Macromedia Flash
EDUI 6230
Cal State University East Bay
This course introduces you to the fundamentals of Macromedia Flash, a multimedia authoring program that is transforming the Web, turning static pages into moving, interactive works of art. You learn how to use Flash's drawing tools to create low-bandwidth vector graphics, and are introduced to animation concepts such as "tweening," "onion-skinning," transparency, and timelines. You use this information to create movies with interactive buttons, bitmap images, sound, and digital video. You learn how to publish a Flash movie and incorporate it into a Web site.
Time and Place:
- 7 meetings
- June 22 to August 3, 2005: Wednesdays, 4:30 to 8 pm
- A&E Building, room 293B
Instructor:
Alvin Liuson has been employed at Macromedia for four years. He is a Senior QA Engineer for the Flash Player team. He has a B.A. degree from Pomona College and, at the end of the day, loves to go home to his wife and baby in Oakland. You can email him at alvin@macromedia.com
Discussion:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/flashsummer2005/
Grading:
- 20% Homework
- 20% Class Participation
- 60% Final Project
Suggested Text:
Macromedia Flash MX 2004 for Windows and Macintosh, Visual QuickStart Guide, Katherine Ullrich, Peachpit Press.
Link to Amazon.com
Homework:
Homework will be assigned weekly and will exercise lessons that have been learned in class. Please upload your files here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/flashsummer2005/files/
Final Project:
You will develop a final project using Flash. It should incorporate the animation techniques and interactive elements that you will have learned in this course.
Class Files:
Link to Class Files
Outline of Topics
Syllabus:
Week 1: Intro to Flash and Animation I
Text: Ch 1: The Flash Authoring Tool / Ch 2: Creating Simple Graphics / Ch 3: Modifying Simple Graphics / Ch 7: Frame-by-Frame Animations
- Search the Internet for Flash sites that you find interesting.
Find at least 3 URLs and send them to me via e-mail: alvin@macromedia.com
- Create a frame-by-frame animation that is at least 12 frames long.
Use the brush, pencil, rectangle and oval drawing tools in flash to create a simple design.
Add a keyframe to the timeline (key command F6).
Use the onionskin view to compare the latest keyframe to the keyframes that come before it.
Create at least 12 keyframes to make a frame-by-frame animation.
Week 2: Animation II
Text: Ch 4: Complex Graphics on a Single Layer / Ch 6: Saving and Reusing Graphic Elements / Ch 8: Animations with Motion Tweening / Ch 9: Animation with Shape Tweening
Week 3: Animation III
Text: Ch 5: Graphics on Multiple Layers
Week 4: Text, Masks, and Complex Movies
Ch 14: Using Non-Flash Graphics / Ch 10: More-Complex Animation Tasks
- Create an animation using animated masks and complex nested movieclips that is at least 10 seconds long.
Create a new file with a frame rate of 20. Make sure that your animation contains at least one animated mask and one complex movieclip that contains at least one nested movieclip. Publish the SWF. Put a stop() action at the end of the movie to prevent it from looping.
Week 5: Buttons and Button Actions
Text: Ch 11: Building Buttons for Interactivity
- Homework for Week 4:
- Create a 5-second movie that uses several instances of an animated nested movieclips. At the end of the movie, put a stop() action. Place two buttons at the end of the movie. Both buttons need to have unique up, over, and down states. The first button should allow the end-user start the movie from the beginning (use gotoAndPlay()) . The second button opens a new webpage to a related website (use getURL()).
- Develop an idea for the final project.
Week 6: Sound
Week 7:
Final Project Presentations
Coldfusion
Taught by Professor Gillani |