Adobe LiveMotion offers Web animators a tremendous number of features, so getting up the learning curve can be a challenge for a new user. Sams Teach Yourself Adobe LiveMotion in 24 Hours might not teach you everything about LiveMotion in a day, but it certainly will take you a ways up the slope.

Written with the beginning Web designer in mind, Part I focuses on introducing LiveMotion and its tool set while educating you on how Web graphics work. But, while the author appropriately details the differences between GIF, JPEG, and PNG graphic-image formats, LiveMotion is a tool for creating vector-based animation for the Web, and the chapter "Understanding Web Graphics" makes no mention of the Flash, QuickTime (which LiveMotion doesn't utilize), or even animated GIF formats.

Parts II (Working with LiveMotion Objects), III (Color, Shape, and Style), and IV (Creating Static and Dynamic Images for the Web) detail use of the application itself, and Parts V and VI wrap up the book with examples of animation and multimedia, and designing and optimizing advanced Web presentations.

Although LiveMotion is primarily an animator's tool, this book takes a different approach to it, looking at and using it as if it were a Web designer's tool. Interesting chapters about creating rollovers and using LiveMotion for page compositing illustrate this, as do 22 pages on setting type. Meanwhile, the whole section on creating animation in LiveMotion is just over 20 pages long.

An inexpensive book, Sams Teach Yourself Adobe LiveMotion in 24 Hours doesn't have an accompanying CD-ROM or any color illustrations, which makes chapter 10, "Getting Colorful," somewhat theoretical. The book as a whole reads more like a reference manual than a tutorial, but the detailed index will help you find what you need quickly.

For people who need to learn from structured tutorials, there are other books. For those who like to create things on their own and need only a reference book with examples, this one is a good choice. --Mike Caputo

Book Description

Teach Yourself Adobe LiveMotion in 24 Hours is an easy introduction to Adobe's exciting new graphics product that allows Web site designers to create fast-loading, vector-based animation while remaining in the familiar, integrated Adobe environment. The book was designed to serve as a Web designer's first introduction to LiveMotion, and to guide readers through the process of creating everything from simple animations to entire Web sites in LiveMotion. The book's author, Molly E. Holzschlag, has a unique perspective on LiveMotion. She has been watching the product's development since the earliest alpha stages, and with her extensive experience conducting her popular Web design and development training sessions, she knows exactly what kinds of techniques beginning users need to learn, and what types of questions they typically have about products like LiveMotion.