Great For The Graphically Inclined Or The Still Undecided
Flash 5 Studio was the first of Friends of ED’s books aimed at the more ambitious Flash professional or professional wannabe, to be read after one of their Foundation books, and on a par with Flash 5 ActionScript Studio and Flash 5 Dynamic Content Studio in its exposure of the beginner or intermediate learner to more advanced thought and practice.
      Of the three books at this level, Flash 5 Studio is the one to choose if you are unsure if you want to specialise within Flash’s vast range of knowledge at this point in time, or where. It has the broadest spread of the three, from 3D and video-derived animation methods to dynamic backend applications, with various points in between.
      Flash 5 Studio’s selection of the 23 authors and their specialties is a good one, and it was especially pleasing to see the book’s commissioning editors do not suffer platform or application biases. For instance, the chapter on Flash and PHP is prominent in the book’s Dynamic Content section and although Cold Fusion and ASP are currently the more well-known choices for linking Flash movies to database backends, PHP is the open source alternative that is easier to learn and implement for the beginner while being just as powerful and certainly speedier in operation, besides being absolutely free. Some of the Macromedia engineers might want to read Chapter 19.
      My favourite chapter, and the one I keep coming back to as well as recommending to all my colleagues, is Chapter 1: Site Design Principles, by Peter Holm. It is all too easy, and admittedly a lot of fun, to dive straight in to Flash and play around when you have a brand new project. So much to explore and discover, after all, and the best way to do that is by getting your hands dirty with code and graphics.
      Yet it makes far more sense to sit back and thoroughly think things through, as well as adopt good practices that will get you through sticky situations in future. This is the first time I have seen a Flash designer impart in fine detail the process she goes through before diving in. I recommend you buy this book, photocopy Chapter 1, and hand copies out to all your co-workers.
      And when they get caught up in the thrills of some new coding or graphics, remind them that a little planning goes a long long way. The fun is in being able to justify the use of that groovy new function or interface look to a client, rather than chucking it out because it has no relevance to the project in hand.
      Speaking of grooviness, the book’s other sections contain ample exposure of more of the good stuff this version of Flash brought with it. Smart Clips, importing files made in external 3D applications, cartooning, sound, video, 3D programming (courtesy of one of the masters, Andries Odendaal), the use of After Effects to turn video footage into vectors, bitmap multilayering and transparency with PNG, several approaches to games programming, dynamic content from text files, an introduction to Flash and XML—it is a good spread of subjects and yet there is enough in each chapter to give you a good head start.
      Flash 5 Studio is a great book with which to reassess just what is possible with Flash now that version 5 has brought us so many good new things, and is the jumping off point to choosing your Flash specialty or the next field to explore in depth.

The Book:

• Title: Flash 5 Studio
• Authors: Nikhil Adnani, Andries Odendaal et al
• Publisher: Friends of ED
• Published: 2001
• Pages: 762
• Illustrations: Monochrome
• CD-ROM: Yes
• ISBN: 1903450306
• Rating: 4

• Site Design Principles
• Smart Clips
• Flash and External 3D Applications
• Cartoon Animation in Flash
• Video in Flash
• Sound in Flash
• Transparency Effects
• Masking and Text Effects
• Buttons and Menus
• ActionScript Programming Principles
• ActionScript Integration
• Visual Effects with ActionScript
• Simple Games Routines
• Games Programming
• Flash and the Third Dimension
• Object-oriented Flash Games
• Dynamic Content from Text Files
• Dynamic Web Applications
• Flash and PHP
• Flash and XML
• Combining HTML and Flash
• Preloading and Streaming
• Optimizing Flash for Search Engines