| Average Rating: |
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| Sales Rank: | 1271786 (lower is better) |
| Price Used: | $0.59 |
| Shipping: | Free Shipping on most orders over $25* |
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| Label: | Pearson Education |
| UPC: | 785342771442 |
| Pages: | 424 |
| Binding: | Paperback |
| Publication Date: | 2001-11-16 |
| Published By: | Pearson Education |
| ASIN: | 0201771446 |
| Category: | Book |
Parallels to swords and samurai aside, Flash Super Samurai compiles the experience of 12 gifted Flash designers. Much more than a book on Flash animation, it shows the reader how to create interactive elements, how to create 3-D Flash elements, how to use XML and Flash together, discusses the intricacies and pitfalls of adding sound and how to make sound work for you, and much more.
Nine chapters and three appendices detail tricks and techniques for adding physics simulations to Flash animation (think bouncing billiard balls), programming sound, using XML and Flash together, using JavaScript and Flash together, and dynamic Flash pages created on the fly based on user input. Each chapter is well illustrated and heavily coded, and the accompanying CD-ROM includes all the necessary project files.
The way of the samurai is one of intense concentration and the constant search for wisdom, a description that fits the contributors to this rich, dense book for advanced Flash developers. Filled with ActionScripts and Flash animation that goes far beyond basic tweening, this book is invaluable for those looking to make the most of Flash as a tool for animation as well as for interactive site development. --Mike Caputo
On 3D, there is simply no comparison between Super Samurai's chapter and Flash 5 Studio's chapter. Super Samurai's is easy to understand and detailed, while Flash 5 Studio just give you a few examples without much explanation. I wonder if the author of F5S really understands the examples. Even the 3D example in Flash MX Designers ActionScript Reference by Friendsofed looks muddled when compared with SS's. I have learned so much from this one book.
Strangely, when I looked for other books by the author of the chapter on XML, Michael Grundvig, the only other book that he co-wrote on this topic got a really lousy review. It just shows that publishers can give quite inconsistent quality books even with the same authors.
Another problem with this book is that most of the ActionScript is useless if you're coding with Flash MX. The chapter on using widgets, for example, is pointless, as Flash MX is now a functional OOP environment. Although the examples in the book give a general idea of advanced ActionScript--it's really geared for Flash 5--and a great deal of Flash 5 ActionScript has been replaced (depreciated).
Becuase the book is also from different authors, the writing is a bit hit and miss as well. One chapter, "Flash Interface Design", fills pages of code and screenshots, but fails to reveal the logic behind the code, or exactly how the code works at all. Instead, I'm left to hunt through the flash file on my own, and that's something I don't need a book for.
I think this has been a very popular book in the past, but with the release of Flash MX as well as the overall lack of effort on the authors part to make this more digestable, I would not recommend purchasing this book--borrow it if you need to.
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