Multimedia Production: 2007

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Student Blogs

Kathleen Andrews
http://www.crazykatems.blogspot.com/

Gabriela Beristain
http://mpclass.blogspot.com
http://loki.stockton.edu/~stk36584/

Kayla Bryant
http://kaylabryyy.blogspot.com

Shawn Casler
http://shawniecas.blogspot.com

Vanessa Faljean
http://shortandloud.blogspot.com

Rachael Finley
http://chupamedia.blogspot.com

Amelia Gajary
http://ameliaville.blogspot.com

Christopher Gately
http://tapedeckandcreedence.blogspot.com

Philip Govia
http://philgovia.blogspot.com/

Jeffrey Huntley
http://lynx1427.blogspot.com/

Ryan Kerr
http://dangerkerr.blogspot.com

Christopher Leth
http://sulorian.blogspot.com

Christopher Ludewig
http://chrisl-lair.blogspot.com/

Bryan Sharp
http://sharpmedia.blogspot.com

Danielle Tagerty
http://dtags262002.blogspot.com

Emily Wray
http://multimediaimaginings.blogspot.com

Jennifer Zumot
http://jn2daz.blogspot.com/

Monday, April 23, 2007

Free Sounds

Here's a good search engine for sound files on the internet:

http://www.findsounds.com/

Saturday, April 14, 2007

First thing: I want to talk to each of you about your final Flash project. Be sure to have any idea when you come in (print out a paragraph for me to read before I talk to you).

Second thing: I want to be able to show everyone in the class your 6-word projects, so get me that link before Monday. If you are having troubles, you can debug while I am having the Flash project talks. So you have to at least have your FLA working by the start of Monday's class so I can show them by the middle.

From this point on in the semester, the class is entirely driven by you -- i.e. I will only show you stuff that you want to learn more about. If you don't ask questions, then you won't learn anything, etc. I like a lot of the Flash work coming in so I hope to see it get better and better!

Some things we can go over: video, using variables, conditional statements ("If something is true, then go to frame x, if it is not, go to frame z, etc."), etc.

6 Word Short Story

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Jabberwocky Flash Piece

The story so far...

http://www.arras.net/jabberwocky_flash.html

Final Flash Project

On Friday, I'd like everyone to come in with an idea for their final Flash project.

Basically, you have several options:

Convert your Dreamweaver hypertext project into Flash. This is a good option for those of you who wanted to do more complicated forms of interactive narrative in your Dreamweaver project.
Convert your Lulu book project into Flash. This is an interesting option because you can play with illustrating your stories, or just coming up with user-friendly (and eye-friendly) computer "readers" -- things that are like books but with more options.
Create a Flash game. Obviously, you should keep your game concept pretty simple since you only have a few weeks to complete it.
Create a longer animated Flash poem, like your 6-word project.
Create a Flash documentary, including sounds and video, on some subject you are interested in (like your favorite movie star or Nicholas Sparks). You can find resources on the web and import them all into Flash to create a nice interactive documentary.

For all of these projects, I can show you some advanced ActionScript and other Flash features to make things work.

There are also some very good Flash resource sites where you can download Flash files and modify them to your liking. They also have tutorials about animation and design. A lot of these might be seem too advanced for you but if you hunt around and open files, you'll discover that many of them are understandable.

http://www.flashkit.com

http://www.bestflashanimationsite.com/resources

http://www.actionscript.org/index.php

http://www.hotscripts.com/Flash/index.html

http://www.flashadvisor.com

(Just type "Flash Resources" or "Flash Tutorials" and you'll hit tons of them.)

Here are a bunch of Flash games to look at:

http://www.flash-game.net

IMPORTANT: review the "final portfolio" page of the blog:
http://2007stocktonmulitmedia.blogspot.com/2007/04/final-portfolio.html

If you are missing any of these elements you will be marked down. Also, remember that I am grading not just on the fact that you "got it done" but that it looks good.

All of this has to be done by April 30th (I had said April 27th before, but I probably won't get to look at it until April 30th anyway). That's about 2 and a half weeks from now, after which is something called SUMMERTIME.

Lastly, where are the rest of those Flash quizzes? I only have seven.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Flash Quiz

Here are the sound effects you will be using in your quiz today.

http://www.arras.net/stockton_sound_effects/

What I'd like you to do is:

start a new Flash file, set the stage size to 400 x 400
use only the Arial font, set for 96 point
set the stage color to black
make a button out of each of the letters (I will give you your words) with the normal color of the button being white (the rollover color can be anything you want EXCEPT white)
attach one of the sounds above to the rollover of the button
animate the letters as you wish, trying to give your interpretation of the word
email the .fls (NOT the .swf) to me at stefansb@stockton.edu

By the way, I got the sound effects from a really excellent Flash site called Flash Kit, which has tutorials and other downloadable files that you can play with and reuse.

Sunday, April 8, 2007

Final Portfolio

We won't be having class on Monday, the 23rd, but if you want, I can promise to be online for the time of the class and you can email me questions you are having about your work if you decide to come in. We are also not having class on the 30th.

I will tell you what your final Flash assignment will be tomorrow, but for now, I wanted to tell you what I expect to see in the Portfolio.

Your blog should have the following items on it, and the should be in this order (you can change the order of your posts by changing the post date in the "Post Options" tab at the bottom of your browser):

BOOK PROJECT

the entire revised and corrected text of your editor's introduction
the cover image of your book that is linked to a downloadable .pdf of the book with the cover in it (I'll show you how to do this) measuring 300 pixels-wide
a text link to your .pdf uploaded onto your stk account

PHOTO GALLERY

a short description of your photo gallery and link to your photo gallery on your stk account (be sure to give your photo gallery a name)

HYPERTEXT WRITING PROJECT

the entire text of your hypertext writing (revised if you didn't get a good grade) including a link to the hypertext project
a short summary of your hypertext proposal, including how it is supposed to work and how it relates to hypertext
a 300 x 300 screencap of a page of your hypertext fiction (I'll show you how to do this)
a link to your hypertext fiction on your stk account

FLASH 6-WORD STORY PROJECT

a 300 x 300 screencap of a screen of your Flash animated text project with a link to the project on your stk account

FINAL FLASH PROJECT

a short introduction to what your final Flash project
a 300 x 300 screencap of a screen of your final Flash project
a links to the Flash project on your stk account

Please delete anything on your blog that is not related to the above. If your blog is one that you have been updating for other reasons, you don't have to delete your old stuff, but be sure that the first thing I see when I check it out is the above. You could also just create a new page for the above and send me that link.

As for the Lulu accounts, you can go ahead and delete them. Don't put the CD-cover on your blog unless you are sure it is done.

On the 27th, we will debug the portfolios as well, since some of you will probably have uploading issues.

Here is what the rest of the semester looks like:

Monday, 9: Flash review and lab
Wed., 11: Flash short quiz and lab
Fri., 13: Flash -- ANIMATED SIX-WORD SHORT STORY DUE

Monday, 16: Flash lab
Wed., 18: Flash lab
Fri., 20: Flash lab

Monday, 23: NO CLASS
Wed., 25: Flash lab
Fri., 27: Flash lab and debugging portfolio

Mondaay, 30: FINAL PORTFOLIO DUE ONLINE (NO CLASS)

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Friday's Class

Please look at the following before Friday's class:

BKS
"The Dreamlife of Letters"
http://www.arras.net/RNG/flash/dreamlife/dreamlife_index.html

William Poundstone
"Three Proposals for Bottle Imps"
"What I Believe"
"Project for a Tachiscope"
http://www.williampoundstone.net/

Thoms Swiss
"The Narrative You Anticipate You Might Produce"
http://bailiwick.lib.uiowa.edu/swiss/narrative/

Jogchem Niemandsverdriet
"Nobody Here" (English version, use menu on top)
http://nobodyhere.com/

Sunday, April 1, 2007

Flash and Six-Word Story

For those of you who were absent, this is what we've covered so far in Flash:

- how to make a symbol
- how to add a keyframe to a timeline
- how to do motion and shape tweens
- how to use the "easing" function
- how to insert basic ActionScript in a frame (such as "goto..." and "stop")
- how to create a new scene
- how to create a button with a rollover
- how to add ActionScript to it (such as "on press goto...")

This is all the very basic stuff that is covered in roughly the first half of the textbook, so review that if you were absent from class.

For Monday, I want everyone to have a six-word short story prepared. It has to be a STORY, not a saying. It should probably contain at least one image, but not necessarily.

Here is are some examples (from the original Wired article):

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.11/sixwords.html (stories)
http://blog.wired.com/sixwords/ (stories with images)

I'm going to show you a few more things, like how to add effects to your letters, how to control a movie with a button, and maybe (if you're good little boys and girls) how to add sound to the movie, though I'm not sure if your computers in the lab have sound capabilities.

You should look at my animated poem "The Dreamlife of Letters" to get ideas:

http://www.arras.net/RNG/flash/dreamlife/dreamlife_index.html

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Hypertext Projects

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Two Cool Web Pieces

A couple other visual/literary pieces that are fun to look at and play with:

Bembo’s Zoo
http://www.bemboszoo.com

Carl Comix (a plain version and a Java version)
http://www.scottmccloud.com/comics/carl/index.html

Monday, March 19, 2007

Next Two Weeks

For those of you who weren’t in class today, we got started on writing our hypertext projects.

On Wednesday, I’d like to have a HARD COPY of your hypertext piece (it doesn’t have to be finished, but pretty close) as well as a short description of how you plan to have it work.

On this day, we will have a Dreamweaver lab and begin to adapt these pieces to the web. Ditto for Friday.

There are no strict guidelines for your hypertext projects except that I’d like you to make it look good, and any images used have to support the text. You don’t need to have images, but the text then better BE the image (in the manner of “oooxxxooo” by Juliet Martin).

Here is a list of ideas for the hypertext pieces:
http://2007stocktonmulitmedia.blogspot.com/2007/03/ideas-for-hypertext.html

These hypertext projects are due to be on your stk website by Friday, March 30. (I moved the day since, in fact, I won’t be here on March 28th, I’m traveling to Montreal to give a talk.)

So it looks like this:

Wed 21: hand in hard copy of hypertext, Dreamweaver lab
Fri 23: Dreamweaver lab
Mon 26: introduction to Flash <== very important class, don’t miss it
Wed 28: no class (but come in to work on hypertext project)
Fri 30: HYPERTEXT PROJECT DUE, Flash lab

After this, it’s Flash until the end of the semester.

Flash Sites

I'd like to start compiling a list of Flash sites that we can discuss in class, so please send me emails of sites that you've looked at. I'm particularly interested in sites that use text in interesting ways:

www.newgrounds.com

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Lulu Books

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Photo Galleries

Friday, March 9, 2007

Ideas for Hypertext

I'd like everyone to write a short hypertext that involves at least 12 "lexia" -- i.e. pages of at least a paragraph each.

The interface design is up to you. Make it pretty, though, and make sure the images and text design you use contributes to the experience of the piece.

Ideas on how to write this include:

find two different "voices" from other internet sites and make a conversation between these two
conceive of a writing "constraint" and write all of the lexia using this (for example, paragraph size, a poetic form, word count, etc.)
use an idea from your hypertext play and use the outline that I gave you for that assignment (at least 3 "props," using periods in time like "later that day," "meanwhile," etc
a fake documentary on some kind of fake animal or something like that
"choose your own adventure" type story, where you ask the reader whether or not they want to go here or here, etc.
an interactive adaptation of some other literary or art work that you know
an autobiography where you come up with a constrained way of writing non-fiction based on time -- i.e. one paragraph for every year, or one sentence for every month -- to be read out of order

Midterm Assessment

These are the things I'll be evaluating you over the break:

Lulu book (cover design, editor's introduction, typesetting)
photo gallery (design, interface, splash page)
hypertext writing assignment
CD cover (extra credit)

Please put on your blogs:

image of your book cover
link to Lulu page
link to photo gallery
hypertext writing assignment
image of CD cover if you have it

Even if you were able to get your book on to Lulu, send me a copy of the .pdf and the cover image.

I'll send out an email with a mid-term grade on it.

Sunday, March 4, 2007

Hypertext Fiction Assignment

ALSO FOR WEDNESAY is your short paper on a hypertext work of your choice. Here are the links for that again:

http://2007stocktonmulitmedia.blogspot.com/2007/02/sample-hypertext-fictions.html

This writing assignment should be at least 3 pages, double-spaced, in Times Roman font, 12 point, with one-inch margins. Any shorter than that and you risk being marked down. Again, if it's not in by Wednesday, the highest grade you can get is a B.

Issues you should cover:

how does the interface work? is it successful, something you enjoy interacting with? does it help the literary aspects of the piece?
how does the text/image interaction work? is the text ITSELF being used as an image?
what kind of quality does the writing have? is it good writing? is it more like a poem, story or video game? does reading it out of order help the writing, or is it distracting?

BE SURE TO QUOTE FROM THE WRITING. I.e. you have to support your statements -- don't just write that it was hard to understand or that it was weird -- get some of the actual text into your paper. Also, these are all famous works, so you can Google the author and the title of the piece and most likely find info on them.

Some of these are pretty strange works, so try your best...

This assignment is in preparation for your own creative hypertext, which we'll discuss in class.

Photo Galleries

It turns out that I can't be at the next class, this Monday, due to a doctor's appointment that I can't cancel (one of those things where he can't see me for two months or so). Sorry about that.

So here's the deal. By WEDNESDAY, I want all of your photo galleries uploaded to your stk accounts. Put them in a folder called "photo_gallery" inside the folder that you already have called "public_html". The main page of your file should be called "index.html" so when I go to your account and type in your address, I get the first page.

If you don't get this done by Wednesday, then the highest possible grade you can get on it is a B. I won't be so lax about this as I have been for the book projects because there are not so many technological issues to contend with.

If I were you, I would come to class on Monday anyway and work on your photo gallery.

The directions for uploading the files to your stk account are on the class blog:

http://2007stocktonmulitmedia.blogspot.com/2007/02/class-websites.html

Be sure to upload all of your Dreamweaver pages as well as all of the image files that they refer to. Otherwise I will get a bunch of dead links, etc.

The photo gallery must include the following:

a first page that tells the name of the gallery (orat least tells us what it's about)
a gallery page of thumbnail images that I can click on to see the larger versions of the photos
a contact page that has your contact information

All of these pages must have a menu bar on them, including the individual photo pages. This might be time-consuming, but creating a website is often a bit of drudge work. But the good news is that, the more you practice, the better you get!

Try to make it look pretty.

Free Online Storage

Here are a few services that offer free online storage. For those of you who don't have flash drives (or who have a tendency to lose them), this could be a great way to back-up your work.

http://www.box.net/

http://www.xdrive.com/

http://www.mediamax.com/

http://storage.vmn.net/

http://briefcase.yahoo.com/bc//home

This is just the first several hits on Google -- there are undoubtably more. I don't think you'll need more than a gig of storage, actually not nearly that much, but some of these offer up to 25 gigs of free storage. It's a crazy world.

Friday, March 2, 2007

Lab Access / Trial Software

I’ve been told that D-019 is open on Saturdays and Sundays. On Saturday, it is open until 5 and on Sundays until midnight.

If it is not open, you can go to room D-006 and have someone open it for you. Apparently the door shuts sometimes.

For those of you who want trial versions of Fireworks, Dreamweaver and Flash, they are available here:

Fireworks

Dreamweaver

Flash

Monday, February 26, 2007

Hypertext Fiction Assignment

Here are the links for the Hypertext Fiction assignment.

Stuart Moulthrop, pax: an instrument
http://iat.ubalt.edu/moulthrop/hypertexts/pax/

Shelley Jackson, my body / a Wunderkammer
http://collection.eliterature.org/1/works/jackson__my_body_a_wunderkammer.html

Judd Morrissey, The Jew’s Daughter
http://www.thejewsdaughter.com/

Electric Sheep Comix, The Spiders
http://www.e-sheep.com/spiders/

Electric Sheep Comix, Delta Thrives
http://www.e-sheep.com/delta/

Geoffrey Ryman, 345
http://www.ryman-novel.com/

Talan Memmott, Lexia to Perplexia
http://www.altx.com/ebr/ebr11/11mem/

Juliett Martin, oooxxxooo
http://www.julietmartin.com/oooxxxooo/Answer.html

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Principles of Good Web Design

Here are links to some pages with very useful information on web design:

http://www.digital-web.com/articles/principles_and_elements_of_design/

http://www.digital-web.com/articles/designing_for_the_web/

http://www.digital-web.com/types/design_in_theory_and_practice/

Friday, February 23, 2007

HTML Tags Illustrated

A little on the corny side... ok, very much on the corny side.

http://haha.nu/misc/html-tags-illustrated/

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Dreamweaver Assignment

The following assignment is due Wednesday, February 28th.

Create a simple photo album in Dreamweaver.

Along the top should be a HEADER GRAPHIC that is attractive and will appear on all of the pages that follow. Header graphics are usually about 600-800 pixels long, but there are fewer rules for this than there used to be due to larger screen sizes.
There should be a SPLASH PAGE -- the first page the user sees upon entering the site. This page usually does not have a whole lot of text, rather an image that tells you what the site is about.
There should be a MENU BAR somewhere near or in the header graphic. The menu items will be Hame, Gallery and Contact.
There should be a GALLERY PAGE. For this, find a series of 12 or more photographs. Create "thumbnails" of each of the pictures. These are usually smaller versions of the picture, often square. Arrange them attractively in some sort of shape. Below each thumbnail should be a short caption describing what the larger picture will be.
Make a LARGE IMAGE PAGES for each of the images. On the individual image pages, there should be a long description of what the image is below it.

Some examples of sites you can use:
Cute Overload
Blog of Old New York pictures
Celebrity website
The results of a Google image search
Etc.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Interactive Plays / Lulu Book

We'll be performing these things on Wednesday, perhaps carrying over into Friday. I'll bring in some treats or whatnot to snack on during performances, though I'm not sure what the food policy is in that room. Anyone else is also invited to bring something in (quiet food).

You should be sure to bring in PROPS for your play. If the prop is something absurdly impossible to find (like a baby) use a substitute (like a beach ball). You really have to make your story clear for the audience.

Also, you have to let the audience choose which way they want to go in terms of the next scene, like in the movie -- "later that day," "meanwhile," etc. (You can use whatever time elements you want -- "last year," "two hundred years later," etc.). I would keep a chart or something that you fill in during the performance to keep track of which scenes have been read already.

And remember that the Lulu assignment is due Friday. I would try to get it done before that in case you run into problems. I won't answer questions about Lulu on Thursday night. I still have to figure out that Adobe Acrobat problem, but if any of you want to give it a shot today in class, please try.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Fireworks Resources

Following are links to several sites that offer tips and tutorials on Macromedia Fireworks (now called Adobe Fireworks). Several of these sites also offer tutorials on Dreamweaver and Flash, so we'll be referencing these sites quite often.

A few are geared toward Fireworks MX and so might cover features that are not available to us. Others seem to be based on earlier versions of Fireworks, but the principles are still the same. A few are pretty amateur, while others are professional resources.

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Hypertext Movie

We're going to look at David Clark's "Meanwhile" in class on Monday. If you want to watch it ahead of time, feel free.

(There's one scene that might not go over well if you are in an office, not that there is nudity; it just sounds suggestive.)

http://www.habitatstudio.ca/~cmendis/meanwhile/

Book Covers / Thinking with Type review

For those of you who missed my class on book covers, here is the link to the various images that we looked at. Some of these images are quite small, so put on your glasses:

http://www.arras.net/book_covers/

Following are the pages we reviewed from Thinking with Type:

23, example of 19th century advertisement poster
27-29, type as program, type as narrative
34, anatomy of letters
48-51, hand drawn typefaces
52-53, logotypes
55-57, screen fonts, anti-aliasing
64, example of initial cap in Medieval ms.
80-85, tracking and kerning, alignment
94-95, hierarchy

Free Fonts!

Following are some links to sites that offer free fonts for download. These are for Mac and PC for the most part. Keep in mind that you can't install new fonts on the Stockton computers; these are only for use at home.

Also, on occasion a font file will not agree with your computer. Don't download too many and install them all. Just download one or two that you want to use in your image, and if your computer starts acting funny, uninstall the font. (I've never actually had trouble with a new font, but on older Macs this was sometimes a problem.)

This is actually just the top 6 hits on Google, so I'm guessing there are tons more free font sites out there. If you find one you like, let us know!

1001 Free Fonts:
http://www.1001freefonts.com/

Dafont.com
http://www.dafont.com/

Simply The Best
http://simplythebest.net/fonts/

Free Fonts
http://www.free-fonts.com/

Font Freak
http://www.fontfreak.com/index3.htm

Font File
http://www.fontfile.com/

Class Websites

The following are your Stockton web spaces. You can upload your web designs to these pages, as well as store files here (instead of using your flash drive). The directions for uploading are as follows (for Windows):

From home:

click on the "Start" menu
at the run prompt, type: ftp://loki.stockton.edu
you will get an error message; just click "OK"
right click on window that appears and choose "Login as"
on the login screen, type in username and password

From Stockton:

open the Utilities Folder on the desktop
open "Upload files to your Stockton Webspace
on the login screen, type in username and password

Tuesday, February 6, 2007

Basic Typography

Here's a nice, one-page "how to" on typesetting:

http://platea.pntic.mec.es/~jmas/manual/english/textos_impecables.html

Monday, February 5, 2007

Book Cover Assignments

We are putting the CD project to the side for the moment. Of course, you are encouraged to complete your cover design, but it's more important at this point to work on the book covers.

Here's what we are doing this week:

Wednesday the 7th:

Bring in a Word document with the contents of your projected book
Bring in ideas for your book cover
Read Thinking with Type and be prepared to talk about book cover design

Friday the 9th:

Have a rough draft of your Word document prepared as a PDF
Have a rough draft of your book cover

We will be uploading these to Lulu. You will each create an account. It will be your responsibility to create the book over the next week.

Friday, January 26, 2007

Template for Test

http://www.arras.net/stockton

Trade paperback size: 4.25 x 6.875
Margins
Gutters
One serif font and one sans-serif font
Set the hyphenation
Instances of tracking
Instances of leading
Distinct chapter headings
60 pages in length
Front matter
Page numbers and headers
Find an illustration
Colophon

Monday, January 22, 2007

Stylesheet for Scarlet Pimpernel

Margins:
Left, right, top: 1 inche
Bottom 1.5 inches

Main typeface:
Choose something attractive to you

Page numbers:
Your choice, but use different typeface than text

Chapters:
Each to start on new page; use clear chapter headings

Title page:
Make it nice looking, with author’s name

Gutters:
Margins on interior pages that are a little larger than outside margins

Headers:
Where the name of the book and/or author appear

Page size:
Height: 9”
Width: 6”

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Syllabus (PDF)

Here is a link to the print version of the syllabus.

Schedule

January
Wed., 17: Introduction / assign the editing assignments
Fri., 19: Set up blogs or websites

Monday, 22: Thinking with Type, first half / typesetting on Word
Wed., 24: Thinking with Type, second half / typesetting on Word
Fri., 26: Thinking with Type / typesetting on Word

Monday, 29: test on vocabulary /book analysis due / Introduction to Fireworks
Wed., 31: Introduction to Fireworks

February
Fri., 2: Fireworks (assign CD cover project)

Monday, 5: Fireworks
Wed., 7: Fireworks (in-class 6-word story project)
Fri., 9: Lulu book exercise due (typeset projects and book covers)

Monday, 12: Hypertext literature review (Jackson / Moulthrop / Memmott)
Wed., 14: Hypertext literature review
Fri., 16: Hypertext literature review

Monday, 19: President’s Day
Wed., 21: Hypertext literature review and exercises
Fri., 23: Introduction to Dreamweaver

Monday, 26: Dreamweaver / creative writing of Dreamweaver project due
Wed., 28: Dreamweaver

March
Fri., 2: Dreamweaver

Monday, 5: Dreamweaver / website analysis due
Wed., 7: Dreamweaver (in-class assignment)
Fri., 9: Dreamweaver (final review before break)

Monday, 12: Spring Break
Wed., 14: Spring Break
Fri., 16: Spring Break

Monday, 19: Dreamweaver presentation of final projects
Wed., 21: Dreamweaver presentation of final projects
Fri., 23: Introduction to Flash

Monday, 26: Flash
Wed., 28: Flash
Fri., 30: Flash (assign animated poem project)

April
Monday, 2: Flash (animated poem project due)
Wed., 4: Preceptorial Advising
Fri., 6: Flash

Monday, 9: Flash (animated 6 word story due)
Wed., 11: Flash
Fri., 13: Flash

Monday, 16: Flash / website analysis due
Wed., 18: Flash
Fri., 20: Flash

Monday, 23: Flash presentations of final projects
Wed., 25: Flash presentations of final projects
Fri., 27: Flash presentations of final projects

Monday, 30: Wrap-up

Required Books

Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press; 1 edition
ISBN: 1568984480
Price: $19.95

Sams Teach Yourself Macromedia Flash 8 in 24 Hours
Publisher: Sams; 3Rev Ed edition
ISBN-10: 0672327546
ISBN-13: 978-0672327544

How to Use Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 and Fireworks 8
Publisher: Sams; 2nd edition
ISBN: 0672327503
Price: $29.99

Class Policies

Grading
Grading will primarily be based on your creative assignments and evaluations of your progress in mastering the software.

• 60% creative assignments
• 20% written analyses
• 20% tests and in-class assignments

Attendance
If you are more than ten minutes late, you will be considered late. Two lates equal an absence. Four absences result in a full letter reduction in your grade. More than that and you could be considered for a failing grade. For excused absences, I would like print documentation that I can keep (xerox of doctor report, etc).

You are expected to be quiet and attentive in class. If you are sleeping, typing on your cell phone, giggling and chatting, etc. this will count against you in the final grade.

Plagiarism
You will fail if caught plagiarizing.

Late papers and assignments
For every week an assignment is late, it is worth a full grade less.

Format style
All papers should be in 12 point type (in Times Roman or similar font with serifs) with 1.5 spac-ing and 1 inch margins. They will be marked down if not in this format.

Assignments
Assignments are primarily geared toward proving that you have acquired some technical achievement in the software packages we will be covering. They will be described during the se-mester.

Early in the semester, you will be required to edit a short book and typeset it. You can collect in-formation from the internet or you can use your own material if you happen to be a creative writer of some nature. The material should equal roughly 96 pages of material (I’m not sure if Lulu will accept a smaller amount). You will create a cover for this material and create an order at Lulu, though you don’t have to buy it. This project will be graded on:
• cover design
• cleanliness of typesetting
• general quality of concept and editing

Later in the semester, we will do an exercise in creative hypertext. Hypertext fictions are like “choose your own adventure” type stories. You will be required to write a short one and illus-trate it in Dreamweaver, including basic illustration. This assignment will be graded on:
• quality of interaction
• use of graphics to enhance literary experience
• quality of writing

For your final project, you will take either the material you collected for you edited Lulu book or for your hypertext creative project and create an interactive Flash application for it. The Flash project will be evaluated on the following:
• use of mulitmedia elements such as sound and video
• appropriateness of interface
• general use of design principles, including issues of legibility

Other assignments related to the projects above will be assigned throughout the semester. Some of these assignments will include
• recreate a CD cover from a book of covers that is found on reserve in the library
• write and illustrate a “6-word short story”
• animate a short poem of your own or someone else’s in Flash

Writing Analysis
Three short analysis papers will be due during the semester. These will include technical descrip-tions of the objects being written about – a book, a website and a Flash site – as well as evaluative elements such as success of the site and points where it could be improved. These papers are from 3-4 pages long and should be formatted as outlined above. These assignments will be graded on style, grammar, etc. so put some time into them.

Friday, January 12, 2007

Introduction

The goals of this class are to provide students with basic skills in the arts of typesetting and de-sign, both for the print and the web. Students will start by learning the language of typesetting and considering issues of “thinking through type.” We will discuss type designs that work and don’t work, and will do exercises in typesetting in both Microsoft Word and Fireworks. We will then move on to web design and Flash, and consider issues regarding information structure. The first half of the class will be almost entirely concerned with the book, the second with the web. Students will learn the rudiments of editing, and also explore some issues of creative hypertext. Students will also set up their own websites and learn how to upload their final projects to the sites.

By the end of this class, students will have:
• designed a book cover
• edited a short book of original or collected writing with images and uploaded it to Lulu
• written or edited a short hypertext piece for Dreamweaver
• converted all or part of that hypertext piece to Flash
• learned how to FTP their materials to a class website