Foundation Flash 5

Rating:
Summary: some frustrating errors, beware!
Review: I am currently half way through working with Foundation Flash5 and need to stress that anybody thinking of buying it, should visit the friendsofed website to find a list of all the errors in this book beforehand. Without that reference, around page 266 you'll be pulling your hair out!- (why pay good money to do that?) Having said that, the style and content of this book is easy to get along with.

Rating:
Summary: Starts you out with good Flash 5 habits
Review: Foundation Flash teaches the beginner excellent Flash 5 habits. It assumes that the reader know nothing about the Internet. The intro sets the reader's with the Flash mindset and starts aout slow by defining the Flash work area and tools. Then the author introduces the features of Flash - motion tweening, shape tweening, importing GIFs, sound, etc. Towards the end, basic Actionscript is introduced. The tutorials are illustrated step by step and uses professional techniques - which is good for beginners - so read it.

Compared to other Flash books, Foundation Flash is straight to the point but yet gives decent explanations to why the steps are neccessary. After reading this book, I went to other Flash enabled sites and were able to mimic their effects. However, there are still many Flash trade secrets I need to know and the Friends of Ed Studio Series would be the next step for that... I am now reading Foundation Actionscript.

This is definitely not a boring book. The author's humor is clearly displayed in their writing which keeps each page entertaining. For the first time, I read a book from cover to cover. (Other reviewers must be out of their mind to rate this title less than five stars).

Rating:
Summary: The Best Flash Book Out There!
Review: Foundation Flash 5 is the absolutely the best Flash book on the market. Even though it is for the beginner to intermediate user, there is not a flash designer/devoloper who could not benefit from this exception book. The authors did a remarkable job in their unique way. I own hundreds of computer books and never have a ran across one to this caliber. No, there is not a CD with this book but I must tell you I did enjoy going to the site and checking the codes from there. I really feel I am a friend of ed. I had gotten to chapter 4 and ran right out, before the bookstore closed, to purchase Foundation Actionscript.
What a wonderful book, I just wish there were a lot more out there with this style!
If you know Flash, or you want to learn Flash, or even if you just think you are interested in Flash this is the book for you! When you finish this book, you will understand and know exactly what you are doing.
I give this book a 10! Truly awesome!!!

Rating:
Summary: very very easy to follow
Review: one day i decided that i wanted to learn that eye catching program flash(5) i got the software, then quickly realized that i needed some source of education to learn it.. So knowing nothing from the start, 3 weeks later after purchasing Foundation Flash 5, ive got a solid understanding of flash 5 and many of its tools... the only thing that kept me from giving it 5 stars was its tutorials, very educational, but quite boring.. the next step from this book will be an advanced flash5 book, that Foundation Flash 5 has brung me too successfully.

Rating:
Summary: I wish they could all be this good...
Review: What a find! Not only do the authors reveal the incredible power behind Flash 5 (and there is so much more to it than I ever realized) but they do so with style, humor, and a case study exercise to put your knowledge to practical use right away. I wish every tutorial could be this enjoyable. After this book, you can consider me a friend of Ed.

Rating:
Summary: whoops
Review: I anxiously waited for this book to arrive. Having visited Amada Farr's excellent website, and having used the many tutorials there, I was expecting a blockbuster book. When it came I read it cover to cover. Wow, I was impressed. It sounded great. The explanations seemed really straightforward and surely gave me the feeling that this was the only Flash book I would need. The trouble started when I went back and tried to do the exercises, particularly the case study. I found whole sections missing an explanation. I read and reread sections to see if it was just me. I tried again, and still was not able to get the case study up and running as explained in the book. In desperation, I invited a friend, someone with no flash experience, over to try and see if he could succeed where I had failed. He did not. I am now looking for another Flash 5 book, one that has examples that work.

Rating:
Summary: Best introduction to Flash, but...
Review: I learned a lot and feel very comfortable with the basics of Flash, and I would've given the rating a 5 like everyone else, but there are major problems with the Actionscript 1 section. If this is your first exposure to scripting, you will only be confused and frustrated. Page 493-504 is devoted to a spaceship game. There is a lot of errata on the FriendsOfEd site on this section, but the game still doesn't work. Plus a variable called ship_pos which equals _root.ship._x is created, but never used. They make you type out the _root.ship._x anyway. I'm on page 505, and I already see more errata coming. Did they get tired toward the end of writing this book? Such a shame. This first part of the book is almost flawless and does teach a lot, so I still recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: foundation flash provides solid instruction
Review: Wow!! What a find! Foundation Flash is a wonderful book which was the ideal match for my stage of development in my flash career.

Before this book, I was a flash advanced-beginner...meaning I have produced a few commercial flash demos as the graphic designer in the UI team for my company. I have an understanding of the drawing tools (I teach photoshop), but have minimal skills in action scripting and am basically programming-illiterate!

I opened the book at my computer and went through every exercise step by step in a few nights. I agree with the reviewer who emphasized that this book is not a basic flash resource but truly a tutorial from start to finish to be studied in a linear structure. You can't miss one paragraph or your final result may be incorrect - prohibiting you from continuing on to the next chapter. But I found that to be a challenge as it taught me to analyze my code and I felt elated when I discovered my mistake - despite several instances of thinking it must be the author's mistake - ha!.

I have read many Flash4 books, attended the Flash Forward Conference 2000 in SF, downloaded numerous .fla tutorials from the web, but was still daunted by action scripting. This book approaches action scripting in a methodical, informal, and happenstance way - relating it to everyday activities such as making a cup of coffee or tea. My success with Foundation Flash prompted me to open the next logical book in the series:Foundation ActionScript (the author co-authored Foundation Flash). I started into the land of dot syntax last night and can say that I'm 1/3 the way - up to the variables chapter and so far, understand much of the tutorial. This, from a mind that up until no was not able to understand logic in any format!!!

Thank you Foundation Friends of Ed for creating such superb books. I would not recommend them as the *only* book for the absolute beginner, but they are suitable as a classroom textbook with a teacher proficient in the exercises and understanding of concepts. Foundation Flash compliments those books that teach basic flash drawing and animation skills such as the Macromedia Flash5 Manual, Visual Quick Start books, and many others...Don't let these books pass by your studio.

Now I'm waiting for the Foundation Director 8.5 book.

Thanks Friends of Ed, I'm a fan! mganeles

Rating:
Summary: Worth every dollar and every hour spent
Review: I'm only halfway through Foundation Flash 5, but I had to stop and tell other potential readers what a great book this is. Foundation Flash 5 includes just the right balance of explaining why and how, then presenting exercises to help you really understand and remember the material. Most of the exercises reinforce skills learned in previous sections, as well.

The book starts at a fairly basic level (just right for me, with one year of Web development experience but only a little Flash knowledge), but presents really "meaty" material. The tone is slightly entertaining without being silly or wasting my time.

After working my way through the rest of Foundation Flash 5, I plan to purchase both of the other books by these guys: Foundation ActionScript and Flash Magic 5.

Rating:
Summary: It's a Miracle!
Review: I have tried to get started on Flash a year ago, but the books I've bought confused me more than instructed me. After spending a small fortune, I decided to give up on learning Flash altogether.

One day a couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine was raving about this new Flash book she bought, so I decided to buy it (this was my last shot) and see if it would help any. Little did I know I was going to live and breathe Flash 5 two weeks later! I am so proud of and amazed by this book, I've referred it to 4 of my friends already!

Never in a million years would I have thought that I would get this far. The examples and explanations are glued to my mind, and the Case Studies greatly help me to retain what I have learned.

I already have a copy of Foundation ActionScript sitting on my desk, and I cannot wait to get started on it!