Rating: 
Summary: Please, do not get this book
Review: I have just started out in Flash 5, I have read "How to do everything with Flash" which is an excellent book for beginners, I know my way around flash pretty good, except for most of the actionscript's. But, I ordered this book hoping to be able to learn something about animation, Files missing, so you have to go to his website and download them, so he can get more hits :) . I actually had to email him asking about things because this book was so poorly written. I guess you can tell he's a beginner just by looking at "his" animations. Please, don't pay for this book, I wouldn't even advise you read it, it's a waste of time. it's too bad I couldn't give this book no stars, because I would have :)
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent
Review: I picked this up in a store thinking I would skim through it. 45 minutes later I was still reading. I thought this was an excellent book. It seems to be aimed at someone who's done enough Flash that they don't need step-by-step instructions. Someone who is interested in doing some animated cartoons, but isn't in the business or ready to make a career out of it. (Though if you are looking to start a career, this book is a good start.)The topics include: How to watch existing cartoons (very interesting points on the different animation methods). Basic cartoon drawing. Animation tips. Tips on adding audio. Tips on actually getting paid for your work. This book has me fired up about trying something new. That's pretty rare.
Rating: 
Summary: A Beginners Guide
Review: I should have listened to one of the above reviews, entitled "This book was written by a beginner". If you never done animation and never used Flash, then this book is your new best friend. If you've used Flash, you can skip the beginning chapters. If you've ever done any animation before, don't buy the book. Compared to other Flash books and material out there, this book doesn't hold up. The author's own work is only average at best, as he ever states in the intro. "...I'm not the best, not ever ranked". For anyone with experience, this just isn't the book you're looking for.
Rating:
Summary: Great beginners book
Review: I think this is a great book for the beginning animator. I know a lot of people have dissed it but I think they were looking for an experts guide or something. This book told me what I needed to know to make my own animated cartoons. The writer has a delightful style and is easy to read. I know some files were left off the CD by the publisher, but the author put them on his web site for download (what else can he do?)If you are not already an expert animator then buy this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good book for learning cartooning, but not perfect
Review: I thought Mr. Clarkson did a good job explaining how to use Flash 5 to create cartoons, as well as some general tips on using Flash (such as using nested symbols and shared libraries). The general animation tips are very helpful, too, such as how to create storyboards, recording sound, and simulating camera movement. However, the CD has some files missing - the Rat and Penguin Xmas movie, the storyboard pictures, and the Stickman tutorial file, which are needed to do some of the tutorials. .............. - click on the Flash 5 Cartooning link, and scroll down the page until you find the .zip or .sit files. Also, I wish there were more info about how to do transitions, such as how to do a fade out. I have to agree that some of the included movies were offensive. Still, I think for somebody wanting to do animated cartoons with Flash, this book is a better choice than Flash Cartoons and Games FX, since this focuses totally on cartooning, rather than being split up between cartoons and games (I thought there was too much emphasis on games in the other book).
Rating:
Summary: This book was written by a begginner
Review: I was looking for a book that would show me how to develop cartoons using flash. I went through 3 or 4 options and finally (unhappily) chose this one. At first glance the cover looked cool, when I opened it and took a look on the pages I inmediatly noticed how basic this book was going to be. Anyway I started reading it... and finished it and I found just 4 good advices... this whole book for 4 good advices... THIS IS A BOOK FOR BEGINNERS WRITTEN BY A BEGINNER!, the only thing good is that the author keeps showing REAL PRO tips (which was the only thing useful, he seems to have a lot of friends that DO know how to do cartoon work and he should ask them to write a book; he shows himself as a beginner... he does not know how to draw... none increidible cartoon made by him, so how I am supposed to learn something from someone who does not know the art of cartoons?, yes he might had the iniciative to write a book, but please!! I would have learned more if I had bought a "normal" flash "how to use", or "Flash for dummies" book!! The CD that comes with the book is cool though... everything but THE AUTHOR'S CARTOONS (what is up with the pigs and the fisher)... I JUST WISH ONE OF THOSE REAL ARTISTS WROTE A BOOK FOR THE PEOPLE WHO WANT TO LEARN FROM SCRATCH. I am writing this review while I am looking for another book, and hope there are more. Just thought about making something to make people dont waste their money on this terrible book... by the way the author claims to be so happy because of winning an internet contest at atomfilms.com, I think it was pure luck... if you visit that webpage you'll find out AND INCREIDIBLE LEVEL of art and quality... nothing compared with the author's work... Mr. Clarkson: Let the PRO's do the work of writing a book and let you do the work of reading them...
Rating:
Summary: A somewhat helpful book
Review: 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 Flash Animator over this one. 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.
Rating:
Summary: If you want to 'Toon' with Flash 5, BUY THIS BOOK!
Review: I've bought just about every Flash tutorial there is, but this is the BEST one to get once you get the absolute basics down. It won't tell you how to arrange your workspace like some beginner books will (get 'Foundation Flash' for that - great place to start & get up to speed in a hurry), but if you've even spent a couple months messing around with Flash on your own, you're ready for this book. If you want to cartoon with Flash & even do movies with it, this book is a must have. There are a ton of Flash books out there that can get you going in Actinscript, learning the basics like tweening, etc., but this is written in a very concise manner that takes you through the technical aspects of how Flash can be used to create cartoons & movies (like the ones you've probably already gotten from someone in your email or seen at places like AtomFilms), yet makes it so easy to understand that you'll wonder why no one wrote a book like this 2 years ago. I only started with Flash a couple months ago, and I'm already cranking out cartoons like nobodies business because of this book. Hats off to the author, Mark Clarkson! THANK YOU for writing this book!
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful but not useful book
Review: If you have common sense, you don't need this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Cartooning in Flash. 2 choices, choose the other one.
Review: If you're looking to learn more about cartooning within Flash, there are two choices right now. There's Flash 5 Cartooning by Mark Clarkson and Flash 5 Cartoons and Games f/x and Design by Bill Turner. Both carry a pretty heafty price tag. Which is a better value? I think is Flash 5 Cartoons and Games. It's a better book than this one and I learned more. (read my review when you search the other book. I bought both) Flash 5 Cartooning covered the basics but I think the other book went more indepth. The cd with the other book is by far a better value with a 3 minute cartoon and the source file to analyze. I think that's where I learned the most. In this book, the cd is only a little enhancement, most of the stuff is of less quality.
I didn't like the fact that the walk cycle examples were done with a robot. When doing animation, no one does a robot anymore. If you are looking for a job in animation, be it 2D or 3D and you put spaceships or robots on your demo reel, it gets chucked in the garbage. I would have liked to see a multitude of walk cycles using different characters (people) to see the tricks with characters, bending at the knees, with not so rigid movements. I didn't learn that from this book. That's an area difficult in Flash and would have been nice to see someone else's perspective. There were some positives and I did learn some tricks, but the book wasn't full value. The explanation on Flash's drawing tools were ok. The last chapter talks about selling your work. The construction of the book is much better, where as my other book is falling apart at the seams. My suggestion, by Flash 5 Cartoons and Games f/x and Design. If you have extra money, I would go to the store and just read the last chapter (5 pages) of this one and save the money. Just my 2 cents.
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