Great Flash Learning Resources (Flash AS 2.0)

ONLINE:

• Flash Guru
  • Simply one of the most well-respected and knowledgable flash developers there are, this site is a steady resource of insider information, tips, tricks, and great detail on the most important stuff.
• Flash Kit
  • A great community site with lots of downloadable source code and a ton of tutorials. Some of the tutorials are total crap, but there are enough good ones to make an occasional visit worth it.
• OS Flash
  • I’m finding myself more and more frequently getting the questions I have answered at this site.
• Grant Skinner
  • gBlog
    • This is another one of the “Big Dogs” in the industry, and worth every penny. His blogs are always on the cutting edge of the technology, and his galleryincomplet project is simply stunning.
• Robert Penner
  • The daddy of flash physics, this is the site to go to for the beginner’s look into the world of flash math. Unfortunately, he hasn’t updated in a while, so you’ll find a lot of really interesting ActionScript 1 stuff, which isn’t terribly useful for beginners.
• Joshua Davis
  • Cutting edge developer with lots to say. You won’t find a ton of usable code, tutorials, etc at this site, but there is a lot of valuable information and inspiration just the same.
• Colin Moock
  • The insider’s insider. This guy literally writes the book on AS 2.0. Go to his site, and any site he’s involved with, and you’ll walk away smarter.
• Kirupa
  • I can’t stress enough the quality of the tutorials on this site. I wish they had more of them, but the ones they have are some of the best you’ll find.
• Actionscript.org
  • The site I hit first with any question simply for the sheer number of tutorials there. They have everything from AS 1 up, and lots of hidden and undocumented tools as well.
• gotoAndPlay.it
  • A great resource for flash gaming tutorials, examples, and community forums.
• gotoandlearn.com
  • A great list of tutorials and source code submitted to us by a reader.
• Brendan dawes
  • I haven’t been using deli.cio.us for long, so there have been several occasions in which I’ve lost my bookmarks. Brendan’s site was unfortunately one that I’d lost, so it was fortunate when a reader saw our post, and commented back. (Thanks, Moodyz.) Oh yeah, go to this site, and download a crap load of hugely influential and inspirational tutorials.
• PressTube
  • Great source of inspiration both in flash development and artwork.
• Bit-101
  • Tons of fun. Not necessarily the most useful site, but who says inspiration isn’t useful?
• 27bobs
  • You’ll find lots of downloadable source code here, and some of the most innovative ideas for uses of flash anywhere.
• Friends of Ed
  • This is the flasher’s best friend. TONS of downloadable source code on lots of topics, for lots of applications, from lots of people. If you have a choice between any 2 books on the same topic, and one of them is friends of ed, buy the Friends of Ed.
• Mike Chambers
  • And finally, we get to the godfather. Go there. Read. Learn. Be an insider yourself.

BOOKS:

• Essential ActionScript 2.0
• ActionScript 2.0 Language Reference
• Flash 3D Cheats Most Wanted
• Flash Math Creativity
• Extending Macromedia Flash

TIP: Always search for private sellers on amazon. In everyone of these pages, you’ll see a link that says “x New and Used”. Click it. I buy almost all of my books this way, and have yet to have a bad experience. This isn’t to say you wont, but it’s obviously very rare.

More coming soon