BEST way to learn Flash?

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RavinDJ

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BEST way to learn Flash?

I was looking at some templates available online and I was happy to see some amazing things done with them. But, as soon as I download it and try to edit it, I see that someone either did a piss-poor job of putting it together or that I just don't know how to add additional pages, etc.

What's the best way to learn Flash? Online course? Real-live course at a school? Books? Online tutorials?

Thanks!
 
I vote one book and online tutorials.

As for books - roll on amazon, find a book with good reviews and is current.. purchse.. and off you go!
 
That depends. What's your favorite way to learn new things?
 
I picked up some books with LOTS of graphics and examples (not so much text).

I messed around and did some tutorials and such, then kinda played on my own to learn things.


I did just simple animations and interactive buttons/menus though. Flash is VERY powerful and can be VERY complicated when you start getting into making games and more advanced stuff.
 
That's a pretty loaded question there ;-)

However you learn best, is the best way!

I find online resources for flash to be pretty weak, and have had better luck learning through books.

There are a ton of good flash books, however a lot are also on older versions of flash, so be sure to get a current one. That is of course if you learn best by books.

Good luck!
 
Kirupa.com is a nice resource for flash. The tutorials cover a wide range of things which you could adapt to use in other situations.
 
1) Download 30-day trial
2) Go through the tuturials

I learned all my flash through the tutorials that came with the software. It's very good, and takes you through the basics and gives you a basic understanding of everything you need to know to get started. Once you go through the tutorial, you can focus your learning on areas you need (like ActionScripting).

Honestly though, the worst parts of my career involved Flash... it's so hard to estimate time/effort involved in Flash based projects -- and the money just isn't there.

Now motion tween your ass to the adobe site and get started... ;)
 
I recommend HOT (Hands on Training) book series by lynda.com
 
Depends on what you want to do in Flash. If you want to do animation, there are plenty of books, but the tuturial from Adobe should teach your everything you will need to know.

If you want to program in flash. Then there is different set of books and online resources like Kirupa are better than the tutorial.
 
After a week, no acknowledgment from the OP. Busy? Un-appreciative? Wasn't serious about learning, anyway?
 
mikeblas said:
After a week, no acknowledgment from the OP. Busy? Un-appreciative? Wasn't serious about learning, anyway?
Click to expand...

Awww... you guys are the best!! I really do appreciate the follow-up.

Well, I've been playing around with a template that I purchased and I posted it up here:

www.damaliconsulting.com

But, the owner wants a few things changed - mainly, the scroll up/down buttons are not clearly visible (and I don't mean just color-wise) and they're a little complex to use for the non-tech savvy users.

I ended up going to Barnes and Nobles and did find some really good books. I can't remember the titles off the top of my head (I ended up not buying them; not that $100 is a lot for a few books, but I'm buying a house next month and I needed to scrape off every dollar I can for the down payment required at closing).

I really, really like the whole idea behind www.actionscript.org and that's a place that I'll definitely use from the programming point of view.

Sometimes I wonder... when I was young, I wanted to be a programmer and believed that I would love coding. Now, it's the hardest thing for me to sit down and start coding. I just have no drive to do so... but, when I sit down and actually start doing it (whether it be just basic HTML (which isn't coding anyways), or PHP, or SQL, or Java, or C/C++) then I find that I do LOVE IT!!

But, I'm just worried that I'm spreading myself out too thin. One of the best professors I ever had in college (Distributed Systems @ Hopkins) said that you should never spread out and go thin. You should go thin and go deep. I'm trying to think if i can do that, though.

Anyways... as far as Flash goes, I did end up looking at the links that you guys posted (all of which are MUCH appreciated)... looked into some books. But, it all goes down to sitting down and actually learn by doing it.

On a sidenote... some of those templates are glued together in the most horrid and horrendous ways possible.... they do look nice, but sometimes it's just better to start from scratch.

Thanks!!!
 
get the book Essential Actionscript 3.0 if you're going the AS3 route. Its a great book. BTW, I do flash for a living...PM me if you got questions
 
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