anyone done work with flash?

i mentioned in my other thread that i will be taking a course on flash eventually, but i downloaded a demo yesterday and have been working through the tutorial things for a bit now.

just wondering if anyone here has had any experience and could offer me some tips/words of wisdom/whatever.

flash seems like a pretty crazy thing. it will be neat to acutally understand it! now i wish i had taken computer science when i was in school.... (why was i so lazy? stupid me...)

 

Flash is hard.

 

shhhhhhh.. don't say things like Flash is hard, I have to build a flash site in the comming weeks(should have the programs on wed.) having never worked with it before. :S *contines to read mass amounts of tutorials while freaking out hard core*

 

I worked with flash 4 for a long time,and a little with flash mx, the advice I can offer is get a good book on flash. If you go to www.lynda.com they have books on flash, that help the beginner learn the program that are done in tutorial style. One thing I noticed about flash when I was first learning it was how hard it seemed, but if you work with over time it gets easier and starts to make sense. I haven't worked with it in a long time but will be relearning it once I finish with learning dreamweaver. www.peachpit.com also has some good reference books on flash.

Just remember that flash has probably put thousands of tweeners out of work at walt disney studios.

 

tweeners at disney?



good! disney is evil!!! :O




so you say flash is difficult... it looks complicated. but i think if i just could like, sit down and watch someone do it, i could learn. is it that it is hard? or is it just really time consuming??


can someone explain to me vector graphics? i remember vectors from math ever so vaguely, i just remember arrows. too much cheebas in those days...

 

Vectors are like paths. They are mathematically defined that create things like circles, rectangles, squares, oval shapes etc. You can also use the pen tool to create vector based graphics.

You can tell which is vector based graphics and which is pixeled based graphics by zooming in real close on your document. If the image is pixelated at 800 percent view it is pixel based, if the image is real smooth at 800 percent zoom it is vector based.

Drawing vector graphics are also known as object oriented, in programs like Illustrator, flash, and fireworks. Although today some of these programs also allow you to draw bitmapped graphics as well such as fireworks.

 

I am a Flash artist by the way.
I Have a good web site but it's being updated at the moment.

I have never bought a book about it and taught myself from scratch.
My best advise is to download a good and complicated Flash (.Fla) movie from the internet and spend days and days studying it and disecting it in order to understand how it was put together, etc
That's how I did it.

 

that's cool! i should do that...

 

I spent months trying to screw around with Flash 5 / MX.

The problem I find with Macromedia is that their applications are SO rich and so extensive that someone just trying to figure it out an hour here or there is simply overwhelmed.

Yes.. all those amazing options, timelines, palletes and especially the jargon for their concepts IS great once you know it - but its a huge stumbling block to the average joe learner.

Now.. I really do have some helpful solution/advice here.

See if you can get a copy of CoffeeCup Firestarter.

Its extremely easy and withing a few days you can have some simple yet rather fun and sparkly flash movies.

You will quickly get the basics of animation and timelines with Firestarter.

Then... once you 'get' the basic concepts - you can then export those movies into .SWF files... open them in Flash MX and you will have a whole advanced idea what all those Flash 'timelines' and frames and tweens are doing - because you you got the basics out of the way.

I highly recommend that Firestarter because I know wayyyyyyy too many well-intentioned artists who could never find the time or patience to get past the steep learning curves and workspace of Flash5/MX.

Personally I love Flash but I have found very little reason to use it anymore.. and there really arent any jobs for it.
(although if you are ass-kicking brilliant at it - you can find some projects)

Hope that helps?

 

that does help! i will for sure check that out!


thats what i say, i mean, it's just sooo complicated. i just want to make stupid movies with like stars and kitten cartoons, haha. for now, anyways. eventually i want to learn it all up but for not it's just super overwhelming.

 

About the only thing I ever use Flash for is navigation bars and/or splash screens. Otherwise it doesn't really have any practical purposes.

 

Macromedia flash

and

Swish (very easy to teach yourself)

mind you have to have some kind of graphic skill.