Do you want to learn Flash? – A list of great resources and references

Do you want to learn Flash? Better yet do you want to learn about the programming language Actionscript that is the impetus of most of the best flash designs in the world? Well here is a list of ways to learn Flash and Actionscript. Flash might look daunting to master for beginners but if you just grit your teeth and sink into it you will be amazed how quickly you can understand some of the basic concepts.

1. Some great tutorials for learning flash from the beginning to the advanced at Kirupa’s website. The list here is long and quite honestly very good for all levels. Do yourself a favor and check them out. You will see a mix of tutorials from animation to AS2 and AS3 and a whole hell of lot more. The team has really done a good job by bundling these tutes together for you all to learn from. Check out their forums as well.
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2. One great way to learn Flash is fire up the application and goto the inbuilt help file that ships with Flash. You can reference many books that Adobe has already selected for you with very useful and pertinent examples. If you read through the documentation you will surely be able to master the IDE (Internal Development Environment) quickly. What better way to learn than from the creators of the software?
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3. Also, be sure to look at the ActionScript 2.0 Migration document to see what functions and classes have been changed, moved, or removed. When changes exist between AS2 and AS3, this document often includes instructions for how you should change your approach.
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4. If you are seriously looking to learn flash then head over to Flashden and check out some of the stock flash files they have there. They are reasonably priced and by picking up just a couple of files you could learn a lot! Matter of fact some authors upload their files solely for learning purposes.
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5. You might want to learn from video tutorials – step by step instructions on how to code or animate in Flash Lynda.com offers many hours of video focused on Flash CS3 and ActionScript 2-3 for a low subscription price. Lee Brimlow’s site gotoAndLearn also offers free video tutorials about Flash.
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6. For the novice or advanced users there is no better way than to view the documentation at Adobes website. Be sure to check out Adobes Flash Developer Center and the Actionscript Technology Center. Or you could just goto the Adobe Developer Connection for a broader view of topics.
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7. All documentation available in the Flash CS3 product is available online on Adobe’s website, including many parts that may be downloaded in PDF form (if that’s your preference). For those that are new to programming, or maybe if you just need a bit of help learning about classes and objects, check out Getting Started with ActionScript in the documentation.
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8. Be sure to check out Senocular’s website and tutorial sections. They extremely helpful and they post a thread at the Kirupa forums called ActionScript 3.0 Tip of the Day.
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9. Another great way to learn Flash or Actionscript is by picking up a book on it. Here are some of the better titles out there.
   • Essential Actionscript 2
   • Essential Actionscript 3
   • Foundation Flash 8 for Actionscript
   • Foundation Actionscript for Flash CS3: Making things Move!
   • Actionscript 3 Cookbook
   • Actionscipt 2 Cookbook
   • Learning Actionscript 3
   • Object Orientated Actionscript
   • Actionscript 3 Bible
   • Foundation Actionscript 3.0 with Flash and Flex 2
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10. There are many forums out there to learn flash at. Google them or use your favorite search engine to find them.
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11. A great place to get free files is at FFiles Website. If you register with them you will be able to download free files from the website. They have many different categories of files for all levels and they are pretty darn useful!
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12. Use a flash decompiler to view other peoples code…Though it is not ethical to directly use anyone else’s code it is a great way to learn how professional build their websites. There are many out there so you can choose which one best suits you or which is the most accessible of the lot! Or ask someone for their code which you could learn from. If you asked me i most probably would be happy to help you on your way with small snippets of re-usable code.
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13. Lastly use a Java Bit Torrent Client such as Azureus to download torrents of your favorite flash books. Goto Extratorrent and type in Flash books and see what results you get. Just download that torrent and add it to you torrent Client to start the downloads. Better yet HERE is the direct link. You might also want to try Rapid Share Downloads and Repository.

Though there are alot more references for Flash on the web, these are the ones that come to my mind throughout my eternal search to learn more. Good Luck!