New Masters of Flash

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Tomasz; Nakamura, Yugo; Baumann, Joel; Besson, Olivier; Chan, Irene; Clement, Manuel; , cut-and-paste.com; Davis, Joshua; Dawes, Brendan; van der Grift, Ivo; Jordan, Eric; Ke, Tony; Odendaal, Andries; Paterson, James; Purgason, Todd; Singe, Jay Jankowski

Our price £28.38 (£43.00)

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Used from £14.70

Pages: 550 (Paperback)

ISBN: 1590592093

Pub: FRIENDS OF ED

Pub date: 2003-10-01

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 861533

Editorial Review:

New Masters of Flash is a showcase, a tutorial and an inspiration. Divided into 19 chapters each devoted to the work of a single Flash designer, it is international in scope and encompasses work ranging from the strictly commercial to the purely experimental.
Each contributor begins by explaining their general approach to using Flash, from their personal design philosophy and motivations to how they achieve the realisation of a project from concept to reality. Then it's down to the practicalities--step-by-step explanation of how to complete an entire Flash project.
Todd Purgason, Creative Director at Juxt Interactive, demonstrates the tools and techniques he uses to create mood-setting audio loops for commercial projects. Luke Turner provides the secret ingredients to the text ripple effect that he has helped to perfect at The Void--and has been copied all over the Web. Fine art graduate, Andreas Odendaal, uses Flash 5's 3-D Action scripting to create an interactive 3-D interface. Irene Chan's intimate poetic pieces combine beautiful animated typography with dreamlike music to produce something of rare emotional impact.
And the results are stunning. From Olivier Besson's wildly animated Globz logo to Yuko Nakamura's interactively gooey Mona Lisa. The accompanying CD-ROM, itself a clever piece of Flash design, is packed with interviews, the book tutorials and the original Flash project files for you to disassemble.

Take a look at www.eneri.net, www.mondo.com, www.thevoid.co.uk and www.2advanced.com. When you see what's possible, you won't need to be persuaded to buy this book. --Ken McMahon

Reader Reviews:

This book is for designers, not for programmers (0/0 people found this helpful)

Not a book for your software library . . . . this book is for display. It is without a doubt the best looking software manual you ever buy.

Though I can see why programmers don't like it. But it's not aimed at them, this book is by designers for designers and those interested in design. It's clean cut, clear and sleek, and would not look out of place on your coffee table.

The CD ROM is full of useable script, code and plenty of examples to play around with. It's packed full of inspiration!

I have been using flash for over four years, and if you want to get past making text move on your screen, this is the one for you.

OK, so it's expensive, so what. If you want a manual, use the help files.

flash experts don't always know how to explain (1/1 people found this helpful)

the book is written by a lot of flash experts, each writting about the things they specialize or like, which is good. very good examples on the cd's with how to do them. the one i like was the 8 queens puzzle. but in every chapter half of it was filled by each author's history (how they discovered flash, what are they doing, etc - which is a bit boring) then only the last few pages of the chapter they talk about their example and explain it how they made. shame cause they could have done it better. i'm definetly not gone buy the annual book.

not worth the money... (2/2 people found this helpful)

sorry guys(authors)! i'm not questioning their flash ability because it is mind blowing, but i'm afraid they don't explain too well to a beginner how to develop their skills. each chapter is written by an individual - which is good cause they talk about their speciality (sound, animation, etc.). ufortunately over half of each chapter is filled with how each of them discovered Flash, how they started - boring guys. only the last few paragraphs of each chapter tells you how do their example... the book could be smaller - definetly not buying the upgrade.

Don't believe the hype (5/5 people found this helpful)

I have been using Flash for almost 2yrs so know my way around the programme fairly well.

I recently purchased "New Masters of Flash" and was looking forward very much to working through the tutorial and improving my Flash skills in relation to Flash 5.

I must confess I was a bit puzzled as to they managed to get such a "good" book released so close to the release of Flash 5, I now know how they did it.

While I must confess their are some very useful tips within the book, I am very dissapointed with it as a whole and feel like I have been conned out of £44 on my money.

Many of the tutorials in the book are very poorly written and somehow manage to make the simplest of issues confusing and frustrating to follow. Even by reading slower than I have ever done before I find I get lost and confused.

In addition to this, the scripting used in the book is awful and anyone trying to get a foot on the ladder of scripting in Flash 5 will be sorely missled by this book. It appears to me they have simply converted .fla's made in Flash 4 into Flash 5 with little or no consideration for the difference in scripting language. I am also absloutly gobsmacked that in this book you are also instructed to use the "Tell Target Command". Thus teaching readers how to script in Flash 4 using Flash 5. Could you not have delayed the release of this book and ironed out the creases before selling it at such a high price.

Although I feel bitter at parting with my money for this book, I feel more sorry for the people who are taking what this book has to say at face value, it realy is very missleading.

Friends of Mine (0/0 people found this helpful)

I have bought Foundation Flash 5, Foundation Actionscript and New Masters of Flash.

I have waded through Foundation Flash 5 and New Masters of Flash and am currently working through Foundation Actionscript and I am absolutely loving it.

I am currently working on a new flash site to promote my web skills so these books were an essential buy for me especially for the in depth insight into actionscript (I am slowly getting to grips with it ???????).

I have previously bought books by Peachpit Press which were very good but these go much further.

The books are very well written and they are extremely hard to put down once started.

I am looking forward to the Flash 5 Studio release.

Bravo the Friends of Ed