My God.. Flash MX is tough to learn..

How did you guys learn it? I have done the majority of the tutorials that come with the software, but i still do not even know how to make a functioning button.

Nos.

here's how i learned it. (still learning)
begain illustrating with it.
bought the lynda flash mx hoh book and read all 700 pages.
bought the new riders flash mx magic book, but the actionscript tutorials were way beyond me so it's still sitting on the shelf.
mastered the illustration tools some more.
began really learning symbols and instances in depth.
experimented with nested timelines more and more.
spent countless days on www.flashkit.com looking through toutorials and downloading sample movies i liked to tare them up and see how they were put together.
bought actionscripting for dummies because i felt like one when it came to coding.
got the lynda actionscripting training video cd (all my thanks to this one) and watched it about 40 times.
searched the forum at www.ultrashock.com for anything i ever got stuck on.
made some friends that know actionscript better than me.
just finished my first all flash site, kranestyle 2.

all of that over a 6 month perriod.
flash is an evil program so don't expect to know it over a day or week. and the worst thing you can do is just give up and trust me, i've felt like doing that too many times.

Wow, thanks! I registered at the flashkit forums, and i'll be sure to DL some of those movies and check them out.

Nos.

go buy foundation flash mx by friends of ed. read the whole freakin' thing. then go buy foundation actionscript and do the same thing. at the end of that you'll be in pretty good shape

chris

Ok, got them on order from Amazon.com! They better be good reads :D

I have to learn this program in about 3 months.

Nos.

they're worth it, no worries. work thru those and you'll be in good shape.

btw, check your pm's, had a question for ya...

chris

i got the super saver shipping from amazon, and my book is already 4 days late with no updates on the usps tracking since may14th. if u can, maybe you should switch your shipping method (if u chose the free one). but maybe that's just my fault for being cheap.

Ultrashock has some brilliant Flash tutorials as well. I am in the same boat as you Nos. I find it a bit confusing to learn, but now I am forced to learn it. Took me half a day to get some form elements going between php/mysql yesterday. Pissed me off for sure.

I like the NewRiders books, but my biggest gripe with a few of their writers is they have little bouts of vagueness here and there. It's like the tutorial is going along fine, then all of a sudden there is a spot where they like blacked out and left a big hole in their logic and they think you can read their minds. But their tutorials are really useful and some are difficult. (I have a bunch of their books lying around here.)

Kirupa.com has some nice tutorials and I think they are explained pretty well. I've been over there recently.

But for web development tutorials Ultrashock is my fave.

My tip: Practice & Experiment a lot!

Books & tuts can only get you so far. Also forums are great (also try were-here.com) but be careful because you can drown in them and waste a lot of time (somethimes ending up with bad info too)

Also dont set your goals too high for 3 months. It'll take a while to become good at it. I taken courses in flash and have used if for ~5 years now....just about the last 2 1/2 years ive felt comfortable with the program (+/- couple months)

and if you know javascript/php or another scripting language.....that should help learning actionscript.

Yeah, thanks a lot guys! I really don't know any coding languages, just scripting. Programming takes a certain mind, i think, in order for it to "come natural". Learning a new logic is definately proving to be a painful task, lol.

FIG: I didn't get any PM from you.

Nos.