WK 4 Practical Experience: FLASH (post #3)

I've just completed the lynda.com tutorial "Flash CS4 Professional Getting Started" and while I learned a lot I've realized it truly is just what it says, "Getting Started."  I feel like its given me a basic understanding of the principals of Flash animations and how they can be integrated into the web but if I was to attempt one on my own I would be lost.  I am going to be using my free time over the next few days to dive deeper into the other tutorials so I can explore all of the possibilities of this cool software. I think my next step will be "Flash CS4 Essential Training."  Off I go!

WK 4 Practical Experience: FLASH (post #2.75/more notes)

I really do not feel like I fully understood the Adding Interactivity segment.  I followed everything that the instructor was saying - but I did not understand why I was doing it.  My exercise file worked as it was supposed to upon my completion and I get the basic idea of what I did.  I have a VERY basic understanding of writing code so some of that part makes sense, its just the putting it all together.  There was a promise that the code part would be explained in more detail later but this is what I am up against now:

adding interactivity

WK 4 Practical Experience: FLASH (post #2.5/notes)

some notes (otherwise I will forget)

action script code

How to stop a Flash movie when it reaches the end of the timeline.

1.  add action layer
2.  open action's window (option + F9)
3.  type in "stop ();"  (as shown above)

WK 4 Practical Experience: FLASH (post #2)

BONES...

I am eager to use Flash to create my own animations because in learning how to create bone system using the lynda.com exercises I dislocated this hula girl's arm several times in trying to create the animation trying to make her wave.  The instructor kept saying, "this is extremely easy from this point..." which was a bad sign for me.  I was trying to create the hinging effect, but I kept removing her arm.  It turned out that at first I was not deselecting the bone tool by selecting the selection tool and then I was not pressing F5 at the appropriate frame.  I think I've got it now, but I can say for sure that I will definitely need to revisit the earlier tutorials on merge and object drawing when starting with my own images.

being careful not to dislocate the poor hula girl's arm

WK 4 Practical Experience: FLASH

I spent a lot of time on lynda.com yesterday viewing their tremendously helpful tutorial "Flash CS4 Professional Getting Started."  I am really glad to have this helpful website to refer to because Flash is a lot more complicated than I had imagined.  I found it really helpful to used my iPad to watch the video tutorials and that way I had the full screen of my MacBook Pro to work on the exercise files provided by lynda.com in Adobe Flash.  Even still I found myself having to watch most of the lessons more than once to make sure I did not miss any details.  The learning curve for Flash is steep and I was quickly faced with creating tweens,  which concerned me because I did not want any part of contributing to the Justin Bieber phenomena.  I soon learned that these were another type of tween entirely and can be referred to as shape or motion tweens getting their name because they are what happen "in between" frames in Flash animation.  Wish me luck, I am off to learn about more about crating animations, adding interactivity, and publishing and exporting my work.  I will report back with my progress.

some of my work using the lynda.com exercise file for creating motion tweens

Edmodo Creating Student Accounts Tutorial

After creating a group on your Edmodo account, this tutorial will show you how to associate new student accounts with that group.

Edmodo Creating Groups Tutorial

Click on the video above to learn how to create groups on Edmodo.