testtoss

please work! please. I beg you. Seriously.

Project 1: Symbols

Project 6: Final Project

What would happen if the Doors of Perception were cleansed? It might look something like this. Click the doors to find out.

Create an interactive project of your own fiendish devising. If you're feeling you've got all you can handle as far as ActionScript, that's fine. Just stick to the basic event listener, event handler model, and you'll be good to go. If you're feeling frisky, go ahead and take on some more ambitious programming. The world is your oyster and all that. Your final project will be due at our final critique, which is Tuesday, March 8 at 1:00 p.m. in the good ol' MA 110 Digital Lab.

To help you get rolling, you can access the sample files I have on the Kappa server. You have to be in the lab to get those files. Access them from the desktop by going to Go>Connect to Server and then typing in the following address:
nfs://kappa.sou.edu/Volumes/DATA/Open

Here are some really cool tutorials that Christian found.

Creating A Shooting Game Using ActionScript 3.0 by Kirill Poletaev at ActionScript 3 For Food
Creating A Mouse-Controlled Rotating Shooting Object 

More tutorials:
Movement Using ActionScript by Kirupa.com
Sprite rotate and move to mouse
Platform Game
Interactive Rocket

In addition, Christian has posted some of his code on his blog as has Dustin and his famous disco basketball. Check it out - helpful stuff! There are lots of amazing resources on the web now, so google away. Finally, here are some books I recommend for further study in ActionScript game programming. After this class, you should be able to eat this stuff up.

Foundation Game Design with Flash by Rex van der Spuy

The Essential Guide to Flash Games: Building Interactive Entertainment with ActionScript by Jeff & Steve Fulton

ActionScript 3.0 Game Programming University by Gary Rosenzweig

Learning ActionScript 3.0 by Rich Shupe and Zevan Rosser

Project 5: ActionScript Intro

At long last, user-driven interactivity!

Click here to download the .fla, .as, and .swf files for the above project. (2mb download)
Click here to download an even simpler project that demonstrates how to call an instance to the stage.

Here is the link to the code that makes the above little .swf work (this is what's in the .as file).


By Tuesday, February 22, you should be able to get things to happen on a blank stage using an external document class that responds to user input. Here are the handy videos:

The super basics. Hello World with an external document class.




How to create symbol instances on stage using ActionScript.


Adding event listeners and handlers to allow for user input to control stage content. Also. . . sound!

Project 4: Animated Buttons

1. Create a library of 20 buttons.
2. Post them to your blog as an embedded swf. Here's the code:

<object height="320" width="350"> <param value="yourfilename.swf" name="movie">
<embed src="http://yourfileurl.com/yourfilename.swf" height="320" width="350"></embed></object>

3. Due Thursday, February 3.




Here are the demo videos:



REFLECTIVE ESSAY
What is a button? What does it do? How does the design of a button affect its use? What are some design elements used to design buttons? Think of "great buttons in history." What are some of your personal favorites? Don't just think digital/computer buttons; the real world is fair game too!

Uh Oh! Miles won't be in class today!!

But you should still go in and work... and there's good news in it for you! The due date for project 3 is now changed to THURSDAY, JANUARY 27. I'll see you all back in action on Tuesday.

Project 3: Animated Dingbats

1. Create a library of 15 animated dingbats.
2. Due Tuesday, January 25.
3. Post your progress as you go! Here is the code to embed a .swf file in blogger

<object height="320" width="350"> <param value="yourfilename.swf" name="movie">
<embed src="http://yourfileurl.com/yourfilename.swf" height="320" width="350"></embed></object>

In order for the above code to work, you will need to upload your .swf files to a location capable of serving a link to the .swf. You can do this with your SOU account using CyberDuck. See the FAQ folder on the projects drive (or download it here!) for detailed steps on how to do this.

Here are the demo videos to take you through the process of creating animated symbols:



REFLECTIVE ESSAY
Write about three satisfying "interactive" experiences you've had in life. Think about sight, smell, sound, taste, atmosphere, color, texture, drama, sensation, emotion, physicality, sensuousness and all that good stuff. The experiences you describe can come from real life, a video game, a toy, a place, anything. Consider how the experience came together in your mind and why it endures for you. How might you use this experience in your design of interactive media? How much of the experience was conscious, how much subconscious? How do your experiences differ? Do some senses operate at a more animal, instinctive level?

GRADING