The Art of Cartooning with FLASH (With CD-ROM)

Rating:
Summary: Want to be a Flash Cartoonist?
Review: Want to be a Flash Cartoonist?
Walk, no run and grab a copy of "The Art of Cartooning with Flash" by Daniel Gray, "Flash 5 Cartooning" by Mark Clarkson, "The Big Book of Cartooning" by Bruce Blitz and a flatbed scanner.
In my opinion you need all three books in order to be successful with cartooning in flash.
"The Big Book of Cartooning" isn't a flash book but will teach you how to draw or improve your drawing skills.
I also recommend getting all of these books from the Amazon.com used book marketplace in order to get more bang for your buck. Once you have a grip on Flash Cartooning, you may want to start creating some flash games.

You must also have a few simple items to create your cartoons: paper, pencil, papermate felt tip pen and scanner, graphics tablet or mouse.
I draw my cartoon characters using paper and pencil so I prefer to use a scanner instead of a mouse or graphics tablet.

These books have taught me a lot and are a lot less expensive than going to animation school, flash cartoon workshops, buying how to cartoon in flash tutorials online or buying how to use flash tutorials on cdrom. I also have the following books and think that the Savvy series is great:
"Dreamweaver MX / Fireworks MX Savvy" and "Flash MX Savvy".

10/5/04 - Update
"The Art of Cartooning With Flash" includes several transitions that "Flash 5 Cartooning" doesn't.
Transitions are a must in your cartoons!

10/7/04 - Update
"The Art of Cartooning With Flash" is for advanced users and "Flash 5 Cartooning" is for beginners.

10/13/04 - Update
I have purchased several flash cartooning books. In my opinion "The Art of Cartooning With Flash" covers everything you need to know about creating cartoons with flash.
This includes the principals of animation, walk cycles, grouping symbols and how to create a flash cartoon from start to finish.

2/7/05 - Update
I just purchased "Macromedia Flash 5 ActionScript for Fun and Games" for $5.
I'm using Flash MX but the Flash 5 actionsript code will still work with this version of flash.
I didn't want to pay $30 for a how to create games using flash book since creating games won't be my primary goal when using flash.