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Illustrating with Macromedia Flash Professional 8 (Internet Series)
Firebaugh R., Charles River Media, Inc., Rockland, MA, 2006. 384 pp. Type: Book (9781584504771)
Date Reviewed: Aug 31 2007

Today, the use of the Internet is not restricted to reading and sending email, or to browsing Web pages. Functionality-oriented applications are crowding the Web. These applications have established new expectations for Web users, and pose greater challenges to designers and developers of Web pages. Macromedia Flash Professional 8 (MFP8) is an integrated suite of tools that allows developers of Web applications to visually manipulate multimedia data objects in their applications. Macromedia Flash is also considered an animation tool for Web sites. The objective of this book is to tutor developers so that they can improve their techniques in creating illustrations using MFP8. The improvements consist mainly of employing vector graphics instead of the more familiar raster graphics. In vector drawings, one defines the properties of a drawing, such as outlines, contours, fill, shapes, color, and transparency, all using mathematical functions. This approach allows users to save the drawings in small files.

Chapter 1 gives a brief overview of the hardware essential for running MFP8, such as the scanner, graphics tablet, and interactive pen display. It then proceeds to explain the drawing tools, shortcut keys, and panels of MFP8. The use of tools such as line, oval, lasso, selection, polystar, free transform, timeline panel, and gradient is discussed in detail.

The next three chapters are devoted to the concepts, different methodologies, and some key techniques of illustration. The author points out that vector graphics should be designed for the magnification at which they will be viewed. Magnification increases the number of vectors. Additional vectors increase the file size, and, with more vectors to be moved, the speed of animation will slow down. Selection and lasso tools (two prime editing tools) are detailed at length.

The following three chapters present a series of formulas and case studies for creating images, and manipulating them by way of smoothing and shadowing, to achieve better renditions. The vector graphics tools that are presented in the book allow a user to add blur, highlights, drop shadows, texture, and glows to figures, which can be converted into photorealistic illustrations and incorporated into a Flash file.

Chapters 5 and 6 focus on creating smart user interfaces and Web pages with special features of MFP8. These two chapters form the keystone of the book. The suggestions offered to Web site designers are valuable for producing excellent sites. Designers are advised to preempt their personal preferences in favor of the views of clients and end users. A top-down analysis and a bottom-up design process can reduce the awesome complexity of visualization and organization, which are involved in designing a Web site. The MFP8 tools help the designer focus on the page layout, prioritize and sequence the modules on the page efficiently, and leave him or her enough leeway to focus on organizing the content of the page carefully. Chapter 5 gives a step-by-step procedure for designing a logo; this is an impressive tutorial.

Presenting a series of images or frames sequentially, in time and space, is the traditional way to create animations. However, when you try to stream such frames over the Internet at 15 frames per second (fps), you are streaming a large amount of image data. To minimize this streaming load, MFP8 resorts to a technique known as motion tween. Motion tween is implemented by providing the initial and final positions of the symbol to be animated. The intermediate (or the between) points are generated by Flash, pair-by-pair, and are dictated by the desired resolution of animation. In addition to motion tween, MFP8 supports surface tween. Exercises like “bounce ball,” “waterfall with ripples,” “adding reflection to a logo,” and “animating fire” demonstrate the power of motion tween to a Web site designer. It will surprise anyone to hear that vector techniques in graphics can render a textured look to surfaces. Chapter 8 shows how such renditions can easily be accomplished with Macromedia Flash.

This book represents a milestone in multimedia and Web design. The importance of illustration on the Web is bound to increase in the coming years. Today, many are eager to share their minds with the rest of the world. Scientists and technologists, however, often lack the creativity and artistry to design illustrations in a manner convincing to others, as well as to their own satisfaction. For them, being able to illustrate their work, straight from their minds to the canvas, would be very helpful. This book serves its intended purpose quite well. However, several terms like “gradient transform,” “radial gradient,” “lasso tool,” and “blurring” may be foreign to readers. Including short definitions would save readers from unnecessary interruptions.

Reviewer:  A. K. Menon Review #: CR134690 (0808-0757)
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  Reviewer Selected
 
 
Graphics Utilities (I.3.4 )
 
 
Animations (H.5.1 ... )
 
 
Graphics (K.8.1 ... )
 
 
Application Packages (K.8.1 )
 
 
Multimedia Information Systems (H.5.1 )
 
 
Three-Dimensional Graphics And Realism (I.3.7 )
 
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