About the Authors

Rich Shupe is a Certified Macromedia Professional and the founder and CEO of Force Mass Acceleration (http://www.fmaonline.com), a New Yorkbased multimedia development company and training facility located in midtown Manhattan. He has trained digital professionals for more than a decade and is a frequent lecturer and trainer at FlashForward, Macworld, and other industry events. He is on the faculty of New York's School of Visual Arts, teaching in both the undergraduate and masters programs, and has taught at many other academic institutions both in the United States and abroad.

Rich was first turned on by what would become Flash when it was still called FutureSplash Animator, yet he is still just shy of middle age. His company, FMA, is a leading developer of digital supplements for educational texts and creates web sites, CD-ROMs, kiosks, DVDs, and installations for clients and artists of all kinds, using Flash, among other fine tools and technologies.

Rich is also the author of The Director Xtras Book (Ventana) as well as a monthly Flash article for DevX (http://www.devx.com) covering almost anything Flash-related for all skill levels. He has contributed (writing or editing) to several now-ancient texts, including InterActivity Magazine, the Apple Enhanced CD Factbook (Apple), Multimedia Sound and Music Studio (Random House), and others. He also created and published Reflex Magazine back in his "heyday."

Robert Hoekman, Jr., is the cofounder of 33Inc.com, and is an Interface Designer and Usability Specialist for GoDaddy.com.

In the past several years, Robert has worked in corporate environments as an interaction designer and Flash developer, and has designed for audiences ranging from music-memorabilia collectors to executives at Fortune 1000 companies.

Robert is the author of Flash User Experience Best Practices (Lynda.com), a book on Flash design basics called Flash Out of the Box (O'Reilly), contributing author for Flash MX 2004 Magic (New Riders), and author of the extensive series of articles called "10 Minutes With Flash" (InformIT).