Macromedia Flash

EDUI 6315

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:

  • 10 meetings
  • January 6, 2006 to March 10, 2006: Fridays, 4:30 to 6:30 pm
  • A&E Building, room 293B

Instructor:

Alvin Liuson has been employed at Macromedia/Adobe for five years.  He is a Senior Quality 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@adobe.com

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 in Blackboard.

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

  • Homework for Week 1:
  • 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

  • Homework for Week 2:

    • Create an animation using shape tweens that is at least 10 seconds long.
      Create a new file with a frame rate of 15.  Make sure that your animation contains at least five shape tweens.  Make sure that your shape tweens contain shapes that have at least one radial gradient and one linear gradient.

Week 3: Animation III

Text: Ch 5: Graphics on Multiple Layers

  • Homework for Week 3:

    • Create an animation using motion tweens 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 motion tween on a path and one alpha motion tween. You will need to use layers in the timeline to keep your animation organized and working properly. Publish the SWF.  Put a stop() action at the end of the movie to prevent it from looping.

    • Develop an idea for the final project.

Week 4: Masks and ActionScript

Ch 14: Using Non-Flash Graphics / Ch 10: More-Complex Animation Tasks / Text: Ch 11: Building Buttons for Interactivity

 

Week 5: Buttons and Button Actions

Text: Ch 11: Building Buttons for Interactivity

  • Homework for Week 5:
    • 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.  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: Whish-bang! and Movieclip Actions

Text: Ch 12: Basic Interactivity Using Behaviors / Ch 15: Adding Sound

Week 7: Video

Week 8: Components

Week 9: Databases and XML

Week 10: Final Project Presentations