Spring semester has started up at the university last week. I’ve signed up for a journalism and a web design course as a non-degree seeking student. I love how the university system allows students to sign up for classes without having to commit to a lengthy degree program. You’re in. You’re out a semester with new skills and knowledge that can bring you to the next level in the market place. Or you can just learn about a passion of yours. J’adore la fac.

In Advanced Multimedia class today, the professor reviewed the basics of Flash CS4. Flash is a program used to create dynamic web pages. What’s amazing about flash, you can incorporate all types of media, i.e. sound, photos, text, video, graphics, ect., into the program giving the user endless opportunities to create media rich projects. The learning curve on Flash is steep and takes time for someone to get a good handle on the program but once you get it, you get it good.

Hello, class! And welcome!

Remember that in Flash, you need to always keep the big picture in mind and not get boggled down by the details.

Hmm…is he talking about Flash or something else..I began to wonder.

In Flash, the key is to know where you are in the program, as in, which file is open and what it is you are working on.

Know where you are? I’m lost already…I thought.

In the film making world, we work with a single timeline. A film has a beginning and an end. In Flash, we work with multiple timelines giving us various beginnings and endings. That’s where things get complicated.

I raised my hand.

Are we talking about Flash now? Or life? I’m sorry but when you say multiple timelines I can’t help but think about how life unfolds before us. One day is an end to something and another day is a beginning onto something else.

Ha, ha…yes, life is a series of timelines like in Flash. And remember, Flash can be overwhelming to learn. My advice on how to overcome the hurdles in learning Flash is: If you hit a brick wall in your work, stop for 20 minutes, do something else, and come back. If you hit a brick wall again, stop and take note of what is the brick wall.

Wow. I don’t know what but I have to say, the lecture not only gave me insight into Flash but spoke to the core of me today about life and how to deal with those bumps in road. Simply, stop, pull over and do something else. Damn. I’ll have to try this technique. Thanks, professor!

After the professor went over the basics, we moved onto how to make motion tweens. In Flash, tweening is a basic animation technique used to put objects in motion. I’m not going to get into geek speak on how-to tween, however, if you are interested in seeing an example of tweening check out the following fun video:

Tags: Interactive media, Motion tween

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 at 11:41 am and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.