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Flash CS3 ProfessionalWe currently offer the following Flash workshops: Flash CS3 Professional, Level 1
(10-hour workshop) Flash CS3 ProfessionalFlash is an extremely powerful graphics program that allows you to create dynamic, interactive animated content for everything from basic linear animations to entire web sites. Flash CS3 Professional is the latest release of Flash. Flash provides Web developers and designers with greater control over the display of their works than would otherwise be possible. When designing Web pages without Flash, the end result is at the mercy of the browser on which the user views the site. Using Flash allows the designer to determine exactly how the site will function and appear, regardless of the browser used. Why? Because it's the "Flash Player" that's responsible for displaying your Flash files, and not the individual browser software. Over 95% of Web browsers are now "enabled" with a version of the Flash player, which for several years has been included in major Web browsers, system software, and often ships standard on new computers, as well as being easily downloaded from the Macromedia site. Flash movie files are often smaller in size than other graphic formats, leading to faster download times. With Flash, not only can you create animated movies from scratch, but you can also import graphic content created with other programs and use Flash to animate it. Adobe Illustrator, in particular, has very comprehensive and flexible Flash output options.
Flash CS3 Professional, Level 1Our expanded (9-hour) "Level 1" Flash workshop is suitable both for first time users AND for those who wish to brush up or add to their basic Flash skills (and a few not-so-basic skills as well!) Since Flash is in part a graphics program, after a general introduction, we'll introduce Flash's graphic tools, importing and creating graphics, custom colors, and converting graphics to symbols. We'll also work with text, including "input text" that allows the viewer to enter information via the keyboard. With all these objects and text on your stage, learning to work with "layers" in your Flash movie is essential. You'll create multiple layers, and be able to lock/unlock your layers, as well as work with layers in both "outline" and "mask" modes. If this all sounds similar so far to what you can do with programs such as Adobe Illustrator, you're absolutely right. In fact, Illustrator can be used to create the objects (and layers) that you later animate in Flash. We'll then move on to animation by creating several types of animation, from the "simplest" frame-by-frame animation, through "motion-tweened" and "shape-tweened" animations (in which Flash does most of the work), all the way through creating "guide layers" which allow you to generate much more complex animation paths. You'll also work with the timeline, including basic ActionScript control of the timeline. Creating interactive buttons and "movie clips" will also be covered, along with several other topics as time allows. The basics of "publishing" your Flash movies for the web will bring the Level 1 workshop to a close. General outline of topics to be covered:
Flash CS3 Professional, Level 1
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