Flash Elective

Here is a description of your assignments in this elective:

Assignment	Description	Tips
Poetry	For your first assignment, you need to use Flash to create an impactful rendition of a poem. The poem can either be of your own creation, or by another author (and properly credited of course!).	Consider these points when creating your poem: DON'T MAKE IT TOO FAST! Make sure you take your time with the editing process to get the timing of your visuals just right. With Flash you have a huge range of nifty effects and animations including text and object shape tweening and motion tweening, fill effects, video and picture embedding. These can be used to make powerful visuals - but they can also detract! Make sure you reflect on WHY you are using and effect and how it will impact your creation. Consider adding appropriate music or sound to your creation. Don't just automatically LOOP your movie. You may want to consider a start button at the beginning of the poem.
Interactive Environment	Once you have completed your poetry creation, you can move on to making some form of interactive environment. An interactive environment may range from including buttons so users can control how they move through your creation to fully interactive environments such as a game.	Consider these points when creating your interactive environment: If you want to make a very interactive environment, you will have to learn about programming in Flash. Flash uses a scripting language called 'Actionscript'. Actionscript is a useful language to learn. Not only does Actionscript give you a great deal of control in Flash, is it also a derivative of Javascript - a common scripting language used on dynamic web pages. As well, Actionscript is a good way to be introduced to many programming concepts encontered in any programming language. Although we will be covering SOME Actionscript basics in class - if you chose to use a lot of Actionscript, be warned you will need to figure out a lot of it on your own - or with a friend. This elective will only cover the basics of Actionscript programming. You may chose to use existing Actionscript code as a starting point for your project. This is fine, but you will be expected to learn, understand, and be able to explain any code you write or acquire. As with any programming, make sure your code is properly documented by making liberal use of comments!
My Future in a Flash	Your last assignment is to create an engaging look at your future. When you have completed the Poem and Interactive Environment, you will be given a handout describing this assignment. This handout needs to be signed by a parent. This is so your parents will be aware of this project. You will share your creation with your parents towards the end of term.	This is your 'Future in a Flash' assignment : Before you know it, you will be heading out the doors of CSS to high school and only three years later will be finished there. After high school you may choose to pursue many different opportunities. Between now and then you will need to make decisions that will steer you down the path of your choosing. What will that path look like? What do you want to be doing with your future? Your task is to create a powerful presentation of what you see that future looking like. What are your interests? What are your career aspirations? What are your values, beliefs, and gifts that you have that will help shape that future? Your final product should do more than just describe ‘what I want to do when I grow up’. The viewer of your presentation should get a sense of who you are, what you really care about, how you see the world, and how you want to contribute to it. Be artistic. Be creative. Be reflective. Be Personal.

Description

Tips

For your first assignment, you need to use Flash to create an impactful rendition of a poem. The poem can either be of your own creation, or by another author (and properly credited of course!).

Consider these points when creating your poem:

DON'T MAKE IT TOO FAST! Make sure you take your time with the editing process to get the timing of your visuals just right.
With Flash you have a huge range of nifty effects and animations including text and object shape tweening and motion tweening, fill effects, video and picture embedding. These can be used to make powerful visuals - but they can also detract! Make sure you reflect on WHY you are using and effect and how it will impact your creation.
Consider adding appropriate music or sound to your creation.
Don't just automatically LOOP your movie. You may want to consider a start button at the beginning of the poem.

Once you have completed your poetry creation, you can move on to making some form of interactive environment. An interactive environment may range from including buttons so users can control how they move through your creation to fully interactive environments such as a game.

Consider these points when creating your interactive environment:

If you want to make a very interactive environment, you will have to learn about programming in Flash. Flash uses a scripting language called 'Actionscript'. Actionscript is a useful language to learn. Not only does Actionscript give you a great deal of control in Flash, is it also a derivative of Javascript - a common scripting language used on dynamic web pages. As well, Actionscript is a good way to be introduced to many programming concepts encontered in any programming language. Although we will be covering SOME Actionscript basics in class - if you chose to use a lot of Actionscript, be warned you will need to figure out a lot of it on your own - or with a friend. This elective will only cover the basics of Actionscript programming.
You may chose to use existing Actionscript code as a starting point for your project. This is fine, but you will be expected to learn, understand, and be able to explain any code you write or acquire. As with any programming, make sure your code is properly documented by making liberal use of comments!

Your last assignment is to create an engaging look at your future. When you have completed the Poem and Interactive Environment, you will be given a handout describing this assignment. This handout needs to be signed by a parent. This is so your parents will be aware of this project. You will share your creation with your parents towards the end of term.

This is your 'Future in a Flash' assignment :

Before you know it, you will be heading out the doors of CSS to high school and only three years later will be finished there. After high school you may choose to pursue many different opportunities. Between now and then you will need to make decisions that will steer you down the path of your choosing. What will that path look like? What do you want to be doing with your future?

Your task is to create a powerful presentation of what you see that future looking like. What are your interests? What are your career aspirations? What are your values, beliefs, and gifts that you have that will help shape that future?

Your final product should do more than just describe ‘what I want to do when I grow up’. The viewer of your presentation should get a sense of who you are, what you really care about, how you see the world, and how you want to contribute to it. Be artistic. Be creative. Be reflective. Be Personal.

Assignments