Wow...Project 2

Here is my image.  I had a lot of trouble this week.  I made this little image here early on in the project phase.  And then ran into issues when trying to export as jpeg.  When I was exporting into jpeg,the water wasn't showing up, the waves did, but not the water, when I exported into PNG, the waves, water and sand color all were missing.  When exported into SWF, the waves showed up, the color showed up...no water.  I was frustrated, so I set flash up on another computer, thinking that maybe my netbook with Windows Home was the issue.  So I set it up on my Dual-Core desktop with 4gb of ram and started everything over.  That was Friday.  As you can see...it is Monday.  I spent the better part of last night re doing my whole project.  And this time the colors did come in.  I am not sure what I did differently or if I can recreate this image.  But here is what I used:
The building is my primitive drawing, the windows are my merge objects, and the sun my object.  I drew the palm trees and the people with my mouse with the pencil, and I used the pen tool to make anchor points on the water.  The water itself is a drawing object, I used the rectangle tool.  I have the waves on a mask, and the water as the main mask.  The water was not hidden when I exported.  For the sand I used the spray paint tool, and spray painted some black dots.  I have the building, people and the sand and trees and the sun on an objects layer, and then the objects folder holds the water and water mask, and the objects layer, then the backround is it's own layer.
1) the group objects serve as an easy way to edit the layer without making changes to a particular layer.  This makes things easier I think.
2) My final order was selected to make editing the things easier.  It was a relatively simple drawing, so it didn't require a lot of layers, but having it in layers did make things easier.
3) I think that if you have to manage items on a single layer, then keeping track of what items are is helpful.  A pitfall I can see would be making improper object types, like a merge instead of a drawing, or a primitive.

This week was frustrating because of the export issues.  But it was a learning experience.  I just don't know why the water wouldn't export, it was probably something small...but I don't know.  And I am now pretty late.

Project 2 - Kevin Bowman

For this project, I started out by creating the radial gradient in the center and deforming it a little, then surrounded it with the four pillars, and created the indentation underneath it. The latter two features were created using the line tool, adding fills and then deleting the original lines. The desk in the lower left corner is made out of two primitives. I filled in the sides using the same line and fill technique. Inside the portal, I placed a mask that reveals the cave landscape seen inside. Next came the trail on the ground, made with the spray can tool. Finally I used the brush tool to create the shadow in the doorway, and then used the subselection tool to make it look a bit sharper.

I used 8 layers, including the mask, and throughout the project I was experimenting with their order, and moving different features between layers to get everything looking right. Without all the layers I used, getting everything at the right depth would have been almost impossible. Most of the features are grouped together in addition to being on separate layers. I did this so I could edit individual features without having to worry about doing something unintended to another piece, and so they would stay the way I made them while moving them around the stage.

Project 2 Kara

Hello,

For this drawing I used rectangle primitive for the background blues. I used the Oval primitive tool to make the red symbols. I had to group the elements of the lamp in order to make them shoe up in front of the blue. I used the deco tool to psint the ovals on in a grid pattern. THe yellow light is drawn wusing an oval then clicking on the sub selection tool to stretch it's curves and make it look more organic.

As far as layers,It was best if the background blue layer was all of the way at the bottom or it would cover things up. I put the mask layer on top of the dots to mask them, but I am not sure if it worked.

Project 2 - Sean Walden

So... where to begin. I started off creating all of the black shapes (boots, mask, cape, etc.) with a combination of the pen, brush, and pencil tools. I then made a new layer, and did relatively the same process for the highlights on the black areas. I used a gradient to color these areas, to sort or fake a 3d look.

I then made a new folder and layer and started blocking out the gray areas using pretty much the same process as stated above, and adding in the highlights on a separate layer.

I then once again made a new folder and layer to create the belt, which if I remember correctly was done entirely with the paintbrush tool. I selected each bag on the belt individually and colored it with a radial gradient, and then manipulated a linear gradient on the buckle to give it the correct look.

I used a combination of the pencil and paintbrush tools to add in the detail lines on the legs and chest. At this point my preference is still the paintbrush tool just because of the free feeling it allows while using it and it doesn't look quite as blocky as the pencil tool.

I then made a very simple shadow, by creating a box and putting a linear gradient on it, and masking it off in the shape that I wanted. I placed the bars on either side of the subject using the align tool to give the picture a more completed feel and proceeded to make stars or splotches or whatever you prefer on the sides.

I then made a diamond shape behind the figure. By duplicating the figure, I was able to then color the duplicate a little darker than the diamond, duplicate the diamond and use that as a mask for the diamond shadow.

I grouped the layers together in a very specific order so that I could cover up certain things. For example, The layer that contains the boots and gloves were placed over top the layer with the pants so that I could extend the pants down further and it wouldn't matter because they were covered by the boots. I found that naming your layers was very important in this project. I only had a few but I was already starting to get mixed up until I started naming them.

Project 2 - Noel Javier

Since we had to use the spray tool I decided to carry out the starry night in winter theme.

I used the arrange order quite a bit especially with the bear. I had to make layers “send to front” and “send backward” frequently. Then I figured out the flow of layers by creating the part of the bear that would be in the “back”. For example, for the head I created it with an oval then reshaped it with the pen tool, subselection tool, and Bezier handles. Next, I added the mouth (to be on the layer above the head layer), then nose as the layer above the mouth and so on. You just have to change the way you think about drawing and consider where that part may be in the layer order.

You will see the primitive oval tool for the ears. It worked out pretty well creating a half circle with the center cut out. I grouped many of the layers so I could move them simultaneously. For the paws I did the paint brush tool on top of the actual arm then grouped them to move them. After I got the bear folders(head and body) into one folder I could then move the entire bear wherever I wanted. In this case, on top of the ice island.

I found it useful to use the subselection tool to edit generic shapes (like an oval) to manipulate it into a recognizable object. I did this procedure with just about every part like the nose, eyes, body, etc.

I recommend naming wisely, so you can keep track of all the parts then create a folder if it has many parts that should be categorized for organization. I had a folder for the head that contained all layers associated with the head and a body folder that had contained all the other body parts.

As for stacking, it made sense to have the sky be behind everything, then the island, then the bear. I wasn’t too impressed with the mask tool. I like creating the shape I want rather than subtracting from a particular area to make a shape.

Project 2 - Maurice Frank

I'm not sure what I'd recommend for managing complex graphics on a single layer. The bunny is my single layer graphic. I had trouble coming up with an idea so I looked around on the web, found an image I liked, imported it into Flash set it as a guide layer and used it as a model to draw my bunny. I used all three drawing types but I'm having trouble grasping a reasoning for using a particular type over another. I started out using merge drawings for the head and ears but that was a bit of a nightmare. Object drawings worked much better. The inner ear of the bunny are primitives. Changing the start and end angles worked great for what I was trying to accomplish. I made the ears, head, and body separate groups. One reason was I kept unintentionally separating their individual elements. I also thought the individual elements served no purpose on their own. I played around with the stacking order of the bunny as well as the different layers. I tried ears in front of head, body behind feet. and head behind body. I think it looks best with the ears and body behind the head and feet behind the body. I decided to stack the layers as seen above because it looked a lot like a kids birthday invitation.

There are two images because I don't understand the mask function. I thought I did but...The first picture has the mask applied, the other does not. The yellow item in the second image is the curved object, which began as an oval, modified by the subselection tool. It is also the mask. The three circles in the first picture is the masked layer. I was under the impression that applying the mask would allow me to paint over the oval, thereby revealing the circles. Instead the entire oval disappears.

Below is the picture I used as my guide.

Project 2-Judith Espino

For this project I grouped several objects together to create a graphic. This made it easier when I needed to resize the graphic instead of having to resize every shape individually. Complex graphics on a single layer will work best when grouped. Especially when you have reapeating shapes that make up the graphic. The only thing to be careful about when grouping is the staking order may change. The tool that I had the most fun with in this project was the deco tool because I was able to create my own pattern.

Tim Burgess-Project2

Project 2 preliminary post- seeing if this way of importing my image works!
OK-it worked. So, this image was built out of multiple layers, starting with the background and working "out". This seemed the most logical choice and enabled me to go back and forth as need be, yet still be able to see everything I needed to see. The final order seemed to be dictated by the work itself, as some things needed to be in certain places to be seen.
Managing layers isn't to problematic as long as you remain aware of the order of your layers at all times.
Again, the brush was my weapon of choice, for its freedom, and the color work was a combination of gradients and searching for that mysterious "something" that fits. The dark planet was done with an oval primitive, the pyramid with the line tool, and the large green curved planet with the brush and some help from a grid. Yep.

Project 1 - Jacob

I used the Merge Drawing tool to create a circle to make the sun, I used the Object drawing to make the stars, and I used the Primitive Shapes to make the planets. At this point I guess I would have to say I prefer the Merged Drawing because it seems you can do more things to them.
I used the pencil tool to create the sun’s rays, then I used the pen tool to add anchor points and then bend them slightly using the Bezier curves. I used the brush object to paint the background of the picture black, and fill in some of the stuff on the page with ‘paint behind’ and ‘paint inside buttons’.
I made one of the planets using the gradient tool with a modified focal point, and the draw effect ‘grid fill’ on the background. I used the free-transform tool to distort some stuff.

Project one -Dakota Young

I made a space theme, it was very funny and I really enjoyed it. I made the planets with merge circle, object circle, and a primitive circle. I used the different types of lines and modified the rings of the planets with the subselection tool. the spray can for the dotted stars in the background and the rings to make it look like gas. I messed around with the colors a lot and I could see how could you spend days on colors alone. The space ship was made with different ovals and lines. I like using the designer workspace I find I can switch tools and colors very easily.

Project 1

So here is my first project. I am not that great of an artist, but I think I will get better once I get a USB tablet for drawing. I enjoyed this. I have done a little in flash in the past, but have never taken a class on it, but always wanted to.

I used the gradients in my star, though they aren't visible. I used the brush tool to make the flames on the candles (the big blue box is supposed to be a cake. The 29 on top is the candle) and I used the spray tool to make the confetti. I used the primitive tool for the cake, and one balloon is merge and one is draw, also, on is primitive. I used the line tool and the transform tool to make the banner and then the text was skewed as best I could to match the angle. And the pencil tool with the smoothing effect was used for the balloon strings.  Also, the red box is a gift.  I am not good with a mouse and drawing, :-)
     I can see many uses for a lot of the tools.  I like using the primitive tools, they provide some customization after the fact.  But you can make cool things with the merge.  I am enjoying playing with the tools.

Have a great day.
(Also, the reason I made the birthday seen, is that today is my Birthday, I am 29)

Project1

I'm completly lost here...I have the project done and the Blog post all written out...but I have no idea how to put the picture onto the blog.

Jake

Project 1 - Sean Walden

So I started this picture a couple of times and started over because I was discovering that there was a better way to o each process.

I first did all the orange shapes on the body. the tail and arm were drawn with the pen tool and manipulated until I got them how I wanted them, the Torso was done with the pencil tool, with the smooth option on, and the head was done using the oval tool with the merge drawing option on. I found the merge drawing objects to be very helpful when making the head due to the interesting shapes that could be made by deleting parts of an object.

I then did the rest of the white outlines with the pencil tool, and added the striped bit with the paint brush tool because of the smooth, tapered effect that I got from it. The pads on the feet, as well as the nose and eyes were done using all the different oval tools, and the little red part was made from manipulating a square. I was originally going to use the spray brush to make a small shadow on the ground but I didn't like how it turned out so I ended up just using it to make the little trail behind him.

I think my favorite tool ended up being the paint brush tool. It just had a nice smooth, free, sketchy feel to it when I was using it, however, the pen tool was by far the most useful in this particular project

Project 1-Judith Espino

This image was created using merge drawing, object drawing and primitive shapes. I enjoy using the merge tool to create interesting shapes but not if I'm using the tools correctly. I used the merge drawing tool to subtract from ovals and create the mountains and to create the fish. The sun was created using the primitive shape. The trees were created with the round brush. The pencil was used for the birds in the sky using the smooth setting.

Project 1 - Maurice Frank

*All images link to larger view*



I drew a night time cityscape with buildings of various sizes, the moon, and stars. I used rectangle primitives for the buildings because all changes were limited to position, scaling and skewing (mostly). There was no need for any distortion or interaction with other drawings. I needed shapes that would always look like buildings.

For the moon I used two merged drawings, both ovals. I thought this would be the easiest way to create a crescent moon. I placed one oval over the other, nearly covering it entirely. I removed the top oval, deleted it, leaving a sliver of the waning moon.

I then made stars (3 point), and a planet (circle) near the moon, using object drawings. I think I could have used any shape type but I had not used object drawings yet and I needed them to fulfill the assignment. Another reason was, merged drawings and primitives have specific purposes. Unlike the moon and buildings, I had no reason to limit the transformations nor was it necessary to create a shape using merged drawings. What if, at some future date, I need to use these objects again? Object drawings utilize all transformation options giving me the freedom to change it as needed without worry of accidentally modifying another object.

On a whim I decided to skew the buildings and the moon. I also rounded the top corners on the buildings.






I created a face in profile using four guides to form a box. Then using the pen tool, snapping to guides, I drew a square (the face). I then drew lines (the hair) starting at the top left corner, and ending at the bottom right corner of the square. I added an anchor point near the center-bottom section of the left vertical line of the face. I used the subselection tool, to make the straight line into an "S," creating the nose and mouth. I used the convert anchor point tool on the "hair" lines to smooth out the corners and then used the subselection tool and Bezier handles to shape the hair.






Text is probably my favorite part because, and I'm sure this will shock you all, my drawing skills aren't anything special. In the first example I created the text with the 'marker felt' font, wide style. I scaled it up some, changed the font color and put more space between the letters.

Here I applied a gradient to the text from the previous example. A gradient cannot be placed onto text without first converting it to shapes. To do this select the text, right-click and choose 'Break Apart.' Now each character is a separate object. While all characters are selected, right-click and choose 'Break Apart' again. This converts the text to shapes. Now it is possible to apply a gradient.
Here I chose to create a banner using a gradient with a modified focal point as the background with Mardi Gras colors because it is Carnival Season. I used the 'Funkadelic' text from before with a different color. I keep using Funkadelic because they are performing Monday night and I'm something of a P-Funk junkie.



It's OK to laugh. Really. For the brush tool (car) I used the large round brush shape and the fourth smallest brush size. I used the smooth mode with the pencil tool (driver, cloud, and bird).


I didn't know what to do with the deco tool. So I made a vine covered road.


I redesigned the car and road with the transform tool.


Again, I do enjoy text creation. However, it's easy to get sidetracked choosing fonts and colors. I also like modifying images and shapes. Although right now I am just pushing and pulling until the image looks kind of cool, I hope to strengthen those skills. Since I cannot draw well, I think modifying shapes may be a more realistic approach to creating images.

Tim Burgess-Project1-Sleep Is For Yesterday

Well, a lot of this image was done with merge drawing, as I wanted the elements to interact and "bleed" together a bit, and with Object D. & Primitive S., I was/am still not sure of all the different aspects of each, & where and when they are best used ( and I did use some, though I used layers more than anything it seems.)
I tried to use all the tools a little bit-the pen was used on the rounded building and was not my fave, though I can see how this will come in handy if I can become at least proficient with it!
The pencil was used for a few pieces of the ruins, but most of the image was created with the brush tool- it seems the most elegant and useful to my idea.

Project 1 Noel Javier

For this project I wanted to do something with stars so I went from doing a space theme to being on the moon to doing a midnight sky. I wanted to make it minimal and simple so I just played with shapes and colors then an Antarctic landscape at night came to mind.



First, I created a rectangle the exact size of the canvas from the rectangle tool as an object drawing. Then I created a gradient fill. The gradient features were fun to play around with. I started dragging sliders on the color tab and pulling them on and off to create new shades of color. I also made this a radial gradient because I didn’t want the sky to be so linear. This is very similar to other adobe gradients in AI and Photoshop.




Next I created another object drawing rectangle and created a linear gradient and chose colors from kuler to mimic Antarctic icy landscapes at night.




For the igloos I created them by using merge objects. First I created an oval then used the pen tool to delete anchor points and manipulated the bezier curves. I then duplicated this object and transformed it into a smaller object. From there I “cut it out” from the first object to create the hole in the igloo. I used individual gradients per shape and adjusted them by using the gradient transform tool. For the shadows, I used the brush tool with the “paint behind” option to paint in the shadow. Afterwards, I used the pen tool to manipulate the anchor points to created the shadow form that I wanted.




Then the spray tool. I chose random scaling and changed the % scale to get different sized “stars”. If you look closely I did a few different colors of dots to make it a little more 3 dimensional. There are bright white stars, medium gray blues and darker gray stars for added effect.



Lastly, I created text to title the image. I didn’t want to use a gradient here so I duplicated it and changed its fill color to dark blue and then went to modify>arrange>send to back and that placed the dark blue text behind the white text to make it look like a drop shadow.

Project 1 - Kevin Bowman

For this project, I started out by drawing a merged rectangle (red), an object oval (brown), and a primitive oval (blue) on one layer. I then double clicked the brown oval so I could treat it as a merged drawing, skewed it a bit, made an indentation with the envelope tool, and used a smaller skewed oval to cut a hole in it. Then I took out the brush tool and created a custom gradient, and used the stipple setting to give an interesting look to the paint on my palette. It seems to me that it is always a better idea to use an object drawing, and if you need to use the features of a merged drawing, to double click the object and go from there.

I created some text on top of my rectangle and carefully inside the oval primitive, copied it upwards, and set their color to the inverse of the background the words were sitting on. Then I broke apart the text back into a merged drawing, and deleted the bottom "SOME". Doing that deleted what was behind it in the rectangle. I then selected the rectangle and all the individual parts of the letters, and used the envelope tool to distort both the rectangle and the text.

Next, I broke out the pen tool and drew a combination of bezier curves and straight lines on a lower layer. I used the subselection tool and dragged the design around a bit to fine tune it, and made good use of the alt key modifier. I also played around a little with the add, remove and convert anchor point tools to vary the design a bit more. The pen tool has gone from something I hate using to my default when I need to make lines. Then I took the brush tool and created the shape with the green gradient, and modified it with the transform tool, as well as the edge and corner handles. After that, I modified the colors of the deco tool and used it on the pen layer, inside the design.

Finally, I used the pencil tool with its cap set to square, drew an X, placed the text reading "Treasure?" and broke that apart into a merged drawing. I'm not a big fan of the pencil or brush tool, but I would expect to achieve much better results with them if I had a tablet. Overall, I wouldn't call this a work of art, but it serves as a good demonstration of the tools, and that's all it was supposed to be. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone else's projects.

Howzittt

hey yo!!!!!!

Yowza!

Hello.

Hello

Just posting to say Hello.

Hey.

Hello!

Hi, Dakota Young here :)

I have arrived.

Hiya!

I made it too!

Noel

Hello

Hello!

I'm very excited about this class!

Welcome to CAS 175-Introduction to Flash

Once you have been received your invitation to join the class blog, please post a hello to the class so we know you have found the blog and can post to it. 

Our blog is where students will post finished projects and post what they have learned in the process. Students should post the success - challenges they had in completing the requirements for each project. Please post your NAME and PROJECT NUMBER for each posting. When uploading your finished projects, you will learn that Blogger does not accept .swf file types.  Therefore students should either post a corresponding link to their .swf file for each project found in the SWS server or upload a .mov file when uploading an animated file.  Flash can be exported to this file type. The first two projects can be exported as .jpg which is can be directly uploaded to our blog.

I encourage students to review and comment on your peers work.  You will probably learn something new!