Rating: 
Summary: Great Book! Smashing Ideas RULES
Review: all the staff who bought this book found it *very* useful for their projects, the sound chapter is one my favorites!
Rating:
Summary: Awesome!
Review: Flash Studio Secrets was insightful but expensive. It's one of those books that are nice to have if you have the money, but enhances books already in your collection. It would not be useful being your only Flash book. The studio/business point of view and analysis of projects were very good, but I think the books suffers from a "Jack of all trades mentality" Then again, maybe that was their target audience for people buying the book. If you want to specialize on just web design, focus just on cartooning or focus on actionscript/gaming, buy another book. If you were looking for a good overview and another perspective to add to your library, this book would be ok.I found the chapter on sound and programming a good read. Unfortunately there are a few typo's which annoy and the source code promised for the chess game in chapter four is not included on their website. I emailed them for the working version of the chess game they talk about, but am yet to receive an answer. The chapters on edutainment and marketing are also an interesting read. Furthermore, there are some good tricks and ideas mentioned throughout. This is an intermediate book. This book will generate ideas and let you look at things regarding Flash in a different perspective. Don't buy this book if you're looking to learn how to use the program. This book will give you ideas on how to improve on what you already know and improve your workflow.
Rating: 
Summary: Intermediate book. Expensive. Good tricks. Overview.
Review: Flash Studio Secrets was insightful but expensive. It's one of those books that are nice to have if you have the money, but enhances books already in your collection. It would not be useful being your only Flash book. The studio/business point of view and analysis of projects were very good, but I think the books suffers from a "Jack of all trades mentality" Then again, maybe that was their target audience for people buying the book. If you want to specialize on just web design, focus just on cartooning or focus on actionscript/gaming, buy another book. If you were looking for a good overview and another perspective to add to your library, this book would be ok. I found the chapter on sound and programming a good read. Unfortunately there are a few typo's which annoy and the source code promised for the chess game in chapter four is not included on their website. I emailed them for the working version of the chess game they talk about, but am yet to receive an answer. The chapters on edutainment and marketing are also an interesting read. Furthermore, there are some good tricks and ideas mentioned throughout. This is an intermediate book. This book will generate ideas and let you look at things regarding Flash in a different perspective. Don't buy this book if you're looking to learn how to use the program. This book will give you ideas on how to improve on what you already know and improve your workflow.
Rating: 
Summary: Nishant Kothary
Review: I don't believe that nobody noticed that the OOP chapter (chapter 4) was simply outstanding. I spent 2 years programming, before I decided that I hated computer science and happily enrolled into a technology program that lets you use your aesthetic eye too... but, no offense to all you liberal arts majors, the technology program (I won't name the university I'm at, because I'm very patriotic :) )isn't all that I thought it would be. It's a cesspool of Liberal arts majors who actually think they have the technical saavy to create electonic media, which of course they fail at miserably. Where am I going with this? I'm just saying that I don't hate computer scientists any more than I hate Art majors who cook up this deep world for themselves and incessently brew up theories about how beauty must be percieved. The point I'm trying to make is that Flash is not an eye-candy machine. It was till version 3. Version 4 tore Flash away from that easy paintbrush-like stereotype, into a programming environment one. It would be cruel to use Flash 5 without maximizing its actionscripting engine. Take my word for it, Flash 6 and later versions are going to give Java and its peers a run for their money... it's simple, you take a supermodel, and transplant her with stephen hawking's brain, and voila... you have perfection, metaphorically speaking in e-terms of course ;) Flash is the rookie that can throw farther than the main QB with dead-on accuracy... it's just that very few people have noticed that yet. Come on people, look at the bigger picture here! My vision is no better than any of your's... so why is it that only a few people are seeing the same light that I am?
Rating:
Summary: Nishant Kothary
Review: I don't believe that nobody noticed that the OOP chapter (chapter 4) was simply outstanding. I spent 2 years programming, before I decided that I hated computer science and happily enrolled into a technology program that lets you use your aesthetic eye too... but, no offense to all you liberal arts majors, the technology program (I won't name the university I'm at, because I'm very patriotic :) )isn't all that I thought it would be. It's a cesspool of Liberal arts majors who actually think they have the technical saavy to create electonic media, which of course they fail at miserably. Where am I going with this? I'm just saying that I don't hate computer scientists any more than I hate Art majors who cook up this deep world for themselves and incessently brew up theories about how beauty must be percieved. The point I'm trying to make is that Flash is not an eye-candy machine. It was till version 3. Version 4 tore Flash away from that easy paintbrush-like stereotype, into a programming environment one. It would be cruel to use Flash 5 without maximizing its actionscripting engine. Take my word for it, Flash 6 and later versions are going to give Java and its peers a run for their money... it's simple, you take a supermodel, and transplant her with stephen hawking's brain, and voila... you have perfection, metaphorically speaking in e-terms of course ;) Flash is the rookie that can throw farther than the main QB with dead-on accuracy... it's just that very few people have noticed that yet. Come on people, look at the bigger picture here! My vision is no better than any of your's... so why is it that only a few people are seeing the same light that I am?
Rating:
Summary: Take your Flash development to the next level.
Review: I just finished reading through this book and all I can say is Wow!!. I know Flash very well, but this book taught me so much more. It is especially strong if you are interested in creating animation and sound using Flash. In particular, I loved the chapters on animation, and although I can't draw or animate, this book walked me through step by step on how to get started. It also includes all of the small tips and tricks that you can normally only pick up after working with Flash for a long time. There are also very good chapters on using Video with Flash, 3D in Flash, Flash as a learning tool, Branding and Advertising, Using Sound in Flash, creating dynamic content with Flash, middleware and also Generator, etc... Of course, this shouldn't be a surprise, just look at the main authors and the authors who contributed to the book Glenn Thomas : smashing ideas - one of the leaders in flash development and animation. Phillip Torrone Phil Scott Manuael Clement Andreas Heim to just name a few. This is one book that stays on my desk. Highly recommended. I know that this sounds like a marketing blurb, but the book is that good.
Rating: 
Summary: Worthless
Review: I rated it one star because I couldn't go any lower.
Rating:
Summary: Some nice tid bits
Review: I would have to say that there are some nice tid bits of flash wisdom spread through out this book. Not sure if that's worth the price of the book! Also, not really a teaching tool about flash, more of a teaching tool about how Smashing Ideas in Seattle do things!
Rating:
Summary: Some nice tid bits
Review: I would have to say that there are some nice tid bits of flash wisdom spread through out this book. Not sure if that's worth the price of the book! Also, not really a teaching tool about flash, more of a teaching tool about how Smashing Ideas in Seattle do things!
Rating:
Summary: Smaller File Sizes Don't Lie, Very Informative
Review: The best thing about this book is Chapter 2, "Optimizing, Loading, and Playback". The other books that I have read about flash don't even touch on this issue. It was worth the price of the book. Learning how to use the movie report option in flash, and how to properly bring in images for use from Illustrator has DRASTICALLY reduced my file sizes. My bitmap files look 20 times better, and are WAAAAaY smaller. The animation chapter was also good. That chapter also had cool optimization techniques, like the modify>optimize pallate that I had never used before. Using it on all my drawn symbols reduced my file size by about 30 percent, and the drawings didn't look any different. This book has a lot of information in it, I think it definately has something for everyone, especially if you are new to flash. I think this book gave me the basics on just about everything. It was a decent read,and the book is really nice to look at with TONS of color pictures, and I like that Smashing Ideas Robot Guy. The Sound chapter is also really good, especially for non-sound people like myself. I picked up a lot of new techniques here that I had no clue about. I have definately referred to the optimization techniques in this book in every flash project I've done since. I do recommend picking up this book if only for the drastic reduction in file sizes you will experience after reading it.
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