PE1_Getting to Know Flash

...what you can't see in this screen shot? The dawning reality that I have NO IDEA where 

Mr. Certified-in-Flash is going with his 1 billion instructions.

OK. I'm going to blame this whole experience thus far on Josh Tolar. If I continue with it in Week 4, then it's all on me. Josh has extolled the virtues, the capabilities, the FUN of Flash to me on several occasions. And I've seen what he can do with it. Awesome. So naturally, this is something I want to learn and master. It's such a major web tool that I might just need a bigger metaphorical Web 2.0 toolbox.

So, here are my notes from my first Lynda.com experience with a far-too-perky instructor who tells me he's Flash-certified. Well, I'd hope so...

First, we cover what Flash can do, and what it's used for in its most common applications. Clear and helpful. I'm excited by the possibilities and by the opportunity it'll give me to apply some of my art interests and skills. I understand the differences between .fla (working) and .swf (final form) files. The reference to working vs. final format causes me to once again re-live my first experience with iMovie, when I sent a project file to Tom Lucas for my first film. I get past the residual embarrassment and  focus on Mr. Certified as he describes and defines the Flash environment, its stage, pasteboard, layers, frames, properties panel...I begin to furiously take notes. What I immediately appreciate about the way the workspace is set up is that it's intuitive in many ways to Mac apps. Then he begins to describe what to do with the align tool. What I get from this is that “align” = 4 billion possible choices. I’d rather learn this AFTER I go through a try-it-out simple tutorial, so I can better understand why I'd need to use align in the manner he's suggesting. Next up is a whole tutorial on panels: you can move, select, drag-and-drop; some are hidden, some have icons instead, lined up along the side of other panels. I feel my IQ score decreasing. Meanwhile, he continues to tell me how to to separate panels. I'm still not sure why I'd want to, but he's giving me both drop-down boxes and keyboard shortcuts. By now I'm taking notes on my arm with Sharpie. 

Needless to say, I'm a little baffled, but up for the challenge. I especially appreciated the tutorial regarding the workspace. The default work space is called “essential” (others include animator, classic, debug, designer, developer), and Mr. Cheerful demonstrates how to customize a workspace to suit how you work, and save that workspace to use as your default. The control freak in me likes this. I've made a lot of jokes, simply because it was like going flying in a fighter jet instead of a commuter puddle jumper. It kind of takes your breath away, but makes you want to do it again, too. I WILL design in Flash one day soon! Up next: bitmap and vector graphics. Wish me luck!