Special thanks to

David Bevans of Focal Press for his support and dealing with all of my missed deadlines.

David Crawford for Moo Cows and Apple Strudel. Spinkee!

Myra Ferguson and Erika Scopino for making my own words sound better than I ever could.

Fred Wessel and Dennis Nolan for giving me my greatest tool of all: the ability to draw.

Mom and Dad for encouraging me to choose my own path in life.

Jay Schuh for stepping up to help out with this book when deadlines got tight.

Tom McCaren for his sound design talents.

I am eternally indebted to

Becky, Bobby, Billy and Andrea for being the greatest family a guy could ever have.

Warm and fuzzy feelings to

Laith Bahrani, April Clark, Joe Corrao, Jarred Hope, Thibault Imbert, Kevin Kolde, Shine Lee, Stephen Levinson, Dave Logan, Eric Mueller, Ben Palczynski, Davendra Pateel, Adam Phillips, Benedetta Pontiroli, Todd Sanders, Tim Saguinson, Aaron Simpson, Evan and Gregg Spiridellis.

A tip of my hat to

Tom Barclay and the entire Adobe Flash team for continuing to evolve Flash, the coolest animation program on the planet.

Thanks to the following people and companies for their approval to use their projects as examples: David Crawford, Tom McCaren, Katie Osowiecki-Zolnik, Ben Palczynski, Colter Avara, Laith Bahrani, GSN Games, Adobe Systems, Audacity, Cone Inc., Eltima, Erain, Fablevision, istockphoto, Jib Jab Media, M-Audio, PercyPea Ltd, Samson, Sony, Superbusy Records and Wacom.

Some of the photographic images used in this book are from the following royalty-free image sources: Adobe Stock Images & www.istockphoto.com.