Foundation Flash CS5 For Designers [Paperback]

Introduction
Flash is for each version becoming more and more complex. New possibilities are introduced to serve the ever evolving online platform. New users of the program are enthusiastic about the opportunities they have seen Flash offered when on the Internet and then get stuck when they realize the complexity and the work it takes to make really great sites. The problem is that it requires knowledge of ActionScript 3.0 to add interactivity - an insight that designers either can't or will relate to. This book takes the issue seriously and makes a genuine attempt, to some extent, making ActionScript to a part of the designer's tool.

Size and Layout
I can't just off-hand recall the previous editions of this book because I do not sit with them at the time of writing. But I have a clear feeling of more "weight" in this CS5 edition in regard of both content and number of pages. The over 800 pages are not used for full-page illustrations, but to explain concepts and principles behind the tools and opportunities. When you have been introduced to books in color, it's always a little sad with these black and white books, but conversely it will also be a significant costly change which I can certainly understand being downsized. Maybe the e-book version should be colorized though - just a thought.
In the beginning the book seemed a little vague, without a firm grip on content and the programs position in a larger perpective, but it came quickly in the track and gave me no major problems in relation to pedagogy, later.

Tone and pedagogy
The tone of the book is light and humorous, and puts a lot of energy to explain. It provides value for both new and experienced Flash Designers. Especially the chapters on video and audio compression shows an understanding and explains the underlying concepts very beautiful.

Photos, Illustrations, etc
It is clear that there are not spent much energy on the book layout. This is the type of books with a set of guidelines on how to code, menu commands and shortcuts to be written, and then it's out of "runway 14," with pictures between text lines. Info boxes in uniform colors with a thin line around etc. No symbols for "tips" and "remember" boxes. I was a little annoyed in the beginning while skimming the book, but the book's contents made me forget a lot of my initial criticism - but it's not a beauty, but it's getting the job done just fine.

Contents
The contents of this book is probably the most ambitious I've seen in a book meant for designers. The 15 chapters begins with a walk-through of the program, talks about drawing and deco-tool. It then pack it in symbols and explain about them. In Chapter 4 it introduces the concepts and basics of ActionScript - in a good way. Here is one of the more important point for designers to really take the time to try and understand concepts. It is great to see, that the authors take the responsibility address the topic and introduce the concepts in a very understandable way. From Chapter 5, ActionScript is an integrated part of the book and explains how sound, video, 3D, text and animation are used, not only through the program's own tools and commands, but also how you can access them via programming.
Towards the end the book introduces XML and CSS and show some real projects, MP3 player, XML photo gallery, etc. - real examples that have not been as many until that point. The book concludes with ways to publish and optimize your project for web or mobile devices and also discuss a project being ported to Android phones via an AIR file.

Conclusion
It was a great pleasure of reading the book and I will definitely "dive" into it again and refer to it in my teaching. I would not recommend it for new designers who are not computer familiar, since it takes some rather large steps on some of the ActionScript topics, where completely newcomers will need some explaining - it's not enough to tell them, that "It is a rather complex subject and is well out of the scope of this book." In return, I would certainly think that a designer who has a little flair for the technical could get a long way after reading the book and end up with to a trick or two that makes it possible to create projects , not possible without code. At the same time, this is one of the books as a novice could read again and again to achieve a little better understanding of each reading.
How much I may disagree with some of the transactions in relation to what should be explained where it is absolutely recommendable, and also a good stepstone towards dedicated ActionScript books..

Sincerely,
Karsten Vestergaard (Ockley)
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I never write reviews and am constantly asked to do so. That is unfortunate since many books deserve a good review. THIS ONE DOES NOT. I am writing this review because I finally threw the book out and went to Amazon.com to buy another one and figured I would "do justice" by writing this first.
No long review here, just the facts. The book is loaded with errors, poorly written, printed poorly (all black and white on cheap paper), edited poorly (or maybe not edited at all) and I was learning nothing from it. The authors joke around constantly (which I think is a very poor, unprofessional writing style) and seem very "full of themselves." They come across as newbies and at one point (I never got past chapter 3) they even admit on how 9 slice scaling was not working in their example (as they were "developing it") and they had to go back and study it! The examples they use are absolutely horrible. They will tell you to do something and indicate how obvious the change is and I notice no differences at all.
Avoid this book at ALL COSTS!

This book is difficult to use from the start. I had to ask my teacher where the link was online to download the exercise files because the book hid it in an obscure location and then it didn't have the link on the webpage they sent me to. I don't know why the teacher chose this book, or why they didn't include a disk with the book. Obviously this book requires an internet connection to use.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 10 reviews  3.1 out of 5 stars