Flash 5 Cartoons and Games f/x and Design

Rating:
Summary: There are Much Better Books Out There Now!
Review: I also went to the local bookstore and compared this book with "Flash 5 Cartooning". The amount of information, style, image and drawing quality in "Flash 5 Cartooning" far superior. So do your homework, before rushing to buy this book.

Rating:
Summary: Very impressive
Review: I am normally a very slow reader. I only read quickly with the rare book that I thoroughly enjoy, and will use to the fullest extent. Flash 5 Cartoons and games provided this criteria, and i finished it in a week. It is simply amazing. It was everything I was looking for to get me started into advanced Flash use, and amazing cartoon animation. The authors even provided a CD-ROM to go along with this superb book that gives detailed examples, including games, .flas to play around with, and .swfs to watch and enjoy...it even included an entire music video featuring a pelican singing about pollution! All made with flash.This book is well worth the price and then some!

Rating:
Summary: Not too shabby
Review: I think the other reviewers are being too negative. Would I recommend this book if you wanted to make Hollywood quality pictures? No. But if you are interested in a Hobby or even a small consulting practice focusing on Flash Cartoons and Games then this book is a wonderful addition to your library. You need other books on the fundamentals of Flash to fill in the gaps and get your understanding of Flash up to the level necessary to use this book.

Rating:
Summary: Beginning and intermediate users may want to pass...
Review: On the lower right corner, on the back cover of this book, you will find a small yellow panel announcing that this book is for intermediate to advanced Flash users. If you are new to ActionScripting, wait until you are much more familiar with it to purchase this pricey tome. Written in a soothing informal tone, the co-authors walk the reader step-by-step through the very beginning nuances of the game scripting, explaining each in detail. This is nice even for someone with an intimate knowledge of scripting, as a game vehicle may be new territory.
But then suddenly, and without warning, despite words of encouragement and promises of clarity, the reader is left with no direction, and only a CD-ROM and a tangled web of scripting left to pull apart. A more moderate explanation throughout the entire process would have been much more helpful; the beginner/expert switch in the middle of a project is more than a little disheartening.
Despite the odd art and the organizational letdowns, I still found this book inspirational.

Rating:
Summary: SIMPLY AMAZING
Review: Since the purchase of this book my life has been turnered around and I need to buy a new book becasue the pages are getting worn out, The reviews above do do not give a fair chance on this book If you want cartoons and games for flash 5 the this is the book 4 u! GO BUY TONNES OF COPIES

Rating:
Summary: Another Techie Book
Review: This Flash 5 book is 3.5 stars. Here's what I thought. It totally focuses on Cartoons and Games, just like the title says. I think it's geared towards the intermediate Flash user. For a beginner, I would suggest another book to supplement it, like the Flash Bible or just go through the help files with the software.

The construction of the book is very poor. My book is almost falling apart where it is bound. Pages are ready to fall out if I'm not careful. If I was near a store, I would definately return it for a new one, but since I ordered over the internet, and I'm in Japan right now, that's not an option.

The first few chapters are slow. They deal with story development and character development. I think most people would read the first few chapters and say, "Interesting." But that's about it. The meat of the book starts later with character animation and lip syncing. The book goes on to briefly talk about preloaders etc. I found the most value coming from the cd. The cd that comes with this book is invaluable. It includes the actual source file from Bill Turner's cartoon, along with a percentage preloader. I spent some time, going through the source file and figuring out how he did his tricks. I believe this is one of the best ways to figure out things. I think if the book hadn't included this, it wouldn't have been worth the money. A lot of my questions were answered, especially about a percentage preloader. I couldn't find the specific information on the internet. Only when I went through the example in the source file did I finally understand.

The second half of the book is code intensive, mainly dealing with action script in order to create Flash games. This half of the book I found half interesting, half dry. They once again include the source file for a Trivia Game made in Flash and an Adventure Game. This is a help, because I believe the latter half of the book, you need to read and reread along with rip apart the Flash file to get a good understanding of it.

When they start to get into explaining the code, I think they could do a better job. There isn't any step by step, line by line analysis. The author gives you an explanation, gives you the code and then moves on in most cases. This is especially true when they talk about making an adventure game. My interest is to go to the next level with Flash and to build games, and this book will help, but will need more information, especially with Actionscript, so I'm buying some more books that deal more indepth. This isn't one of those books where you buy it and feel, "I don't need any other books, this will do." I'm still waiting for a book like that.

If you focus is on cartooning or games, I think with the cd, it's worth the money I spent. I wouldn't have learned nearly as much without a cd on this one. If you're into learning the basics or web development, simply by another book. This one is suited for an intermediate Flash level. If you're a beginner, and still thinking about this book, make sure you go through the Flash sample lessons and hopefully have another all-round Flash reference, which there are many available.

Update: September 14th, 2001. My book is really starting to fall apart.

Rating:
Summary: Great book for Flash cartooning
Review: This is a really good book for those who know how to use flash. It's not for beginners for sure but there are many others out there for that. The adventure game covered is truly amazing. I had no idea until reading this book that you could do that in Flash. Like an earlier review I was a little disappointed that the other games did not have the FLA files. However the FLA files that are included will take me some time to digest and could be used in othere situations. Being a decent still artist but confused animator I found the mannequin system supplied on the CD to be very helpful. After setting it up I simply draw over the mannequins with my own character and it works perfectly. Very innovative approach to learning human movement. Thanks guys!!!

Rating:
Summary: Good but Disappointing!
Review: When I saw this book I grabbed it and ran with it! Cartoons and games covered in a single Flash book! Wow!

My first disappointment was when I realized that there are only two games covered in the book, Trivia and Adventure. C'mon guys, Flash is a wonderful environment for board games, arcade action games, word games, puzzle games, sports games, etc. There is not nearly enough games coverage in this book to warrant the word "Games" in the title.

Oh, and don't be fooled by the list of Flash games included on the CD. Although the CD includes some impressive Flash games like SporeCubes, Ultimate Nine Ball, Flash Golf, Arcade Animals and Field Goal Frenzy you do not get source code (FLAs) for these, none of them are discussed in the book and all are readily available as a fast and free download on the net. Including games like these in the text along with source code would have made this a good book on Flash games.

On the cartooning side its clear the authors know quite a bit about this subject. However, even in this area I found a lot of cartoon/animation instructions that can be found in many art books. There was not enough "how to do it in Flash" for my tastes.

All in all I would probably still buy this book even knowing what I now know because there are a lot of valuable nuggets in there. However, it could have been much better.

If you only want to buy one book on Flash games try Flash 4 Magic. It covers 6 different types of games in only 1/3 of the book!

Rating:
Summary: Flash Cartoons and Games.....
Review: You will need a good grip of the functions of Flash 5 to use this book, but it is well worth it. This book takes the mystery out of how to utilize the Flash 5 actionscript to create terrific games and cartoons..... a great book for getting started on a very ambitious Flash game or cartoon project... mine's already in the making!