Book a good deal? or waste of money

[Tsuna]

sup guys

Im currently ballancing between some books about Flash ...
I know there are some real talents out here ... and prolly even writers of these books ... and I was wondering if any could give me some suggestions.

I really wanne learn someting from the best ... ive just made some money doing some client work and I wanne invest it in something to expand my skills.
Ive seen somewhere that Eric Jordan uses like moviemaker or something to do his flash in ... it would like to learn something like that ... Any good links for moviemaker?
(ah I noticed there are some screenshots of moviemaker in the books 2)


Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Magic
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...=glance&s=books

Flash MX Audio Magic
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...=glance&s=books

Flash MX Magic (3rd Edition)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...ce&s=books&st=*

I think I will buy mx magic ... and perhaps also audio magic cuz Im experimenting in reason etc ..

anyway
I hope
some of you gimme a hand

Tnx alot in advance
Tsuna

[MG315]

when i first started with flash mx, flash mx bible was the best thing ever. It taught everything from the extreme basics to some pretty advanced stuff (not too much of this though). So if you're starting out, i highly recommend getting that - unless you plan on getting mx 2004 and then i'd suggest waiting for the 2004 book to come out.

For actionscripting, the best book is colin moock's Actionscript - The Definitive Guide. I have the one for Flash 5 because I publish everything to flash 4 or flash 5 (haven't found a use for using 6). But, again, if you plan on using Actionscript 2.0, then wait for him to come out with a book on AS2. I will probably buy the AS2 book also since it is a lot different from AS1.

[jaybirch]

www.friendsofed.com good for both creative inspiration and technical knowledge.

[webcorps]

the 3 you listed are no good. Actionscripting in Flash MX by Kerman and Object-Oriented Macromedia Flash MX by Drol and any book by Macromedia Training From the Source are great - And of course the Flash Bible!

[sk8Krog]

Flash Bible is really the only book I go by right now. I do need to get a good AS book tho, thanks for the titles, webcorps.

[MG315]

I'm actually reading PHP for Flash by Friends of ED right now, and I'm only in the 2nd chapter but it's really good. If you're looking to integreate flash and php i highly recommend it (from my experience so far).

[dlowe93]

Originally posted by webcorps
the 3 you listed are no good. Actionscripting in Flash MX by Kerman and Object-Oriented Macromedia Flash MX by Drol and any book by Macromedia Training From the Source are great - And of course the Flash Bible!

If you want to learn Actionscript and by extension, basic programming, get Phillip Kerman's book. Don't wait for the update (since it might be a while), the current book is worth its weight in gold for anyone who doesn't have a programming background and want's to learn actionscript.

If you already know programming basics and want to learn specifics about actionscript and how to use it, get Moock's book.

d.