I just want to start by saying this is a GREAT book. But as for the title, there's no such thing as cheating in Flash. It all takes work, and some serious problem solving, but the results can look very sophisticated. The book is a fantastic resource, and just reading it through the first time I know I will be referring to it for years to come. I really like the way the author demystifies the design process for the beginner, so that they can just concentrate on creativity. The exercises are all very useful with tons of application for Web, TV, and Film.

If you use flash you need this book in your library. This is one of the best Flash Character animation books on the market. This book covers multiple aspects ranging from how to use Flash CS3 design tools to Advanced Character Walk-cycles. The book also covers important aspects of working with sound and video in flash including a section on Dynamic Sounds using AS3. I highly recommend getting this book.

This book is a wonderful resource for the animation student or casual amateur. Chock full of useful knowledge, Chris covers several key areas of the animation process, such as: character animation, different drawing styles, painting techniques and more. Plus, he shows you a bunch of tips and tricks to add that extra flare and even delves into exporting animations into suitable formats for different applications: like tv/video or the internet, all the while explaining it in a way that's casual and understandable. All in all, a fantastic book to learn from: especially if you want to make internet shorts.

P.S. It also comes with a CD with source files to go along with the teaching and a bunch of extra goodies to streamline your work. Excellent!

One of the most comprehensive flash references I have seen. Being an animator and illustrator for a small interactive company, this book gives you priceless tips and tricks on how to save valuable time and meet those never ending deadlines. Great job Chris. I'm sure all flash animators old and new could benefit from this little gem.

On the positive side the author is a excellent artist & animator. You will be able to see how high quality animation is put together in Flash. But I agree don't get this book - at least by it self - if you are a complete nube, it doesn't cover the foundation basics. Also it is rather weak on scripting, the author had to go to the bullpen and get a second author to cover the subject, the book only gives the subject the briefest coverage, plus I have found problems - files missing - that are needed to complete the lessons.

This book is outstanding. Clear and vast, goes direct to the point: how to make art in the computer.

How To Cheat in Adobe Flash CS3, Indispensable. A Critical Review.

I love this book for both what it teaches and the way the book is presented as a quick and fun way to master the software Flash (CS3).

How To Cheat...Flash, is the third of 3 essential books I've bought and am highly recommending for learning, advancing in Adobe Creative Suite 3. The first, the foundation book, CS3 For Dummies, is the essential resource book for learning what CS3 can do. Dummies differs from the more practical books of How to Cheat and the Adobe Illustrator CS3, WOW! book, in that it's function is only to layout all of the tools and how the tools are used in the Adobe CS3 Premium set. That's it. This is where books specifically for the use of showing real world examples are for and How To Cheat in Flash CS3 is phenomenal at it.

To say that an entire production suite that enables one to create artwork. Create animation. Repair photos. Design brochures. Create and publish websites--all of this is possible (and more with this Design Suite.), but there is a steep learning curve with all of the applications, if you're fully interested in doing really amazing work: this is why all three books are essential.

If you want to learn how do animation, whether in Flash or a similar program, this book is for you. It is as much a book about taking illustrations and converting them to computer illustrations and then to animated figures as it is about learning how the Flash software can take your ideas and make them a reality.

As I mentioned in my review of the Wow book for Illustrator CS3, How to Cheat... should be considered an addendum to Dummies. It is fully illustrated (the illustrations are worth the price alone!) and it also includes a fully-stocked cd room that accompanies the text. This book differs in style from the others in that author, Chris Georgenes, takes your basic illustrations and demonstrates basic routines. Then, Georgenes, builds on those elementary to more advanced projects. But, these projects are very attractive to the eyes and fun to read.

For graphic designers, illustrators, film animators, YouTube enthusiasts, marketing managers, web developers, novice website builders, this software and this book are indispensable.


Strongly recommended.

I found this book to be extremely helpful. The clear layout of the book along with the illustrations & instructions make this an excellent resource for any current or aspring Flash Designer. The bonus of having most of the examples on CD were a plus too. I will have this book with me at all times when I design in Flash. I've already applied some of the techniques I've learned & I consider them part of my design repertoire.

However, I wouldn't recommend this book for beginners. It is definitely tailored to the graphic & design professional (which I am). The author presumes some prior knowledge of Flash, so in my opinion beginners would not benefit from this. This is a concept & technique book & not a book on how to operate & use Flash and the author clearly notes this in his forward notation.

Love this book!

How to Cheat in Flash CS3: The art of design and animation in Adobe Flash CS3
This book have REAL helpful hits and tips to increase your productivity. I continual use this book as a resource and am think of buying How to Cheat in Photoshop CS3: The art of creating photorealistic montages (How to Cheat in)

Don't pay attention to comments about having 2 years Flash experience and this book is too advanced or whatever the comment was. If you have 2 years experience and cannot use this book then you are doing something wrong. I signed up for a free week trial at [...] and went through Chapters 3 through 10 and I bought this book the week after and I'm already creating my own characters and composing simple flash animations with lip synching and panning backgrounds. I've been working on Flash for about 2 months and this book boosted by productivity ten fold. This is the first review that I've ever written and it was so good that I decided to write on. No, I do not have any affiliation with the author or Lynda.com, I'm just telling you my opinion and experience in relation to using this book. I used the free trial week and didn't even have to pay for Lynda at all. This a great book if you know the basics of Flash such as creating and working with keyframes, tweens, etc.

It is rare to find a professional who's willing to share such a wealth of knowledge built over the years. Most pro's in any field will write books full of fluff to satisfy their egos.
Not Chris! This book is absolutely amazing. It is chock full of incredible techniques and tricks that will take your animations to the next level AND save you lots of time.

***To all beginners***: I am a beginner myself -I'm learning Flash on my own and have only used it for a few months. Even though this book does not start from zero, don't bother buying anything else. Do the basic Macromedia tutorials (for free) to learn the environment and then go straight to Chris' book. Of course, there's a lot of stuff that you will not get until you become more profficient, but that's the beauty of the book: that it'll grow with you. Trust me, if you're buying a book on Flash animation, make it this one!

If you wish to animate on the web with flash, this is the five star book to buy. Everything is there. Get inspired with the friendly manner of how the whole book was laid out. So happy to get hold of a copy.

Hello, I bought the book How to Cheat in Flash CS3: The art of design and animation in Adobe Flash CS3, and I mean the whole ones that is the best book on the Flash that I already had opportunity to read. The examples, the form as they are presented, the easy language, everything wonderful. It is worthwhile to acquire that book, and to know Chris Georgenes's work later, visiting its site. I really have 3 special books on as to do cartoons using Flash, and that belongs one to them. Congratulations to who acquiring. You will acquire an excellent book

I highly recommend this FULL COLOR wonder of a book.

The major flaw with this book is that it is definitely not THICK enough. Get this baby the width of Mook's "Essential ActionScript 3.0" and we would have a killer of a book.

I sure hope this author is typing away.

A most excellent book, and along with his website, its helping me with my personal Flash project. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants more information on how to use flash for cartoon character animation. Putting the word "Cheat" in the title was a stroke of genius, because I might have passed it by. I hope he writes another book with even more information about how to use Flash for character animation.

If you are looking for a book that explains how to use the basic tools on the simple levels then this book is not for you.

The author assumes that you already have experience working with flash and doesn't want to waste your time including anything that can be found by pressing F1 (Help docs)

I did not return the book because I am reading another book which teaches more basics of Flash and then I will come back to this book later.

I've been studying Flash 8 for two years and still going at it; I received this book for Christmas because I have updated to CS3. This book is great at giving advice and telling you what you should do or how your end product should look, but doesn't give detailed directions on how to accomplish such tasks. It's like being taught by a master who overlooks the "obvious". This means that you're going to spend a lot of time figuring out how to achieve the end result. I even contacted every single reference and contact mentioned by this book and I haven't received any replies after waiting now for a few months.

I have a lot of motivation to learn on my own from books, and finish them, but I've put this book down for now as it's too tiring and time consuming without yielding results. When I pick it up again and complete it, I'll update this review.

I'm new to Adobe Flash and I'm learning this program on my own. This book is very well written and easy to follow. I believe that this book is not made for beginners. If you are in school and need an exact knowledge or also studying flash on your own for awhile (6 months), then this book might be right for you. I been only study flash for about 2 months now.

I was rather disappointed by this book. As a complete beginner, I was hoping that it would provide some assistance with Flash's nonsensical user interface, but unfortunately it assumes that I've already mastered that. If you already know Flash, this book might be useful, it mostly covers various time-saving methods and tricks, but (typically) nothing that an advanced user couldn't figure out on her own.

Also it is an example of what I call an "over-illustrated" book, it has lots of artwork on each page, often far more than necessary, and is printed in full color on glossy paper. Again, some people may like this sort of thing, I found it annoying.

Finally, its tutorials tend to be extremely short. Most fill a single two-page spread, and few carry on longer than that. I would have preferred a little more depth.

That said, the book does seem to include some useful tips, and I will probably get back to it when I've mastered Flash a bit more--but I still wish I'd bought a more-detailed volume.

I purchased this book because I was taking a Flash course at my local CC and thought it might help me with the drawing tools and would be at the very least, nice to look at. It soon became my bible for Flash in the class. Surpassing the instructors knowledge of the software and giving my animations that polished professional look that wows the crowd! Kudos to Chris! Excellent! I would recommend this book to anyone that needs to learn Flash.

I love this book. I bought it mainly because I loved the style of art on the author's website www.mudbubble.com, and I was glad to see the book is full of the same clean, shape-based illustrations. The author discusses how to draw using Flash's (which is also a very popular drawing tool, as well as a 2d animation tool) Select tool, the Brush, the Pen and also how to construct characters using basic shapes like rectangles and ovals.

The tips are organized well, one per 1-2 pages, and the book seems to flow logically from beginning to end. I feel I got a lot out of it.

It's not really an art book, but I would characterize it as one more than I would call it a Flash animation book. If you're looking for in-depth coverage, this is not the book for you, but if you're looking for ways to take your Flash drawings and animations to the next level, this is the best book for that I've ever seen.

This book for me has taken my animation in Flash 8 to another level. The techniques discussed in the book are of value to any Flash animator whether animating cartoons or advertisements/motion graphics for the web. I found this book to be well worth the money. Such a great find!!!

Chris Georgenes has stepped up, and written down all of the tips and tricks that will help a person really exploit Flash for all it's worth.
As someone who makes his living with Flash, I have been waiting for a book like this.
Nesting symbols to speed up lip-syncing? Genius!I could go on and on, but suffice to say that this book has already helped me with one job, and I know it will come in handy for many more.
Plus, it comes with a cd-rom that has the .fla files of his examples, so a person can see the way to construct more intricate shots in Flash.
Good job, Chris!
I owe you a beer if I ever meet you!

It's just an excellent book to have. It will give you great hints and shortcuts for Flash productions.

This book works well showing basic shortcuts for the newbie with flash. Some interesting insights for professional flash users but those are also available in the trade magazines much more cheaply. Still a fun book though.

Same old same old. The time may have come for publishers to stop publishing books on Flash.

The cheats in this book are wonderful. I love his teaching style. Found a tut online from him and I have been hooked every since. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants several ways to use flash. You do need some working knowledge of the software but newbies are still welcome.

I'm a beginner in flash. In fact I had never touched it until I bought this book out of a random decision to make my own cartoons. This book has taught me tons. And from the get go he let's you know it's more for those who are familiar with the environment. But by reading some of his discussions of how he got to where he is, I figured out to use the help in flash to close the gap of what I need to know to what I do know. This book doesn't just give you amazing tips about flash, but helps you learn how to discover on your own things about flash.

great book, well printed, well illustrated,
good ideas to follow,
beautiful examples,

but sometimes it lacks precise instructions, maybe that it is related to the "two pages design" wich restrain the scope of each subject.
for example, I'm trying for hours to "distribute to layers" two groups of strokes on two keyframe (like as said on page 127 , step 3) and I can't because the author don't explain exactly how to do this uncommon task.

I give 3 stars because I don't like this restictive "two pages design",
then it's a book I recommand otherwise, but not for the beginner.

Really get you going on exactly what you need to get started! Hands on examples that get you started on real world tasks.

I've had been a fan of Chris style and work since a couple of years ago, and I always get impressed with every new animation of Chris over the time. In this time Chris presents a book that covers many of his best works in all his career, and shows you, using clear explanations and lot of pictures how to achieve this impressive animations.

Personally speaking, I liked so much this book, because contains a lot of best practices and outstanding tricks in Flash animation, tricks that will help you to get impressive results in your animations by using subtle Flash techniques.

i am one of the biggest fans of Chris Georgenes, only because of his style of work and attitude. I pre-ordered this book, and i thank God to actually have it. This book is One of the most valuable resources to me, as it has everything that you would ever need to become a known-seasoned professiona digimator. Right from the first page to its end you will start experiencing a speciall kind of magic in your hands, you just want to get started on the computer and make fun animations. This book covers every expert level technique, that essentially you will have to have. Chris is a great instructor and a great talented individual and Adobe should be proud to have him on their ship.

I wish it should be only me to have this book ;) ...

I first come across Chris' work by accident while searching for some tutorials on flash cartoon animation. I grew to love his tutorials featured in the Adobe(previously Macromedia) site and his personal keyframer.com site. He has this straight forward practical approach to building an animation. As the saying goes, "There are many ways to kill a cat". Chris, shows you the most efficient approach to working with Flash. I was therefore simply overjoyed to learn he was publishing a book.

Well, I finally got my copy, and this was worth the wait. Chris takes a tutorial based approach to everything you need to animate cartoons in Flash. This along with "Flash Cartoon Animation: Learn from the Pros" prove to be an invaluable resource(believe me, they are very few books out there that do the topic justice) on the topic in my opinion.

Chris, avoids getting into the nitty grity stuff on how to work with Flash and dives straight into the topic of how to animate cartoons in Flash. I was surprised by the rich color in the pages given the price of the book!

Perhaps my favorite part of the book is the tons of resources on the CD, everything from the sample source files which will help drive the lessons home and the free/trial softwares and Flash extensions that will help save time.

So two thumbs way up on this one!!

I don't care how many years anyone works in digital art, there are always new things to learn. This book is like looking over Chris' shoulder and having a peek at how he streamlines his work flow. I've been using Flash for about 10 years and I was surprised to find many tricks I've never known about. Usually experts never share too many of their secrets and I can't believe how much Chris gives away! And he writes so clearly, explaining each step, why and how, all along the way. I'm also enjoying the interludes... parts of the book where Chris shares some life-changing moments from his professional and personal life as an artist. Not too often do you find a "How To" book that almost feels like having a mentor take you by the hand and walk you through the steps. I sure wish I had this book when I first started flash...

I'm going to keep an eye out for other titles from this author in the future! He has already saved me tons of time.

They say a genius is a person that can take something complexed and put it in the hands of the simple. This is exactly what Chris has done. Chris has such an easy going way of wording things, and the depth in Flash that he's poured into this book is amazing. I'm a recent member to his online community keyframer.com, where the feedback is timely and incredibly helpful. If you own Flash, you owe it to yourself to make How to Cheat in Flash a part of your library.