ART279 - 3D Computer Graphics Design II
Spring 2002 - NVCC - Giulio Porta
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This project required using Macromedia's Flash to complete
three required assignments to give the student a basic understanding of
Flash. A 30 day trial version of this software was
downloaded and used to create the following animations. The online Help
was invaluable in completed these assignments. |
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This assignment required creating a text logo and modifying
it over a timeline to rotate, scale, change color, and fade. |
Link to Repeated Flash Animation
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Animation Appearance at Keyframe Breaks |
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Keyframe 1
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Keyframe 9
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Keyframe 18
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Keyframe 27
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Keyframe 36
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The Haunting
This assignment illustrates a simple mouse interaction: a graphic following the cursor as it is moved. In addition, I made the normal cursor invisible and I used invisible buttons to trigger the appearances of the apparitions. This project required becoming familiar with the Flash ActionScript; a language similar to JavaScript. Want
to know more about it? |
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This assignment required rotating and scaling 2 or more objects at once. I replicated this assignment from the tutorial example provided. There are three layers corresponding to the three 'instances' on the screen. Each has an "action" associated with it: the arrow rotates and shrinks, the orange box scale up and the text, CONCLUSION, also increases in scale.
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Link to Repeated Flash Animation
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Animation Appearance at various Keyframes |
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Keyframe 1
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Keyframe 6
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Keyframe 13
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Keyframe 20
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Unless you are using Macromedia's Dreamweaver
to create your web page, you will have to include the following code to
place your flash movie on your page. I used MS FrontPage 2000
to create this page. You will need to change the highlighted file name to
your flash movie file name. NOTE: Be very careful using FrontPage, it is
known to modify/expand/messwith the code.
I obtained this information from the Flash Support
Center page on the Macromedia web site. |
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Flash is indeed a more efficient animation file builder.
Flash has a scripting language called ActionScript which is based on JavaScript. For non-programmers, using the Action panel will create simple ActionScripts for you (via menus and lists). There is also an Expert mode that allows the more knowledgable scripters to enter more complex scripts. With these scripts you can make your flash movies interactive. (See Assignment 8b) I have found Flash to be a syntax beast! Thing must be created in a certain order and a certain way to get the effects you want. Something Important/interesting I only learned after I had consulted several sources: The _visible property renders the target disabled as well as invisible. A fact I did not discover until after I had been wrestling for some time with trying to get the movie clips to act like buttons and repeatedly failing. Several sources said more people use _alpha instead of _visible but only one mentioned this important caviot.
The current downloadable version of Flash is Version 6, Flash MX. It is substantially different from version 5. For assignment 8a, I made extensive use of the online Help to figure out how to complete the assignments.
For assignment 8b, I found sometimes confusing/conflicting information when I sought help online in understanding ActionScript and most books I found didn't go into enough depth. One of the best book I came across is FOUNDATION ACTIONSCRIPT by Sham Bhangal which I found at the regional library. It is an indepth description of the ActionScript language and it's function.for those interested in becoming more familiar with ActionScript. |
