Multimedia Books

Wonderful for anyone interested in Flash. The pace is never slowed to explain the ins and outs of basic computer use, yet everyone should be able to grasp the concepts explored. It was worth the [money] I payed; get it now for [less]!

Please disregard the previous review I submitted as it contains an error. It should read that the author left out a gotoAndStop action on the rectangular button, not a Stop action on the 1st keyframe.

After looking over the reviews of several Flash books I chose this one because of its high ratings. After using it I find it does indeed deserve the praise given. It's perfect for someone like me just starting out with Flash. I only give four stars because of a few errors, most minor, but one fairly important one which caused some serious grumbling and gnashing of teeth on my part--In Hour 16, radiobuttons, page 351, the author neglects to instruct the reader to put a stop action in the first frame. Still, it's a great book and well worth the money.

The book teaches you the elements of using Flash but the exercises it instructs you to do are many times pointless...most especially the actionscript programming lessons. The "step by step" directions are confusing...at the end of the book, I was left wondering how I am going to build a usable flash site? Well, I know how to animate a bouncing ball...but what the hell is that going to do for my flash site? This is a confusing and worthless book.

i'm just about to start chapter 8, i'm taking a break...Although I plan on finishing this book in 8 days rather than the marketing tool of 24hrs, the book is amazing!
Its easy to read, full of easy to follow and useful tasks in each chapter, and has a summary and quiz at the end of each chapter to make sure you're paying attention.

One thing i like so far is that the author writes like he's talking. He will repeat important things over and over until you yourself have it memorized. LOL!

Great book and defenitly a book that I will finish reading and following to the end.

This book is awesome. Very easy to read & follow and quite informative. I was able to make a really cute flash within 2 chapters and 2 hours. I can't wait to see what I can do when I'm done.

Flash is a complex program with innumerable functions. Phillip Kerman breaks the program down into bite-size chunks and leads you through each one step by step. His explanations are concise and easy to understand and always followed immediately by practical exercises so that right from the outset you get your hands dirty creating things using the program. The absolute beginner will have a solid overview of the basic functions of Flash by the end of the book and be able to begin experimenting with a project. The book's well-organized structure and detailed index would also make it ideal as a reference tool for those who already have some knowledge of the program.

It takes FOREVER to get to the point and many times there is repitition over the instruction. Sometimes in the same paragraph! A good book that gives information yes, but it could easily have been cut to a third the size.

I bought this book last month due to some good feedbacks. But when I read, it seems the book is too much unnecessary words just to make it look thick but the actual content is thin. I would recommend to learn from the help section of the flash program itself. It's much more clear and right to the point not like this book. From there then google up and you will find a lot of more better tutorials than this book and best of all, it's free!

Hi all, first of all, I just want to thank all the people who had written the comments on this book. It had helped me a lot in making a decision in buying this book. Thanks.

As for the book, I just got it. I am in Hour 2 and so far, it has helped me soooo much. I am new to Flash and I think this will be a great book for all the people who are new like me. I gave it a 4 stars rather than 5 since I haven't finished the book yet and can't comment on the whole book. But base on the first 2 hrs, I think once I am done with the book, my rating would be a 5 star.

Not many editions of this book still available so this is a moot point, but save your money. Don't buy this book. Put the money in a fund to purchase better 3D software. I have abandoned Truespace entirely as I believed most serious 3D artists had. It's not the author's fault. It's just outdated software which might explain why no one has written a book about using it in over 4 years even though newer versions keep coming out. The book is ok but from it's description I though it might be more of a user's manual and I was dissapointed to see it wasn't.

Frank Rivera's Inside TrueSpace 4, is an excellent guide for both beginners and experienced users of TrueSpace 4. The book covers virtually all aspects of 3D modeling using TrueSpace including modeling using NURBS, spline modeling, metaballs, creating human and non human characters, shaders, including texture and bump mapping, alpha channel transparencies, animation, lighting, radiosity, volumetrics.

He even includes his own recommendations for those contemplating starting a career in this field.

His book is divided into categories and is well organized and is like an owner's manual. But unlike the TrueSpace owner's manual, this book is a how to book. The manual for the most part only explains the features and tools in the software and has only limited tutorials and explanations and a few examples. Mr. Rivera, and his colleagues in some chapters, actually explain step by step how to do various tasks in TrueSpace. In his book he details in practical step by step guides for example, how to build a star fighter using metaballs, how to create a fish, how to create twisted rope using the sweeping tools, how to create a human superhero using metaballs, how to create a mushroom using deformed spheres, and human figures with deformed spheres and cylinders. He gives practical examples as to how to animate some of these. He explains "bones" in detail and the keyframe editor, spline path animation. He explains in detail how all the tools work in practical very simple English instead of technicalese which some books write their manuals in. Lighting, radiosity, hard and soft shadows are covered in detail as well as dealing with rendering artifacts, light leaks and other issues. He gives tips of how to achieve photorealism even using this relatively old and obsolete piece of software. He even explains how he built the Native American chief on the cover!

It is amazing what can be done with this old software!

The book is an excellent companion to the owner's manaual, and in fact, when I am stuck on a problem, I often turn to Mr. Rivera's book first before going to the manual, partly because my manual is in PDF format on my computer and I like looking through a hard copy book better, but also because, Mr. Rivera explains things so well and with clarity and often gives those insider hints and tips, which may not be mentioned in the manual. He apparently has been doing this a while and he knows what he is talking about.

Great book!

The only criticism that I have is that he doesn't cover plastiforming in TrueSpace, a tool that, as far as I know, is unique to TrueSpace. Maybe Bryce or some landscape modeling software have something like it. But I have 3 different 3D modelers and haven't seen anybody else with anything like it -- not even close.

That would be a cool tool to work with and cover in a tutorial.

This book was published four years ago and still is by far the most comprehensive tome on TS available in the market. A combo with truSpace FX Creations ought to make it a more useful source of advice and information.

Programmers who want to write their own game programs are often stuck developing their own graphics as well. TrueSpace4 allows you to produce complex 3D mesh objects to be loaded directly into DirectX game applications. I am by no means an artist but I was very pleasently surprised with the great job Frank Rivera does at giving the reader clear and easy to follow tutorials allowing even non-pro artists to produce fantastic results. I highly recommend this book to game programmers and computer artists alike.

And I have. Frank used to run a tutorials site which contained a large portion of the content of this book FOR FREE. Many of the techniques for character modeling were outdated years before this book was even published. The section on special effects using spheres is especially disheartening, since trueSpace has had many plugins available for some time that were created for particle effects and other special effects. This is a decent book for a beginner, but to REALLY get to know the program, and if you can get a hold of it, pick up Peter Plantecs' trueSpace2 Bible. Since most of the features in trueSpace2 are in trueSpace 4, you can get that book cheaper and it's written MUCH better, and many of the tutorials in Inside trueSpace4 were written FOR trueSpace 2, you'd be better off

I bought this book because I had read a bunch of great articles in magazines by Tharp. I expected to hear a bunch of stuff about psycology in trading and that kind of stuff, but Tharp spends most of the effort telling about how to create a trading system that will guide your trades. He covers money management, risk management, and how to develop trading rules for your personal style.
I wish I had read this book years ago when I began trading, but hey, I've got it on the shelf now. Great reference for both new and experienced traders.

For the serious student in the field of personal finance, this book is actually written for someone above a 3rd grade reading level. Well organized, it is a progressive study of the various areas of personal wealth building, calling upon the expertise of authors for different topics. This is a must for any investor's personal library.

Great book for starter investors or for those who want to understand the market!!!

Safe Strategies for Fiancial Freedom is by far the best book that I have found on the process of achieving/preserving wealth and finding financial freedom SAFELY. Virtually all of the other books on these topics are Ra-Ra pep talks with few substantial tools, or they are directed at giving you a Holy Grail system. If you are looking for a Holy Grail then you need to realize that there are no Holy Grail Systems, purchase Dr. Tharp's other works, work on yourself, develop your own systems, and read this book. If you are looking to take control of your personal finances, protect and grow your capital then start here.

Of Dr. Tharp's many works, this is the most approachable (and is very approachable) for the average person, and it is very informative for the sophisticated investor. It provides a great foundation in assessing your financial picture, your responsibility for yourself and how your beliefs effect this, the components of a complete system for investing, risk control, assessing your system, the big picture of finance, and approaches to different investment catagories. At the core is Dr. Tharp's belief that whatever you trade or invest in needs to fit you. Fitting you means matching your beliefs about yourself, money, and the markets be they stock, bond, curreny, real estate, or baseball cards. If you do not believe that you can be financially free, you are not going to be. There are extensive tools provided to assist you in developing a target and game plan, continually assess where you are, what the big picture is doing, and where to find opportunity.

Unlike Dr. Tharp's previous books, this book gives you systems (sets of rules) to use. You need to decide if these fit you and your goals. If these recepies are not quite right for you, you can adapt them. Back testing of systems is discussed, and the limitations of back testing systems are elucidated. There is an extensive discussion on how to improve this limited information through simulating your system and how the information gleaned from this exercise can inform your decisions regarding Risk and Position Sizing. Risk and Position Sizing are also thoroughly discussed as these are THE KEY to reaching your goals in terms of gains and smoothness of your equity curve. The classic Tharp marble game is presented and gives you a true feeling and experience of how position sizing can dramatically effect the results of your system. These concepts are critical to turning your investing (or non-investing) into something "safe" instead of "risky".

The information in this book will repay you many times over the cost of the book and your time to read and implement its information. Read this book! Have your kids read it. Give it to family and friends, and you will be doing something to improve all of their lives. Safe Strategies for Financial Freedom Deserves a 7 out of 5.

I have read Van Tharp's first book, "Trade Your Way To Financial Freedom" and made a glowing review of that book....this book isn't a trading book (even though it introduces the concepts of Position Sizing, and Expectancy) ..but more of a general personal finance book...Instead of teaching you how to trade stocks...it teaches you how to trade mutual funds, and general real estate concepts (that you should look into more if you want to go that route, it'll be foolhardy to jump into real estate learned from only that book). It also tells you how to get yourself more familar with today's economy. Not only it teaches you how gets your finances in order with debt reduction and asset reallocation techniques, it shows how to protect your growing wealth and teaches your children how to start saving as well!! I wish this book was written decades ago...I'd be so much ahead...

This is the only personal finance book that gives you all the tools you need to help you go in the right direction..

I bought this book hoping to learn more about After Effects but unfortunately, the only good tutorial that really teaches you about the program is the Atomic Cafe because it goes over importing Layered Photoshop Documents, Illustrator files, and Quicktime movies. All the other lessons in the book are a huge disappointment. I don't like saying that because I think Alex Lindsay does an admirable job with going into great detail about Multi-Pass rendering techniques. Check out his tutorials and teachings at Pixel Corps or DV Garage. You won't find much detail here. That is not to say that the book is not without its merits; I love how the Atomic Cafe lessons teaches the fundamentals and techniques of nested compositions, as well as complex effects. If you really want some good After Effects tutorial lessons, then check out Trish and Chris's other books which do a little better at giving you the information.

i needed this book for school, and it did the job i learned tons of effect tricks through this book.

if motion graphics is your thing, this is a fantastic resource. Nobody more clearly explains the basic concepts of layering, nesting, timelines, footage, transformations, masks, precomposing, stencils, track mattes, transfer modes, keyframes, rendering, resolutions, plugins, working with audio, and much more.

The "Creating Motion Graphics with AE", and "After Effects in Production" must be considered the best of the best, even for those who may be using other products such as Apple Motion, or Combustion, etc.

Highly recommended, as is having plenty of time and some decent hardware.
The tutorials are a blast ! Go thru them all (this takes awhile folks) and you begin to get the idea....motion graphics is fun !!!

After I bought after effects the software had little interest for me. I never new that broadcasting and such could be such fun. Did a lot of editing for animation studies with this tool. Looking forward to buy the next book when I'm finish with this. Recommended for advance users.

This is an excellent resource for After Effects. The "Meyers" Have always produced great learning materials and this is another proof positive of that.

I attempted to learn Flash 5 first with a dummies book and then a sam's book. Neither compared to this one. The whole hands-on-training series offers just that, a hands-on approach to development. The included tutorial movies were especially useful and were the individual exercises the author had us follow along with. It doesn't cover many advanced topics, like action scripting, but for a beginner just wanting to learn flash, this is a good read.

The book gives clear step-by step instructions on most Flash 5 functions.

However, the book does not give clear instructions on how to create navigation buttons. I had to spend hours of trial and error.

Nor does the book explain how to make input boxes and provide feedback for an educational program. I am having to purchase a few more Flash 5 manuals and hope that at least one of those manuals will help me.

I've gone through a variety of tutorials, but this one I highly recommend. The lessons are easy and straightforward. People have told me Flash 5 was hard to learn, but with this book I thought otherwise.

This book was written by teachers for learning,and it does it better than any other books I've seen. It doesn't hurt that she really knows her Flash as well.

Some will bypass the book because it isn't a top notch reference guide for the experienced person. My view is "What good is a reference manual if you don't have a good book to teach you?"

You won't do better than this book for learning Flash.

I've tried 3 or 4 other books while trying to learn Flash over the last two years. This is the one that finally got me way up the learning curve.

Overpriced? No, I don't think so. The authors and editors put in a helluva lot of work on this book, breaking the subject matter into digestible lessons and then double-checking the tutorials. I've paid as much for other books that taught me nothing (because they weren't user-friendly and didn't keep my interest) and paid six times as much for one-day courses that were excellent but 50% forgotten a week later.

I see some of the other reviewers complain that the book does a little too much hand-holding and baby-talking. Well, if you haven't got much going on in your life, then I suppose you can teach yourself Flash by trial-and-error and by trying to read the inscrutable Macromedia manuals. The rest of us, with real lives, really need and appreciate the baby-step tutorials and extras on the CD.

The authors are teachers and seem to be warm human beings as well. I would not only recommend this book, I'd look forward to taking real, live classes from them.

You can't watch television these days without getting bombarded with ads for on line brokerage companies. What's been missing has been a centralized source for information about the whole thing. This book provides that source. It's not complete - if it were it would be so big that you couldn't carry it around - but it's a great start.

You can read this book from cover to cover in just a few hours. That is, just a few hours if you don't take the time to go out on the web looking at the things she suggests. And that right there is the key to this book. Here is a good start that covers the whole field from A to Z, and at nearly each and every point along the way she points you to web sites for more information about specific points.

The problem with going to the web for more information, of course, is that web sites appear, go away, merge or whatever. She admits this, but accepts this risk and gives you multiple sites (you couldn't possibly visit all that she mentions) or suggests ways to find a missing or dead site.

This is a great way to get the basic information you need before getting started with selecting a broker and deciding what to buy.

I came here to write a review for this book, and found that a reviewer below, "A reader", had already written what I was going to write. This book provides a reader with no information, but with long lists of websites to look at. You can access those websites most often just wasting time (like "A reader" already said). Using search engines like Google/Yahoo is much better than thumbing through this book.

As I surf the Web, I often feel that it's like visiting a library where all the books have been spilled on the floor. The information is there but I don't know where to begin my search. "Investing Online For Dummies" explained how to get started, steered me to free or low cost online services, pointed out the important parts of Web sites, and showed me the process of online investing.

The delivery was on time. The book is good for me

This newest edition of "Investing Online for Dummies" reflects the latest changes and improvements to online investing Web sites. Addresses building an online information system, setting up a basic investment strategy, determining how much to invest, selecting an online broker and trading online, finding the right investments, performing Internet transactions securely, saving on commissions, managing a portfolio, and much more.

I just purchased this book and I'm looking forward to learn how to create games using flash. I have to get a good grip on the basics of flash first though. I got this book for $5 from Amazon's used book marketplace. Even though this is for Flash 5, this book can still be applied to Flash MX.

The book was a very simple read. Good online examples, but I was looking for something a little deeper.

I bought this book after flash mx was released, so I spent a great deal of time rewriting the code from this book to be more "mx-like". Such as having the code more centralized and creating clips instead of duplicating. If you stick to the flash 5 ways of doing things, this is a great book...however, some of the techniques in this book are now considered bad technique with MX. As far as gaming goes, this book is really good. Just wish I waited on the mx version!

Having mastered flash basics - this was the first Actionscript book I bought. It's nice to get straight into making cool programmes instead of having to master hundreds of commands first. Gary explains actionscript in a really easy to understand way and you end up with some really good programmes that you will probably use again and again. 5 days later I'm churning out work like I've been using Flash all my life. Thanks Gary!

This book is certainly the most fun way to learn ActionScript ! The examples are great and FUN ! Even if you're not interested in games, I would recommend this for beginners wanting to work with ActionScript. I also bought Moock's book, which was a quite boring read and is only useful as a reference. This book is the kind that you go through from cover to cover (you can't put it down until you finish it !)

This is a wonderful addition to the already comprehensive book "The Study of Orchestration". People who may have a little trouble hearing what they read on the page--as is my case--will find very clear and well-recorded examples of everything discussed in the books.

In addition to the useful audio recordings of several short score excerpts seen in the book, there are also very helpful video recordings of musicians playing various instruments using every different known technique.

For those who cannot get a hold of a live orchestra to demonstrate the limitations and qualities of each instrument, these CDs and the book they accompany are an effective substitute, and worth every penny.

Samuel Adler's book covers all important instruments in the modern symphonic orchestra: how they look, how they are played, where they come from, how they sound, how they blend with other instruments, their practial range (both for professional and non-professional players) and the correct notation within various contexts. It also tells the orchestrator about limitations and build-in problems for each instrument and how to deal with it. This alone is worth the price tag.

This book focusses on the orchestral "tone colors" and how they are mixed. Of course the widely accepted notation is widely covered as well in many examples.

I would have loved to have an accompanying CD (which of course would be expensive to produce - but it would immensely add to the value of this work), and I also would have loved to learn more about how to build great sounding voicings and how exactly the various sections dovetail into each other (melodic and harmonic concepts and layers). From this book I know what I can do and what might sound odd. But I gained little insight on how to tackle an orchestration, how to start: the down to earth nuts and bolts.

There are some examples on how great composers broke the rules. But (as I expected) we have no clue about the ideas behind it and if it actually worked. I would love to have for once a book who doesn't make gods out of famous composers (they are, no doubt, but that's old news - true teaching should equal motivation) but let us in on their secrets, at least as much as possible. Also: we know that rules are meant to be broken, but there are even rules on how to break rules. It's just the next level. I would love to have books on that.

Otherwise: very highly recommended! Not to be left out in any orchestrator's library!

All I can say is these six CDs make all the difference when taking this orchestration course, no matter if it's in a class or on your own. In fact, this whole set, including the book and workbook, was a dream come true for me. Orchestration is greatly demystified with the accompanying CDs.

This is the first textbook I've ever had that I couldn't put down. If you love writing classical music, get this book. I have found a few errors, but nothing detrimental to your orchestration education. It cites a lot of very useful examples and contains layers of information.

I am a complete novice but I recognize this is the required study program. You must also buy the CD/DVDs that go along with the book.
Not cheap, but an outstanding learning tool. I would recommend that you read a book on music theory and composition before buying this set to get the most out of the program.

My husband asked me to find a book of some kind for Adobe Illustrator because he knew WHAT he wanted to do, but couldn't figure out HOW. I did the research on my favorite site (Amazon!) and picked this one. He loves it!! He's been going through chapter by chapter and learning all kinds of new stuff. Thank you Amazon.com, and thanks to all the posters for the reviews.

Recieved item on time, right when we were told it would arrive. Book in very good condition.

I bought this book because it was required for a graphic art class. We went through the first 5 chapters, and now we are going to learn Photoshop. It is not good as a reference book, but more as a step-by-step "cookbook". The accompanying CD was very helpful in learning techniques. Anyone want to buy it from me?

I've been working with Illustrator over the past months, and this book helps me to understand some quite useful topics. The books is writen in a easy-to-follow way, so you can go chapter by chapter, or just jump to a desired function. Also, the book is full of highlighted items, so its easy to follow one example that leads you to new and useful tips and tricks.

Generally a good book and handy tutorial. The CD is helpful and the books give users a quick aptitude for the programs. Which is what we want. I give this three stars for the one big problem I have with this and the rest of the Classroom in a Book series: they are often inaccurate! There are a lot of frustrating little inaccuracies that make the user wonder if he has gone crazy or is doing something wrong. Please, Adobe, edit these books a little more carefully!