PE6 - Motion

I spent the afternoon working on several different parts of the Motion lynda.com module. More specifically working with some more of the behaviors and text. As I said in my PE5 posting, I am mostly familiar with LiveType, which focused mostly on text, and putting behaviors onto the font to give it motion. In this final activity, I went forward with it as a culminating creative activity. Please view the 10 second video clip below and then continue reading:

This 10 second clip puts together blending still images together, adding text, using replicators and just because it was cool, giving behavior to objects. The moving rectangles really don't add much to the motion clip other than showing that I know how to do it now. Even though it doesn't really flow with the motion movie I wanted to showcase all the content that I learned this week in Motion.

I will continue with my learning of Motion and complete all the modules as it is something that I can use on a daily basis in my role as my school's contact for the daily news show. It will also prove beneficial when it is time to teach my students how to work within the Motion environment.

PE5 - Motion

Ferris Wheel #3Blurred Motion by SeeMidTN.com via Flickr w/ Creative Commons Licensing

Last night I continued my practical experience learning within Apple's Motion Suite. I'm slowly becoming more familiar with the navigations around the different areas of Motion. As with anything that is new, the main thing is becoming more familiar with where things are located. I am guessing that is where my huge discomfort with using it was, and holding me back at the same time. Amazingly enough, many of the same features I LOVED in LiveType are embedded in Motion, it's just a matter of finding them.

One of the modules that I completed last night was creating shapes within the program. As the tutorial was playing, I was using the exercise files and creating the same bird as Ian the instructor was making in the other window. Using my iPad's Safari on lynda.com has made it easier to listen and watch the movie at the same time. Hrmm....go figure. I'm hitting auditory, visual AND kinesthetic learning all at the same time. 

After we created the bird from scratch, we then gave the bird a colored gradient fill. The ability to change direction and type of gradient is VERY similar, if not the same as, the method employed in Adobe's suites of software. I've only used the gradient tool in Flash and Photoshop, so I can only estimate that they are the same in the others. 

The next chapter I will be learning about is adding behaviors to text and images. This is where the similarities to LiveType will begin to show. And finding where all the features I liked the most will be nice too.

PE1 - Flash CS5

As I mentioned in my Pre-Practical Experience post earlier today, I'm focusing on my PE for the next two weeks on learning and improving in my use of Flash CS5. I'm using the lynda.com tutorial on Flash CS5 Essentials to facilitate my learning. So as not to have to go from screen to screen on my macbook, I'm using Safari on my iPad to watch the tutorials while at the same time having Flash CS5 open and following along the examples as they are being shown in the video.

This first example is a compilation of my learning through modules 1 and 2. This is my first experience working within the Flash CS5 environment. Going into this experience I thought there would be more similarities to working within the Photoshop CS5 program. The only thing that I've found so far is many of the toolbar features and shortcuts are the same. This will prove invaluable because much of what I do in Photoshop is done through shortcut keys. The things that are displayed in this example are the following toolbar features: Line Tool, Rectangle Tool, Oval Tool, Oval/Rectangle Primitive Tool, Polystar Tool and the Deco Tool.

I've also started on the third module "Moving Beyond the Basic Shapes" tonight while sitting at my son's Cub Scout meeting. I now see the big difference between merge drawing and object drawing. I'll talk about that more in my PE2 posting later this week. My goal is to go through at least 2 to 3 modules per day. That is a very loft goal, as some of the modules are almost an hour long. We shall see if I can maintain that level of commitment.