Rating: 
Summary: Great place to start
Review: As a novice to Flash, I found this book both very informative and inspiring. The projects were easy to understand and follow. In no time at all I was creating animations and hooked on learning more.
Rating: 
Summary: Remedial, but helpful nonetheless.
Review: Be warned. Experienced users of other graphics software packages, looking to jump into Flash may find this book a little simple and repetitive. Having said that, let me also say that this book was exactly what I needed to get started. As a long time Photoshop/Illustrator/Pagemaker user, I was anxious to learn more about Flash and it's capabilities. I had even tried a couple of times to get through the provided lessons/tutorials, without actually retaining much.The simple projects in this book allowed me to approach the otherwise non-intuitive Flash interface in a way that, while sometimes sophmoric, was at least not intimidating. In fact, rather than feeling dumb (as I sometimes do when reading instructional graphics books) this one actually made me feel pretty smart. Take that for what it's worth. For the reader's reference, I consider myself to be of average intelligence. So I would say that the target audience for this book is somewhere slightly below average. Which, in this case, was just what I needed to get my feet wet. Having finished the book, I would not consider myself a Flash Master, but I think I've got the basics pretty well down. Now if I could just find a good intermediate level text....
Rating:
Summary: excellent writer that clearly and concisely gets the job don
Review: i already wrote a review on this book, but let me write a better convincing one. despite the fact that this cookbook is 200 pages in length, one can obviously conclude that it probably took longer for him to devise this book than it would for another lazy author who just wants to make money(and those of you that possess many books know what i'm talking about!) =) so, what's my point? he clearly cares that you learn and get the best out of the book and i would have to categorize him as one of the noble people in the world who don't care about money but are passion driven and want to help people. i even emailed him encouraging him to keep on writing... where is the director book???? =P and the specific details of the book... i don't think there's a need for me to mention any... IT WORKS! why does it work.. b/c his philosophy of "collection of short hands on projects" logic is the same advocated by technology experts at IVY LEAGUE schools such as MIT(which i believe the author carefully researched as well to make sure we effectively learn... what a guy..) ok, i'm not gay.. and as per the review below stating something along the lines of "...leaves you with beginner knowledge." ignore that guy... how does one walk without learning to crawl first? and besides.. if you have some software experience, i'm sure that you can figure everything out on your own thru trial and error after having completed this book.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Flash Book to Get You Started!!
Review: I cannot recommend this book highly enough! It is simply the easiest
and best book out there for designers who wish to learn flash, bar none.
I started out knowing nothing about Flash 5 and created a great game
based on the old 50's Invaders from Mars movie, that everybody raves
about. Artists and graphic designers are usually not programmers, and
nearly all books about Flash are for programmers and are very hard for
us artists to crack into. If I were to write a book for computer graphic design, I would use Mr.
Kaldahl's EZ Flash 5 as my blueprint to follow.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!!
Review: I strongly suggest for those of you who really want to learn how to use Flash, to buy this book. This book serves as a "beginner cookbook"! Last Fall, I took Flash 5 course by Brad Kaldahl and his book is excellent! In his introduction, he states: "If you have never worked with Flash you will appreciate the easy to use, short, step by step projects. Rather than describing each palette and menu item and giving an explanation of what they do, you will learn by doing. From the second chapter on, you will be quickly producing exciting web content. As an educator I designed this text because there are no book that tell you where you should start and provide a logical, easy to understand, progression for learning Flash. Both my students and I agree that the most enjoyable way to learn complex software is with short projects that show cool, fun, interesting technigues that can be used (or modified) immediately." Authors who plan to write books on graphic design, animation or 3-D models should follow his example!
Rating: 
Summary: Good for beginners, but leaves your with beginner knowledge
Review: I strongly suggest for those of you who really want to learn how to use Flash, to buy this book. This book serves as a "beginner cookbook"! Last Fall, I took Flash 5 course by Brad Kaldahl and his book is excellent! In his introduction, he states: "If you have never worked with Flash you will appreciate the easy to use, short, step by step projects. Rather than describing each palette and menu item and giving an explanation of what they do, you will learn by doing. From the second chapter on, you will be quickly producing exciting web content. As an educator I designed this text because there are no book that tell you where you should start and provide a logical, easy to understand, progression for learning Flash. Both my students and I agree that the most enjoyable way to learn complex software is with short projects that show cool, fun, interesting technigues that can be used (or modified) immediately." Authors who plan to write books on graphic design, animation or 3-D models should follow his example!
Rating:
Summary: awesome value, and more importantly, practical
Review: i would have to classify this book as a "beginner cookbook" it's an awesome value, considering that it's half the price of New Rider Cookbooks(flash 5 magic, flash deconstruction, etc). but most importantly, the tutorials are practical.. those found in new riders ones aren't so... more of pointless razzle dazzle... don't get me wrong; new rider books are usually on the mark... but this book is simply far better overall than new rider ones but do not make the mistake of thinking that you've mastered flash after having completed this book... i realized that regardless of the different methods everyone takes in learning, there's really no short cut... having achieved certain flash results means nothing more than "monkey see monkey do" i highly recommend Foundation Flash 5 for learning Flash; with flash vqs by katherine ulrich, you'll learn what's available to you in flash 5, but won't learn the workflow... which i think is more important... once you find yourself midway on the flash ladder, go thru new masters of flash by friends of ed.. to give you some inspirational motivation as well as to see the full potential of flash.. which i think is as difficult to master as the never-ending photoshop.
Rating:
Summary: Great book for beginners
Review: I'm going to be upfront and say that I had the opportunity to enroll in Professor Kaldahl's Web Interactivity and Animation course this past semester (Spring 2002). However, at the date of this review, the semester has since ended. "EZ Flash 5", was of course, our required textbook for the course. I admit, when I received the book in the mail, it really didn't appeal to me. Our text supplement, "Flash 5 for Windows and Macintosh: Visual QuickStart Guide", looked more to be the proper book for a Flash class. But now I've been proved wrong; don't be dissuaded by the "EZ" title. It really is very simple to use. Brad firmly believes in the "hands on" approach when it comes to teaching, and it's reflected in the book. Although there is no index, there are a variety of projects to go through, and you don't necessarily have to do them in order. In fact, during the course, we were always flipping back and forth between chapters because the students became interested in certain areas and aspects of Flash. (And just so you know, I haven't even looked at "Flash 5 for Windows and Macintosh: Visual QuickStart Guide", although it serves as a nice reference book). As an example, sometimes the class was a bit fast-paced, but I never had to worry. I just looked up the relevant chapter and followed the step-by-step instructions, and soon caught up. Whether in a classroom setting or working at home, the book is a nice guide that allows you to work at your own pace. The book is of a also good size, and for the most part lies flat, so you can look at it as you work. Although there is some grammatical errors, for the most part these can be overlooked. I've always wanted to work with Flash, and I never really grasped at the tutorials I found on FlashKit.com But for some reason "EZ Flash 5" worked for me. By the end of the semester I had devised a short game where you can hit gophers on the head with a mallet. My fellow classmates also advanced. We had quite a few people who were new to Flash, and had no knowledge of HTML or graphics programs whatsoever, yet were able to make stunning animations by the end of the semester. I've also developed a clearer understanding of programming basics, thanks to the snippets of code from the book. So the bottom line is, if this book worked for us, the students, then it'll work for you, the designer. I look forward to the follow-up book for Flash MX.
Rating:
Summary: great way to get your feet wet in Flash
Review: This book is a wonderful tool to teach yourself flash with. It holds your hand through simple to complex projects, and then encourages you to go farther on your own once you understand the concept. Professionally I have to work with Flash on a day to day basis. This has helped me and my colleagues with basic flash tasks and beginner to intermediate action scripting. A must have for those starting out with Flash.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: This book is one of the best books I have read on Flash 5 techniques. I actually felt like I learned something after reading this book and going through their exercises. It answered questions I have always had when an animation did not work. He pretty much goes step by step with every exercise. He makes it easy to reread what you messed up on so you can do it again. Definitly a great teacher. If you are like myself and don't want to spend thousand's of dollars on a one or two day course learning the fundamentals of Flash 5, this book will definitly satisfy your needs.
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