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Macromedia Flash MX Production Techniques
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by MD Dundon
Sales Rank: 1476259
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List Price: $39.99
$27.57
At Amazon
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Paperback: 344 pages
Publisher: Macromedia Press January 31, 2003
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0321123980
ISBN-13: 978-0321123985
Product Dimensions:
10 x 8 x 0.7 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
Product Description
Macromedia Flash MX Production Techniques, based on author MD Dundon's popular multimedia course curriculum, is for designers and developers who want a concept-based approach to learning production techniques for Macromedia Flash MX. You'll learn, for example, how to optimize and build user-friendly files that work well at any bandwidth and processor speed. Unlike many Flash books on the market today, this book is designed to teach you smart Flash work habits—from the best ways to set up your desktop and organize your libraries to the nitty gritty of reducing your file size by 50 percent to the ins and outs of syncing your sound track to the visuals. Designed to be much more than a task-based exploration of the Flash program or a quick "tips and tricks" handbook, Macromedia Flash MX Production Techniques emphasizes the concepts behind using Flash, accompanied by real-world projects you can use to produce a working portfolio of Macromedia Flash-based projects. By focusing on the concepts behind Macromedia Flash production, you'll learn the "why" behind what you're doing, so that you can begin making your own projects more quickly.
Back Cover Copy
Macromedia Flash MX Production Techniques, based on author MD Dundon's popular multimedia course curriculum, is for designers and developers who want a concept-based approach to learning production techniques for Macromedia Flash MX. You'll learn, for example, how to optimize and build user-friendly files that work well at any bandwidth and processor speed. Unlike many Flash books on the market today, this book is designed to teach you smart Flash work habits-from the best ways to set up your desktop and organize your libraries to the nitty gritty of reducing your file size by 50 percent to the ins and outs of syncing your sound track to the visuals. Designed to be much more than a task-based exploration of the Flash program or a quick "tips and tricks" handbook, Macromedia Flash MX Production Techniques emphasizes the concepts behind using Flash, accompanied by real-world projects you can use to produce a working portfolio of Macromedia Flash-based projects. By focusing on the concepts behind Macromedia Flash production, you'll learn the "why" behind what you're doing, so that you can begin making your own projects more quickly.
Customer Reviews & Comments
Macromedia flash MX production techniques by MD Dundon is incorrectly titled. I would expect a book on production techniques to include at least one production technique. I was hoping to find in this book examples of how to organize content, design layout, and structure your flash files for a production environment where the content of your flash files changes frequently at the whim of the client or changing needs of the project. I was hoping that this book would cover methods of using external images and movie clips, external variable files for textual content, and the powerful XML interface. Given a thorough understanding of these elements one could create a Flash layout or framework and populate it dynamically according to the needs of the situation, chronological needs, or changes in project requirements. This is how I would define a production environment. However, this book was not written with a production environment in mind. There are 11 chapters and 303 pages of text. Chapter 1 is entitled "Setting up your workspace". This seemed to be a good start as, in a production environment, your workspace is critically important. Just as a chef would not start cooking without careful attention to her mess en place, a flash developer would not start creating flash files without organizing the space for efficiency. However, chapter 1 is identical in concept and structure to every other "learn basic flash" book on the market. If you need a basic book where concepts like, "stage," "timeline" and "toolbar" need to be explained, this may very well be an adequate book. But it almost completely lacks information the day-in/day-out flash developer/designer would need the help them develop a true production environment. Although exceedingly minor, considering the books abject failure in presenting information that a production developer would find useful, the illustrations used throughout the book appear as if created by someone with negligible artistic ability. The case can be made, especially in flash books, that illustrations can be so overblown as to obscure the instruction. However, in a book designed for flash professionals, one could expect a modicum of design skill. The illustrations are so bad, they detract from the instruction by making the designer think, "I haven't drawn a stick figure since I was three, and even then they were better than the ones presented in this book." I wanted to return the book, so I didn't open the CD and cannot comment on its quality, use, or value. The web site, http://www.flash 411.com/books/did not, when I tried to look it up, exist. All told, the book was a significant disappointment. It did not cover production techniques, it did not cover ActionScript in any meaningful way, and I didn't even mention the XML object. Having been a professional web developer since there has been a web, I bought more then my share of dubious-quality books. This book, however, has the distinction of being, I believe, the first I've ever returned.
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Macromedia Flash MX Production Techniques
List Price: $39.99
Available from Amazon
Price: $27.57
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