Flash - Out of the Box by Robert Hoekman, Jr. (published by O'Reilly Media, Inc. Seabastopol). What a great metaphor name for a great self-help book to teach people to think "out of the box" creating art and animation like a child finger painting. Learning macromedia Flash with the guidance of this book is as easy as a child finger painting. A child doesn't have to know how to read to be creative. I still don't know how to read this book intelligently to quote it; but, I can follow it enough to know the button is the button. And, when the button has a word that I have no idea how to pronounce I still can click on it and make it produce a beautiful finger painting. 

If you want to speak Geekease then go back to college. If you want to jump in head first and learn Macromedia Flash software pick up this book. Robert Hoekman, Jr. wrote he thought he was writing Flash Out of the Box for the beginner remembering to introduce the language as if he was learning Flash for the first time Doing so, he learned terms all over again as they have evolved into new terms along with software's ever changing technology. 

I personally found that after reading the explanations of how and why Flash worked with the many metaphors Mr. Hoekman uses I learned Geekease in spite of myself. I learned valuable acronym language that is used in most popular design software that I self-taught myself, yet never knew what that termed meant. Mr. Hoekman refers to this book as Alignment for Unlicensed Chiropractors. It is because of all the bone structures you will learn to apply to your work. Naturally, you will carry them through to all the software you already know. So, it is not just Flash software you will learn it is the bones of graphic design. He brings back the simple childlike A, B, C's of time-saving techniques like just lay out the graphic design then go back and fill in the text and message instead of stressing over the text and trying to adjust the layout to fit it later. He takes you step-by-step with pictures of rulers and guides to create a simple box to a triangle morph movie. Then you will understand the thought process and be doing pictures of your mother-in-law into a monkey in no time. 

Flash Out of the Box will guide even a person like me who did not know how to spell Macromedia how to purchase and load your software, click on your first box picture, create a movie time-line, to loading your work into a web-site. Mr. Hoekman's use of humor and simple laymans term explanations makes this book a must if you really want to lean the popular Macromedia graphic software bones. All you need is a desire to remember to finger paint again.