Animation Books

Flash 5 Cartooning is a good book for beginning flash cartoonists. I recommend getting this book from the Amazon.com used book marketplace in order to get more bang for your buck. Once you have a grip on Flash Cartooning, you may want to start creating some flash games.

I also recommend and have the following books:
"How to Cheat in Flash CS3" by Chris Georgenes, "Cartooning: Animation 1 with Preston Blair (HT26)", "The Big Book of Cartooning", "Dreamweaver MX / Fireworks MX Savvy", "Flash MX Savvy", "Flash 5 Bible" and "Macromedia Flash 5 ActionScript for Fun and Games". The "Flash 5 Bible" has a small section on cartoon animation.

Clarkson's book on Flash 5 for animating offers a great foundation for animators who want to learn Flash. Probably not the best book for those interested in other aspects handled by Flash, like Web Design, but the title says it all. Well-paced and easy to digest, his book also goes easy on the tech-speak that loses most casual learners. All in all, a good start.

This book is great for begginners i loved it. I had just gotten flash to play around with for fun and i did some online tutorials but they only taught me the very basics (like drawing and keyframes with motion tweening). It was a start. After reading this book i would consider myself a mediocre flasher. I can make reat movies now. Now that i have learned this i am moving on to actionscripting which is the only thing this book lacks. But all-in-all this is a great book and i still use it every now and then for reference.

I'm sorry but I didn't achieve the goal for my cartoon with this book. I get frustrated easliy and this book being a partial culprit. Sure, I learned a little actionscript. But I recommend the The Art of Flash Cartooning over this one. There are also free online sources that will provide some very important instruction on staging and layout which this book covers briefly(Staging is too important to have a brief walkthrough) The CD gave me the urls to some cool sites and some cartoons to watch other than that this book isn't of much use to a flash animators, particularly beginners. In order to do something it is best to do it right the first time or not at all.

As someone who has quite a bit of experience with animation programs, but little exposure to Flash, I found this book to be very useful. It's written in a lively, entertaining manner and Mark Clarkson manages to describe difficult procedures in terms even those new to Flash can understand.

Flash 5.0 GA&I is a great book from James Mohler, a leading multimedia specialist. The book covers enough detail for more advanced flash animators but is easy to read and understand for beginners. The book covers everything from the layout of Flash to integrating it with your website. Mr. Mohler not only shows you how Flash works, but also the intricacies of digital graphics. I think this last point is very important because it helps beginners grasp some of the concepts of digital graphics, which they can take with them when they learn other digital multimedia. This is an all-around great book for people interested in learning Macromedia Flash and digital graphics.

This is a good and useful book, but it could be better.
Each function is presented first with explanatory prose, then with step-by-step instructions. The explanatory prose doesn't make any sense until after going through the step-by-step instructions.

After a few chapters, I decided that "Flash 5 Hands-on Training" (0201731347) was easier to understand, so I switched books.

Neither book, however, gives clear instructions on how to create navigation buttons. I had to spend hours of trial and error.

Nor does either 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.

This is a good and useful book, but it could be better.
Each function is presented first with explanatory prose, then with step-by-step instructions. The explanatory prose doesn't make any sense until after going through the step-by-step instructions.

After a few chapters, I decided that "Flash 5 Hands-on Training" (0201731347) was easier to understand, so I switched books.

Neither book, however, gives clear instructions on how to create navigation buttons. I had to spend hours of trial and error.

Nor does either 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.

This is a good and useful book, but it could be better.
Each function is presented first with explanatory prose, then with step-by-step instructions. The explanatory prose doesn't make any sense until after going through the step-by-step instructions.

After a few chapters, I decided that "Flash 5 Hands-on Training" (0201731347) was easier to understand, so I switched books.

Neither book, however, gives clear instructions on how to create navigation buttons. I had to spend hours of trial and error.

Nor does either 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.

This is the best reference book ever! I followed the book step by step and learned many Flash shortcuts and details that I can't find in other books. I try to work on one sample in this book. However, there are some codes wrong in my application and I couldn't find the error. So, I got enough guts and sent the author an email. the author replied me the next day, and helped me to solve the problem. He also explained my mistake. Pretty cool!

The tutorials are based on existing files on the CD. Unfortunately the CD in my case was faulty and therefore rendered the tuturials practically useless. The CD seems to be a common problem with reviewers. I saw this, but thought it wouldn't happen to me. I regret purchasing this book. It was a waste of money.

This is a great book, but it isn't going to hold your hand. There are relatively few tutorials compared to the amount of info. presented. The tutorials all give basic models for you to start with, but if you really want to learn this software you should try to recreate the examples on the CD. The only way to learn this complex program is by doing.

WARNING: If you want somebody to hold your hand and tell you exactly what to do (ie. not learn the program), then this book is NOT for you. If you want to really learn 3D Studio, then get this book and treat it as a beginner's course outline.

I found that this book did not focus in on it's subject (ie. calculators). I think that they should have talked more about the different kinds of solar panels on calculators rather than on the buttons. Maybe it's just because I am an infintesmally small micron compared to the vast, endless reaches of space. I am nothing. You are nothing. While we sit here and uselessly while away our pitiful, lonely lives deluding our selves that anything we do makes even the smallest amount of difference to anything. So, next time you go for a 3 am swim with the pink elephants (wink, wink) remember to bring your spoon.

Of course, if you want to learn a program, you have to use it. This book is a nice compendium to draw from for somewhat savy beginners, but it can be, like all books of its ilk, stale and utterly uninteresting to read. I find I use it the most when I stumble across a problem I have while using 3d Studio, and I need a quick explanation of a function or such, but otherwise I didn't find it too helpful when I was first struggling with the program itself. I guess I just lost interest when I sat down at my computer to to read/use it, but perhaps it's because I'm a hateful man.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It makes you aware of the unlimited possibilities of Max, but nothing more. You keep wanting to know exactly how things can be done. It is a very good starter though. A little more attention could have been given to the material and mapping section. I really recommend this book to anyone who wants to get started seriously with 3D design.

Well i ordered this book thinking it would be a great source for all sorts of actionscript uses. Instead i found a book that had a few tutorials in it. Although they were very well written they were to specific and the book didnt cover enough. I would rather something a little more in-depth

I bought the book thinking it would be a great resource for actionscript, but I can not even get through the first project. The exercise is not explained well, and it has some inherent internal problems.

I tried to contact the author via his online forum, but to my surprise the author had not personally answered one question, and he wrote the book; needless to say that was a bust.

All-in-all, I do not suggest buying this book as it is a waste of time, effort and money

Iam taking a class right now thats using this book. Iam almost done with chapter 2 and i have to say that iam completely lost. This book is by no means good for a beginer. I will probably just finish the book for the class then have to find another book that breaks it down better. I find that it throws concepts at you way to fast and you get to the point that your just typing the code thats in the book. I took a couse in flash using the book Flash MX 2004 Hands on Training by Rosanna Yeung. That book was easy to follow and understand and provides a great foundation for learning the layout of flash and design. Touches just alittle on action script toward the end of the book, and now i got this book to help me learn action script but i don't think thats going to happen using this book.

I was initially put off buying this book after reading the negative comments below. But, after borrowing a library copy along with other books on AS2, I decided to buy this one. It is for beginners but it actually does a better job than more advanced books in explaining some of the intermediate level topics too. It delivers everything it promises in its blurb. The accompanying CD ROM has all the files and graphics needed to complete the tutorials whch cover the full scope of AS2. The scripts work which is great for debugging errors you might have made when completing the exercises. I don't understand why it has been given some negative reviews. As an absolute beginner, I'm delighted with this book and my progress because of it. Highly recommended!

I've been working through the Franklin and Makar book for several weeks now. For someone like myself who has little programming experience and no previous knowledge of ActionScript, it is an excellent learning aid. The authors take the reader step-by-step, starting with simple projects and progressing to more advanced ones.

The authors say up front that this book assumes a basic knowledge of how Flash works. They focus on ActionScript, not how to set up objects on the stage, for example. So, if you're completely new to Flash, you might want to work through one of the excellent tutorials that are available for learning Flash MX 2004.

Having an English-instructor and professional-writer background, I'm sensitive to language usage. The authors' style is very conversational, a plus in this case. I did not notice the writing errors that one reviewer mentions. Nor did I detect the skipping around that another reviewer alluded to.

If you purchase a used copy, be sure that the CD is included. It contains two .fla versions of each Flash project: one without the ActionScripts, which you are asked to add the scripts to; and a completed version with all the ActionScripts intact.

I dropped one star from my rating for a few reasons. First, I wish they had included a .pdf version of the book, which would be much easier to read than the somewhat small print in the book. (I used the sample .pdf version of the first lesson, available online, to begin my studying and was sorry to have to switch over to the book when that lesson ended.)

Secondly, the authors fail to suggest that the reader first open the completed version of a Flash project to see what it does before analyzing the scripting.

Thirdly, the authors seem to think that typing in the ActionScript is a good learning exercise and make a point of directing the user to do that throughout the book. This approach may work for some learners, but for me it would just be a tedious exercise. Instead, I want to focus on the logic behind the scripting. So, instead of typing a script into its project, I copied and pasted each script from the completed Flash file into a Word file where I built my own set of notes.

My final reason for dropping one star is that in some cases I had to go to the internet to get further explanations on a topic the authors were discussing. This is a relatively minor issue because no book can cover everything, and the essense of learning is to seek out what you want to know.

Overall, this book has met my expectations and is doing exactly what I wanted it to do--taking me by baby steps through the mysteries of ActionScript 2.

It's me first AS 3.0 book.
This is a good book. Easy to read and learn action script 3.0.
Have examples good and clear for all of the topics.
I like it.

Este fue mi primer libro de Action Script 3.0.
Es un buen libro. Fácil de leer y aprrender AS 3.0
Tiene ejemplos buenos y fáciles para todos los puntos que toca.
Me gusta.

Carlos Barboni
[...]

very simple recipes. for any intermediate to advanced programmer this book is not recommended.

This book is about ActionScript ONLY. when I bought it, I was hoping to find cookbook solutions for Flash and/or Flex IDE and all the step-by-step color illustrations and the cool visual effects that you can implement with those IDEs. That is not really what this book is geared for. So when I first started this review, I really wanted to give it a less-than-5-star rating, but I realized I can't do that in all fairness, because it does serve the purpose it portends. If you want an unadorned, pedantic, O'Reilly-ish how-to on ActionScript, this their ilk. If you want something with easy-to-follow illustrations on the Flash/Flex IDE and flashy visual effects, look elsewhere. Buyer beware.

In theory this book could have been very good. There were a few things that I did like about it. I liked the problem, solution, discussion approach to learning ActionScript. The book covered all of the topics I was interested in. It used real world examples to demonstrate the points.

The reasons I gave this book a poor rating were the fact that it was written for Flex developers and all examples used the Flex tool to build (not very good for me who uses Flash), and they continually gave examples and explained how to solve problems using their predefined, custom classes. The pages would have been better spent showing us how to build these useful Classes ourselves, instead of teaching us how to use them. Luckily for me, I was already versed in ActionScript and could easily understand that these Classes were not part of ActionScript. If I were not, I think it would have been rather confusing to try to pick out their custom classes from what comes with ActionScript 3. I'm trying to learn ActionScript, not the custom Classes the authors have created.

If you are new to ActionScript and not a Flex developer, do yourself a favor and buy a different book.

_t

I've been a fan of programmer's cookbooks ever since the famous Perl Cookbook ages ago. It's a great way to get into a language and do away with any nagging thoughts that maybe you didn't solve a problem well.

This specific cookbook falls short, though. I tried to read it cover to cover as well as individual chapters, but I found it oddly balanced. For example, the authors waste three recipes on about 10 pages about generating a random number (which is just one command!), and then describe event handling (the big thing!) on half a page. I also find it strange to read about trigonometry in a programmer's book, and I don't think recipes work very well for explaining basic language features (such as how to create a new object, or how to "trace a message").

Mostly though, the book is outdated with the release of flex2/3. Yes, Actionscript 3 is still current, but you don't roll your own buttons as subclasses of sprite anymore!

In short, I give it three stars for content, and subtract 1 for being outdated. If you want to read about Actionscript 3, Adobe has a very nicely outlined pdf online, which is an easy read compared to these confusing and stale recipes.

EXCELLENT BOOK.

If your new to actionscript 3 or just new to actionscript period , this book will help you catch up with it. You will feel confident as you go through the book and practice examples.

What I really liked is that while the book is showing you how to code with actionscript 3, the examples will even apply to actionscript 2 or 1 ( with different coding of course, but the principle idea is great)

I would really recommend you pick up this book.

First off: if you havent written any code, ever, im pretty sure this book isnt for you.

If, however, youve written some AS2, or even AS3, and thrown up your hands in frustration, you've found the right title.
Before I read Learning AS3, I had read more complex books like Essential AS3 and AS3 Bible, and written some AS3 and some AS3/MXML and a bunch of procedural AS2 and AS1; not a novice. But the hard edges of the new version of the language were still unclear to me, as I'd read tons of theory and had less than enough practice.
This book is the one that combined these two areas oh so well. It takes the theoretical aspects of AS3 and applies them as no book I've read before does. And the authors explanation of what they are doing and WHY is way better than any flash book I've read since Foundation Flash 5 (published around 2000); There may be typos and code mistakes as mentioned in other reviews, but honestly that wasn't my takeaway from the book. Rather here's a book that gives you a much better understanding of the whys; a book that will help you build what you want to build as opposed to doing mindless tutorials; a really excellent book at getting you over the hump of AS3. Spend the money and read the book. Its the one i recommend to anyone at any level who asks; its that good.

I first became interested Learning ActionScript 3 after initially reading a few samples posted on Adobe's website. What I found was an excellent starting point that drove me to finally make the jump from ActionScript 1 and 2. In practice, most books I have read about ActionScript 3 focus on the Flex platform, which is outside of what I'm looking for. Rather, I needed something that focused on developing in the Flash IDE (Flash CS3 as of this review), which is exactly what this book is written for.

I picked it up as supplement material to aid me in programming a large game programming project. Basically, I've referenced this book to understand the key concepts needed for my game, borrowing code samples where needed and applying them to my own project. In practice, it's the application here that really teaches the concept, and I've found that this book is a great starting point as well as reference for grasping these concepts.

The authors have done a great job presenting the material in an easily-readable casual conversation style. Of these discussions, I particularly found their comparisons to the previous versions of the language most satisfying. As AS3 is very different from AS1/2, I appreciate learning what was changed and why.

I can not vouch for the beginner's guide level for this book. I came into this book as an intermediate ActionScript programmer and often found myself skimming over any discussion on the details of some of the programs. For the most part, the code is easy enough to read and get the point, and if I had questions, these were almost always addressed in the discussion. That said, I think this book is ideal for any intermediate programmer looking to make the jump to AS3.

I am aware that there are some errata in this book, and to that extent, I can simply comment that the website is well maintained, code samples there seem accurate. No problems here.

All in all, I would highly recommend Learning ActionScript 3 as a great companion book for anyone looking to get started programming with ActionScript 3.

If you're new to programming in general, as another reviewer said, "Look elsewhere."

But if you've got a little knowledge of javascript, C++, or even FORTRAN (yikes!), feel free to grab this book and jump in.

I'm in agreement with Lou Costello, regarding the drawbacks of this book. However, there are a lot of good things, too, like great examples and, as noted, the companion website.

If you can get around a pageful of code fairly well, are geek enough to enjoy debugging a few minor typos in the text, and if you're a fairly speedy typist, BUY THIS BOOK! Sit down with it and hammer out a few programs. The code examples are short and clearly demonstrate the concepts being discussed. And they will provide a TON of great ideas for your own projects. If you don't want to type the code examples yourself, download them from the website.

"A Beginner's Guide"? Naw, not really for beginning programmers.
A worthwhile purchase for anyone undaunted by code? Definitely YES.

A "beginner's guide" will disappoint you if you are completely new to learning ActionScript 3.0. I am sure it is a great book, but not enough for a beginner to grasp the fundamentals. Too sad I read this confession only after I was going through the first chapter.

This book is a must have for your collection. It emphasizes the basics in concept design (2d sketches) and walks you through character modeling step by step. In my opinion the book does more than get you started it gives you a solid foundation from which to build. It includes more than enough screenshots plus the CD contains the MAX files for each step.
I highly suggest it!!!

I was expected more model of the book but the whole book only teached one model

I haven't read the second edition yet but the first edition was KICK ASS. Paul Steed takes you through modeling a charater and teaches you all kinds of tricks that hours of reading technical books never taught me. Basically the diference with this book is that it was written by an artist and not some computer nerd with a math degree.

I purchased this book a couple of months ago. Needless to say, I am deeply disappointed with Steed's approach. I found his methods of modeling to be cumbersome to say the least. It seems as if the book has not been updated since the first edition to reflect the many changes now available in 3ds Max 6 or 7 (I don't mention 8 because the book was written BEFORE 8).

When I initially dived into the modeling portion I thought everything was fine. Then -- and this is why I rated it so low -- Steed begins to divide/turn edges in Part II / Chapter 4 / Step 5, which is titled "Step 5: Add Vertices by Dividing Edges." I suppose this would not have been so bad if Steed had thought to include COLOR screen shots on the books CD-ROM, but since he neglected to do so it becomes frustrating -- to say the least -- to use Steed's method of refining one's mesh.

Considering the fact that the CD-ROM is a whopping 19.5MB, it would have been prudent to include full color reference images. Let me give you some specifics on why I found this book such a bitter waste of TIME and MONEY:

* Firstly, let me tell you friends -- it is most frustrating to try to refine one's mesh based on the author's direction when one can hardly see the edges/vertices that are being discussed.

* Secondly, there are easier methods to refine a mesh than dividing or turning edges if you have 3ds 5 AT LEAST!

* Thirdly, Steed falls flat on his face when explaining the reason for turning edges and which SPECIFIC edges to turn. Suffice it to say, grayscale pictures in a book DO NOT work!

* Fourthly, if one cannot get the edge dividing/turning method down, then you'll get stuck because the rest of the modeling tutorials are so heavily based on this method. The only reason I was able to finish the model is because of my familiarity with 3ds Max, Lightwave, and on a more limited basis, Maya.

* Fifthly, and lastly (I hope), when one is able to look at tutorials for Lightwave or Maya, as I have done, and model more quickly and effectively in 3ds Max than Steed's method, then the book leaves quite a lot to be desired...

I think that's all I will say for now, but let me warn you all -- there are far, far better tutorials available online for free. Don't waste your money on this book unless you plan on using it as fuel for a fire.

I got this book 2 years ago when it was hyped as being top notch for learning 3D modeling. On the postive side it is easy to understand and gives you a good idea of the entire process of making a character rather than just jumping around and trying to explain a hundred different unrelated things like other 3D modeling books. The bad part is that the modeling technics are a bit dated and backwards. A person who posted a previous review mentioned that he uses wierd modeling techniques like booleans and splines instead of regular box modeling, and that is the truth. He also wastes A LOT of time turning edges. If you model in quads (4 sided polys) to begin with, and then teselate (triangulate) then its all done for you automatically. And as mentioned previously not much time was spent on the concepts of uv unwrapping and creating the image map.

If you want to learn about iLife this is a exception one to get. Lots of good solid
techniques, tips and tutorials about using iLife applications. Good visuals and
helpful information along the way. Very extensively written. The only knock against
the book and iMovie is that it seems all too easy. I've had problems with iMovie and iDVD and I still
have not figured out how to recify the errors. I wonder if he will come out with a version for ilife ?

one of the best computer books I've worked with. Very detailed about using ILife 06

This book is very well organized, easy to follow and a great reference to quickly find answers to your questions. It is much more helpful than the online tutorials. I highly recommend this as a reference to keep close by when working with any part of iLife.

You have to have this book if you want to get the most out of your new Mac. If you don't have it, you can spend a lot more and pay for personal tutoring at the Mac store (assuming you have one available).

I loved Jim Heid's iLife '05 book because of the integration with the included DVD. You could easily follow along in the book while Jim demonstrated each feature in the DVD and there were good cross-references. The '05 book was the best money I have EVER spent on a computer book. But iLife '06 doesn't include the DVD..... still a very good book but no longer so outstanding. I guess it just got to be too hard to produce a timely DVD with features being added to iLife and new versions coming out so fast. Too bad.

I bought this, flipped through it a couple of times, then tossed it aside. A few years later, I decided to look through it again. This time, after about 15 pages in, I started to get inspired. I was concurrently redesigning my website, and it spoke to that process and, and also of collaboration. This book may reinvigorate your motivation and inspiration for new media design.

Self appointed maestro trys to teach common sense! If you don't inherently know this then you probably have no business being in this business!

The book was in really good condition, although I did not recieve my book on time. Thanks.

I have read the Process and Inspiration sections thus far and Curtis gives helpful advice in how to succeed in media design.

I'm just starting to learn about design, reading online and checking some books at the library of my college. This book is a great help because it does tell you the key fact that all ideas are there, borrowing is ok to transform something into a new well crafted thing,and you can find inspiration in many, many ways. Many useful information, tips, quotes, in general, I'm gonna buy this book for my collection.

I've gone through Chapter 6 three times and get very confused each time. And, no, I am not an idiot.

The changes made to the ShoppingCart.as should be introduced simply, and then more elaborately. There should be a logical step-through process that doesn't rely on writing lines of code before a debug. The explanations are impossible. AND, WHY? WHY would someone name a function (addItem), the same as a property of the ArrayCollection? For someone just starting out, this kind of stuff can be very confusing and takes forever to understand what is going on.

The rest of the book is okay.

I found this book really accessible, and a great way to jump into Flex after a coding hiatus. However, Flex 3 is out and wouldn't compile my Flex 2 apps. I'm sure you can hack code fairly easily to update it (OK, I'm not sure but I guess), but you might want to wait for a newer edition.

This was my first book as an intro to Flex. Very helpful and would recommend to others.

If you're using a Mac. Don't bother with this book unless you know ColdFusion well. Chapter 17 and onwards are dependent on setting ColdFusion up. The book has no instruction in the book for Mac setup at all (it was said the Mac version wasn't ready at the time. Reasonable). Looked up the errata pages found nothing either. I searched the web a little, and was able to set it up, but couldn't get it to start correctly.

I then wrote to the publisher to ask for the instruction. They were quick to respond, but they don't have the answer. They had to ask the author. After more than a month and several emails. Nothing ever came about, which render this book useless to me.

From the 17 chapters I was able to put to use. The lessons themselves are not bad, but not great. Some issues were never clear. Maybe they will be mentioned at the later chapters, but I guess I'll never find out.

So, if you're using Windows, maybe, this book can work for you. But don't expect anything from the author if you ever decide to ask questions.

I've just purchased this book and started reading it. What I've seen is that the book is divided into lessons, and each lesson has different exercises. You can follow the lessons as you were at class, with a very good learning curve. So, if you want to have a solid base on this technology, you need a lot of time to do all the examples and exercises but, when you finish the book, you KNOW Flex 2.

If you're initiated and need a reference guide, don't buy this book. In other case, this is maybe the best book for learning Flex 2 with a training way.

(Sorry for my English, I am Spanish and I've tried to write the best I could)