You are not alone. Learn Design with Flash MX employs a unique class-based approach to learning with the goal of establishing core, generic design skills. Each chapter represents a discrete lesson covering a distinct topic of design, and in each 'class' we smoothly blend theory and practice with plentiful practical examples, and a class project that runs through the book to reinforce the learning in an integrated, real-world context, using Flash MX as the illustrative vehicle. Written from the perspective of the design course's tutor, the context is that of a Design 101 course taught in a classroom environment, where the students act as mouthpieces to ask the common questions that beginner designers are sure to ask. You'll get to know the students in the book and follow the development of these characters as your own skill and expertise evolves too. Learn Design with Flash MX covers the fundamental design principles and skills that every designer needs to master in order to create attractive, aesthetically pleasing work to a professional standard. This book addresses the shortfall in solid, traditional design knowledge in significant segments of the web design community ñ specifically, people using Flash. It assumes that the reader is a novice in design terms with no exposure to formal web design principles or training, and little or no Flash experience. If you're coming to Flash completely from scratch, this book will give you a broad and solid introduction enabling you to create aesthetically pleasing, well laid-out sites and content, which will help you learn the trade and get access to the professional web design world. This book should even appeal to those who've read one (or more) entry-level texts on Flash; in fact, it'll complement other tutorials by providing the rich general design context and background that other introductory books lack. This book will teach readers to develop and implement their creative ideas through an understanding of what professional designers in all media see as the prerequisites: composition, color, contrast, light, texture, motion, typography, and many others. If you're interested in learning design skills following a structured path, or if you've been using some of the tools of the trade, like Macromedia Flash, for some time but have never had the opportunity of a solid tutorial, this introductory level book is for you. Learn Design with Flash MX will answer all the essential design questions that other books ignore - the questions you're too frightened to ask. By addressing the core design skills from a beginner's perspective, in the context of Flash MX, readers will gain a rich, solid, and structured understanding of the what, how, and why's of the fundamental principles of good design. From experienced self-taught designers who've ever thought, "I wish I knew how to design things more effectively or more coherently ", to anyone who's looked at a cool design and said, "Jeez, I wish I'd taken a design class in school!", this book will show them the money! Anyone in the web design arena who wants overall design skills, and who needs a solid learning vehicle that will help them acquire and embed those skills; anyone who's felt that their lack of knowledge about formal design processes has got in the way of liberating their creative ideas effectively; anyone who's started a creative project in a rush, doodled around, and lost their way... this book will provide the structure that they might lack. Readers will come away from this book with: A rich, solid understanding of the concepts and basic processes that will enable them to explore further with a degree of confidence that they didn't have before Insights into universally applicable design processes and techniques An understanding of how to implement these principles in Flash MX "Learn Design with Flash MX - the missing link between creativity and technology. This book comes with a CD-ROM.