1. Flash CS3 Professional for Windows and Macintosh:Visual QuickStart Guide by Katherine Ulrich
2. Flash CS3: The Missing Manual by Chris Grover and E. Vander Veer
3. Learning ActionScript 3.0 (A Beginner's Guide) by Rich Shupe and Zevan Rosser
4. Essential ActionScript 3.0 by Colin Moock
5. Adobe Flash CS3 Professional How-Tos:100 Essential Techniques by Mark Schaeffer
6. http://www.w3schools.com/Flash/default.asp
7. http://www.good-tutorials.com/
8. http://www.tutorialized.com
9. http://www.flashkit.com/tutorials/
10. http://www.actionscript.org/
Thursday, 15 January 2009
Wednesday, 10 December 2008
New skill
The new skill I would like to learn is Flash with action script. The only experience I have had using Flash is on my previous course, I tried to use Flash to make a presentation for some images.
I didn’t get long on the project so I didn’t get much done with the presentation, as it wasn’t an important part of my project and I was learning it my self and in a rush so I did learn anything really. What I did learn I can’t remember and I doubt I was doing it right anyway.
I am not really into the coding part of web design, so I wanted to learn a skill that could include a bit of design work. I know the action script is coding but Flash isn’t all about writing coding.
The only other skill I was considering learning was PHP, but I thought if I didn’t find CSS interesting, so what is the point in doing something similar. It will be good to learn how to make an interactive document using flash. In previous years I think they did games and clickable image. I’d like to know how to make an animation or a little simple game.
When I was looking at the job adverts for the I Me assignment I saw a lot of the job I choose asked for flash as a skill they were looking for. So today I have found some recent job adverts and again they all say flash is required for web designer. Most of the skills on the job adverts we have covered in detail with our assignments but there are a few that I don’t know and flash is one of them.
Flash is a skill I want to learn and with wanting to learning it, it will make it a more enjoyable assignment.
Advert 1, Advert 2, Advert 3
I didn’t get long on the project so I didn’t get much done with the presentation, as it wasn’t an important part of my project and I was learning it my self and in a rush so I did learn anything really. What I did learn I can’t remember and I doubt I was doing it right anyway.
I am not really into the coding part of web design, so I wanted to learn a skill that could include a bit of design work. I know the action script is coding but Flash isn’t all about writing coding.
The only other skill I was considering learning was PHP, but I thought if I didn’t find CSS interesting, so what is the point in doing something similar. It will be good to learn how to make an interactive document using flash. In previous years I think they did games and clickable image. I’d like to know how to make an animation or a little simple game.
When I was looking at the job adverts for the I Me assignment I saw a lot of the job I choose asked for flash as a skill they were looking for. So today I have found some recent job adverts and again they all say flash is required for web designer. Most of the skills on the job adverts we have covered in detail with our assignments but there are a few that I don’t know and flash is one of them.
Flash is a skill I want to learn and with wanting to learning it, it will make it a more enjoyable assignment.
Advert 1, Advert 2, Advert 3
Wednesday, 3 December 2008
Reflection of the second year so far
Start of the year
I didn’t really start this year that good because I knew that I wasn’t going to pass the summer assignment. The week before the summer assignment hand in date I hoped to get all the assignment finished within good time, but loads of things seem to happen that week, which didn’t make it easy for me to do that. For example my friend’s house flooded so I had to help trying to stop more water getting in her house, so that lost me at least a days worth of work.
With us starting later this year it means we have assignment work to be done in the holidays. I did prefer it when we got a break from the coursework and a week off to get ready for the next new assignment. I feel like it’s just course work all the time and it would be great to have a break and not have to worry about it.
Summer assignment
I liked doing the summer assignment, but if I was ask again to choose whether to do a summer assignment, I wouldn’t want to. If I have things I need to do I like to get them done and out of the way or they are always on my mind. So the summer assignment seemed to be always in the back of my mind. I think it was because I had loads of time to get the assignment completed, so I didn’t make aims to get tasks done for certain amounts time, I just did bits when ever I had time. At least I know were I went wrong and I can do it differently if I ever have to do anything like this again.
CSS assignment
I had a few problems with the CSS assignment, mainly because I didn’t understand how to edit the HTML properly. The websites I have built before have all been done using the design view so I haven’t had a lot of experience with HTML coding and coding doesn’t really interest me. Once I had sorted out the problems I was having with HTML coding, CSS seemed easier to understand.
Team assignment
The team assignment as been a lot different to the other assignments, mainly because I am not working by self, I have to consider everyone else in the team. In a way that adds quiet a bit of pressure as I don’t want to let my team down. It’s been good to get the experience working as a team and working with clients. One of the main things that I have found useful about this assignment is learning how to handle clients, some are more difficult than others and how to act to forwards them can depend how fast the progress of the project can go.
Assignment 12
I like doing creative tasks so I am really enjoying doing this assignment. It’s good to have a change from sat at a computer all the time.
I didn’t really start this year that good because I knew that I wasn’t going to pass the summer assignment. The week before the summer assignment hand in date I hoped to get all the assignment finished within good time, but loads of things seem to happen that week, which didn’t make it easy for me to do that. For example my friend’s house flooded so I had to help trying to stop more water getting in her house, so that lost me at least a days worth of work.
With us starting later this year it means we have assignment work to be done in the holidays. I did prefer it when we got a break from the coursework and a week off to get ready for the next new assignment. I feel like it’s just course work all the time and it would be great to have a break and not have to worry about it.
Summer assignment
I liked doing the summer assignment, but if I was ask again to choose whether to do a summer assignment, I wouldn’t want to. If I have things I need to do I like to get them done and out of the way or they are always on my mind. So the summer assignment seemed to be always in the back of my mind. I think it was because I had loads of time to get the assignment completed, so I didn’t make aims to get tasks done for certain amounts time, I just did bits when ever I had time. At least I know were I went wrong and I can do it differently if I ever have to do anything like this again.
CSS assignment
I had a few problems with the CSS assignment, mainly because I didn’t understand how to edit the HTML properly. The websites I have built before have all been done using the design view so I haven’t had a lot of experience with HTML coding and coding doesn’t really interest me. Once I had sorted out the problems I was having with HTML coding, CSS seemed easier to understand.
Team assignment
The team assignment as been a lot different to the other assignments, mainly because I am not working by self, I have to consider everyone else in the team. In a way that adds quiet a bit of pressure as I don’t want to let my team down. It’s been good to get the experience working as a team and working with clients. One of the main things that I have found useful about this assignment is learning how to handle clients, some are more difficult than others and how to act to forwards them can depend how fast the progress of the project can go.
Assignment 12
I like doing creative tasks so I am really enjoying doing this assignment. It’s good to have a change from sat at a computer all the time.
Wednesday, 5 November 2008
Soft Skills
Having a range of skill does makes you more employable, a lot of skills are mainly common sense and building on skill that you were taught as a child. Is include manners, times management (getting to school on time), team work, listening problem solving and etc.
Time management is usually one of the first skills an employer get to see. When going to interview you should be there on time or even better a bit earlier to show enthusiasm. Time management is a really important skill. You wouldn’t want someone to be late meeting you, so why should you do something to someone else that you wouldn’t like. Time management doesn’t just mean getting to place on time, it also means meeting deadlines comfortably.
A purpose of a company is to fulfill customer’s needs and be professional at the same time. Therefore customer service is a really good skill to have, it includes been able to communication in a confident way with customers and been able to keep calm even when a customer are being rude.
Listening is an important skill that everyone should use when been told information. The way you listen to people is to been done in a polite way, always look like your interested and trying to answer questions ask in a professional way.
Team working is not always some people’s strong point but working as a team can make you more confident and help you produce a better working standard. It is good to know you have the support of other people in your team and you get a good understand relationship with them. Problems will always occur when working, so it does good if you can problem solve calmly and simply. Also problems could be fixed quicker in a team than individual, but it’s always good to know you’re capable of doing it on your own.
Word Count: 310
Time management is usually one of the first skills an employer get to see. When going to interview you should be there on time or even better a bit earlier to show enthusiasm. Time management is a really important skill. You wouldn’t want someone to be late meeting you, so why should you do something to someone else that you wouldn’t like. Time management doesn’t just mean getting to place on time, it also means meeting deadlines comfortably.
A purpose of a company is to fulfill customer’s needs and be professional at the same time. Therefore customer service is a really good skill to have, it includes been able to communication in a confident way with customers and been able to keep calm even when a customer are being rude.
Listening is an important skill that everyone should use when been told information. The way you listen to people is to been done in a polite way, always look like your interested and trying to answer questions ask in a professional way.
Team working is not always some people’s strong point but working as a team can make you more confident and help you produce a better working standard. It is good to know you have the support of other people in your team and you get a good understand relationship with them. Problems will always occur when working, so it does good if you can problem solve calmly and simply. Also problems could be fixed quicker in a team than individual, but it’s always good to know you’re capable of doing it on your own.
Word Count: 310
Wednesday, 8 October 2008
Junior web designer job
When searching for jobs I looked for jobs close to were I live, this includes Leeds and Wakefield
Skills the company is looking for is someone who knows about the print process, able to work with both web and print work, excellent layout designing, artwork skills and have a good knowledge of Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, In design and HTML.
The advert also asks for someone with a degree in graphic design/ multimedia design or a related design subject, even thought when I have finished the course I won’t have a degree, but that shouldn’t stop me applying for the job. If two people applied for a job and one had the qualification that the company was looking and the other didn’t but had a better portfolio that the company really like, they probably hire the person with the better portfolio.
I would prefer to do both web and print work and that was one reason I choose this advert but I haven’t been though the print process before, but from previous assignment we have discussed the print process, so I have a bit of knowledge of it .
The skill I would have to work on would be HTML mainly but also the knowledge of the software’s, you can never know too much about how to use software’s and techniques when using them, so the more practice I have using them the more convenient I will be, allowing me to create better work.
Monday, 6 October 2008
Second year, Loves and Hates
The last year as been a total change for me, I seem not to have as much spare time and time flies. The course as been really enjoyable and I have learnt a lot so far and I have much more to learn which I am looking forward to.
At the moment I am really enjoying the team project assignment, it’s something different and it’s good to have a chance to work as a team, because there isn’t many opportunities I could do this before employment.
To be honest I don’t really have an interest for coding, so when I found out I would be doing a CSS assignment I wasn’t looking forward to it. The start of the assignment I couldn’t really get my head around CSS but now I have had a go myself I understand it a lot better. I am always open to learning new things so I am giving it a go and trying my best with the assignment.
Before I started the course I hated presentations, now I am still nervous about doing presentations but not as bad. Now I just get nervous the day of the presentation unlike before when I was nervous at least a week before. I still think there are a lot of improvements I could do on presenting, but with the practice I have done so far, it as helped my confidence presenting and I am not too worried about doing the final presentation.
When I have finished the course I have two options either to carry on with education or find employment, and I haven’t yet decided 100% which I want to do. Although I think I’m more for carrying on with education. Its 6 months away so I still have a bit more time to think about it.
Tuesday, 13 May 2008
Year 1, Final evaluation
When I first started the course I had no expectation of what it was going to be like. One thing I did expect was to do as much planning as we have done, but I think planning it's a very important part of creating some thing.
In September I didn’t know much about how to create a web site and how to use professional software. In the first assignment I learnt about CSS and XHTML which I had never heard of before. Now I know what they both are and have created a bit of the code, to make parts of a web site.
From the first blog entry I did, I said that at the end of the course I would either do a third year or get a job at the end of the course. I am still undecided about what I want to do at the end I suppose that decision will be easier to make when the times closer.
Also in the first blog entry I wrote about my lack of confidence, I feel like my confidence has improved over the year and I hope it keeps improving, till I get to the point were I am happy about my self and the work I produce. I still have a part time job and I feel that, my job has also help make me more confident. At work I really enjoy working as a team and getting to meet different people everyday, I think since I have been working there my team skills have improved. I Like how you can do your own thing but still bounce ideas off each other.
Assignment 1
A1 the sketch book assignment, hasn’t felt like an assignment because it has been on going for months. I have kept my sketchbooks neat and tidy and I collected some inspiration when I found some good pieces. Having a sketchbook has made me more organised with my work, helping me keep all my work together. The sketchbook has been good to see the development work that I have done, it’s helpful to go back and look over the work I have done before and read the notes I have. The most important thing I think I use it for is to take lecture notes. One of the things I think I could improve on is to research more about the topics that we have had lectures about, this could help me understand the topics better if I ever misunderstood them.
Assignment 2
The second assignment was a web plan. Web plans aren’t my favourite assignments to do but I don’t dislike doing them. While doing this assignment it was the first time I had, had a seminar meeting. I think they are a really good idea to use on this course, I smaller groups are better to ask questions but larger groups are better for getting feedback. Even thought A2 was a lot of written work, we still had to present it neatly and consistently. This is what we used PageMaker to do, we have been given a template so that all the assignments are laid out in the same way. PageMaker was quiet easy to lean how to use so that when I had got use to the program more I had a go at using Indesign. I find In design easier to use and plus it can create tables, which is good because for A2 I spent ages makeing tables in PageMaker using lines and boxes.
Assignment 3
Assignment 3 was another web plan, from doing the first web plan I had a good idea of what we would need to do for this assignment. We all also got given extra work as well, which was to create the content of the web site. The web site was to contain basic computer terms, because of the course before I had done some work on computer terms so I knew about most of the terms I had to write about. The web plan had to be in a good as amount of detail has we built the web site for assignment 5.
This was the first time we had to do two assignments at the same time, I felt worried at first thinking that I might struggle to balance the work out. After the first couple of weeks of the assignment my worries stopped and I found my own way to balance my work out. This consists of time tables and checklists.
Assignment 4
Assignment 4 was the hardest assignment for me, because it meant using Photoshop. I had not used Photoshop before, so I struggled to know which tools to use, for which area of the image. After referring the assignment first time I redid it and pass the second time. Second time round I felt the image looked a lot better and I felt I had learnt how to use the tools better. I think even though this was the hardest assignment I have done so far I think it has been the assignment I have most improved at, including my skills using Photoshop.
Assignment 5
Assignment 5 was building A3’s web plan, I felt that the plan was in as much detail that it made it easy enough to create the web site. This was the first web site I had built, but I had used Dreamweaver before so I had a slight advantage knowing the basic of how to use Dreamweaver. The lecture we got on, how to use Dreamweaver was still very useful as I learnt about a lot of short cuts and easier ways to do things.
Assignment 6
When I was told that I had to do a presentation for assignment 6, I was a bit nervous but then I thought what the point I have to do so what the point in getting nervous and plus there isn’t much to be nervous about. I didn’t mind doing the presentation, I was a bit nervous while presenting and I could not say some of the French words but apart from that I felt it went ok. I liked researching about the typographer but I think I could have improved my assignment by including some more about the typefaces.
Assignment 7
The assignment I have just completed is A7, I have enjoyed this assignment the most. I liked it because it has been the must creative and there has been less written work. My spelling and grammar isn’t the best so I prefer to do less written work because it takes me ages to check thought my work when its complete and I can still miss errors. The thing that took me a while to do for this assignment was the measurements for the CD cover.
I feel like have learnt a lot over the first year, I can now see an improvement in the work I produce. There are still things I need to work on like, my concentration and confidence in my work. Hopefully I should work on them more in the second year and in the summer, so that also the quality of my work can improve.
My aims for the course next year are …
*Is improve my skills that I already know
*Get to know software better (Photoshop, Dream weaver and etc)
*To improve my self motivation to complete work sooner
*Not to refer my work
*To get merits
In September I didn’t know much about how to create a web site and how to use professional software. In the first assignment I learnt about CSS and XHTML which I had never heard of before. Now I know what they both are and have created a bit of the code, to make parts of a web site.
From the first blog entry I did, I said that at the end of the course I would either do a third year or get a job at the end of the course. I am still undecided about what I want to do at the end I suppose that decision will be easier to make when the times closer.
Also in the first blog entry I wrote about my lack of confidence, I feel like my confidence has improved over the year and I hope it keeps improving, till I get to the point were I am happy about my self and the work I produce. I still have a part time job and I feel that, my job has also help make me more confident. At work I really enjoy working as a team and getting to meet different people everyday, I think since I have been working there my team skills have improved. I Like how you can do your own thing but still bounce ideas off each other.
Assignment 1
A1 the sketch book assignment, hasn’t felt like an assignment because it has been on going for months. I have kept my sketchbooks neat and tidy and I collected some inspiration when I found some good pieces. Having a sketchbook has made me more organised with my work, helping me keep all my work together. The sketchbook has been good to see the development work that I have done, it’s helpful to go back and look over the work I have done before and read the notes I have. The most important thing I think I use it for is to take lecture notes. One of the things I think I could improve on is to research more about the topics that we have had lectures about, this could help me understand the topics better if I ever misunderstood them.
Assignment 2
The second assignment was a web plan. Web plans aren’t my favourite assignments to do but I don’t dislike doing them. While doing this assignment it was the first time I had, had a seminar meeting. I think they are a really good idea to use on this course, I smaller groups are better to ask questions but larger groups are better for getting feedback. Even thought A2 was a lot of written work, we still had to present it neatly and consistently. This is what we used PageMaker to do, we have been given a template so that all the assignments are laid out in the same way. PageMaker was quiet easy to lean how to use so that when I had got use to the program more I had a go at using Indesign. I find In design easier to use and plus it can create tables, which is good because for A2 I spent ages makeing tables in PageMaker using lines and boxes.
Assignment 3
Assignment 3 was another web plan, from doing the first web plan I had a good idea of what we would need to do for this assignment. We all also got given extra work as well, which was to create the content of the web site. The web site was to contain basic computer terms, because of the course before I had done some work on computer terms so I knew about most of the terms I had to write about. The web plan had to be in a good as amount of detail has we built the web site for assignment 5.
This was the first time we had to do two assignments at the same time, I felt worried at first thinking that I might struggle to balance the work out. After the first couple of weeks of the assignment my worries stopped and I found my own way to balance my work out. This consists of time tables and checklists.
Assignment 4
Assignment 4 was the hardest assignment for me, because it meant using Photoshop. I had not used Photoshop before, so I struggled to know which tools to use, for which area of the image. After referring the assignment first time I redid it and pass the second time. Second time round I felt the image looked a lot better and I felt I had learnt how to use the tools better. I think even though this was the hardest assignment I have done so far I think it has been the assignment I have most improved at, including my skills using Photoshop.
Assignment 5
Assignment 5 was building A3’s web plan, I felt that the plan was in as much detail that it made it easy enough to create the web site. This was the first web site I had built, but I had used Dreamweaver before so I had a slight advantage knowing the basic of how to use Dreamweaver. The lecture we got on, how to use Dreamweaver was still very useful as I learnt about a lot of short cuts and easier ways to do things.
Assignment 6
When I was told that I had to do a presentation for assignment 6, I was a bit nervous but then I thought what the point I have to do so what the point in getting nervous and plus there isn’t much to be nervous about. I didn’t mind doing the presentation, I was a bit nervous while presenting and I could not say some of the French words but apart from that I felt it went ok. I liked researching about the typographer but I think I could have improved my assignment by including some more about the typefaces.
Assignment 7
The assignment I have just completed is A7, I have enjoyed this assignment the most. I liked it because it has been the must creative and there has been less written work. My spelling and grammar isn’t the best so I prefer to do less written work because it takes me ages to check thought my work when its complete and I can still miss errors. The thing that took me a while to do for this assignment was the measurements for the CD cover.
I feel like have learnt a lot over the first year, I can now see an improvement in the work I produce. There are still things I need to work on like, my concentration and confidence in my work. Hopefully I should work on them more in the second year and in the summer, so that also the quality of my work can improve.
My aims for the course next year are …
*Is improve my skills that I already know
*Get to know software better (Photoshop, Dream weaver and etc)
*To improve my self motivation to complete work sooner
*Not to refer my work
*To get merits
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