The Journey Begins #1

Hi there, I know it’s been a while but been busy with the new theme and now it’s almost complete. We are working on the coding side now. Anyway, in today’s post I want to start on a new series that will take the readers through our journey on learning Flash and web design.

Probably some may think this should be purely about Flash and Actionscript. But I discovered the love for web design and the need to know it all through the desire to learn Flash. So now I’m hooked.

From this post I will list the tools I used, websites I visited, books I read, and inspirational design, that helps me learn through my endeavor.

The books I read (in no particular order):

Web site design has grown up. Unlike the old days, when designers cobbled together chunky HTML, bandwidth-hogging graphics, and a prayer to make their sites look good, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) now lets your inner designer come out and play. But CSS isn’t just a tool to pretty up your site; it’s a reliable method for handling all kinds of presentation–from fonts and colors to page layout. “CSS: The Missing Manual” clearly explains this powerful design language and how you can use it to build sparklingly new Web sites or refurbish old sites that are ready for an upgrade. (amazon.com)

ActionScript has matured into a full-fledged, object-oriented programming language for creating cutting-edge Web applications, and this comprehensive book is just what you need to succeed. If you want to add interactivity to Flash, build Flex applications, or work with animation €” it’s all here, and more. Packed with clear instruction, step-by-step tutorials, and advanced techniques, this book is your go-to guide to unlock the power of this amazing language. Learn the basics, apply object-oriented programming, and more. (amazon.com)

The newest entry in the highly regarded E-Design series shows designers how to implement color in a sophisticated way across a range of digital media. Using a primarily visual approach, this guide takes a detailed look at the technical foundations underlying digital and the specifics of color on screen. Open a €œcolor toolbox€ to see how each shade works in real-life applications; find out how to improve comfort and readability; discover screen options that would have been impossible on paper; and even learn the meanings different cultures attach to color. (amazon.com)

Adobe Developer Library is a co-publishing partnership between O’Reilly Media and Adobe Systems, Inc. and is designed to produce the number one information resources for developers who use Adobe technologies. Created in 2006, the Adobe Developer Library is the official source for comprehensive learning solutions to help developers create expressive and interactive web applications that can reach virtually anyone on any platform. With top-notch books and innovative online resources covering the latest in rich Internet application development, the Adobe Developer Library offers expert training and in-depth resources, straight from the source. –From book resources websites. (amazon.com)

Two of the savviest Flash experts in the industry show you how to add impact to your Web content. Robert Reinhardt and Snow Dowd know all the techniques and tricks, and they take you under the hood in this one-stop total reference guide to Flash CS3 Professional. Follow their tutorials, learn from cool examples, and discover insider secrets you won’t find in any other book. Don’t miss the special 16-page color insert loaded with spectacular examples. Also includes a CD-ROM. (amazon.com)

If you’ve ever seen an especially cool Flash effect on the web, gone straight to your trusty Flash book to find out how to do it, then turned away empty-handed–Flash Hacks is for you. This unique book offers a collection of expert Flash tips and tricks for optimization, creating interesting effects, ActionScript programming, sound and video effects, and much more–and you don’t need to be an expert to use them (although you’ll certainly look like one). (amazon.com)

This book, the first to explore the potential power and creativity boost that can be unleashed when After Effects and Flash are used together, is designed to get you up to speed with working in these two applications while hitting you with some creative innovation. You will discover how effectively you can use After Effects to create video and animation effects that were either extremely difficult or impossible to achieve in Flash. (amazon.com)

Whether you’re building a personal blog or a corporate website, there’s a lot more to web design than div’s and CSS selectors, but what do you really need to know? With this book, you’ll learn the secrets of designing effective, user-friendly sites, from customer requirements to hand-drawn storyboards all the way to finished HTML and CSS creations that offer an unforgettable online presence.  (amazon.com)

Sexy Web Design is an easy-to-follow guide that reveals the secrets of how to build your own breathtaking web interfaces from scratch. You’ll be guided through the entire process of creating a gorgeous, usable web site by applying the timeless principles of user-centered design. (amazon.com)

This book offers decades of experience from one of the greatest computer book authors. Here in one volume, Robin Williams has joined together a new edition of her classic The Non-Designer€™s Design Book€”in glorious full color for the first time€”and her best-selling The Non-Designer€™s Type Book. Robin uses her straightforward and lighthearted style to define the principles that govern good design and type as well as the logic behind those principles. Using numerous examples, you€™ll learn what looks best and why on your way to designing beautiful and effective projects. Whether you are a Mac user or a Windows user, a type novice or an experienced graphic designer, you will find inspiration and direction for the design quandaries and conundrums you are sure to encounter! (amazon.com)

Working as a companion to our Web Standards Solutions book, this title covers advanced Cascading Style Sheet techniques, and includes are all the techniques you need to master CSS and craft modern, standards-compliant web page designs. You’ll already know why you should be using CSS, so we don-t bore you with pages of theory; instead, we jump straight into practical solutions, allowing you to get what you need as quickly as possible. (amazon.com)

PHP is an easy-to-use scripting language perfect for quickly creating the Web features you need. Once you know the basics of how the language works, wouldn’t it be great to have a collection of useful scripts that solve those tricky problems and add interesting functionality to your site? We thought so, too. (amazon.com)

It hasn’t taken Web developers long to discover that when it comes to creating dynamic, database-driven Web sites, MySQL and PHP provide a winning open source combination. Add this book to the mix, and there’s no limit to the powerful, interactive Web sites that developers can create. With step-by-step instructions, complete scripts, and expert tips to guide readers, veteran author and database designer Larry Ullman gets right down to business: After grounding readers with separate discussions of first the scripting language (PHP) and then the database program (MySQL), he goes on to cover security, sessions and cookies, and using additional Web tools, with several sections devoted to creating sample applications. This guide is indispensable for intermediate- to advanced level Web designers who want to replace their static sites with something dynamic. In this edition, the bulk of the new material covers the latest versions of both technologies: PHP 6 (due out in 2008) and MySQL 5 (available now). The book’s publication date is likely to beat the official release of PHP 6, making it one of the first books available on the subject. (amazon.com)

Even casual web designers, who create web pages for fun, want to add the latest cool effects to their sites, and jQuery–the fast, flexible JavaScript library–is a tool of choice. Just as CSS separates “display” characteristics from the HTML structure, jQuery separates the “behavior” characteristics from the HTML structure. From visual effects, special controls, and Ajax made easy, the jQuery Visual QuickStart Guide will teach readers how to make the most of jQuery using the task-based, step-by-step, visual format they love. It’s crammed with examples and there’s a special section on widgets. (amazon.com)

Additionally you can look at the list of best web design and development books compiled by nettut+ and its readers here:

More listing will follow soon of my journey towards learning web design and flash.