Term 2 - Flash
Software Package
Adobe Flash is a powerful animation program developed by Adobe. Flash was originally Created by Macromedia before Adobe bought Macromedia. It is now In it's 5th 'Creative Suite' Version and still going strong, being the most commonly used animator around the world. Flash is extremely powerful, but also extremely easy to pick up. With many useful tutorials to help you on your way. In my opinion, Flash is a very useful skill to have. Considering it is one of the quickest way to make any type of animation, it is very useful to be able to use. For example; say you had to make an advertisement for an assignment at school, Flash is the easiest way to do it.Because Flash is developed by Adobe, it is very similar in layout to many of their other Programs. For example, the tools. We used a large array of simple, yet useful tools. Such tools include, Layers, Shapes, Tweens, and Brushes. Combined together these make animating in Flash a heap easier.
Assessment Tasks
This term, we had two main assessment tasks. The first was a folio of work we did in the beginning of term. The main aim of these folio task were to teach us how to use flash. They begun with simple tasks and then progressed to become slightly more difficult.
After we had completed the tutorial tasks, we then progressed to an assignment. Our assignment task was to create an opening title sequence for your new animation company.
My assessment idea was to keep a "Simple" theme. Plain colours, lots of space. I personally find simpler styles like that more appealing to the eye than busy advertisements.
Embedded Media
Below are a few pieces of my folio work. I would also show my final assignment, but because i used Tweens inside of a tween, they do not show up in .avi format.
Personal Review
To be quite honest, Doing game maker in Term 1 was a hard act to follow, and Flash just didn't quite do it for me. Then again, this could just be my personal belief, but it wasn't as exciting as the fast paced Term of designing our own game. I think it is because of this that i received slightly worse grades this term, getting a solid B.
Depending on your future career and hobbies, Flash could be a very useful skill to have, or a waste of a term. It really comes down to what you do. Personally i don't think i will need to use flash much in the future, but that's just me.
I Didn't really enjoy this term as much as Game maker, as i said. But it was still alright, I give it about a 6/10 for level of enjoyment.
What others are doing
Just because I didn't enjoy this term, doesn't mean others didn't. Some people, like Jett Williams, to an obvious preference to the term. In my opinion, his animations were the best. Check out his blog here: <Insert Link>
