Macromedia Flash is the industry standard design tool, providing rich opportunities for creative professionals in many areas of digital design and web development. With the release of the latest version of this exciting product, Flash MX 2004, Macromedia has yet again upped the standard for creating immersive digital experiences. With Flash, the possibilities for artistic expression and overcoming technical challenges are limited only by your imagination. New Masters of Flash is both a global showcase and a practical tutorial book aimed at professional and aspiring designers who are looking for novel inspirations and imaginative techniques. Following the phenomenal success of the first two editions, Volume 3 brings together some of the worlds most awe-inspiring innovatorsyoull see the very finest examples of advanced interaction design, animation techniques, experimental digital art, graphic design, application development, e-learning, and commercial web design. This book is a celebration of people and ideasthese New Masters are the legendary artists and designers who are continually expanding the horizons of motion graphics and interactive design. They share their influences, ideas, and artistic objectives in a series of individual essays that offer unique insights into the creative professionals life and workflow. They take the reader through step-by-step tutorials and case studies explaining in detail how to re-create their interfaces, applications, effects, and experiments in Macromedia Flash MX 2004. On the CD you’ll find Tutorial source files and additional examples, Interviews with the authors togther with other bonus goodies.

Macromedia Flash is an industry standard design application providing rich creative opportunities for designers and developers at all levels of ability and experience. With the recent release of Flash MX 2004, the latest version of this exciting product, Macromedia has yet again upped the standard for integrating video, text, audio, and graphics into immersive, rich experiences for websites, presentations, e-learning, and applications. Flash is now the world’s most pervasive software platform, used by over one million professionals and reaching more than 97% of Internet-enabled desktops worldwide, as well as a wide range of devices.

New Masters of Flash: Volume 3 is both a global showcase and practical tutorial book aimed at working Flash designers who are looking for inspirations and radical techniques. Following on from the phenomenal success of the first two volumes of New Masters of Flash, Volume 3 will bring together the world’s most awe-inspiring and innovative Flash designers to share their influences, ideas, and objectives in a series of individual essays, offering a unique insight into the creative professional’’s life. They will take the reader through a step-by-step tutorial explaining in detail how to re-create the interfaces, applications, and effects in Macromedia Flash MX 2004. These are the legendary artists and designers who are expanding the horizons of interactive interface design with Flash.

I can take it or leave it.
Well...it’s okay but not worth the time I waited for it’s release. The first time I heard about Vol. 3 was at the Flash Forward 2004 Conference in San Francisco. I really looked forward to Billy Bussey and Shane’s Chapter’s but when I read them they did not have the substance I thought it would pack. Shane gave a few nuggets as far as techniques but it was mostly philosophical garbage (as with many other contributors of the book) that could have been left for an autobiography rather than a book that is geared towards actually teaching the customer something. I would say get the book for some decent tidbits but you would probably get more out of the first volume.

not what i thought it was
after reading these reviews, I was really excited for my New Maters of Flash vol3 to arrive. I really liked volume 1 when it came out years ago. But I ended up returning this book because I was disappointed. Most of the animation "tricks" here are about character animation - mostly how to use flash’s drawing tools to make the characters look 3D, and how to use code to make them move. Being a motion graphics animator, the only things i found which were relevant to me (maybe 3 projects) were frankly somewhat boring and predictable.

If you’re an intermediate/advanced flash animator/programmer looking for really clever motion graphics tricks, there may be only 1 or 2 projects of interest here to you.

If you are somewhat of a novice and want to make really cool characters and scenes in flash and become expert with the drawing tools for this type of usage, you will probably get something out of it.

a revolutionary reference
If i wasn’t better than that, I would keep this book a secret... But i know that the flash world evolves because of the beauty of sharing. I felt that this book was priceless. Each and every author is a living phenomenom. If you are not even interested in flash, this book is still worth your while. The people who wrote this book are truly inspiring and have wonderful insights and theories about design/art/interactiivity... For flash designers: this book is a must. This book describes tricks of the trade as well as must-know actions, animations, drawing techniques. The difference between this book and all the others is that this book is the real deal; meaning, that the world’s leading designers are showing you their award winning web sites and take you step by step on how to create them. Not simplistic boxy case studies; but the actual stuff that amazes you when you explore flash kit’s winners of the month.-------Priceless

Amazing value, amazing book
Even if you never plan to use Flash this is an amazing resource to some really cool sites. The book is full of animations, and explanations of cutting edge Flash projects. Unlike most Friends of Ed, you get a CD with the book. The CD has a menu system to highlight each of the Authors in the book. You get bios, info, and direct links to great sites. If you are into Flash, there is lots of information and ideas to help your work be more creative. You will also see a variety of viewpoints on how to use Flash, and some very personal insights. There are four artists whose work alone would be worth the price of this book. Adam Philips provides a great chapter on lighting, and his website shows a real animation master at work. The Jared Tarbell chapter shows a design project from start to finish on pattern making. Anthony Eden’s work is very inspirational, but Olga Bergner’s chapter provides lots of information on good character design and again provides lots of details on how he makes Flash magic. These are my favorites, but I am sure you will find your own in this Book and CD. What really makes this book work, is each author has concentrated on the part of Flash they enjoy, and show how they have used Flash to further their own creativity.