BrianGriggs.com

Continuing on with what we talked about the past couple of meetings with Flash, here is a platform game where the person turns around and a villain that is beatable.Provided by Magnetos from gotoAndPlay.it: Platform - saltas

1.  Figure out your own artwork and boundary box (how big is too big of a character?)
2. Find where the enemy vs. hero collision is.
3. Notice that hero_walk is different from sidewalk. Figure out which one you need to edit.

Check out the tutorial at gotoandplay.it about platform game creation by tonypa. The source file for Flash can be downloaded here - platform.fla

1. Try adding platforms in different areas. Different frames of your project can be different levels.
2. Change the square to a different character.
3. Add an obstacle/villain that moves on its own.

Here’s an excerpt from the Wikipedia article about book 3 in Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance series:

From a press release made on 30th October 2007 on alagaesia.com, it is stated that the publication date of the as yet untitled third book will be September 23, 2008. A fourth book has been announced. Some of the previously mentioned known details may appear in the fourth book instead of the third, since the two volumes used to be one and the same. Paolini has also stated that the book will end with the death of another major character, but gave no hints as to who it might be.[8]
[edit]Excerpt

An excerpt from Book 3, “Light and Shadow”, was included in the Eldest deluxe edition and later released on the Fricaya network.[9] The chapter follows Roran, Eragon and Saphira as they approach Helgrind. Saphira finds the mountain’s impregnability to be an illusion created by Galbatorix, and enters it to find a large cavern. The chapter closes with Saphira being attacked by a Lethrblaka (a parent of the Ra’zac), which knocks Eragon unconscious.and arya dies in this book if any of you have quistions about it email me at jaqkquin@yahoo.com

Find the bad edit.

Today at Future Professionals I could see that some were almost ready to start programming in Flash, but were intimidated by the time that it takes to get used to ActionScript.

It, literally, is another language. Just like Spanish or French, it takes some getting used to. One of the ways that I became familiar with programming was by taking apart other people’s programs.

So I give to you a game that I made for my friend Brian. (In my high school group of friends was Tommy, Tommy, Brian, Brian, and Mike.)

Click on the .fla file to download the source. (Depending on where you are, you may need to right click/control click.)

Brianland Source File

Test the movie in Flash to see what it does (spacebar fires and arrows move) and then experiment.

As you experiment, try to:

1. Increase the amount of money the character gets
2. Increase the number of hook gnomes
3. Change the amazing artwork

Once you are comfortable with editing the parts of the program, try editing other people’s files and finding tutorials.

In an effort that would make Stan the Man proud, we will be creating comic books about the different steps of the writing process. Each comic needs to have:

1. A hero that has the step of the writing process in his/her name
2. A power/ability/device that demonstrates the specific 6 Trait of Writing that goes with that step of the writing process
3. Three examples of dialogue that demonstrate a knowledge of the details of that part of the writing process
4. Use two of the three templates for pages:
   Page 1
   Page 2
   Page 3
   

We will use the following sites for inspiration:

Hero Generator

Chip Designer

Rock Star

Soldier Generator

1. To save the background layout image, Control + Click on the image to save it.
2. In Word, select Insert->Watermark. When your options come up, select  ‘Picture’ and then make your options look like this:
   
   Now you’ll have more than just your usual Word layout!
3. Design your hero using the links above. You’ll now need a screenshot.
4. Press Apple + Control + Shift + 4 to get the screenshot cursor. Draw your box and then paste what you copied into Word.
5. Click on the picture. In your formatting palette (View->Formatting Palette), select Wrapping (the picture needs to be selected for wrapping to show up). Change ‘Wrap To’ to ‘None’ and change ‘Style’ to ‘In Front of Text’. For each picture you’ll need to change the wrapping.
6. Move and resize your pictures using the squares (handlebars).
   
   You can even flip images by resizing to the opposite side.
7. To add dialogue, in your formatting palette select Add Objects. Click on the tab with the green square and the yellow circle (the AutoShapes).
8. Click and drag whatever object you want onto the page.
9. You can also add WordArt (the shiny ‘W’ in Add Objects) to give your comic that extra BAM/KAPOW!

Witness the awesome power of The Editor, wielding the Ring of Conventions.

Excelsior!

General instructions for the Virtual Classroom.

1. To share the movie, click on Share->QuickTime->Webstreaming
2. Go to the Virtual Classroom.
3. Log in using your school computer login. (Enter the enrollment key and update your profile if you haven’t before.)
4. Find section 2: Technology/Research Skills
5. Click on your class name.
6. Click on ‘Add entry’.
7. Click on ‘Choose file’. Browse for where your movie (not your iMovie file, but the new .mov file) is saved. Click on the file and then click ‘Choose’.
8. Click ‘Save and view’ to finish uploading your file.

To share the movie, click on Share->QuickTime->Webstreaming

1. Go to the Virtual Classroom.

2. Log in using your school computer login.

3. Find section 2: Technology/Research Skills

4. Click on ‘Hofmann Poetry Portfolios’.

5. Click on ‘Add entry’.

6. Click on ‘Choose file’. Browse for where your movie is saved. Click on the file and then click ‘Choose’.

7. Click ‘Save and view’ to finish uploading your file.

The musician Moby has just released free music to use in independent and student films (like, oh, an iMovie). At the site http://www.mobygratis.com/film-music.html
you have a chance to log in to access the music. If you ever start to make money from your film projects, there’s an easy royalty plan where you donate some money to the Humane Society. Kinda cool!

1. In your GarageBand project, click on Share (in your top menu) and then Export podcast to disk. Remember where you save it, because you’ll need to browse for the file later. It should be saved as a .m4a file.
2. Go to the podcasting virtual classroom by clicking here. (You may need to open a new window (File->New Window to be able to view the instructions here and work in the classroom.)
3. Log in with the same user name and password that you use to get onto the computers at school.
4. Fill in the required profile information. This site is closed to only people in our district, so share what you are comfortable with.
5. Type in the enrollment key that you got from your teacher and click on the Enroll Me button.
6. On the virtual classroom’s main page, click on the link for your specific hour.
7. This represents a student-made database of podcast files.
8. Click on Add Entry.
9. Type in your podcast description title and a short description.
10. At the bottom of the screen is a place to upload the actual podcast file. Browse for the file and then make sure to Save and view.
11. Now you can view other groups’ podcasts.

This tutorial is designed for use with the poetry portfolio assignment, but can be applied to other work.

1. Click on the iMovie HD icon in the dock.
2. Create a New Project
3. Name it with the assignment name, your class period, and your last name. (Example: ‘portfolio-4th-guy’). Save it to the hard drive by selecting Macintosh HD->Users->Shared and then click Save
4. Click on Editing -> Titles to add your text.
5. Make sure that your text is big enough to read. You will probably need to split up your sentences into smaller phrases.
6. Type single words as titles for emphasis.
7. You can use the slide to adjust how many seconds the animation takes and how long it pauses.
8. For pictures, drag your image from the desktop/documents onto the timeline/clip view.
9. To change the animation, click on the photo to select it. Click on Media->Photos and then Show Photo Settings
10. With the Ken Burns Effect on, the photo will slide in/zoom out in many different ways. Drag the top slide bar to zoom in and out. Drag the bottom one to make the animation speed up or slow down.
11. Your Preview bar has its own animation timeline. Click on the animation timeline to select which place to zoom in.
12. The hand lets you control the position of the photo. Click and drag to move the camera’s focus.
13. To add sound, make sure that you are in the project’s timeline mode first. Click on the clock to switch from clip mode to timeline mode.
14. Click on Audio to view your iTunes library, GarageBand songs, and Skywalker sound effects.
15. Click on a song and drag it to the second line in the timeline.
16. Click on the triangle and drag it to go to different parts of the timeline/project.
17. To shorten a clip, click on it to highlight it, move the triangle to where you want to cut it, select from the top menu Edit->Split Clip to make the cut.
18. Click off of the clips to deselect both, then click back on the clip that you don’t want. Press the delete key to get rid of it.
19. Click on Editing->Transitions or Editing-> Video FX to make your presentation more professional.