Recommendations for Flash 8 tutorial books

[sbloomberg]

Hello all. The time has come for me to learn Flash. We happen to use Flash 8 here in the office and will continue to do so for the time being. Can anyone recommend a book or set of books for a newbie just starting out. I looked on Amazon (a mistake) and was overwhelmed by the shear amount of books.

Thanks.

[sbloomberg]

Yes I know this is the Lightwave forum. I have found however that the people here are nice, polite and all around good people that go out of their way to answer questions no mater how off-topic. :beerchug:

[oobievision]

I mostly use the adobe forums for tips and triks

[Tom Wood]

Yeah, ask at the Adobe forums. There are several authors who are active on those forums, and they have their own websites too. Spend a little time there and those names should become obvious, just ask. It's better to get a book written by an active author because they update it at their website, and can answer questions.

[adamredwoods]

Hey Iowa, my mom lives there! Represent! :)

As for Flash, a friend found the Lynda Online Series really great.
http://movielibrary.lynda.com/html/modPage.asp?ID=169

Can't go wrong with video.

As for the Actionscript part, OReillys seems to dominate. But Online, there is the great resource Kirupa:
http://www.kirupa.com/developer/as/index.htm

Excellent resource, although he sold out to Microsoft's Silverlight, the old tutorials are still there.

[BlueApple]

The Flash Animator by Corsaro isn’t bad if you want to get an introduction to the animation side of things, and if you’re digging into scripting then the Flash 8 ActionScript Bible is a great resource.

That said, Kirupa and the wonderfully helpful people at the Adobe Flash forums are great resources.

Good luck.

[Davoid]

I have found this site pretty helpful (still learning) and he has some free tutorial videos as well.

http://www.cartoonsmart.com/

[Sarford]

um... I hope you are well aware that Flash has changed conciderably after Flash 8, especialy on the scripting side? Actionscript 3 is a totaly different beast then AS2.

I'd say update to CS4, its only $200 and the program is SO much better that Flash 8. Just take a look at all the new tools, the motion editor, the bone tools, the 3D capability (not the papervision one). I wouldn't recommand anyone to learn Flash 8 since its kinda obsolete and a bit of a wasted effort.

[cresshead]

Hello all. The time has come for me to learn Flash. We happen to use Flash 8 here in the office and will continue to do so for the time being. Can anyone recommend a book or set of books for a newbie just starting out. I looked on Amazon (a mistake) and was overwhelmed by the shear amount of books.

Thanks.

what do you hope to do with it?

2d cartooning
website creation
banner ads
application development

you'll find there's books on these specifics or some 'general books' also that tend only to dedicate a few pages to say cartooning and reall are more about action scripting and app development.

as for flash 8 being 'outdated and don't bother' all depends on YOUR needs


if your mainly looking to do 2d cartooning then i'd have a good look at toonboom studio before jumping into flash for cartooning.

www.toonboom.com

[VFXCast]

We have a lot of free tutorials online here at VFXCast.com - www.vfxcast.com.

To be specific for Flash - http://www.vfxcast.com/c/42/Adobe_Flash/

[adamredwoods]

I wouldn't recommand anyone to learn Flash 8 since its kinda obsolete and a bit of a wasted effort.

Valid point, but many browsers are still on Flash 8 so even if you do work in AS3.0 it's not guaranteed to work everywhere.

[Sekhar]

Valid point, but many browsers are still on Flash 8 so even if you do work in AS3.0 it's not guaranteed to work everywhere.

Not really: 98% on v9, almost same as for v8. See stats (http://www.adobe.com/products/player_census/flashplayer/version_penetration.html).

[Tom Wood]

um... I hope you are well aware that Flash has changed conciderably after Flash 8, especialy on the scripting side? Actionscript 3 is a totaly different beast then AS2.

I'd say update to CS4, its only $200 and the program is SO much better that Flash 8. Just take a look at all the new tools, the motion editor, the bone tools, the 3D capability (not the papervision one). I wouldn't recommand anyone to learn Flash 8 since its kinda obsolete and a bit of a wasted effort.

I have Flash 8 as part of Studio 8, and they have a pretty good deal to skip over CS3 and go straight to CS4, which ends in February. I'm only compiling little video players to a SWF. Do you know if Flash CS4 will open Flash 8 projects and publish the SWF?

Thanks,

[Dirk]

I like "Beginning Flash Game Programming For Dummies" by Andy Harris very much.

[BlueApple]

Do you know if Flash CS4 will open Flash 8 projects and publish the SWF?

I don't know for sure but I suspect it'll work just fine. Download the CS4 demo to be sure, or perhaps post a Flash 8 file here and someone will check it out for you.

[Sarford]

I have Flash 8 as part of Studio 8, and they have a pretty good deal to skip over CS3 and go straight to CS4, which ends in February. I'm only compiling little video players to a SWF. Do you know if Flash CS4 will open Flash 8 projects and publish the SWF?

Thanks,

Sorry for checking back so late,

Yeah, Flash CS4 can open Flash 8 files. You can also make AS 2 projects in CS4 and export for Flash Player 9 if you want.
I myself also made the jump from Flash 8 to CS4 and the program is realy much better. You'll gonna have some problems though with getting your head around AS3, much is changed but at least you won't be 'code hunting' through all your objects anymore.
If you have the money to update, don't hesitate.