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I'm not a friend of Ed's..
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By Bitchwhocodes
http://www.bitchwhocodes.com/mt/
But I might be now. I finally got around to checking out Keith Peter's latest effort - "Making Things Move" - part of the Foundation series put out by Friends of Ed. From what I've managed to get my dirty little hands on and find the time to give it the attention it deserves - I have to say, its pretty great. Before this goes to Keith's head, I'll tell you why:
Preface: Like many other people out there, when I first ventured into animation with AS, I had no idea where to start. I was impressed I could do that, but it hardly impressed the creative types who were all "easing!slinky!elastic!gravity!". Then I discovered Bit-101. And then I learned, from the tutorials to the experiments Keith posted. In fact, in the introduction to flash class I teach at the local college, I always refer students to his work when they ask about the topic we never have enough time to cover.
Great things about the book:
1. It addressed the various versions of AS
So you're brand spanking new to flash. You look for tutorials or sample fla's on something like Flashkit or Ultrashock and you see a lot of Flash 5 - Actionscript 1 code. You can still use this book.
So you use AS2 and keep everything in classes which you import. You can still use this book.
Don't underestimate how hard it is , and will continue to be to effectively cover the various version of AS without completely confusing the reader in the process. This book addresses the versions without creating an even greater learning curve for the user.
2. Get what you want quick - Formula Cheatsheets.
I don't need to go through and understand how a frame loop works and is created. I just need the formulas - the goods. Give me that and let me go play. I can do that easily - as all the applicable formulas are listed at the end of the chapter.
3. Educates without Patronizing
I might be advanced, I might be a beginner. I'm never made to feel that I'm being patronized which means I'll get much more out of the book than quicker.
In a nutshell, it looks pretty solid. Its nice to see a book by him, rather than a chapter:) Hopefully the next book I can review will be Grant Skinner's -his great instructional style would transfer seamlessly onto paper.
Read the complete article here
(Added: 10-28-2005, Hits: 0, Rating: 0.00, Votes: 0, Reviews: 0)
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