Diary of a Newbie Flasher

A review of the Flash 4 Bible

by Paolo Pace

April 1, 2000

Lacking even the slightest clue of how to use Flash 4, the decision to have me review the Flash 4 Bible seemed a smart idea. Here I was, working as a graphic designer without any knowledge about how to use this amazing software. Needless to say I was feeling a little left out and upon hearing what this book promised to do I figured myself the best candidate to read, learn and review it.

This book is BIG, over 610 pages big, and contains a great deal of information for novices and pros. As a beginner to Flash 4 I was going to have to tackle this book properly. I was going to have to take it one step at a time. 

So begins the Diary of a newbie Flasher!

My first day looking through this book I was overwhelmed at the lengths the authors, Robert Reinhardt and Jon Warren Lentz, had gone through in order to provide such comprehensive information from start to finish. There were sections on Mastering the tools, Creating graphics, Sound planning, Flash interactivity, Using Flash with other programs, and distributing Flash movies as well as all of the sub-divisions per section and the CD bundled with the book containing tutorials, plug-ins and more!

It appeared that this was going to take some time.

Day 1:

Day one, I learned the many tools and how they work and can be modified or controlled. I looked over the keyboard shortcuts for them and their menu bar counterparts. Using the navigation and viewing tools was a snap and the lesson on 'Working with selection tools' was easy to understand and follow.

A great feature was that this book was written with both Mac and PC users in mind so, where applicable, terminology and keyboard shortcuts are altered to reflect the different operating systems. This is a feature that runs throughout the book.

Next, I learned the various color tools and palettes, lines and fills. A great deal of detail was put into this section and I found myself re-reading much of it to get a better understanding.

Day 2:

I had now moved on to Defining Flash's framework, which is a section dedicated to Flash's capabilities. Here the program was defined as a primarily vector-based program, similar to Illustrator or Freehand. I gained a better understanding for how vector based artwork and text was more suited to Flash while using bitmap artwork was a close runner up.

Day 3:

Motion tweening! After fluttering through the entry-level introduction chapters I was eager to delve into this section. Animating with Flash was what this was all about! This section was well written and explained and matched with my enthusiasm to learn, I found myself creating morphs with elegant text, shapes and anything else I could muster. Soon after I was learning shape hints with my motion tweens, which act as more direct control on how your objects transform. Very cool stuff!

Day 4:

By day four I had crafted my first animation! To be perfectly honest it appeared child-like but I was proud none-the-less. It was a pencil shaped spaceship and my objective was to get it to move from the lower left hand side of the screen to the upper right side while scaling down. The idea was to give the illusion of distance and perspective and with the help of chapter 8 - Motion Tweening, I felt I succeeded with flying colors!

Day 5:

Now that I had successfully created a motion tween, my graphic designer side kicked in and I set to creating a space field for a background in Photoshop 5.5. Once I was done I imported it into Flash 4 and set it up. With some added tweaking of the scene and some additional reading about onion skins and animation, I was now looking at something almost qualifying as a 'neat' Flash animation!

Day 6:

On this day I took a big leap and delved into the chapter about sound! Within a day I had added wav. sound files to my animation and posted it up on my website for all of you to see just how wonderful this book really is! While there remains a great deal of information for me to read up on still, I would be remiss if I didn't express how amazed I am that a fella like me, with no prior Flash know-how, was able to create an actual Flash 4 animation in just 6 days, complete with sound!

http://TIEMdesign.com/blackpencil/sample2.htm

Now don't let it be said that this book promises to teach animation in six days but I've always considered myself a bit slow to learn with this kind of software so if I can learn it this quickly, I can't imagine how those of you with a natural talent will do!

Overall impression

My overall impression of the Flash 4 Bible is that it is an absolute read for any creative minded individual who wants to get with the times and finally learn Flash. The  best news is that this book covers so much material in such an intelligent fashion that it should be the only Flash resource for any level of Flasher. You'll not find another book for Flash as good as this one nor will you find a book review from this editor that has ever been so enthusiastic.

Go get one!

Copyright 2000, Paolo Pace, All Rights Reserved