BP14_Flash CS4 & CS5_Post3

I managed to kind of get to my goal for this week! I made a very simple animation using flash and learned a lot about the Flash environment and function. To begin I created several vector images of recyclable products. I actually created these in Adobe Illustrator and copied them into Flash. Once they were in Flash I transformed the vector objects into Symbols under the Modify tab in the top menu bar of Flash. I put these symbols into a library I created entitled, Recycle. Converting these vector images into symbols helps to reduce the file size of the Flash movie and allows for the final animation to run more smoothly.



After creating the images and converting them to symbols I then proceeded to work within the text options. I added the text "Please Recycle" and adjusted it to be centered on the stage using the alignment functions. I wanted to have the text drop down from the top of the page, down to the images as my simple animation. In order to animate the text it had to be converted into a symbol just as the vector drawings did. Once the text was converted to a graphic I was able to apply a motion tween.



I believe I have a wonderful refresh of Flash after over six years of not using the program at all, and before that very minimally. I'm excited to finish out the tutorials and start working more in-depth with the program. I feel I have a way to go still considering my vision of what I would like to do for my personal, profession design site. As for now I feel confident that I could at least assist students in getting started in working with Flash,

Here is the simple animation I created using Flash.

BP13_Flash CS4 & CS5_Post2

As I continue to go through the tutorials by Todd Perkins, called Flash Professional CS5 Essential Training via lynda.com I have come to one solid conclusion... My wanting to be able to post a simple animation or motion graphic created in Flash by my third post for this week might be a bit overly optimistic. Although I'm not finding the tutorials or actions difficult they are VERY time consuming. Time is not my friend this week... (Neither are water heaters, air conditioners, bees that sting puppies and one - on it's last leg automobile).

There are a couple of things I really enjoyed about the tutorials I went through today. The first is importing and exporting color files. This is a feature that is as well available to use in the other Adobe programs but one I tend to forget about. Mostly because in print I use Panton or spot colors. With these I'm usually provided a file with spot colors or I open a Panton color library. The most important aspect of the tutorials I went through today was that concerning Merge Drawing and Object Drawing. I didn't realize there was a difference or how to identify it within the document. I knew that Flash was vector friendly and I could easily use vector illustrations I have created in Adobe Illustrator in flash. These illustrations would be considered Object Drawings and would be much larger files than Merge Drawing objects. This section of tutorials also showed how to turn an Object Drawing into a Merged Drawing and reduce rendering of the final Flash file. The most helpful information I gained was a function called Distribute to Layers. This feature automatically creates layers for each of your objects/drawings/text in your document. This provides for much easier navigation, editing and grouping to name a couple benefits.

As I am looking at tutorials for both CS4 and CS5 to find significant differences (if any) so far I have only come across one. New to CS5 is the ability to double click on a guide to get the move guide option palette. It allows you to type in specific guide measurements and fine tune placement of objects down to the pixel. This chapter was also a wonderful reminder of the alignment features in all Adobe products.

As this journey to gain skill and knowledge continues, I'm really excited to work more in-depth with Flash! Perhaps I will even get my personal site up and running the way I would like for it to.

To be continued...

BP12_Flash CS4 & CS5_Post1

For my Practical Experience assignment this week I decided to become more familiar with Flash CS4 and CS5. We were provided with the Adobe CS4 master collection as part of our EMDT program and I had been using CS3 in my classroom but will have CS5 in my lab at the beginning of this school year. Adobe CS5 was released the same month as starting this program and I am curious as to what differences there are. I have very minimal previous experience with Flash but it has been years. There are a couple reasons that I chose to become more familiar with this particular program. (Aside from getting into the month that we will be using it at Full Sail and panicking.) I teach Graphic Design and stick predominately to print media because even with my students with me two hours a day for two years it still not enough time to learn everything. However, we know have our Multi Media class back and the instructor and I are going to try and build a platform to tie our two programs together. I believe Flash would be a nice start and a cross collaborative tool between the two programs. In order to incorporate Flash or options to do so for my interested students it might be a good idea for me to at least become moderately proficient in the program.

My first task was to watch several tutorials by Todd Perkins, called Flash Professional CS5 Essential Training via lynda.com. I spent a couple hours going through the first three chapters of the tutorial lessons, Introduction, Getting to Know Flash and Drawing Basic Shapes. One of the things I love about Adobe is that if you are familiar with any of their other design platforms (Illustrator, Photoshop etc…) I personally feel the other applications they offer are pretty easy to figure out. Tool icons and functions are relatively the same. I found this first step in my mission to be a nice refresher of some things I vaguely remembered. The next step will be to work through the chapter on Moving Beyond Basic Shapes and Working with Layers and Timeline. My goal is to at the very least be able to post a simple animation/motion graphic developed in Flash in my third post. I might have to skip ahead in some of the tutorials to chapter eight which explains how to create frame-by-frame animations.

I opened the program and started playing with some of the tools to navigate the environment. Being an Adobe user for years and stuck in my ways about a couple things I had to move the tool palette to the left side. Below is a screen shot of what I was doing in Flash.

BP11_Commercial for ProofHQ

As much as I would love to use this amazing web tool in my classroom, the cost is much more fitting for professional or corporate business organizations. I have figured out a way to adapt some of the features they use to make proofing students work more efficient and detailed. As well as saving our budget a bit from the cost of print paper.

Below is the commercial I created for ProofHQ.

BP10_Comment on Emil Torabi's blog post

I admit I had never been a big fan of blogging but I'm starting to really enjoy aspects of it and can see how it would be a great benefit in a classroom setting.

Check out Emil Torabi's commercial about Word Press Here

BP9_Comment on Pamela's video

Pamela found a great teachers time saver for creating worksheets and quizzes. I checked out the site and created an account myself because I think we can all use a great time save for creating these types of documents.

Click HERE to find out more about Pamela's video on QUIZinator

This is a very quick, basic true/false question worksheet I created on Quizinator.com after seeing Pamelas video.

BP8_ Web 2.0 Tool Animoto and Flixtime

Logo courtesy of Animoto press kit and download promotional materials.

There are many wonderful software programs available currently in my classroom to develop eye catching images, video, slide shows and presentation. For the upcoming school year I plan on introducing my students to some of this software, such as Garage Band and iMovie to use in project development. However, we don't always have the time for precession video editing with impressive transitions and soundtracks. For myself, my schedule is so tight at times I forget what pillows feel like or what dreams are. I stumbled upon two web based, tool sites that could very easily help me (especially in a time crunch) to create great introductory videos for my lessons and web announcement for my students using images and videos that I upload.

The first is Animoto. This site "automatically generates professionally produced videos using their own patent-pending technology and high-end motion graphics." (Animoto. 2010). The service it provides is absolutely free for any video 30 seconds or shorter. If you are planning on only making one video you can purchase a full-length video credit for $3.00 or all access service with unlimited videos for $30.00 a year. One of the really cool features that Animoto provides is "re-generate" where you can run your pictures, sound and video back through their generator and get a completely different result using the same content. I applied for an education account they offer to find out what the terms and conditions of use and service are because I couldn't find specific details on the site for education. Lets hope it's free!

To get an idea of the kinds of videos Animoto creates, please check out this link HERE. I highly recommend the second video on the top row titled "Puppies".

The second site I tried out was Flixtime. It is generally the same concept as Animoto for creating short videos. However, Flixtime allows for up to 60 seconds for free and then service fees for anything above 60 seconds in length. Flixtimes other rate plans are a bit more pricey for both personal and professional use above the allotted free time. Both sites provide a large library of sound loops and music that you can use as well as uploading your own. It was my observation though that Animoto had a little more hip music library. Neither site will allow for you to do more detailed editing without an upgrade but for someone that loves to take pictures and video and share them I feel it would be worth the cost. For myself to use as a tool to create an introduction video to a lesson or for my Culture Club announcements of concerts and events on our class site I think it would be great!

Here is a short presentation created using Flixtime I made to get a feel of what the tool does.

Flixtime. (2010). Your fix in a flash. Retrieved July 21, 2010, from http://www.flixtime.com

Animoto. (2010. Learn more in 60 seconds. Retrieved July 20, 2010, from http://www.animoto.com

BP7_OMM_VoiceThread_Video of Cool Web 2.0 Tool

I was so intrigued by Jacqueline's GoAnimate find I decided to use it as my example for FAVORITE Web 2.0 tool this week. I created my own character of myself and made this animation using www.goamimate.com and then edited it in iMovie for narration transitions and effects. I believe this would be a really fun way to address a lesson and have it archived on our class website for later reference. I believe my students would have a lot of fun using it as well to develop client meeting strategies and practice.

BP6_Comment on Jacqueline Jones' Web 2.0 Blog

Above is the first character I developed for myself in GoAnimate.

Personally, I feel this is one of the coolest and fun, rich media sources I have seen! So much so, I got totally distracted playing and way off my personal schedule for the day thinking of all the things I could do with it! However, if I'm going to get everything done and make that 6 a.m. flight tomorrow I have to keep moving.

Please check out Jacqueline Jones' blog on GoAnimate.com - HERE!

BP5_Comment on Scott Priebe's Web 2.0 Blog

My Squids! Soon to be design college ninjas! Class of 2010

Scotts find of an alternative, open source for rich media is awesome! I can easily see it being incorporated into my program and a couple other programs at my school.

Check out his blog about Kaltura here: Scottie (Old Dog) Priebe

BP4_Web 2.0 tool Inspire Mix

As I focused on all the things we do in my classroom, I tried to think of what is the most prominent struggle among all artist from time to time. I feel as creatives we all have moments where we just might not be feeling all that creative. Like at 7:30 a.m. when my first class starts. For those of us who are high school teachers we know asking a seiner to become a master visual problem solver before they have mentally gotten out of bed can be a challenge. Aside from lacking, early morning motivation we can all use a little inspiration from time to time.

Any good creative knows you are always looking, dissecting, evaluating, seeking and embracing all forms of art around you. What great piece of art or writing wasn't inspired by something? Although, perhaps we don't always know where to look to get started? One of the great things about the internet is the endless sea of resources to get the juices flowing. One link could lead to another, then another and even another! Not getting lost in the ocean when your paddling around the sea might be a focal point for self control and a big consideration within limited time in class.

The Web 2.0 tool I chose to share and discuss is Inspire Mix. The sites primary focus is to engage and inspire the viewer with daily creativity. It provides links to many creative sources such as web design, logo design and typography to name a few. However, the page that I found most inspiring was portfolios. I found myself clicking away at all these different designers collections and feeling the creative energy starting to flow. One of the portfolios I spent a great deal of time looking at was that of Si Scott. If you love pen and ink and swirls you would love his work! I had seen his work before in various publications but didn't know much about the designer himself. Looking at his site lead me to several youtube.com videos of his creations. Just watching him sketch out a design I wanted to grab my Rapidographs and some hot press illustration board and DRAW! I got my start in freelance as an ink illustrator and seeing it being done is always something that inspires me.

Here is a youtube.com video of Si Scott in action!

I believe that having specific reference sites like Inspire Mix, that are updated often or daily would be a wonderful place to start on those days we're not feeling oh so creative. As well as keep my students from wondering endlessly amongst the waves of information. I have always believed that creativity is inspired by creativity.

Here is one of my ink illustration. The technique used is called stipple, meaning all dots... Many, many, many dots!




Inspire Mix. (2010). Inspire Mix, Your daily design inspiration, ideas and trends. Retrieved July 11, 2010, from http://inspiremix.com/

BP3_Web 2.0 Tool ProofHQ

It would seem that a lot of paper is wasted in a classroom environment. Especially in a classroom like mine where I teach primarily print media. Students often bring me two, three… ten copies of one design to proof! That is a lot of wasted paper, not to mention the biggest dent in my budget each year. With my classroom numbers growing and my budget shrinking I have been looking at new ways to reduce the amount of paper used and provide effective visual feedback to my students.

The Web 2.0 tool I discovered was ProofHQ. It is a wonderfully interactive document reviewing resource where designers and clients can review proofs of created work. The user can send and compare multiple proofs on one screen to compare changes and updates making it very easy to see that the changes have been made. Clients and designers (students and instructor) can make notes to documents quickly and easily providing less use of printed materials or wait time on turn around. Here is a short overview of ProofHQ's features.

Video recorded using ScreenFlow at http://www.proofhq.com/html/demos.html.



As an industry professional this could be an amazing time saver for me and my international clients. However, there is one downfall to the tool for a classroom environment and that is cost. Unfortunately, ProofHQ is not a free Web 2.0 tool and my budget allotment is more in the free range than cost. The functions of ProofHQ did give me and idea tho that might help in resolving the issues of time and wasted paper. As part of the curriculum this coming school year and my Action Research project we will be developing a classroom site and individual student portfolio sites through Google Apps. Each student has a gmail account with their Google App site as well as myself that will be used for sending pdf proofs of work in progress. Reviewing work within Acrobat I can add sticky notes for changes and update to send back to students. Although in some aspects this might be a little more time consuming to start but it does help in elevating our paper issues.
Screen shot of current client project with sticky note to show what would be provided for students.


ProofHQ. (2010). ProofHQ, demo movies. Retrieved from http://www.proofhq.com/html/demos.html