specific to my projects rather than be overwhelmed with information I don't need right now.

If you're looking for an ActionScript 3.0 beginners book, I recommend ActionScript 3.0 for Adobe Flash CS3 Professional by Todd Perkins. If you want to see more about this book, check out the video chapters on Lynda.com. It comes with a training CD to help explain the lessons etc. I hope this information was helpful to you!!!