Thursday, April 30, 2009

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Thursday, April 23, 2009

I Will Survive

Some helpful links regarding flash components

Helpful Actionscript for deploying a Progress Bar component:

http://www.webwasp.co.uk/tutorials/b47-preload-progressBar/tutorial.php

Using the ScrollPane component to make a scrollable text box:

http://www.developingwebs.net/flash/mx_scrollingtextboxes.php

Online resource for components (you can also google "flash components"):

http://www.flashcomponents.net/

The Slideshowpro component:

http://slideshowpro.net/

Thursday, April 16, 2009

le bucks proposal for flash doco.

My site will be a fictional documentary starring the imaginary world of a little monster.
the monster world will be set in present human type day. it will chronicle a day of the monster, sort of the the 'Office' show on NBC.
3 sections: morning, noon, night.
combine image/text: thought entries will scroll at certain moments.
audio: sountrack music.
simple animation: monster close up, smiling, walking. holding mail/coffee/baguette.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Heathers Flash Site

I would like to create a site exploring the donnerpass rd stretch between "downtown" proper and the round about. It will be a virtual walking tour of this section of the street that will introduce a few businesses and tell a few historic stories.
For audio I will record the train that goes by every hour.
For animation I will attempt to create my dog walking  down the street.


This may be too bland, but I think this is what I want to do...

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Rylands Post

Indian music videos are awesome, and funny.

Flash site

My flash site will be a home for my angry rantings and utter contempt for modern society. My three sections will be as follows: a journal-like page for my “angry thought of the day;” a page for commentary on various things I find on the Internet that anger me; a page that offers solutions to the world’s idiotic conundrums. For audio on the various pages, I may use clips of people shouting, mumbling angrily and sections from heavy metal songs. For an animation in my site, I will likely create a little man that runs crazily across the screen as he appears to be screaming, possibly tied in with the audio clips.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Due on Thurs

Before Thursday's class, post up on the blog a couple paragraphs about what your flash "documentary" site will be about. Please address the four components of the project, further explained below below, in your summary (1. What are your three sections, 2. How will you combine images and text, 3. How will you use audio, 4. How will you incorporate some simple animation). The next few paragraphs give some parameters for the project. This project could be something you incorporate into your html site, or it could be a completely separate site.

Your next assignment -- which will take up most of the rest of the semester -- will be to make a "documentary" in flash. I put "documentary" in quotes because you don't neccessarily have to document a real thing -- this could be a fictional documentary. It could be a "documentary" about an animal or a historical figure who never existed -- who you simply invented. The visuals could all be drawings. In this way, you'll be using the "documentary" as a format -- a way of presenting information -- and not neccessarily as a jounalistic medium.

Of course, if you want to do an actual documentary, on a real subject that you research, gathering visual assets, taking interviews, etc, that would be great. And it doesn't have to be a document of something really grandiose and "historical" -- you could make a documentary about a day in your life, a documentary about your daydreams, about your favorite cereal, your pets, the various haircuts you've had, whatever. If you are doing some sort of historical piece, I may allow you to use some copyrighted material, though I prefer it if all the images you use are your own (talk to me if you intend to use copyrighted images). The main thing is to make it fun for yourself, so that you keep yourself engaged in the project.

There are a few things your project will need. These are:

1. There must be at least three seperate section the viewer can navigate to (if it's a documentary about an animal, for example, there might be a section on its anatomy, a section that has a map on its habitat, and perhaps a third section on its evolution).

2. At least one section must use a combination of images and text that the viewer can read.

3. At least one section must use audio in some way (as voiceover, as musical accompaniment, as sound effects, or what have you).

4. At least one section must incoprporate some animation (this could be aimated text; it doesn't have to be a fully animted figure).

And here are some examples of web documentaries that use Flash, that you should raid for ideas and approaches:

These first two have a good depth of information and terrific design:

http://www.becominghuman.org/

http://www2.abc.net.au/arts/soundsliketechno/swf/default.asp#Scene_1

This is a simpler, but effective presnetation of images and stories:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/flash/photo/world/iraq/warphotogs/

The following two have a really nice design sense, using transtions and organizing their information effectively:

http://pem.org/yinyutang/

http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2002/russian/

This site effectively uses a map as its narrative backbone:

http://www.curatingthecity.org/

The graphics are rather crude in this, but it's a sensible use of still pictures, audio, and a small video clip to get an idea across:

http://www.blog.thesietch.org/wp-content/permaculture.swf