My advance copy just arrived (thanks Katy!) and just as i was told by my publisher (Focal Press), it looks awesome – great job on the printing! The colors are really vivid and rich. I’m really excited! I just checked amazon and noticed that the book is already ranked 22,000 out of 6 million books! That’s got to be a lot of pre-orders! I just hope that it lives up to everyone’s expectations!
JamesBummer. I’ve read your first book, and outside of the straightforward tutorials on standard flash capabilities, I thought it was a very interesting guide to emulating your particular style of animation.
But, what I always had a hard time swallowing was the title. “How to cheat in…” seems like a terrible way of pitching any idea. Almost akin, to “How to cut corners…”, “How to fake…”, or “How to half ass…”. I never understood why someone would choose a name like that, especially as a title to their first book.
Cheating at anything never really appeals to those who want to consider themselves professionals. It’s a shame that you’re actually using it as a recurrent theme.
added these pithy words on Apr 07 09 at 10:46 pm
chrisJames, first of all, “How to Cheat…” is part of a series from Focal press – I didn’t create the title.
Second, the title is explained in the beginning and I quote:
“To “cheat” implies
deception and trickery associated with a fraudulent act. In some ways this book will
show you how you can trick your audience, not unlike a magician’s “sleight of hand”
technique where you can control not only what is being seen, but how the viewer
sees it. But this book will certainly not teach you how to be a fraud.
To “cheat” in Flash is to find shortcuts to help you work more efficiently and
economically. Time translates to money and if you can deliver a great looking
project on time, that means you stayed within budget and everybody wins.”
added these pithy words on Apr 09 09 at 12:51 pm
chrisIn other words, by learning from this book, you will be “cheating” by taking advantage of all that I have learned – and in most cases, what took me years to learn, you can learn in hours or even minutes – so that’s where the “cheat” comes in – but it’s just a title – thanks for buying the book.
added these pithy words on Apr 09 09 at 12:53 pm
RobertHi Chris, maybe you could post a sample chapter from the book, so we can check it out!! I already have the first edition and I’m considering in buying this one, it looks pretty cool!!
added these pithy words on Apr 12 09 at 7:33 pm
personmanI’ve seen your earlier editions, and about half of the stuff you talk about has been made obsolete by the new features. Doesn’t that give you a good feeling?
added these pithy words on Apr 17 09 at 12:33 pm
chris@Robert – that’s a great idea – I will ask the publisher if i can.
@personman – yes and no – there are many who still use earlier versions and much of the animation techniques can still be used in CS4 – only difference now is they will be referred to as “old school”
added these pithy words on Apr 18 09 at 9:50 am
markYour comment here
Thanks for the great book.There are alot of tools that you discuss that i would have never thought of using to acheive certain goals.What I bought the book for was that you shaved countless hours off of the learning curve.p.s. You have a cool drawing style.Best wishes.
Mark
added these pithy words on Apr 19 09 at 12:07 am
Alex WI’m definately going to buy this book. Got the first one for Christmas (07′) and I still read it to this day. I can only imagine what the second one is like!
added these pithy words on Apr 19 09 at 3:58 pm
JamesAh, well then under the logic of slight of hand, “Flash CS4 Magic” sounds much more appealing. But, if you’re stuck under the thumb of a Focal Press’ franchise, then I guess there’s not much you can do about it.
Good luck with your new book.
added these pithy words on Apr 20 09 at 5:48 pm
chrisJames – “Flash CS4 Magic” is a really cool title though! Hmmmmm
@ Mark & Alex W – thanks!
added these pithy words on Apr 22 09 at 10:33 am
PaulNice cover. I have the Cs3 version which I love by the way. I know the new Photoshop version of “How to Cheat” had some of the same tutorials as the previous one. Is everything in this book new or is there some stuff carried over from the Cs3 version. Thanks
added these pithy words on Apr 25 09 at 12:32 pm
Julian PerezHi, Chris, I’m from Medellin, Colombia and I’m an illustrator and animator.
My copy of the book arrived last thursday and let me tell you is awesome!!!
As a newbie I always try to do things the hard way, not knowing the great amount of tricks and shortcuts there are in flash to simplify things, so, your book is a great resource to learn all of this tricksI have now a great advantage over my competitors, since in my country there aren’t much animators, and the animation industry is just starting so thank you very much for making such a great book.
When i finish some of the tests i’m doing I’ll let you know. I would love to hear what you think of my work
added these pithy words on May 04 09 at 12:43 pm
SaddieHi Chris, I live in Denmark and I just bought your book. I’ve heard and read so much about it.
I’m a student in an Multimedia Design School in Copenhagen and we are now studying Flash. I have another Flash book but I’m hoping to get a better insight with your book.
Thanks,
Saddie
expatusa
added these pithy words on May 15 09 at 3:56 pm
Daryl BomanI thought that the first edition of your book was fantastic. ‘How To Cheat At Flash’ is not really accurate. It should be ‘How to Think In Flash’!
Thanks for a great starting point.
added these pithy words on Jun 09 09 at 2:42 pm
Victor HugoCuando estara traducido al español, When will it be translated into Spanish
added these pithy words on Jul 15 09 at 10:30 pm
enlight311Thank you so much for this book! I have read just about every Flash manual out there to learn cool tricks, sorta like a “Flash cook book” and they were all just “Flash instruction manuals” with nothing on how to loop backgrounds or create easy reflections.
For months now I had been looking for a book like this but I could only find the CS3 version, so when I stopped at B&N today and saw this CS4 version I made my mommy…er uh I mean my wife (Sorry Sweatheart) buy if for me! And Im ever so greatful for a book that shows you how to do the cool stuff!!!
Thank you. By the way I could have baught this book at a discount on Amazon.com but I felt like helping our econemy out and I paid full price for it at B&N bookstore, because Im cool that way.
No really, thank you!
added these pithy words on Jul 30 09 at 1:02 am
enlight311The title of the book should be…”Flash, the cool stuff you wanted to learn from the other books you paid for, but instead you were “CHEETED” out of your money, so buy this one” I guess you could shorten that title a little but it fits the bill, and you still get to use a form of the word CHEAT in it. LOL
added these pithy words on Jul 30 09 at 1:07 am
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