Friends of Ed: New Masters of Flash

No, this isn't a book of programming, or strictly a tutorial. But it's beautiful, inspiring, and it does give step by step on some specific designs. And it's the best book on advanced Flash that I've seen. The tutorials are mostly for reasonably high end designs such as you find on www.praystation.com and www.yugop.com, etc. What I like is that it is a good presentation on paper of what you look at as a designer on the screen, and it shows you the back-end in detail. You've probably already seen the designs, but this is still inspiring. If you need more pure design inspiration, this may not exactly be what you are looking for. But I love that it isn't afraid to launch into the mathematics behind these designs, it does assume that you know a few things, and I think it's an excellent book in a void of solid Flash reference. If you fully understand all the techniques employed in this you're ahead of the game, but if you were to work through all of this, using your own creative vision, you'd certainly feel more like a power user. It's certainly not going to hurt in the pursuit of your Flash muse.

If you are looking for a strict how-to Flash 5 Techniques/Actionscript book, then turn back. This book offers more to the seasoned designer than to geek-heads or weekend designers looking to scramble up some new effects and action scripting techniques for their latest project. What's more, this book is the first to concentrate on design principals and philosophies and allows each author to express where they drew their influences from, how their sites have evolved, and what lead them to make the design decisions that ultimately put them on the map. Furthermore, this is all in conjunction with the step-by-step how-to. So often, people (lazy designers) are looking for an easy source to duplicate what they see rather than using these resources to deepen their creative forces and ultimately create something of their own.I started reading the "New Masters of Flash" over the weekend. Yes, I'll agree it looks thick and the pages are filled with large screen shots, but by no means does this hinder the books ability to convey its rich source of information in any way. It's simply an incredible collection of strong design philosophy and mainstream techniques. I will agree that the step-by-step writing could have been better implemented. However, what I like so much about the book is that each author describes his/her own design philosophies and creative reasoning in detail, as well as showing work by other more credible artist and designers from the past who have inspired their ideas. The authors describe these influences and how they draw their ideas, elements and philosophies into their final Flash projects. Anyone can publish a techniques manual for Flash that you can duplicate the step-by-step instructions to create a variety of visual effects. But, New Masters of Flash offers a great deal more. It offers you a chance to be inspired by what has inspired the authors of this book. This book will help you make more productive design and creative decisions. This book truly opens your mind up for new and exciting creative ideas with Flash. Giving you a plethora of information and techniques to go off on your own with, rather than just, simply copying techniques verbatim. This book is a true joy for those looking to deepen their creative pool and advance themselves to a new level of artistry.As far as the any missing tutorials on the CD-ROM go. You can visit various web sites listed in the book to download them. Some sites even offer bulk downloading for those of you with a broadband connection.

Being a person who is both academically trained as a programmer and an illustrator this book was a breath of fresh air. Most Flash books out there now are aimed at two groups beginners and designers. This book shows us how flash is truly a right-left brain technology through not only its tutorials but also through the explanations of the thought processes that go into this right-left brain thinking when applied to Flash. Many here complain that these designers talk too much about their thoughts, and inspirations. But guess what, designers feed on this information and so to be more complete technology people should as well. And as for designers who complain that its to complicated I ask that you not question the book because it is to advanced for you, but instead look to it as a path towards expanding on your abilities. I hope others in the publishing industry use this book as an example of how to empower web developers and make us more understanding of both programming and design.

I spend all day checking out sites, looking for inspiration and I think I've found it. The book brings in different designers and highlights certain aspects of their sites, which then explains the process step-by-step. I've been doing flash for about over a year now and have been waiting for a book just like this. These designers are the cream-of-the-crop. The book manages to go over several flash secrets without being repetitious. One thing, it is not a basic flash book. The book expects you to have the basics and some advanced actionscripting knowledge. If you know the basics this book is the next step.

The tutorials and explanations are extremely helpful. But what I found the most informative and inspiring were the methodologies, insights and viewpoints these visionary designers use when conceptualizing flash projects. Rather than wanting to copy their work, you develop a synergy into your own projects and that is truly powerful. The book is beautifully done and worth every penny, I also recommend hilman curtis's book. My fav designer in the book is eric jordan.