Learning from the best is always a good idea, especially when the best in the field is adept at explaining his methods. In Flash Web Design, Hillman Curtis, a renowned Web developer (particularly in motion graphics) walks you through nine enlightening Flash projects in order of increasing complexity.
Curtis calls these exercises "deconstructions," and it's an apt term. All the finished pieces can be viewed on Curtis's site (www.hillmancurtis.com/book). With his help, you reconstruct each Flash movie with no step overlooked. They range from type animation (Macromedia Shockzone) to his bandwidth-skinny (20K) navigational, an interactive media site created with action scripting, a streaming visual poem with MP3 audio and many other techniques. The spots are all aesthetically elegant, vibrant, and cutting-edge in terms of design and typography and are even a pleasure to work with.