Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 384 pages
- Published by: Charles River Media
- Edition: 2nd Edition April 12, 2006
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 1584504773
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-1584504771
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Book Dimensions:
9.1 x 7.3 x 1 inches
- Weighs: 2 pounds
Product Description
Flash has evolved into an great tool for creating innovative vector graphics and animations for the Web, due mainly to its easy-to-use features, high-quality output, and relatively low cost. But Flash is also a perfect illustration tool. Why hassle with creating your illustrations in one tool and then exporting them when you don't have to? Illustrating with Macromedia Flash Professional 8 provides in-depth methods for mastering the truly jaw-dropping illustration possibilities you can achieve with Flash. The book is written to teach new and experienced users how to use Flash as your illustration tool of choice. It provides innovative techniques and solutions for using the drawing tools in Flash from an artist's perspective, and it teaches you the methods needed for making gorgeous, effective illustrations, whether you are naturally artistic or not. This new edition has been completely updated to cover the latest advances in Flash, provide new techniques and solutions, and to teach you the entire process for creating vector illustrations using step-by-step tutorials. Beginning with a tour of the basics of illustration concepts, techniques, and approaches, you'll progress to learning about design techniques for logos, interfaces, and content layout, as well as animation and texture techniques. You'll also discover how to use Flash to draw in a variety of different styles-- cartoon, anime, and photorealistic, and you'll finish up with advanced tutorials for layering multiple textures, using filters for blur effects, and using linear gradients to create a wrinkle effect. If you want to learn how to use Flash as your illustration tool, this is the one resource you need.
About The Author
Robert Firebaugh (Foster City, CA) is the founder of vectorkid.com, a vector art community site that educates developers about the illustration possibilities in Flash. He has over ten years of illustration and game design experience, and he is the creative director and co-founder of Electrotank, Inc. The games he has designed have won numerous international awards and have been acknowledged by many publications. He is an active member in the graphics community, publishing many other Flash works in magazines (Computer Arts, Computer Arts Projects, Web Designer, Practical Web Projects, and more). He contributed a chapter on gaming graphics in Macromedia Flash MX Game Design Demystified and is the author of the first edition of this book, as well as the forthcoming, Macromedia Flash® Professional 8 Game Graphics.
Reader ReviewsI'm not a fan of Charles River Media's books. They don't have color illustrations, aren't well proofread and just generally seem cheaply put together. Despite all that, Illustrating with Macromedia Flash Professional 8 is a must-have book for anyone using Flash. Firebaugh's use of Flash as an illustration tool is mind blowing, using simple vector tools to create photo-realistic images. The problems of being published by CRM are evident though. The black & white pictures make it hard to judge what's going on and there are a few confusing typos and mis-wordings. (he often says "delete" when he really means "cut") You end up stuck having to have the FLA files right in front of you while you read. It's a good way to learn, but rather inconvenient. I don't want to come off as down on this book just because I don't like the publisher. There's tons of great learning in this book. The source files are set up so you can poke through each step and see how things are put together. Also there are exercises at the end of each chapter to practice what you've learned. All in all, Illustrating with Macromedia Flash Professional 8 puts you on the path the to do things with Flash you never thought were possible.
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