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: David Bradshaw
COURSE WEB SITE
The course Web site home page is located at http://www.dartfrogmedia.com/svcflash_adv/index.htm.
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SESSION OVERVIEWS
Session overviews, as well as weekly assignments, may be found on the Session Overviews Page at http://www.dartfrogmedia.com/svcflash_adv/sessions.htm.
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EMAIL LIST
http://www.egroups.com/group/dartfrogflash has been established specifically for students in the course to discuss Flash issues with the instructor and each other. The instructor will monitor the list several times per day and respond to questions as needed. Although you are welcome to email the instructor directly, posting to the list has several benefits. Many of the questions asked are of general interest to the class. Also, students can reinforce their own understanding of Flash by answering one another's questions. Please visit this site and subscribe to the list. If you have never registered with OneList before, you will be asked to provide some basic information which will be kept confidential at your request. If you have any difficulty subscribing to the list, you may email the instructor at mail@dartfrogmedia.com, including your name and the email address at which you want to receive the list messages, and request to be subscribed.
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ONLINE DISCUSSION GROUPS AND TUTORIALS
For many Flash developers, online discussion groups, articles, and tutorials are the preferred resources for learning advanced Flash skills. Other developers can often help answer questions that would be difficult or impossible to research in the available texts. These resources are expanding exponentially; by poking around you will find numerous reources not listed here.
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The Flasher list is one of many discussion groups for Flash developers. This is a fairly active list, with as many as 100 posts per day. You may wish to subscribe to the digest version in order to consolidate posts into just a couple of messages per day.
- Macromedia Support includes a searchable database of tech support documents that answer many common questions about Flash, including documented program bugs.
- Colin Moock's site is one of the best sites to find tutorials on advanced Flash techniques as well as other Web design issues. Well-organized and clearly written, with many downloadable samples.
- Flashlite.net is the work of Chrissy Rey and others at Figleaf. Here you'll find a wealth of tutorials from beginner to advanced, including good information about cross-platform CD-Rom production.
- The Flash Bible Site (not associated with the Flash4 Bible text) was established by John Croteau and includes tutorials as well as an expansive list of other online Flash resources.
- An Interactive Tell Target Reference Diagram by Dorian Nisinson shows the correct path designations for using TellTarget in heirarchical timeline structures.
- Greenpaint.com is maintained by Seattle Flash developer Sibyl Perkins and is a good reference to other resources.
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- Action Script reference offers a clear, concise description of correct syntax for Flash Action Script.
- Overview of Flash4: what Flash can do and how its tools are laid out. Designed to help experienced multimedia developers get their feet wet in Flash.
- Sound Toggle in Flash demonstrates how to build a sound on-off switch in Flash. Includes downloadable sample file.
- Advanced Load Movie Tutorial explains how to let Flash know when a new movie is far enough loaded to TellTarget it from another movie.
- Information for Clients provides basic information to help Web design clients determine whether Flash is appropriate for their site.
- targetPractice.fla, the source file we used in Session#1.
- http://www.FlashBible.com/members/TellTarget contains a good description of path syntax for TellTarget, including a table of TellTarget syntax and an interactive diagram of TellTarget syntax.
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RECOMMENDED READING
Links are provided to Amazon.com for convenience only. Shop around: Amazon and other distributors frequently discount these titles. There are a couple of other Flash4 books available which I have not included only because I have not reviewed them.
- Flash 4 for Windows and Macintosh: Visual QuickStart Guide, by Katherine Ulrich. $18.99. The Visual Quick Start series is well-known for clarity and ease-of-use for those beginning to learn a program. This is a good starter text, and a good buy for those not planning on using Flash extensively in their work.
- Flash 4! Creative Web Animation, by Derek Franklin, Brooks Patton. $39.99. This book covers the essentials of Flash in a well-organized, well-written style. It also goes into greater depth than the Visual QuickStart.
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Flash 4 Bible, by Robert Reinhardt, Jon Warren Lentz. $39.99. Still greater-depth coverage than the above two texts, this is a heftier text but still not as complete as its title would suggest. In particular, it does not go much into ActionScripting (nor do any other Flash texts except the following).
- Flash 4 Magic (WITH CD-ROM), by David J. Emberton, J. Scott Hamlin. $45.00. Few designers come from a programming background, and learning the essentials of Flash ActionScript can be a foreign experience. There is yet to be a book that clearly explains ActionScript for the non-programmer, but this is as close as it gets, and not bad at that. This is not a comprehensive guide to Flash; rather, each chapter is a tutorial in using advanced Flash techniques (primarily ActionScript) to build a project.
- Flash Web Design, by Hillman Curtis. $45.00. Written by one of the pre-eminent Flash designers, this book is written from a design perspective, and deconstructs a number of Curtis's Flash creations. Have a look at his portfolio first (www.hillmancurtis.com) and, if you like what you see, get the book to see just how he gets those incredibly lovely motion graphic effects with very low file size and highly optimized streaming.
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SITES USING FLASH
Below, we'll maintain a list of sites recommended by the instructor or students
(presented in no particular order):
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