FLASH: Flash 4 Magic

[Cheri Harder]

Flash 4 Magic - the book with contributions from Branden Hall and Chrissey

Rey and others....


It's here!  And it looks like EXACTLY what Teacher-Tom and others have been

wanting.  And me, too!  Step-by-step "learn by doing" instructions - tons of

utilities & how to create them, tons of stuff on the CD too.


I can hardly wait to get started, although may need new bi-focals, font is

pretty small for these old eyes.  It wasn't very expensive, either....but it

wasn't free.  :-)


~~~~Cheri Harder~~~~~

charderawsolution [dot] com

Advantage Web Solution

"Developing your internet storefront"

www.awsolution.com

----- Original Message -----

From: "Tom Green" <

tgreen17home [dot] com

>

To: <

flasherchinwag [dot] com

>

Sent: Friday, January 21, 2000 5:58 AM

Subject: Re: FLASH: A teacher replies to Cheri et al.



>

>

> Cheri Harder wrote:

>

> <snip>

>

> butprobably not the time, nor the know-how of writing tutorials) I don't

think

>

> > I would know where to start.

>

> Cheri: You start at the beginning. Step1- Open Flash.

>

> >  As a "geek" so to speak (and a poetic one at

> > that) I have been studying "variables" and "While Loops" and Cursors and

> > Case and If..then..else for 12 years.  It would be difficult to know

where

> > to start in a tutorial.  Do you start from "this is what a variable is"

or

> > do you assume they know some programming terminoligy?

>

> Here's a little technique I use to get the student to understand a

variable. I

> tell the student a variable  is simply a baggie that holds information.

The

> neat thing about it is that it can be given a name. Rather than get them

> thinking tecchie, I usually use "ScumSuckingPig" as the name. This has

become

> so popular that the students usually work in a drawing of the class

mascot- a

> ScumSuckingPig. Quite effective. As an aside, when the college submitted

its

> application as an Authorized Macromedia Training Centre, we submitted a

video

> of me running a complex Director coding class. We hit a custom variable -

> moveIt- and when I asked the class for another name, they said, in unison,

> "Scum Sucking Pig". So somewhere at the mothership is an example of the

> ScumSuckingPig.

>

> > How much do you assume?  Nothing?

>

> Yes. You can't go leaping into John's stuff, for instance, without a

logical

> progression. The first ActionScript command I teach is stop.Then I move

into

> the button actions to navigate. Then, step-by-step, I inch them closer to

> John's preloader.

>

> People learn by doing so each lesson has a unique project associated with

it.

> One of my groups had their  first ActionScript class yesterday. We created

a

> simple Flash Movie that involved a spinning record that moved offscreen

into

> place. ( Importing .ai art, creating symbols, creating movie clips, using

> motion tween) . A tone arm runs onto the stage. ( Creating a button with

no

> down state. Defining a hit area. Using Transform or the rotate tool). The

logo

> fades onto the page. ( Setting and tweening Alpha). The user is prompted

to put

> the tone arm onto the record. ( Enable Button Actions). And when the arm

goes

> on the record a sound plays. (Import a sound)  When they roll off the

sound

> stops. As you can see the first step is Assemble the Assets but there are

a

> whack of fundamentals involved.

>

> Now they code it. Put a Stop action in a keyframe on an Actions layer. Add

a

> label to a Frame. Open the instance of the the button and add Go to and

Play

> Actions using the labels. Add a Stop Sound Action and a Go To and Stop.

And so

> on.

>

> That one takes three hours to get through but the students have a pretty

neat

> example  and a clearly documented step-by -step they can refer to.

>

> > Then each and every tutorial would be a book and a half?

>

> Not really. I have written handouts that are as small as five pages-

tracing

> variable valuables using the Message Window in Director- to 64 pages where

the

> student constructs a Space Invaders game using Object Oriented

Programming. The

> tonearm example is 12 pages with screen shots that is laid out in

Pagemaker.

> The key, is to have each lesson build upon the other.

>

> >

> > Action Script is not really a language, even.  But it makes some use of

some

> > "basic" programming theory and we are learning daily how to adapt what

it

> > DOES do into what we NEED it to do.  And there are "basic programming"

> > tutorials all over the place.

>

> You and a couple of others who waded into this (Tim Allen for one) are

missing

> the point of my post. I will continue developing my own stuff simply

because

> nothing exists. I am more concerned about those who aren't in my classes

and

> wonder "How do I code a simple rollover that calls a URL". These people

are the

> vast majority of Flash users. Read the posts. It is very clear where they

are.

> They  will have to learn ActionScripting and aren't programmers. So where

do

> they pick it up in a manner that they can understand?

>

> I am encouraged to see the mothership (Thanks Eric) has noticed this but

there

> are three places where they should be tried out before they are released.

The

> first is in a real live honest to God secondary and post secondary

classroom .

> The teacher will let you know, real fast, what works and what doesn't work

and

> why. The second would be to do some beta testing. Shoot samples out to

people

> on the list and ask them to walk through it and let you know what works

and

> what doesn't. The third is to get the guys writing these things to do it

in

> front of a class that is coming at the subject cold. You get enough "I

don't

> get its" and you quickly identify that maybe we have a problem here

>

> >

> > I've never been a teacher, and it very easy for me to get into the rut

of

> > assuming my listeners know what I'm talking about, when it is so much a

part

> > of my life that I can't imagine someone NOT knowing.

>

> Cheri, you didn't "know" when you got into to programming.

>

> > Teaching is easier for

> > you, because that's what you do, and I'm sure you do it very well!!!

>

> Thank you.

>

> >

> > Tutorials written for geeks by geeks helps us geeks and are appreciated

very

> > much (I don't know anybody who gets paid for writing them, maybe some

do)

> > but I think we're all still learning, yes?

>

> Yep, but the vast majority of the learners aren't even close to your

> competency. We sometimes forget this.

>

>

>

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