I really want to learn FlashMX. I’ve just invested in 5 high quality reference books, and have more or less completed one from front to back - but I’m not really taking on board what can be done and how it can be achieved. I’m doing one site that I’ve had help with, and this is in Flash, but my usual stuff is done in html. I just can’t get to grips with Flash. I have plenty of ideas, but haven’t a clue how to implement them using Flash. There’s so much to take on board.
Personally I am entirely self taught.
I started a bit at the deep end with Flash 4, when I had to alter some existing games that the company I was working for had. No-one knew Flash so I volunteered to learn it.
Basically I began by taking all these existing files to pieces and seeing how they worked. Once I got the basics down, I went out and got a Flash Bible. That was helpful until I needed to program my own games, where I had to use AS. Then I got Colin Moock’s ActionScript book, which <i>is</i> the Bible as far as I’m concerned. 
Otherwise it’s just practice. Lots of practice.
Are you a designer though? You see, my mate is excellent with FlashMX, but he’s in the industry and has been for years - he’s got the aptitude to pick it up fast. I’m struggling. :hair:
I’m a designer and a developer.
I started off as a pure programmer, and then got into design as well. So I count myself as both.
There you have it - you’re a designer and developer by profession so you have a head start over me. I’m a network manager and this is a hobby for me, but it’s got a very steep learning curve. I’m not one to give up easily however…
The best way is to practice, and not try to run before you can walk.
The mistake people make is to open up Flash never having used it before, and expect to be able to program Tetris right away. It just doesn’t work like that. I wish.
My advice is to start off with simple things. If you’ve never used OOP before, then learn about objects and how to reference them, and what each type of object can do and interact with others. Get tweening down, loading and unloading movies, basic scripting - gotoAndPlay, stop, loadMovie, unloadMovie, that kind of thing.
Make pointless movies, just to try new things. Once you feel comfortable with that, look at slightly more advanced things and start investigating ActionScript. That will give you new ways of building movies.
I freely admit that Flash isn’t the easiest program in the world to get to grips with. It’s simple to do simple things, but the harder stuff takes work.
Still, there’s plenty of help to be found in places like this should you get stuck, and there’s a huge library of tutorials on the main Kirupa site.
Yep, that’s the best way :beam:
I learned Flash MX all by myself too, in the beginning it was like : “AAARgh Work **** you stupid thing !!” and “Why the hell does everything change along when I change only one thing ?” ( I didn’t knew about instances and symbols just then 
)
I learned tons by browsing this forum. It’s like a big Flash brain. Just as Kit said, start with the easy stuff. Make pointless movies and test them out. When you’ve got the basics under control, start actionscripting. You’ll notice it is actually very simple, it just needs a little logical thinking.
Good luck 
Martins list of really great ways to “get” Flash…
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Books! There’s no end to my belief in books. There are some great ones out there.
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Forums like this one and actionscript.org. They are invaluable help.
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Steal. Ok… I don’t mean steal, but download the free .fla files offered and read the code. Try to modify them to do different stuff than they originally did as this will grow you AS-skills no end.
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Set yourself goals that you have no idea how to achieve. If you can think of it, it’s probably possible with Flash. Set some goals that you don’t know how to achieve and then do the research.
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Be amazed.
This is almost the most important one. Surf the net. Look at flash sites and let yourself amaze at the possibilities…
-M
Pretty much everything has been said.
I am self taught as well, and I like to think I have at least a firm grip of what’s going on in Flash.
I learned by visiting Flash sites and forums (this one being my main resource) and the really important thing is experimentation.
If you go to Window/Reference in Flash you can open up the Actionscript Reference panel. This gives you a list of all the documented AS features with descriptions on what each one is and an example usage of most of them. This is an incredibly useful tool.
To learn actionscript I would pick out a feature of AS I wanted to learn and experiment with different usages of that feature. Of course I started off small and worked my way up, I didn’t want to get ahead of myself.
Also I visited many flash related sites that offered open source files. I would then look at how they did what they did in the file and take the individual actionscript features they used and research each one individually, this helps because once you have an understanding of how each individual component of a script works, you will have a better idea of how the script as a whole works.
When the AS Dictionary fails, and open source fails, then you turn to forums or google 
Google can be your best friend when searching for something specific in Flash. Also forum search features can be your best friend too
Some good sites to learn some AS are (besides this site/forum)…
www.flashkit.com
www.actionscript.org
www.ultrashock.com
www.flashmagazine.com
www.actionscript-toolbox.com
And thats all I can think of right now.
I got my start in flash a couple of days ago! I am teaching myself. Learning from this site and such. I don’t ask for help, or haven’t yet. I am trying to learn from my own mistakes and such. I don’t have any books for Flash, just the good ole Internet.
I too am self taught. In October of last year I started with a tennis ball that bounced up and down and my voice saying ‘boing’. I got that ‘quickstart’ book on FlashMX and learned the basics. Then I got addicted (I mean I encountered) this forum. It’s been the number one reason I’ve learned anything. Now I’m doing design and development for people who actually pay me money instead of jeers. I actually just wanted to chime in to add this site to LostInBeta’s list:
His flas that you can download are mind boggling, however, the tuts that he has on elasticity, movement, gravity, etc all done in actionscript is a basis of my programing. Good luck!!
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I’m pretty much self taught along with the aid of Lostinbeta and the other talented flashers of this forum.
I spent many hours in front the comp cussing like theres no tomorrow and doing as many tutorials as possible.
Experimenting is good as well. Also helping other people with their problems enabled me to learn new things as well.
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Add me to the self taught list, is there anybody who went to classes for this stuff?
One thing I see a lot of on the internet help forums is people learning flash ask for help and someone gives them some code to do what they want. Many times I get the feeling people just take the code without asking questions or learning why it works.
Start by doing the tutorials within flash, then try the basic tutorials here on kirupa. I started with some basic tutorials just doing tween animations. From there I started learning the basic actionscript stuff like goto commands.
The actionscript dictionary is a great tool to help you out if you know what commands to use but don’t know how to use them. These forums are also a big help, between everyone here someone can probably help you or point you in the right direction.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I own no Flash books, but if I were to own any I would start off with Actionscript Definitive Guide 2 (ASDG2) by Colin Moock, I hear it’s great (which doesn’t surprise me… Moock rocks).
Also the help files in Flash and the tutorial in Flash are a great deal of help as well.
