This book teaches motion physics programming on flash! And amazingly it's an incredible resource for OOP beginners as well. The first 2 chapters will talk about the philosophies of motion and flash and set you up to learn AS3 programming and OOP! I already had knowledge a solid knowledge of OOP from C# and C++, and let me just say that this book is very concise! It cuts to the chase and gives tons and tons of examples (downloadable), very accurate and useful information! I recommended this book to my girlfriend whose a graphics designer because it was so coherent and very well written. This is a very good book. I've read over other books like AS3 Design Pattern and one other book that tried to OOP, none of them are as concise as this book is. This book IS THE BOOK you're looking for!!!

Get this book if you want to learn OOP, get this book if you want to learn motion physics programming in Flash, get this book if you want to learn AS3! Clear, coherent, and cheap. This book is your one stop.

If you're new to AS 3 and have some kind of OOP (Object Oriented Programming) experience in your past or none at all then this book is right up your alley...an experienced programmer may find this book a little simplistic. Anyway, I've always had a problem understanding programming concepts because I could never apply them to real world applications. All through college while taking JAVA, VB, PL/SQL...etc I always felt like I never truly grasped some of the basic concepts that made up OOP. The way Keith Peters explains his examples and some of the more basic concepts that make up AS 3 is awesome. I've been able to couple his explanations with the stuff I've learned in the past to really help clarify some of these more basic OOP concepts that I could never quite grasp. Since AS 3 is a lot like JAVA, I have a really good jumping off point for doing some really cool things with this language. This book has really lit a new fire of excitement in me for OOP that was long lost back in school. I really enjoy this book and the way the author uses real world terms and normal "speaking language" to write the book. It's as if he's speaking to you in person and explaining things to you face to face.

I have one CON to all of the PROS. The book needs a resource CD with the code chapter by chapter. I know, I'm lazy. But sometimes it really helps to compare my code that I may have problems finding the errors in with the correct code just to see if it's my code with the problem, the class path I have setup, an author error or maybe even something else. Regardless the book is well worth the money I spent and I'd recommend it to anyone.

Years ago, I got an interview for a new startup company called FriendsOfEd (and for those wondering, Ed is 'Every Designer'). I assumed it was flash designer role, but I ended up writing books as the resident in-house author.

The initial book was Foundation flash 5 (released 2000), the first book for the Foundation series. Approximately 20 other books followed in the period 2000-2005.

The thing is, I haven't written a book since then, but had an idea to write a new book that went through the stuff that Adobe dont cover in the standard Flash docs; scripted animation.

Looks like I don't have to write that book now, because its already been done, and done well!

Perhaps the only thing I would do differently is to add a book project, where the animation techniques were used in a high end Flash user interface design (thus putting the techniques in a typical design context), but thats just a difference in style... all the content I would wish to cover is in this book.

Well worth buying, and not just for beginner Flash users; many of the tchniques in this book go well beyond 'Foundation' level, and are recommended for intermediate/advanced users. good coverage of 3D techniques in Flash means that this book also comes recommended for advanced users looking at Papervision et al, and advanced Flex users looking to add a bit of motion-graphics into the mix.

Back to lurk mode :)

Sham Bhangal.

Good book for intermediate user. One dimensional but does adequate job in that one dimension.

This book is fantastic, and a fine addition to my Friends of Ed collection. The author does a brilliant job of explaining how Actionscript 3 works and doesn't assume you are using a particular application to put it all together. So for anyone developing in Flex or some other Actionscript app, this book is equally useful.

The trigonometry and maths of it all are simplified down so you can understand it, and through this book I've rediscovered my inner geek - playing with maths for the fun of it!

If you are at all interested in building your own animation scripts, grab this book and read it! It's great.