Class Files

You can grab the files here

For next weeks lesson please post what you would like to cover in the comments of this post.

z

Classfiles

classfiles from yesterday:

ClassFiles

We covered lots of ground last night be sure to spend a good deal of time reviewing the files that interest you.

ClassFiles

ClassFiles

Here are the classfiles from yesterday

Class Today

There is class today despite it being passover.
So I'll see you at 6pm.

ClassFiles

Here are yesterdays files

ClassFiles

You can grab the classfiles here

Here is roughly what we covered today:

q and a / discussion 30 mins
procedural pattern nav
OOP version
getters settters
loading images
loading more than one image from an array

Here is a link to the grid tutorial if you missed it the first time:
Grid tutorial

I recommend you do all the tutorials on learnactionscript3.com over the course of the semester... Just start with the first tutorials and move on from there...

LAS3 is Up

The website for my book is back up ... you should read this tutorial:

http://www.learningactionscript3.com/2008/05/17/grids-arranging-clips/

Spring Break

So no class this week because of spring break... so no class tomorrow.

z

Classfiles

Grab the classfiles from here

lesson-4-files

Collecting Colors

Hey Guys,

If your up for it .... i am working on collecting colors and words ... so if you watch this video and then go to the url below you can enter colors and words and they'll be integrated in a long term project I'm working on....

// video, (may not all make sense but the tool is shown which is the important part
http://mtcanvas.com/11am_call/tool_vid.html

// population tool
http://mtcanvas.com/co/data_pop.html

Great Work

I am in the process of reviewing your blogs and I have to say excellent work. I'd like to see even more if possible, I know some of you are really working extremely hard, but I want you to keep pushing yourselves.

I look forward to the next lesson... we can spend some time talking about questions related to homework etc... and I'll introduce some new important concepts.

class next tues

Hey guys,
next lass is on 3/2....

Havent had too much time to review your homework but will make sure to work through it all before the class .... :)

cheers,

z

Sub

The sub will be coming next tuesday (2/9). Here is his bio:

Andrew Garrahan is a flash programmer with 5 years of ActionScript experience. Specialties include building complex video applications; experience building database driven application using Flash, PHP, XML and mySQL multiplayer game development, AS3 physics system ( BOX2D, APE ), papervision 3D. Professionally he has created commercial video game titles for nyc based social gaming site omgpop.com. Has also worked with advertising production studio transistorstudios.com.

Keep it Up

Just finished checking everyones blogs... Keep it up guys. Nice work!

Warning

I see some of you are still keeping up with your 15 minutes per day (great job). I see some of you are not.... for those of you who aren't, I can't stress enough how important it is for you to keep opening flash every day... you won't learn it if you don't use it regularly. The 15 minutes should be fun... if you are deterred because of bugs etc... try just creating something simple within your skill level.

On another note, I'll let you know when the sub will be coming tomorrow....

Lesson 3

Functions
- arguments
- return values
- side effects

TweenLite
- to
- from
- delay
- overwrite

Class Files

Lesson 2

Here are the class files:
Class Files

Student Work & Monday Class

The next class is Monday 6-10 in room 202-c (which is a few doors to the left of 206 (which is where we were last tues). Its a PC lab but all the computers have flash...

I created a page on netvibes that contains RSS feeds for everyones blog:

http://www.netvibes.com/studentwork#spring_advanced_flash

This way everyone can see what everyone else is doing...

I think some people still need to either create or post a blog url to the comments... so if you don't see your blog on there... post a link in the comments and I'll add it to the page.

Nice Work

For those of you who have started your blogs... just wanted to say, nice work, keep it up. Looking forward to see what kinds of stuff people do by the time monday rolls around.

For those of you who still haven't set up your blog - you should do so no later than tomorrow.

Also, if you haven't posted a link to your blog in the comments you can do so in this post or the previous post....

Lesson 1

Class Outline:
1) MovieClip properties
2) EnterFrame Events
3) += -=, mouseX mouseY
4) Zeno's Paradox
5) MovieClip nesting
6) addChild()
7) MouseEvent.MOUSE_MOVE
8) MouseEvent.CLICK, ROLL_OVER, ROLL_OUT
9) evt.currentTarget (indirect referencing)
10) Simple Graph Example

Your Blogs:
You should set up your blogs in the next few days - as soon as they're set up you should post a link to them in the comments of this post (you need a gmail, aol etc... account to post a comment here).

The homework is the same every week:
Spend a minimum of 15 minutes a day working with one or more of the class files. Challenge yourself by trying to change something about the class file, or trying to re-purpose it in some way. For example, you could decide that you'd like to use the Zeno's Paradox file to create a simple navigation or a small interactive scene. You could decide that you want to gain a better understanding of mouse events, so you might play with the mouseEvents2.fla until something interesting happens. After you've spent 15 minutes with Flash, you should spend around 5 minutes writing a blog post recapping what you did. You may want to paste bits of code, you may want to talk about what you got working and what you tried that didn't work. You can upload images, swfs or any other relevant files.

Things to Remember When Working on the Homework:
1) Bugs aren't really a big deal, if you get an error message don't get frustrated - you could try backtracking or taking a break and coming back to your work after an hour or two.

2) One of the main error messages people get is "Undefined property..." which means flash was looking for something but couldn't find it. This happens if you forget to type an instance name, mistype an instance name or talk about a function that's not there.

3) Clicking on the error message will take you to the line of code that is causing the error (not always reliable)

4) If by the end of your 15 minutes your file is completely broken... that's ok. You can pick up where you left off the next day... or you can just start with a new file the next day.

5) Don't underestimate the importance of recapping your 15 minutes with a simple blog post. When I tried this myself, I was surprised how many interesting ideas popped into my head as I started to write about what I had just learned.

6) Google is your friend. If you get a weird error message... try googling it. Also, if you decide you want to learn about something we haven't done in class yet... just google it, copy and paste the code and start playing around with it. You can learn a good deal about a piece of code just by changing the numbers around one by one to see what happens.

7) THIS one is REALLY important. Don't test yourself to see if you have things like "addEventListener" or "Event.ENTER_FRAME" memorized. This is a huge waste of time. Your ability to remember the exact syntax is irrelevant because it will happen completely automatically from you simple copying and pasting code from class files and messing around with it. That said, it can be helpful when your working with code to sometimes force yourself to type a redundant line here and there rather than copying and pasting it - this will help you to get used to the syntax without wasting too much time.

8) If you have questions about any aspect of this ongoing assignment feel free to email me (bendvent [ a t ] gmail.com).

I looked into posterous.com and it seems really nice. After you sign up, you simply send emails with text and attachments to post@poserous.com ... i tested a few different file formats and it seems to accommodate them really nicely. Sending an swf file will result in that swf file being properly embedded in the html page.

Here is the simple test that I did:
http://zevan.posterous.com/



CLASS FILES:
Click Here to Download Class Files

Links

http://www.verbatim.jp/senshuken/
http://roxik.com/

Adding Content from google sites is easy

sdfsdfsdfsdf

Syllabus

Advanced Flash

Instructor: Zevan Rosser
bendvent [] gmail
http://www.shapevent.com/
http://www.actionsnippet.com/



COURSE DESCRIPTION:

The goal of this course is to build a solid foundation for ActionScript and advanced Adobe Flash techniques. We will begin with an introduction to basic scripting principles and continue through object-based Flash applications. These skills will enable students to build scalable data-driven Flash sites, applications and animations. We will view existing sites and examine the techniques used in their creation. Students will create small Flash experiments and new Flash sites, or modify existing ones. PREREQUISITE: SMC-3553, Intermediate Flash, or equivalent.

BOOKS:

Learning Actionscript 3.0 *
How to Cheat in Flash CS3
Making Things Move
AdvancED ActionScript 3.0 Animation
http://www.friendsofed.com/book.html?isbn=1430216085
Actionscript 3.0 Cookbook
Head First Design Patterns (java)

Gang of Four... very weird hard book...


GRADING:

60% Homework

40% Attendance/Participation

COURSE OUTLINE:

Flash Review
-basic review
-animation tricks
-isometric 3d timeline
-parallax motion
-3d face
-lip sync
-vectorpark.com
-mudbubble.com
-shapevent.com
-iscribble.com
-odcast
-alternativa
-pv3d
-box2D
-ape

AS2 - AS3
-migration

Properties and Events
-new event architechture

Display Object Targeting
-nesting display objects
-unicycle
-targeting nested display objects
-isometric 3d coded
-events intermediate

Advanced Functions
-local vars
-init / loop
-practice problems

What is OOP?
-when do you use it?
-what do you already know about it?
-document class
-example classes
-design patterns

Navigations
-Website Skeleton
-code practice
-aligning clips
-TweenLite

External Assets
-preloader
-loading images
-flashvars
-text file
-more about aligning

XML
-loading xml
-dynamic programming

BitmapData
-Working with pixels
-creating your own filters
-realtime photoshop
-demo scene

Camera
-web camera
-web camera with bitmapdata

Sound and Video
-timeline sounds
-library sounds
-loading sounds
-sound visualization
-compute spectrum
-working with flvs
-loading video
-working with video components

More Motion
-Complex motion examples
-particle systems

Advanced Display
-z-sorting
-complex re-parenting
-3D

Flash 10
-new features
-3D
-dynamic sound
-IK
-pixel bender

Review and Request
-your questions...