Flash 3! Creative Web Animation

This book is great for learning more intricate tricks once you've learned the basics. I already had been using the application and was hesitant because of other reviews, but found this book has great examples for furthering the understanding of the program. I highly recommend it.

I can only say this book provided much needed information at just the right time for me. I just purchased Flash 3.0, read through the User Guide, visited the Macromedia Web Site, and worked through the Flash 3.0 on-disc lessons. Still, much of Flash's basics seemed obscure to me. Once I opened Darrel Plant's book--and began working through the lessons--the basics started to jell. The book covers importing vector art from other apps such as Adobe Illustrator. It does a nice job covering the Flash drawing tools (make sure to supplement this with Macromedia's on-disc tour of the drawing tools). Overlays and symbols are explained. Frames and layers are clearly covered and "tweening" examples and exercises help the reader understand Flash's animation capabilities. The book finishes with chapters about Actions (Flash and the Web, Button Effects, and Complex Actions), Sound, Delivering Movies, and a great set of Appendices covering transmission speed, HTML tag references applicable to Flash, Browser Scripting & Shockwave Flash Movies, Using Aftershock for automatically generating HTML code, etc.Sure, it may not be on par with Adobe's excellent "Classroom in a Book" series, but how books are? If you're already well versed in Flash, or gleaned all you needed from Macromedia Flash's on-disc lessons, then this book may be a disappointment. Nevertheless, this book was fun to work through and provided much needed information and guidance for this novice. Thanks, Darrel Plant for writing one of the few "tutorial oriented" books about Macromedia Flash 3.0 that I've been able to find.

This book was clear and concise. It enabled me to design vector based aniumations within minutes of the first few chapters. Within no time, I was creating visual effects for my web page, I was pleased. And still am.. If you want to learn Flash to the extreme, get this book.

I only say "supplement" because any author of a book on Macromedia tools must be able to provide something the user can't get for free elsewhere (and this is quite a task, since Macromedia's online documentation is robust, and is updated often).Darrel Plant's book is VERY easy to read and understand. But specifically, allow me to judge the book for what it claims to provide:"... you'll be animating your web site in a Flash! ..." [front cover]No fasle advertising here. Sure, Flash accomplishes a lot in a little time; but this book provides a wonderful overview of navigating in Flash."...follow step-by-step tutorials ..." [back cover]They should've included the words "easy-to-follow" to this claim. At times I thought it was a bit TOO simplistic, but I felt like there's enough MEAT to warrant the price -- $30 bucks in the US.What more could you ask for? A 15-page index, by far the most exhaustive for a web application book I've ever seen, is also included.I bought this book, plus PeachPit's Visual QuickStart on Macromedia Fireworks (also a fine guide, but not the calibur of Plant's book).