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College of the Canyons

GMD 074 Intro to Flash

Fall 2005
Section: 42083

Meeting Time: Saturday 12:00 PM - 2:50 PM

Room: M-216

 

Instructor: Larissa Bank

E-mail: larissabank@hotmail.com

class Website: http://www.larabank.com/introtoflash

Office Hours: by appointment

 

Units-1.0

Lecture Hours-1.0

Laboratory Hours-2.0

Course Prerequisites: None

Offered credit/no-credit only

To Access Lab outside class time: GMD-090L Open GMD Short-Term Lab

 

Texts:

Optional: Flash MX 2004 for Windows and Macintosh: Visual Quickstart Guide, 2003. $24.99

 

Materials and Supplies:

options: CD's, USB drive or personnel external hard drive.

 

Course Description:

An introductory course in vector-based animated graphics for multimedia through Macromedia's flash.

 

Students will realize one Flash animation project showing mastery of frame by frame and tweening animation, proper symbol usage, and the ability to create with the type and vector drawing tools as well as animate imported raster elements.

 

Evaluation will be based on the time and effort put into these projects as well as additional supporting tutorials. This will involve self-motivation and problem solving. It will be necessary to keep up with all phases of the class to fully succeed. We will be presenting and critiquing work. Participation in discussions and critiques is mandatory. The student must be prepared to discuss and present their work on specific due dates.

 

Course Goals:

-Gain an clear understanding of the purpose of Flash

-Define and demonstrate the use of various Flash tools

-Demonstrate the ability to incorporate sound, graphics, and vector drawing into a Flash animation

-Define and demonstrate the ability to incorporate aesthetic design concepts into your Flash projects

-Analyze and interpret professional Flash sites

 

Process for Evaluation:

You will have the following project. Projects will be presented for critique. Be prepared. The more prepared to work and participate in class you are, the more successful you will be.


Class project:

 

in-class tutorials (spread out over course):gradient tutorial, tweening tutorial, masking tutorial, motion guide tutorial, sound tutorial, and animation tutorials.

 

Project: Fully realized 30 second Flash animation with audio.

 

Estimated Homework Time Commitment: Please budget 3-6 hours per week to review the materials and to work on your assignments and projects.

 

Grading:

-     Assignments/Project (100%)

-    Attendance will be recorded and is mandatory. One absence is excusable if you speak with me before hand. Two absences or more may drop your grade by a letter grade. If you miss 4 consecutive class meetings without contacting me you will be dropped and if passed the drop deadline, you will receive an F for the class.

 

Policy:

-     Projects are graded on planning and organization, quality of work, attention to detail, and thoughtful use of concepts introduced in class. Creativity and use of the tools will be considered as well.

-      Lateness or leaving early will not be tolerated as well. Please speak to me if you have any particular issues regarding this. Chronic lateness and leaving early will be tallied and used to calculate attendance.

-     Late Assignments are graded down a letter grade for each class date late. This is non-negotiable, only an excused absence justifies lateness. Assignments can always be redone for a better grade, so it is better to turn in something than nothing.

-      You cannot makeup the final project. The only exception is for a documented excused absence.

-      If you disrupt class you will be given one warning only, further incidences will result in being sent to the Dean of Students and possible removal from the class. Interpretation of what is considered "disruptive" is at the discretion of the instructor, basically this entails any behavior that interferes with the educational process of the students.

 

Available Support Services:

-     Open Labs: Recommended. USE IT. Multimedia Open Lab 097L

-      Websites: see:  http://www.larabank.com/introtoflash

-      TLC Lab-I-209 The Tutoring/Learning/Computing Lab: no-cost tutorial assistance in English, Math, and other disciplines.

-      Library-R Building: copy machines, computer lab, an open media Lab, filmstrips, slides, and books.

 

Semester Deadlines:

Refund Deadline - 08/26

Add Deadline - 09/02

Class Dates - 08/20-9/17

 

Holidays:

Labor Day - 9/6

 

I am available to meet with you to discuss class work, policies, or other questions and concerns you may have. We reserve the right to change the syllabus and projects/assignments.

 

 

Course Calendar

 

Day 1

August 20, 2004

Lecture:

1. Introduction to Syllabus, website, and project: 1/4 hour

2. Introduction to application interface and document attributes: 1/4 hour

3. Creating objects with paint tools: 1 hour

A.    Introducing toolbox and paint tools: setting up your file and frame rate

B. Creating, breaking, joining, deforming, and transforming objects

C. Creating and manipulating fills and strokes

D. Making selections

E. Setting color attributes

F. Grouping and ungrouping objects

4. Working with the type tool: 1/2 hour

A. Setting and manipulating type attributes

B. Converting type into an object

1. Breaking, joining, deforming, transforming

2. Setting color attributes

3. Manipulating fill and stroke

Lab: Application familiarity time and art asset production: 1 hour

Homework: Read Introduction and Chapter 1, 2, & 3 in Flash Visual Quickstart

 

Day 2

August 27, 2004

Lecture:
1. Working in layers: 1/2 hour

A. Creating and editing

B.    Working in layer states

2. Symbols and instances: 1/2 hour

A. Symbol use and type

B. Creating, enable, edit symbols

C. Symbol library

D. Create and modify instances

E. Breaking apart instances

F. Symbols and the library

Lab: Continue making art assets for site and converting them into symbols:1 1/2 hours

Homework: Read Chapter 4, 5 &  6 in Flash Visual Quickstart.

Day 3

September 3, 2004

Lecture:
1.
Importing files and cleaning up bitmaps: 1/2 hour

A. Bitmaps

Frame by Frame animation/Keyframe Animation: 1 hour

A. Animating with the timeline

1. Frames

2. Keyframes

Lab: Bring in, or find on the Internet, JPGs and bitmaps for your sites and import, modify, and convert to symbols. Start frame by frame animating symbols: 1 1/2 hour

Homework: Read Chapter 7 & 8 in Flash Visual Quickstart.

 

 

Day 4

September 10, 2004

Lecture:

1. Importing files: sound: 1/2 hour

A. Sound and sound lecture

2. Animating symbols and instances: 1 hour

B. Animating using tweening

1. Position

2. Rotation

3. Scale

4. Color

C. Animating using motion paths

D. Animating with layers

E. Animated Masks

F. Fine-tuning animation with onion skinning

G. Animating multiple objects

H. Reversing frames

Lab: continue working on animations: 1 1/2 hour

Homework: Read Chapter 9, 10, 11, & 12 in Flash Visual Quickstart.

 

Day 5

September 17, 2004

Critique final Projects at end of class.