Multimedia Production: April 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

Multimedia Production