Flash MX ActionScript: The Designer's Edge |
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Editorial Review / Publisher's Information:
Product Description
This innovative, full-color book, from the co-author of the best-selling Flash 5 Magic, is written for savvy web designers who want to use Flash ActionScript to add dynamic interactivity to their Flash creations, but who don't have a programming background. Authors Hamlin and Hall make everything from ActionScript fundamentals to high-end techniques accessible by truly teaching how ActionScript works, not just presenting code. Throughout, they take a consistently visual approach, including color charts and copious conceptual illustrations, complimented by interactive tutorials available on the book's companion site. With a striking design, matte cover, and high-quality paper, it all adds up to a premium book ideally suited for everyone from web/Flash developers, and multimedia producers, to instructors and web directors.
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Customer Reviews:
• Excellent!
28 January, 2005
I've been using Flash for awhile now and have purchased quite a few books on the subject. When I learned enough of the basics to move into actionscript, I was lost. Most of the books I had assume you are a programmer or else just dump code in your lap expecting you to just plug it in and not really know how it works. This is the first book I have found that gives you the code and explains HOW and WHY it works - and all in simple, easy to understand English. I am an artist, not a programmer, but with a book like this, I too can enter the realm of coding and truly unleash my creativity...and isn't that what it really all about?
My highest rating.
- Amazon Customer Review
• Creatively Learn Actionscript...
11 January, 2005
I read it, is time consuming but it worth it. This book emphasizes on the gap between a designer and a programmer doing Flash projects, in fact the writers are, one designer and a programmer. So they will guide you through the concepts of ActionScripts considering the other side which is the design part. On it's own is a unique type of book, never seen such a great combination. Just bear in mind, this is an ActionScript 1 training book...although is an ActionScript 1 book, it will gonna help you learining ActionScript 2 faster. I like it at all ;-)
- Amazon Customer Review
• Book Is Not As Marketed; Too Hard For Beginners
05 April, 2009
Because I cannot afford to update to the latest version of Flash as of 2009, I am still using Flash MX (which was released around 2002) and am therefore restricted to learning the older version of Action Script (which is version 2.0, if I'm not mistaken).
Over the past few years, I purchased anywhere from 10 - 20 books on the topic of Action Script, not just Hall's and Hamlin's, to try and find one that would explain AS (Action Script) to me in a way I could understand it.
Unfortunately, I have not yet found the book that completely accomplishes this goal.
I purchased this book by Hamlin and Hall a few years ago because I am a graphic designer who, aside from very simple Action Scripting (such as "gotoAndPlay," etc.), finds Action Scripting very confusing, hard, and intimidating.
I have never in my life taken any sort of computer programming courses, so any and all kinds of scripting are foreign and confusing for me.
This book, "Flash MX ActionScript: The Designer's Edge," claims to be aimed squarely at people such as myself who struggle with Action Scripting, but it falls short.
These remarks are printed on the back cover of the edition that I own:
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"As a professional web designer you want to use Action Script to add interactivity to your Flash creations.
But previous books on Action Script have assumed you have a programming background, leaving out key details in order to cover a lot of ground.
In the process, many designers and other professionals new to programming have been left behind.
[This book] "Flash MX ActionScript: The Designer's Edge" fills these gaps..."
[end quote on book cover]
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Those comments on the book's back cover certainly *sound* good, and it sounded precisely like what I needed, but it did not live up to the promises.
Once I got up to around page 40 or so, the book became too advanced for me, as it did for another reviewer here.
Consequently, I put the book down and have not picked it up in years.
The lessons in this book are very wordy in places and are therefore difficult to get through.
Being "wordy" and long-winded are just fine for a work of fiction, but not for books that purport to teach people programming languages such as Action Script.
Things really began "going downhill" in this book around page 37, where the authors have the reader start an exercise involving duplicating a movie clip of an image of a flower.
This single exercise introduces what *to the beginner* looks like very long, complex-looking lines of Action Script, and with some math thrown in, too - which only makes matters worse.
To demonstrate what I mean, here's an example of one line of the code the authors wrote for this "duplicate flower movie clip exercise," which appears on page 37:
"_root["myMovie" + num_movie_clips]._x = Math.random() *550"
The above code may not be confusing to people already familiar with programming, but remember, to *an artist* (and one with no background in programming), that looks like absolute gibberish, and it's frightening.
Graphic artists are usually not math-oriented people. I cannot stress that enough.
To toss in math-like-looking formulas this early in the book, as the authors did (what with the "math.random() * 550" nonsense and so forth), only muddied things, and introduced more anxiety for someone already intimidated by Action Scripting.
While the author did attempt to explain that line of code, I was still left confused by it.
Here I am trying to grasp a basic concept in Flash, the idea of duplicating a movie clip, and on top of all that, the author wants me to consider "Math.Random()" too.
It seemed like too much information too soon.
It is entirely possible to teach "Action Script newbies" how to duplicate a movie clip without tossing out the "Math.random()" feature during the lesson - I have other books which have done so.
Another problem I had with this book is that in the context of trying to teach one concept, other lessons are dragged in as well.
For example, in the "duplicate flower movie clip" lesson already mentioned, not only does the author whip out the "Math.Random()" nightmare on the poor, hapless, math phobic Action Script beginner, but the author also goes on tangents about operators: what they are and how they work.
He also spends time at that point specifically addressing what the increment (++) operator is.
That's all fine and dandy, but why not save the lesson about what the increment operator is *before* the one about how to duplicate a movie clip?
Trying to get the reader to master and understand three, four, or five unrelated, different concepts all in the space of one lesson covering yet another different topic altogether -and over a brief span of only three or four pages- does not seem wise.
The abrupt jump from decent, clear explanations early in the book to more difficult, unclear ones was strange, because the first few pages did an "okay" job of explaining some basic concepts.
Some of the visual aids appearing before page 40 (such as the movie clip diagram-type image in figure 2.12 on page 30) did a wonderful job of making some notions clear for graphic artists who are new to Action Script.
However, after page 37/40 or so, the material takes a weird jump, where the authors seem to assume over a matter of a few pages that you are an AS expert already...
Or they at least make the fatal, horrible assumption that you will be perfectly comfortable with long, confusing looking-lines of code with scary-looking things like "Math.random()*550" in them.
The book's authors or publisher apparently felt fine omitting details or refraining from giving full explanations in some lessons (or in some cases, they're *too* verbose, and that can be just as confusing), which is ironic, given that they themselves faulted other Action Scripting books for this very shortcoming.
I still find Action Script confusing and intimidating, and I doubt I'll ever get very good at it, but I have had a little more success with the "Sam's Teach Yourself Flash MX ActionScript" (by G. Rosenzweig) book than with any other book, and I'd advise other beginners to consider getting his book, and/or picking up "Advanced Macromedia Flash MX ActionScript in Action" by Dan Livingston, rather than this one by Hall and Hamlin.
I felt the need to write this review because there are too many "five star" reviews praising this book here on Amazon.com, which I think might be misleading for artistic people such as myself.
If I ever succeed in understanding Action Script better than I do now, I might go back and look at this Hall/Hamlin book again, but for a novice just starting out, this is not the right book and does not have much value.
If you are a graphic artist such as myself who is scared by Action Script, finds AS confusing, and think this book is the one that will help you finally make sense of it, this is not the book for you (it wasn't for me).
I know this book *claims* to be for folks such as you and me, but it is not.
- Amazon Customer Review
• Good Book But May Be Out Of Date For Some
10 February, 2008
If I had bought this book 4-5 years ago when it related to the current version of Flash/ActionScript, I would have given it 5 stars. Even with that drawback, as someone who is new to ActionScript, I learned a lot and now have enough knowledge to produce some projects I've wanted to for some time. I now am going to upgrade to Flash CS3/ActionScript 3 and hope I can find a book that is as good as this one for the new version.
One thing I was trying to do was to load and parse XML files. This book was short on the XML part, but with some help from some web site tutorials and this book I was able to accomplish it.
If you're still using Flash MX 2004, and want to get started with ActionScript, I would say that this is the best book out there.
- Amazon Customer Review
• Clear And Easy To Follow
15 May, 2005
Scott Hamlin and Jennifer Scott's book is clearly written and the worked examples are straightforward.
I really like the fact that the screen shots are in colour, it makes a real difference.
- Amazon Customer Review
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