Macromedia Flash MX: The Complete Reference

Underdahl wastes little time getting the reader up and animating with Flash MX and things start to really happen in the "Adding Animation" section of his book. He opens with a short description of Flash’s approach to animation, then quickly launches into a short set of tutorials. Before the end, you’ll be moving, rotating, scaling and tweening objects all over the screen. The largest part of this seven-part volume is all about efficiency. Tool-by-tool descriptions fill up the first chapter in this section, but the author falls short here by not including the keyboard shortcuts for each tool when they’re described. His descriptions and examples, though, are clear, and most are matched with screenshots demonstrating the tool at hand.

Graphics and sound are thoroughly covered, especially importing and optimizing sounds, and using them efficiently within a Flash movie. This is critical, since the misuse of sound files can inflate the size of a Flash movie, as well as impact performance. ActionScript, the underlying programming engine that drives Flash interactivity, is presented clearly in a non-programmer manner. Flash is a unique application that bridges the gap between an animation tool and a programming environment, and lucky is the artist who can plant his feet on both shores. The enclosed CD contains project files and art elements for every chapter, as well as demo versions of Canvas 8 and the Windows versions of ToonBoom Studio and Swift 3D. The CD does not, however, have a searchable PDF version of the book with color pictures. This omission is exacerbated by the lack of color pages, making any discussion of color palettes or color schemes (chapter 6) somewhat theoretical.

Complaints aside, this "Complete Reference" for Flash MX serves as a solid reference book, and should be seriously considered for any novice Flash designer looking for an encyclopedic tome on Flash MX. --Mike Caputo