Spring 2010 | 4225 Concepts in Motion

Last-Minute Examples (i.e. how to do lots of specific things in Flash)

jafish — Thu, 06 May 2010 21:43:38 +0000

I’ve uploaded several example .fla files that include custom cursors, dropdown menus, menubars, print areas, scrolling, and a gallery that slides to the left or right based on where you position the mouse cursor. These might be helpful if you’re looking to add to your site at this late hour in the project cycle.

Final Week in Advance

jafish — Tue, 04 May 2010 00:25:45 +0000

Monday, May 3

Studio Time
Critique project 3 in groups
Make sure that you’ve started to test your site online, either on Rowdy or on your own server

Wednesday, May 5

Studio Time

Monday, May 10

Final Critique – your site must be viewable online, either on the Rowdy server or on your own site
Final day to handin event reports

Accordion Example with Simple Loader

jafish — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 01:55:58 +0000

While not a pre-loader example (see the NASA Image Gallery example from Chapter 14 for a simple preloader; you can download chapter examples on the book’s downloads page), this example takes the accordion menu example that I showed in class on Monday and adds a simple image loader to the first movie clip in the menu. You can use similar code to add a new loader for each of the other three menu movie clips, or use the existing loader to load additional images into the first screen.

Accordion Menu Tutorial

jafish — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 04:47:29 +0000

Here’s a link to the accordion menu tutorial that I showed a bit of in class today. This example shows how to bring Actionscript code from outside of an .fla file into a project, as well as showing the use of an external library (in this case, the TweenLite library in the gs folder).

Future of the Web – Readings & Questions

jafish — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 06:40:35 +0000

Read this article on the future of web content and this one on the performance of Flash vs. that of HTML5. Answer the following questions in a blog post before class time on Monday:

There are a lot of points discussed in this article. What are the main concerns that are relevant to you as a designer (based on what you see yourself doing in the next several years)? Why?
Jeremy Allaire suggests some possible resolutions do this debate in his article. Which resolutions do you support? Why?
How might you influence this debate?

Also, don’t forget to work all the way through Chapter 14 of Flash CS4 for Designers over the weekend.

Keyboard Control Example – 4/12 in class

jafish — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 00:01:26 +0000

Download the example here.

Homework 3 (due Monday, April 5): Add Keyboard Control to Drag & Drop Example

jafish — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 01:12:36 +0000

Take the Flash Drag & Drop example that we worked on in class and make the game work with only the keyboard.
You can add keyboard functionality in almost the same way that mouse interactions work: with event listeners. See this tutorial for an example.

Inspiration Time: Flash Portfolios and Interface Highlights

jafish — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:52:35 +0000

Poplar Grove Winery – A more traditional web interface with a tiled video background.
Magnetic North – Interaction design firm with draw and reveal interface.
Bartle Bogle Hegarty – Firm with globe/city interface.
One Bit Increment – Game-like interface from company focused on creating paper/texture designs in Flash.
Pablo Alfieri – Notable because it has a pre-loader built into the interface, among other things.
Jonas Eriksson – Web design, art direction – 3D graph with nodes for content
Blue Collar Agency – Design firm, traditional grid-based design with movies playing along with written content.
Meghan Fredrich – Simple but effective box for content and slider for current selection.
I Am Always Hungry – Not sure if this navigation is successful, but worth seeing and critiquing.
Rudd Studio – Expanding and contracting image gallery and navigation grid.

Rotating Blocks Example – 3/29/2010 & 3/31

jafish — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 06:17:45 +0000

An updated example with commented code can be downloaded here.

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Download today’s example here. Rotating block that responds to clicking by creating additional rotating blocks in random locations on the stage.

Project 3 Writeup and Proposal Guidelines

jafish — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 06:09:44 +0000

Keep in mind that the questions in the proposal guidelines may seem open-ended based on how I introduced the project. This is to allow some flexibility in the content of the site.