Modifying sound settings
- effect options: left channel, right channel, fade left to right, fade right to left, fade in, fade out, custom
- sync options: event, start, stop, stream
Adding sounds using ActionScript 3.0
Controlling sound with On/Off buttons
Setting compression for narration
Synchronizing sound for narration cues
Controlling animation and sound with stop and play buttons
10:00am: Break.
10:15am: Class resumed.
Remainder of class used as lab time for group project.
12:30pm: Class over.
Instructor will be out on Monday. We’ll have a sub.
What are components?
- Components are similar to movie clip symbols
- ActionScript 2.0 uses four component categories: data, media, video, and user interface
- ActionScript 3.0 uses on two: user interface and video
The class had to wait for rest of students to arrive in order to do the project presentations.
9:30am: Flash I presentations.
The first presentation was of a space battle. It was Pong-style.
The second presentation was of a flash intro for a portfolio site. The woman who created it had not taken the graphics core yet, but she did ok.
The third presentation, which I’m glad lead into mine, was a [crappy] stick figure movie.
Mine was forth to be presented. The feedback received was positive. I heard about the things I knew I left out: choppiness at the end, the power pellet, the way he died, etc.
The fifth was a horse galloping.
10:05am: Presentations over.
Instructor handed out Flash I grades with her comments.
Final grade:C.
Ha! If I got a C, I can only image what the guy who made the crappy stick-figure movie received.
Key points from the instructor’s written feedback:
“Met the basic requirements”
“Animation fell short”
“Project seemed less that what I believe you can accomplish”
First day of Flash II. Yippie! After this class, only one more – Web Portfolio Development!
Course description:
“Building on the topics discussed in the previous class, students will focus their attention on adding richer elements to the visual presentations developed in Flash, such as buttons for interactivity, complex menus, special effects and sound. Students will also learn how to render final versions of their Flash movies and prepare them for output to the web and other multimedia.” ~ Description from syllabus
Course duration:
36 classroom hours, 06/30/09 to 07/10/09
Lab time to finish Flash I project and/or work on Flash II project.
12:20pm: Finished the Flash I project. I really cut this one close!
Project requirements:
- 20 seconds of flash animation.
- Content is up to the student.
- Grading will be based on animation, use of flash tools and techniques, overall design, and the timing.
The idea didn’t come to me until this morning. I might be becoming a bit of a procrastinator…
I made a Pac-man movie. I was working on the animated mouth of Pac-man, but I ran out of time. The loss of life scene at the end gave me trouble. It didn’t animate the way I wanted and I had to use the alpha fade. I also wasn’t able to put the score in. The rough source for the file shows half the movie using motion tweening and the rest in straight frames.
NOTE: Original course hand out provided by admissions labeled this class as Multimedia with Flash I.
Course Description:
“Flash has become the tool of choice on the digital desktop for creating interactive project interfaces and designs. The user-friendly application includes powerful video, multimedia, and development features, which allow designers to create rich user interfaces, online advertising, and more. Users can build movies, which include interactive streaming video, animation, audio, vector graphics, and bitmap graphics to create high-impact interactive presentations for the Web and beyond.” ~ Course description from syllabus.
Key Topics:
Flash drawing tools; Layers and the timeline; Symbols and the library; Tweening - motion and shape; Masks
Project due at end of class tomorrow — I haven’t even started it. I haven’t found anything inspiring to based it off of. When I get home tonight I’m going to take a look at my son’s video games and maybe get inspired from something in one.
What is a movie clip?
- you can’t preview movie clips by pressing enter
- preview movies clips in Library panel by choosing Control > Test Movie or by pressing CTRL+Enter
- or publish movie
Movie clip vocabulary
- main timeline
- movie clips
- timeline independent
Creating a movie clip
Using animated graphic symbols vs. using movie clip symbols
Creating an animated rollover button
Putting an animated rollover button into action
9:20am: Lecture concluded. The topic was really basic, no notes needed to be taken.
10:45am: Lecture concluded. Instructor failed to follow text book instruction and could not figure out how create the rollover buttons. Unbelievable. Another dunce, following her instruction instead of what was in the book, piped up that “I couldn’t get it either, something is with this book.” Yeah — you’re not reading it!
NOTE: I’m worried that Flash II might be a class I actually fail if we can’t come up with something. So much of the grade is based on the team.
The final grade will be broken down as follows -
45% for the flash project
determined by personal contribution, 65%
your leadership and team member contribution, 15%
entire project with everyone’s contribution, 20%
15% Attendance, participation, and in-class assignments
40% for the final presentation your individual presentation, 55%
group’s presentation as a while, 45%
Understanding the symbol and instance structure
- symbol, a reusable object that serves as a master copy which can be used to create instances
- instance, a copy of the original symbol
- button symbol, a symbol used for navigation within an animation. Use with ActionScript to add interactivity
- graphic symbol, a symbol containing static artwork or animation. Dependent on main timeline.
- movie clip symbol, a symbol containing one of more button or graphic symbols. Like a flash movie inside a flash movie.
Symbol naming conventions
- use: lowercase letter for first letter, descriptive names
- don’t use: special characters, spaces, periods, slashes
Important timeline vocabulary terms
- main timeline, default timeline.
- symbol timeline, every symbol has its own timeline.
- scene timeline, by default scene timeline is interchangeable with main timeline but projects can have multiple scenes.
Creating graphic symbols
- select artwork from stage and drag to library
- select artwork from stage and choose Modify > Convert to Symbol or press F8
- choose Insert > New Symbol or press CTRL+F8
- choose New Symbol in the Library Options menu
- click the New Symbol button in the lower-left corner of the library panel to open the New Symbol dialog box
Creating symbol instances
Editing symbols
Editing symbol instances
Using color styles
- brightness, controls the lightness or darkness of selected symbol
- tint, tints selected symbol with a specific RGB color
- alpha, changes the transparency of selected instance
- advanced, adjusts both tint and alpha of instance
Animating graphic symbols
- You can make the symbols start at a different frame # by using the First field in property selector.
What are blend modes?
- blend modes mix the color information of a graphic object with the color information of the graphic(s) beneath it
Blend mode basics
- Normal and layer blend modes
- Darken and Multiply Blend modes
- Lighten and Screen Blend modes
- Overlay and Hard light blend modes
Working with blend modes
What are filters?
- filters process the content of a graphic object to produce a special effect
- drop shadow, simulate the look of a object casting a shadow onto a surface
- blur, softens edges
- glow, applies a selected color around all edges of an object
- gradient glow, creates a glow using a gradient rather than just one solid color
- bevel, applies a highlight effect along the edges of an object to give the appearance of a curve
- gradient bevel, produces a raised look with a gradient that makes the object appear to be raised
- adjust color, filter adjusts the brightness, contrast, hue, and saturation of selected button, movie clip, or text object
Working with filters
Colorizing a grayscale image
10:05am: Lecture completed.
Lab time spent meeting with group and coming up with a plan for the Flash website.
We’ll be working on a March of dimes website. Why? I don’t know. Don’t really have a clear direction. I’m going to be putting together the layout and something else, I think. My ideas of being simple and clean were rejected for flashy and “creative”…
