Adobe LiveMotion Classroom in a Book is divided into 16 chapters. The first four chapters deal with the basics of LiveMotion (LM) such as getting to Know the Work Area and Drawing Basic Shapes. Having created a number of Flash animations, I am familiar with basically what can be accomplished in LM even if I have not used all these attributes in my compositions.

As I have done in other book reviews, I look at the book in general, especially noting if it is well organized, if the lessons are clear and concise, and if the lessons "cement" the learning process. I, then, go look for areas with which I am not familiar, and proceed to do those lessons.

Each time I use a different Classroom in a Book, I am impressed with the organization within the chapter and the clarity of the directions blending text with illustrations. No matter what chapter I read, I found nuances in the program that I was not aware of as well as material that related to other lessons but was pertinent to the specific lesson.

It was interesting to me that both Classrooms in a Book that I recently read are prepared slightly differently. Adobe LiveMotion Classroom in a Book is arranged in sections with a review at the end of each section rather than at the end of a chapter as is found in the GoLive 5 Classroom in a book. The sections in the LiveMotion Classroom in a Book are Project A: Creating Objects, Project B: Basic Animation, and Project C: Time-Independent Groups.

For someone not at all familiar with LM, I suggest he or she start at the beginning of the book and sequentially work through it. If that person is familiar with Adobe Illustrator, for example, the first section of the book can be skimmed. For the intermediate user, who learnt LM on his own and/or using the manual, I still recommend this book for new techniques can be learnt in almost every chapter as well as using the book as reference since it has an index and is in tutorial form.

The book is available at most bookstores that sell computer training books or online at the various bookstore sites. It's price is $45.00. For even more information, go to the Adobe website at http://www.adobe.com. One can also find there sample tutorials from the various Classroom in a Book series.

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