Flash Exercise 3
FOCUS News package with animated graphic
PURPOSE Show your competence with movie clips and all skills acquired in the first six Lessons.
VALUE 5 points (see Grading):
- 2 points for meeting all the requirements (below)
- 1 point for acceptable appearance (that is, no one is likely to say, "That looks bad!") -- consider all of the seven design components (White)
- 1 point for professional appearance (most people would say, "Wow, that's good!" even if they did not know it was student work)
- 1 point for originality and story value (is it convincing as an informational package?)
DETAILS Create a new, original SWF with journalistic content about NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This subject gives you the opportunity to use extensive NASA resources (including this and this) so that you can produce a professional-style package entirely in Flash.
Requirements
- At least one fully functional sliding panel, containing text, must be in the movie and must be available at all times. This panel must be controlled by a button.
- Something else (in addition to the sliding panel) in the movie must be an animated movie clip symbol -- it must move, but it does not need to have a button associated with it.*
- At least two different movie clip symbols must be in your Library.
- Research all information carefully, and include credits for everything. Do not use any information that is not clearly credited to a reliable source.
- At least three separate segments of the story must be available by clicking buttons. These may include your intro.
- Use only button(s) you personally built from scratch.
- Use frame labels, NOT frame numbers.
- Follow all the instructions below.
- Upload ALL THREE files (SWF, FLA, HTML) to your Web site and send me two URLs -- (1) the HTML page, and (2) the FLA -- via e-mail, by the deadline.
*Click the Voyage button in the example (below), and you'll see a moving starfield as the background. This is exactly like the clouds in Exercise 6.2.
Example
Space Shuttle: External Tank Foam (Florida Today, June 2006) is a professional package (original here). It has three sections (each one has a button at the top of the screen), plus the intro screen (button at the bottom). It has a sliding panel (Credits). It rotates a 3D model of the spacecraft (you will NOT have that). Other than the 3D, this project is something you have the skills to build right now.
Instructions
- Create an entirely new FLA for this assignment.
- Research your subject matter and collect the necessary assets (images and facts) from the NASA site. Do not plagiarize. Write in your own words.
- Create three entirely different informational segments -- each one with its own frame label and its own stop() action (see Lesson 5). THESE CAN BE VERY SIMPLE.
- Demonstrate your understanding of the seven design components (from White) in the design of each segment (segments are like pages, or slides).
- Place your buttons on the Stage. Script each button to go to a different one of your three segments.
- Create your sliding panel movie clip and place it on a layer in the Timeline ABOVE the three segments (so that it is never covered up by anything).
- Test your movie very thoroughly.
- Copy the SWF, the HTML file and the FLA into your Web folder (this means the folder on your hard drive that you defined in Dreamweaver as your site folder).
- Upload all three files to your Web site.