School
of Visual Concepts www.svcseattle.com
500 Aurora Ave N, Seattle WA 98109 (206) 623-1560
Instructor: Marc Hoffman marc@dartfrogmedia.com
Assistant Instructor: Leif O'Leary
PREREQUISITES AND EXPECTATIONS
In order to maximize our learning time in class, it is expected that students
will meet the following criteria. If you anticipate or encounter any problems
with these expectations or with any aspect of the course, please contact
me as soon as possible so we can try to work something out.
Marc Hoffman
mail@dartfrogmedia.com.
Prerequisites
- Hands-On Experience with:
- All Flash4 drawing tools
- Shape and Motion Tweening
- Creating and editing symbols, including graphics, buttons, and
movie clips
- Modifying symbol instances by applying color effects
- Attaching simple actions to a Frame, such as the Stop action that
stops playback at that point in the timeline
- Attaching simple actions to a Button Instance, such as a Play
action to cause playback to resume after being stopped ·
- Use of the Publish tool to create a Shockwave Flash movie (.swf)
and the HTML code necessary to include the movie in a Web page
- General Understanding of:
- Bitmaps and vectors; how they differ in nature and usage
- Very basic HTML (Online tutorial available)
- Basic understanding of sound: sample rate, bit rate, formats supported
by Flash (Online tutorial available)
- Comfort with Mac OS
Expectations
- Subscribe to the class email list, Dartfrogflash, at www.egroups.com/group/dartfrogflash.
For details, see the Resources Page.
- Each student will need to bring a ZIP disk for transporting files
to and from class. ZIP disk should be 100-megabytes (not 250!)
and formatted for the platform on which you will be practicing (PC or
Mac).
- Plan to devote at least 2 hours of time per week for assignments and
practice of skills covered in class. Flash4 is available as a free 30-day
trial download from www.macromedia.com/downloads.
Students who do not have access to a computer with Flash and a ZIP drive
may arrange daytime and some evening hours access to two computers at
School of Visual Concepts; please call the school at (206) 623-1560.
- Weekly class assignments and any necessary files will be available
on this site. See Session Overviews for week-by-week
assignments, including links to resources needed for the assignments.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
At the end of this five-week course, students who have fully participated
will be able to:
- Utilize TellTarget commands to communicate among different movie and
movie clip timelines, enabling the construction of complex action and
animation that is independent of the main Flash timeline;
- Use the Flash tools plus an understanding of Internet bandwidth to
plan and remedy Flash work so that it streams smoothly for anticipated
Web audiences. Flash tools include Bandwidth Profiler, Show Streaming,
and Generate Report Size. Part of designing for bandwidth will also
include construction of appropriate preload sequences in a Flash movie
so that content has sufficient time to download before playback commences;
- Use Load Movie as an additional tool for managing streaming;
- Create cascading menus and complex buttons (for example buttons that
have rollover and rollout animations);
- Use Action Script to construct logical behaviors, capture user input,
and program motion of Flash objects;
- Create Flash standalone projectors and incorporate associated FS Commands
into those projectors.
SESSION OVERVIEWS
Overviews of
each session are posted at sessions.htm.
Because our pace is determined by class progress, these overviews are frequently
updated.
RESOURCES AND RECOMMENDED READING
Online
resources and recommended texts are described and linked on the Class
Resources Page. Resources include the class email list, class session
overviews, lists of online resources, the class Web site (which you are
now reading) and practice computers (described above).
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