Final Thoughts On Flash

So, after finishing off my project on Flash and spending a few days enjoying the sun, I'm starting to think about solidifying my reasons for thinking Audio Visual is the best option for me to go for next year.
Looking back on my Flash project, I'm still very pleased with it considering it's the one of the first big interactive projects I've ever undertaken with Flash. There are a few minor presentation points I think could do with sharpening up, such as when text changes size and appearance when the mouse hovers over it for example. In many cases the text becomes slightly off centre and doesn't look quite as good as it could do. I didn't quite get to grips with Flash well enough to execute some of my ideas as well, but this isn't a total loss as I feel I'll be able to approach any more work done with Flash with more confidence and ability now.
Of all the work I've produced so far, I think the ones I'm definitely most satisfied with were the projects in the first term, that included more filming and editing work. I think continuing in this direction would be the most productive and satisfying route for me to take, but I still need to give this a little more thought.

Flash! Ahhh-aaahh!

Success! After frantically trying to figure out why my videos weren't working in Flash when I put the box project online, I think I've finally cracked it! I need to go to 'Import video', then upload the film file that's on the Z:\ drive on the uni computers. I'd been doing this before with no luck, but if after this has been done, if I save the whole file as an entirely new one, also on the Z:\ drive, it all seems to work OK!
Here's another very rough prototype version -
http://maeda.ads.ntu.ac.uk/~n0183775/
The Audio and Sight games aren't on this one, I have in fact finished all of the different portions and segments of the project, but these are saved on a file that's currently sat on my laptop at home...d'oh! I'll copy the completed file onto my memory stick and come in and get it all sorted out tomorow, and then my project should be finished!

AV Presentation

Here are the slides for the presentation on a practitioner for the tutorial -





It's felt a little like two steps forward and three steps back with Flash today, as John helped out and showed me some handy hints, like how to make links change colour as you move the mouse over them and add videos, and I've managed to make things look a little better, but now whenever I upload the SWF file and try and play it, it refuses to show the video and says there's some kind of error...Yet the Flash file works perfectly if I preview it in Flash, and if I drag and drop the file into my internet browser....I don't have a clue why it's happening, but until I figure it out, I can't really put it up on the blog...
Here it is anyway, though, just to see if anyone watches it and can figure out what I've done wrong!

[Upload your own video]

Mouthing Off...

Here's another idea for how the Mouth mini-game in my Box project will work -


Once you've opened up the head, click on the mouth to go the interactive segment. This one is slightly different than the one in my sketch, as when you click the burger I lunge in and take a bite. At the moment I think this looks a little clumsy, I wanted the image to flash up quickly and then disappear without having to be clicked, but it's a little too fast at the moment. As the 'eat' picture repeats a few times, you can get a reasonable view of it, but the final 'eaten!' picture is way too brief.
If there's any way of putting time lapses on things in Flash that'd be perfect, I think, but I may be getting a little ahead of myself here as I'm still very much in the first early stages of figuring out Flash!

Severe Facial Reconstruction

[Upload your own video]
Here's another attempt at a vague outline for the face. I still haven't quite figured out how to remove or resize borders, but it's getting there!

Opening Up The Face

Finally, Flash has finished downloading! Only took about 8 hours or so...!

[Upload your own video]
A very crude first attempt at making my face open it's eye and mouth once clicked. This wasn't too tricky to do after studying the code for the quiz for a little bit, after a few attempts I could actually figure out what mistakes I'd made this time and rectify them.

Quizmania!

I finished making a little quiz using Flash in uni today -


[Upload your own video]

This was pretty satisfying, as I went from being totally bemused by Flash to catching a fleeting glimpse of how it all works and fits together. Hopefully once I get hold of a copy of it I'll be able to get to grips with it even more.

The Adventures Of Percy Possum

So, here's my final Flash animation! Click the link below, then give the big yellow buttons a little flick and gaze in awe as you take full control of a pixelated possum!

http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/600/theadventuresofpercyposlz6.swf

Flashy Possums And The 'Conference Of The Birds'

Today, I learnt a little more about how Flash works. My interactive game/video/thingy was entitled "The Adventures Of Percy Possum", a nice, imaginary Game Boy game.



I managed to finish this off, but couldn't quite get my head around rendering, as per usual. I made it into a Flash animation file, but can't seem to play this on anything, a Windows Media file that just played through the frames at superspeed, and as a series of still images. Maybe I'm just being dense, so point me in the right direction if this is your particular area of expertise.

Secondly, I thought this was worthy of a mention, the album art from the band Om's album 'Conference Of The Birds'.



Now, I'm not totally sure (I couldn't even find the name of the photographer! Another reason why leaving your CD collection at home and bringing a hard-drive of music instead sucks) but I think this is done using similar kinds of pin hole magic that we used. It perfectly fits the still, meditative nature of Om too. No title, no words, no ego, just a glimpse at the fragile balance that lays at the centre of things. Or hey, maybe their low frequencies are just making me come over all pretentious? Their new album 'Pilgrimage' has just come out, so keep 'em peeled!