Essential Flash 4 for Web Professionals
Author(s): Lynn Kyle (Author)
- Publisher: Pearson Education
- Publication Date: 1 Oct. 1999
- Language: English
- Print length: 257 pages
- ISBN-10: 0130143278
- ISBN-13: 9780130143273
Book Description
Flash is Macromedia's standard for interactive vector graphics and animation on the Web -- and Flash 4 is the most powerful version yet! Now, learn Flash 4 in a flash from professional Web designers who teach through real-world projects you can actually view live on a linked Web site! Start with the Flash basics: drawing and modifying text and shapes; using texture fills, transparency, and imported graphics. Discover how to animate pages using timelines, frames, tweening and fading; then add interactivity with symbols, buttons, actions, and sound effects. Walk through the process of publishing to the Web, including pre-loading, detecting the Flash plug-in, and controlling server settings. Fine-tune your graphics with reshaping, intersections, and brush effects; build animated opening sequences; use transitions, forms, and more. Best of all, the book's projects are linked with a live Web site where you can see (and download) the same Flash effects in various stages of completion.
Editorial Reviews
Amazon Review
Although the title suggests that this book is for serious pros, Essential Flash 4 is actually an easy-to-read and accessible tutorial guide. Aimed at experienced Web designers looking to use Flash in real-world situations, it describes, in deceptive simplicity, everything you need to know to get started with Macromedia's Web page animation tool.
Beginning with easy chapters that immediately have you creating text and graphics, the book launches into the steps needed to create practical Web pages. Although Flash is--among other things--an animation tool, the author shows how Flash can be used for Web page design and navigation. The small size of a Flash file, and its ability to include links and audio, makes it ideal for almost any kind of Web graphics and navigation scheme.
Flash is a tool built for interactive animation, and this is covered well in chapters 2 and 3 ("Animating the Page" and "Making the Page Interactive"). The book also describes animating shapes, keyframes, buttons, and sound effects in simple tutorials that take you through the process without weighing you down in complexity.
Of all seven chapters, "Publishing to the Web" had to be the most valuable. Learning to animate with Flash is something covered well in this book, but there is more to building Flash animations: namely, proper delivery of the file to the viewer. This chapter covers issues concerning which resolution to use, which Flash version to use (for compatibility reasons), preloading, optimizing, and detecting the Flash plug-in on the viewer's computer.
It's unfortunate the publisher didn't include a CD-ROM. All of the tutorials must be typed in (a great way to learn perhaps), and this can severely limit the number of examples new users have access to. There is, however, a Web site hosted by the publisher from which the tutorials can be downloaded.
For Web professionals new to using Flash, Essential Flash 4 serves well as a handy guide that wastes no time getting you up to speed on this powerful animation tool. --Mike Caputo
From the Author
Who might benefit from my book
I wrote the Essential Flash 4 book with the very busy web professional in mind. This is someone like me who needs to gain a basic, usable knowledge of a wide range of web technologies in a short amount of time. In terms of Flash 4, I aimed for people who know nothing or just a little about using this great product. I hope you find my book helpful!
From the Back Cover
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With Flash 4's slick, fast-loading vector graphics and animation, you can transcend the limits of HTML, building sites as hot as your imagination! Now, learn Flash 4 in a flash from a professional Web designer-through real-world projects you can view live on a linked website! Start with the basics, then master every key technique, from animation through navigation, interactivity through building a complete opening sequence. Best of all, the projects are linked to a live website where you can see (and download) each Flash effect, in each stage of completion. It's all the guidance you'll need-every step of the way!
You'll learn all this, and much more!
- Flash basics: Drawing and modifying text and shapes
- Texture fills, transparency, and imported graphics
- Animation: Timelines, frames, tweening, fading, transitions, and more
- Interactivity, including symbols, buttons, actions, sound effects, and forms
- Fine-tuning your graphics with advanced techniques
- Building animated opening sequences, step-by-step!
- Publishing to the Web: pre-loading, plug-in detection, and server settings
Look to Essential Books for ALL the Web Skills You Need!
All these books share the same great format, and the same dynamic website...so once you've used one, learning from the others is a piece of cake!
- Essential CSS and DHTML for Web Programmers
- Essential PERL 5 for Web Programmers
- Essential Photoshop® for Web Designers
- Essential JavaScript™ for Web Programmers
- With more to come, including Essential ASP for Web Professionals and Essential JSP for Web Professionals
About the Author
Lynn Kyle is President and Founder of Ricochet Associates, Los Alamos, NM. Ricochet's Web clients have included DeBeers, Pfizer, and Lloyd's of London.
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