Rosenzweig, Gary 1969–

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Rosenzweig, Gary 1969–

PERSONAL: Born October, 1969; married May 6, 1999; wife's name Debby; children: Luna. Education: Drexel University, B.S., 1992; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, M.A., 1994. Hobbies and other interests: Playing computer games, camping, road trips, astronomy, bowling, film.

ADDRESSES: Home—Denver, CO. Office—Clever-Media, 1022 N. Speer Blvd., Denver, CO 80204. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Writer, software developer, consultant, engineer, and entrepreneur. Igneus (cable company), multimedia software developer, 1994–96; CleverMedia (multimedia software company), Denver, CO, founder, owner, and chief engineer, 1996–; Attic Bookstore, co-owner, 2001–. Worked for Baltimore Sun.

MEMBER: International Game Developer Association (Colorado chapter coordinator).

WRITINGS:

The Comprehensive Guide to Lingo: Creating Interactive Applications with Macromedia Director: For Windows & Macintosh, Ventana (Research Triangle Park, NC), 1996.

The Director Six Book: The Ultimate Handbook for Multimedia Professionals, Ventana (Research Triangle Park, NC), 1997.

Using Macromedia Director Seven, Que (Indianapolis, IN), 1999.

Advanced Lingo for Games, Hayden Books (Indianapolis, IN), 2000.

Using Macromedia Director Eight, Que (Indianapolis, IN), 2000.

Macromedia Flash Five ActionScript for Fun and Games, Que (Indianapolis, IN), 2001.

Macromedia Flash MX ActionScript for Fun and Games, Que (Indianapolis, IN), 2002.

SAMS Teach Yourself Flash MX ActionScript in Twenty-four Hours, SAMS (Indianapolis, IN), 2002.

Special Edition Using Director 8.5, Que (Indianapolis, IN), 2002.

Special Edition Using Macromedia Director MX, Que (Indianapolis, IN), 2003.

(With Jay Shaffer) MacAddict Guide to Making Music with GarageBand, Que (Indianapolis, IN), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS: Author, computer consultant, and engineer Gary Rosenzweig is an expert in the development of multimedia games and Internet applications. He is the founder and owner of CleverMedia, a technology consulting firm specializing in creating multimedia games, applications, and utilities using popular commercial software Macromedia Director as well as Flash and Shockwave. He and his wife, Debby, are co-owners of The Attic Bookstore, a used bookstore in Denver, Colorado.

Rosenzweig is also the author of almost a dozen books on using a variety of commercial software applications, including multimedia software Macromedia Director, animation software Macromedia Flash, and music creation and recording software GarageBand. He provides detailed, expert guidance for getting the most out of each application, offering tips and in-depth instruction that benefits both beginners and expert users.

In MacAddict Guide to Making Music with GarageBand, written with Jay Shaffer, Rosenzweig covers the many uses of a software application that lets users record, manipulate, and enhance music. Designed for home-grown music groups and the titular garage bands, the software gives users advanced recording features such as the ability to record on multiple tracks, change tempo and key, improve timing and pitch of recordings, and more. Rosenzweig and Shaffer's work offers "beginning to intermediate users more information on the software's uses from a musician's point of view," noted Rachel Singer Gordon in Library Journal.

With SAMS Teach Yourself Flash MX ActionScript in Twenty-four Hours Rosenzweig gives readers a crash-course in the practical uses of the ActionScript programming language available in Macromedia's popular video and animation software, Flash. The book contains detailed instructions and in-depth explanations of ActionScript's features and abilities and how they can be used by multimedia developers. Rosenzweig concentrates on programming with ActionScript, but the text remains "accessible to those with no programming knowledge," noted Gordon in another Library Journal review.

Advanced Lingo for Games covers another programming language, Lingo, used to expand the functions of Macromedia Director into a tool for creating computer games and entertainment applications. Rosenzweig describes in detail how Lingo can be used to create a variety of games, including arcade games, card games, and puzzles. He discusses Lingo's usefulness in creating online multiplayer games as well as adventure and strategy games. Thom Gillespie, writing in Library Journal, observed that Lingo is not an especially easy programming language to learn, but that Rosenzweig's "lucid" guidebook "makes it fun."

Rosenzweig's own area of professional software expertise centers on the use of Macromedia Director, and in Using Macromedia Director Seven, he delves into the software application he uses most in his own business. Though he covers many of the basics of Director, the book is geared toward users who are already knowledgeable in using Director and its other features, such as the Lingo programming language. Rosenzweig concentrates on the use of Director in professional application development and discusses issues of concern to the expert developer and object-oriented programmer working in a business or commercial environment. Gillespie noted in another Library Journal review that the book is intended for programmers and developers pursuing "serious interactive media design."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Library Journal, July, 1999, Thom Gillespie, review of Using Macromedia Director Seven, p. 126; May 1, 2000, Thom Gillespie, review of Advanced Lingo for Games, p. 149; November 1, 2002, Rachel Singer Gordon, review of SAMS Teach Yourself Flash MX ActionScript in Twenty-four Hours, p. 125; September 1, 2004, Rachel Singer Gordon, review of MacAddict Guide to Making Music with GarageBand, p. 182.