Week 14
Monday * April 12
Making your Flash movies ready for prime time: (1) positioning Flash movies with CSS; (2) Flash version detection; (3) demystifying the Flash object parameters; (4) the Bandwidth Profiler; (5) optimizing Flash files to reduce "weight."
- LAB Work on Lesson 10 (bring book and CD to class!).
- LECTURE 1 Flash detractors: Apple vs. Adobe; HTML5; the future of Flash.
- LECTURE 2 Four examples of how to make SWFs light, not heavy (smaller files = better Flash!).
DUE Nothing! The Flash Project is due NEXT WEEK
READ Lesson 10 in Adobe Flash CS4 Professional Classroom in a Book (ACiaB).
EXAMINE Grey Shines the World (from Japan): Turn up the volume! Click everything! It's worth the (long) wait for the download. You'll see!
Notes * * *
One of the big criticisms of Flash is that it creates "heavy" files, meaning the files are too big. I would argue that people who create heavy Flash files don't know how to use Flash properly.
This week's stuff is kind of tedious, I'll admit -- but knowing how to deploy Flash files that are light and optimized is the mark of a professional.
Supplemental * * *
- Showcase of Creative Flash Preloaders (Smashing Magazine): If you have to make people wait for the download, then give them something nice to look at while they're waiting. If you want to see a gallery of very wonderful preloaders: Pretty Loaded. Warning: Can be habit-forming!
- NICAR 2010 talk: Good habits, by Brian Boyer. This programmer/journalist writes about a lot of real-life, practical consideratons for building journalism applications (not only Flash).
- Flash OBJECT and EMBED tag attributes: List of all attributes and what each one does (from Adobe).
- Detecting Flash Player versions and embedding SWF files with SWFObject 2: Also from Adobe.
- Embedding Flash with SWFObject 2.0, a video tutorial by the great Lee Brimelow. (16:10).
- SWFObject 2 HTML and JavaScript generator v1.2: Fill in a Web form, and it generates the code for you! (NOTE: You need to have swfobject.js on your server.)