Flash CS4 Professional Digital Classroom, (Book and Video Training)

The media could not be loaded.  I found this book to be an excellent guide to learn Adobe Flash. I really like the step-by-step instructions and the pre-made lesson files because it immediately gets you creating interesting things while you're learning to use the program. Learning to use computer programs can be really dry and one of the hardest parts of creating something can be just coming up with an idea. Since the creators of this book provide you with everything you need to get started on a few prefabricated projects (on the included CD) it really helps keep things as interesting and interactive as possible.I'm nearly finished with the book - it took me approximately 2 weeks to get through it, working on it just about every day. I uploaded my very first animation where everything was completely mine. It's a bit rough but 2 weeks ago I didn't even know Flash was an animation program! (I bought the book initially to learn more about including home movies on my website).The only reason this book gets 4 stars is because I've found quite a few errors in this book. I understand no one is perfect but I think there are more errors in there than there should be and some of them are pretty big mistakes. For example, one of the lesson files for Chapter 11 wasn't on the CD. I had to read 3 pages of information about it without being able to interact with the lesson. Also, the lesson for Chapter 7 had an error where one of the actions wouldn't work with the way they had it setup. After some tinkering with the program I got the animation to work like it was supposed to, but I know the error was the books fault because the included finished project on the CD wasn't playing correctly. There were a bunch of other small errors I couldn't even begin to outline here, but just know they exist when you're going through the book.So, in conclusion I found this book to be a great learning tool and I would recommend it to anyone who is an independent learner with a strong desire to understand the basics of Adobe Flash. Just watch out for those errors!

To begin with, teaching web programming or web design through books is a monumental task. Programming comes easily to some, but is much more difficult for others. Certain publishers and authors work well for some, and not for others. For instance, I have yet to meet a Visual Quickstart Guide that I could follow, whether it be Photoshop, Dreamweaver or Illustrator, but I know plenty of people who swear by them. Conversely, this book worked well for me, but might not for someone else. Tech books are very tied to learning styles and you might have to try a few different publishers before you find what works for you.In general, this is a pretty good book for learning the basics of Flash animation, provided you are not interested in learning a lot of ActionScript. The chapters on ActionScript are pretty slim, and unless you are already familiar with ECMA Scrip syntax, ActionScript can be somewhat difficult to grasp. For instance, I still don't why I have to type :void; after certain ActionScript functions. Doesn't 'void' mean 'void?' Well, in ActionScript, not exactly. But since ActionScript can be such a powerful tool, especially for enhancing interactivity, I wish more space in the book had been devoted to it. The videos on the DVD are helpful - but they only cover one small aspect of each chapter, which is unfortunately, usually that of easiest task to master. It would have been better to include videos of the more difficult tasks.The book is very easy to read and equally easy to follow. The lesson files are helpful, although some of them have too much already included from the start, so that you are jumping in in the middle rather than starting from the ground up. For some chapters, that worked just fine; but for others, I felt that I would have learned more if I had had to create more of the project from scratch.

I love the digital classroom books. The way the lessons are laid out along with the videos a person can easily learn the software the book is for. I have lots of digital classroom books but this one does have a problem with teaching you how to you the art deco tool along with the grid translation. The book could tell you more how to get them to work together and what buttons to use. I have tried to use this part of lesson 5 twelve times and still cannot get it to work and the video on the chapter doesn't go into this part of the lesson. Great book if a person wants to learn Flash CS4 Professional as long as do don't care to use the art deco tool and grid translation together that is why I'm giving the book 4 stars.

This is the best book/DVD package to learn Flash 1st level--the 2nd level being ActionScript programming. Very little ActionScript in it but for all other aspects of Flash it's a very thorough book while being fun at the same time. I had no problem following the book tutorials and the video lessons, although short, are a fun way to learn. The secret after that is to redo the exercises several times (practice, practice, practice) to anchor the knowledge in your mind and you're ready to create your own Flash animations, movies, etc. Aquent is a top international employment agency for graphic designers and developers and is linked to an excellent school ([...]). This book had to be good. Although I must say I find it to be one of their best.Again if you are looking for an introductory ActionScript book look elsewhere.  Learning ActionScript 3.0: A Beginner's Guide , is excellent.

If I had never messed with photoshop or flash I would have given this book a solid 5. I learned photoshop a while back and and before I got this book I went on line and did a lot of Youtube flash tutorials, but there were some things I could not seem to find such as changing a shape tween into an actual symbol. This book also shows a simple way to access flash scripts without manually typing them all in. Note: if you have been using flash for a while this book would be that helpful.