Ive purchased ASDG knowing nothing about Actionscript. Ive gone through about the first 100/1200 pages and it seems to jump too fast from one thing to another. Im sure it is an amazing reference book for anything you need to know about AS, but as I said, Im a complete noob to AS and am looking for more of a “Step by Step” book that teaches you something, explains it, and shows examples, or even has you do some.
Im sure when I am more fluent with AS, Ill move over to by ASDG by Colin Moock, but for now I can’t move along with his fast pace teaching and no examples or opportunities to try his stuff out by my own (lessons)
Does anyone have any suggestions on a more basic book for AS that includes lessons and is more step by step?
its not really necessary to spend more money on a book (I have never bought a book for Flash). The best way to learn what you need is to figure out what type of effect you want, and then ask questions on this forum. We will then direct you to the proper tutorial that will teach you, step-by-step how to achieve the effect you are after…
I would suggest you get MacroMedia Flash MX ActionScripting Advanced Training from the Source by Franklin and Makar.
This book is a very good introduction to Actionscript with numerous examples. It provides step by step tutorials and when finished will give you a good foundation and understanding of what you can achieve in Flash. Moock’s book is an excellent reference, but your right, it can be a bit overwhelming if the basics are not understood. It is a book that down the road you will definately need by your side. Another one that you should consider for the future is Penners book Programming Macromedia Flass MX. I just love this book.
I personally do everything in actionscript. I stay away from coding on the timeline directly. All my movies are more or less single frames. I tween using only Penners formulas, use Flash remoting extensively, build my own classes etc… I started using Flash only when MX came out. I spent a few months doing small things, to better understand the concepts, time I believe was well spent.
If you get a good handle of the basics you will be amazed at what you will achieve in a few months down the road.
Good luck to you
