Andrew Rapo and Alex Michael explain all the important programming concepts from a designer’s point of view, making them completely accessible to non-programmers. Completely revised and rewritten this second edition will help you develop professional ActionScript 2 applications, and communicate knowledgably about current, Object Oriented ActionScript 2 techniques.

Divided into four sections to take you from novice to professional results:

* Flash Fundamentals: Introduces the Flash authoring environment and basic core Flash concepts.
* ActionScript 2 Fundamentals: Explains basic programming concepts and terminology, and shows how ActionScript 2 classes are constructed and used.
* Built-in Classes: Describes the built-in ActionScript classes that are available for use in applications, including the MovieClip class, Key class, Sound class, etc.
* Using ActionScript to Build a Game: Describes the development process for creating a complex Flash application and presents commercial-quality game coding examples.

Benefit from explanations and examples of why and how ActionScript can simplify Flash production and expand your design potential

Learn all the basics of strong scripting skills to produce professional results

Example code is available and ready to use with either Flash MX 2004 or Flash 8 - at www.rapo.org/as2book

Learn the basics of strong scripting skills for truly professional results. Written from a creative viewpoint, this is a book that really talks your language!
World Animation Journal

If you are a designer or new Flash programmer looking for a crash course in ActionScript 2 then look no further!

Andrew Rapo and Alex Michael explain all the important programming concepts from a designers point of view, making them completely accessible to non-programmers. Completely revised and rewritten this second edition will help you develop professional ActionScript 2 applications, and communicate knowledgably about current, Object Oriented ActionScript 2 techniques.

Divided into four sections to take you from novice to professional results:

Flash Fundamentals: Introduces the Flash authoring environment and basic core Flash concepts.

ActionScript 2 Fundamentals: Explains basic programming concepts and terminology, and shows how ActionScript 2 classes are constructed and used.

Built-in Classes: Describes the built-in ActionScript classes that are available for use in applications, including the MovieClip class, Key class, Sound class, etc.

Using ActionScript to Build a Game: Describes the development process for creating a complex Flash application and presents commercial-quality game coding examples.

Benefit from explanations and examples of why and how ActionScript can simplify Flash production and expand your design potential

Learn all the basics of strong scripting skills to produce professional results

Example code is available and ready to use with either Flash MX 2004 or Flash 8 - at www.rapo.org/as2book

ActionScript is a powerful tool which allows you to push your scripting skills to their limits. ’Understanding ActionScript’ shows you how to get up and running fast with complete coverage of this invaluable scripting tool. Ideal for students of multimedia and information technology and anyone wanting to produce effective online interactive content.

Covering ActionScript from a designer’s viewpoint, this highly illustrated step-by-step guide shows you how to achieve best results without having to be a programmer.

A support website provides all the content needed to try out the techniques shown in the book firsthand. Discover how ActionScript can improve your interactive content today!

* Benefit from explanations and examples of why and how ActionScript can simplify Flash production and expand your design possibility
* Learn all the basics of strong scripting skills to enable professional results
* Written from a creative viewpoint, finally a book that talks your language!

this book is not for novice "creatives"
The title states it’s "Basic techniques for creatives", please take a look at page 1 (using Amazon’s ’search inside’ feature). On the very first page the author starts displaying lines of code- is this supposed to mean anything to the novice? This kind of sets the pace for the rest of the book. I’ve been using Flash for 8 years as an animation tool, so I would consider myself a ’creative’. I need a book that walks me through the very basics or what Actionscript is and how it works. Simple stuff, like how to make a functional button and why it works. The first three pages the author touches on some of the actionscript interface descriptions and them launches straight into code, complicated programming the author assumes you already know. Really, I can’t say if this book is good or bad, because I have no idea what he is talking about. All I can say is, this book is for programmers, not for artists (or ’creatives’) or any one trying to learn action script basics.

Excellent Presentation of ActionScript 2
This book does a great job of introducing ActionScript 2, explaining why to use it, and demonstrating how to make the best use of it. I’ve bought other Flash books that have decent example code, but this book (which has an excellent companion Web site) provides source code for a complete game application. Not just a simple whack-a-mole game, but a very cool Asteroids-style game with powerups, etc.

In addition to the excellent examples, the author has a very clear and understandable writing style. The book clearly explains the concepts behind object-oriented programming that I have been so stuck with in the past. This is going to herald a breakthrough in how I work with Flash.

This book and Colin Moock’s Essential ActionScript 2.0 complement each other nicely. This one provides practical application while Colin’s provides encyclopedic reference.

Has serious flaws
I come to the world of flash as someone who’s programmed in myriad languages over a decade. The first thing that I had major problems with is the lack of an effective index. There’s actually a fair amount of information in this book, but you simply won’t be able to find it via the index or the table of contents. You don’t know how unnerving it is to flip page by page, simply looking for basic syntax. "Maybe what I’m looking for is on this page. Maybe this page. Maybe..." Annoying.

On the plus side, if you’re a newbie to actionscript, as I was, every page does have info that will having you saying, "Oh, I didn’t know that." However, that’s to be expected as a newbie. I’ve already written two games since this initial point (I program for a living, so this is to be expected) and, although the book doesn’t have to be a reference, I should at least be able to look up the most basic of things in the index and find it. About the best thing I got from the book was the timer class, which I’ve already used in my second game.

So to summarize, if you flip to any one page, you’re bound to find something that you can put in your flash arsenal. If you’re looking for the answer to something specific, however, go elsewhere. And once you get decent with anything, you’ll need a reference. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have time to comb through an entire book and scrape out the golden nuggets. I need the answer to a question so that I can move on.