Flash Brief Intro (evening) - San Francisco

What is Flash? Bitmap vs. Vector Graphics:

What is Flash? What it is used for? What is required to view Flash (plug-ins)? What are the differences between bitmap and vector graphics? After answering these questions, students will begin to understand the possibilities as well as the limitations of Flash.

The Flash Interface:

We will briefly go over the GUI (graphical user interface) of Flash. This will include the menu items, the time line as well as the paint tool palette. Students will get a feel for where things are and what those things do in Flash.

Animation Principals -- Keyframes and tweening:

Learning some key animation principals is essential to understanding Flash. Students will learn about the KEYFRAME, what it is and how it is used. The KEYFRAME's companion, the TWEEN, is another term taken from traditional animation and students will learn what it is and how powerful it becomes in a Flash production.

Symbols, Properties, Behaviors -- The Object Hierarchy:

The object hierarchy is the single most important thing to understand when first learning Flash. Students will learn how to create a symbol that has its own set of properties and its own time line. A symbol, which may take the form of a button, movie clip or static graphic, can then be placed inside another symbol which has its own behaviors. This process can continue infinitely, thus creating the object hierarchy.

Interactivity -- Putting it all together:

After gaining an understanding of how Flash works, students build a simple Flash movie complete with each type of symbol (button, movie clip, graphic) and add some interactivity to it. Students will learn how to create hyperlinks that work both inside their Flash piece as well as link out to the World Wide Web.

Publishing Your Flash Movie:

Using Flash's own Publishing features, students will learn how to set up a movie that will export web-ready, and with its very own HTML document to go with it.

Prerequisites:

• Familiarity with basic paint tools such as those found in PhotoShop, Paint Shop Pro, or MS Paint