DHA 2334: Computer Apps 1

May 13, 2010

Free MIMA membership for students!

If you’re interested in interactive design, you should consider joining MIMA (the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association). Like AIGA does for design, MIMA organizes events throughout the year that focus on interactive design. Some of the events are more technical, while others are just fun get-togethers. Best of all, it’s totally free for students!

Take the next step and sign up for a free student membership and we’ll keep you updated with the latest events:

http://www.mima.org/store/createprofile_student.asp

The next event is next week Wednesday

Building a Brand at 35,000 Feet with Porter Gale, Vice President of Marketing at Virgin America

Wednesday, May 19, 2010, 5:30pm

Solera Restaurant

FREE for students

If you have any questions about MIMA or the upcoming events, you can email Cory Etzkorn, at etzko002@umn.edu.

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April 26, 2010

Spice up your site!

Many of you have been asking or looking for ways to improve the presentation of the work on your site. A couple new resources that your classmates found and have successfully installed include:

Lightbox (See in action by clicking on the work in Drew's site)

Issuu book viewer (See in action on Ian's and Cody's site)

Gallerific: Thumbnail version (See in action on Yasmine's site)

You've come a long way – keep up the excellent work!

(download)

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April 21, 2010

Swiftly embed your .swf

(download)

Much like you can't view a raw Photoshop (.psd) or Illustrator (.ai) file on a webpage, you also can't put the raw Flash file (.fla) on a webpage. When you are done with your animation, you will need to create a compressed .swf file (from your .fla file) and embed it in an .html page in Dreamweaver. Again, easy as 1, 2, 3!

1. In Flash, go to File > Export movie*. Save the movie appropriately in your website folder on your hard drive.

2. In Dreamweaver, open the html file that you want to house your animation. Click in the div container that will house your swf file.

3. In Dreamweaver, go to Insert > Media > SWF. Select your swf, save your file, and view your changes!

IMPORTANT: In order for the .swf to be visible on your live site, you will need to upload the .swf file separately. Or, you can say "OK" when Dreamweaver asks if you'd like to "Put" dependent files as well.

*For more advanced features, you can go to File > Publish Settings and then File > Publish. This will allow you to create a more customized .swf file.

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April 20, 2010

See Change affordably – only $25

See Change is an annual gathering for communication professionals across the visual spectrum. It’s a variety show of sorts featuring talent who do remarkable work. It’s a visual scrapbook enabling concepts beyond our skill sets to cross-pollinate. It’s a think tank to recharge our abilities and thought.

See Change Conference
Friday, May 21
8:00am - 5:00pm
UMN Coffman Theater

Student registration is ONLY $25! What better way to celebrate the end of the school year!

Filed under // communicaton

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April 20, 2010

Graphic design job for a U student starting in May!

Student graphic designer wanted

Professor Jisu Huh has a great part-time job offer for students who have basic design/layout skills using Photoshop and InDesign.

Dr. Huh is editor of American Academy of Advertising (AAA) Newsletter and needs to hire a newsletter staff who will help her with the newsletter editing and design/layout works.
The student will work directly for Dr. Huh four times a year (as the AAA Newsletter is a quarterly publication), about 20 hours at a time.
The responsibilities include copy editing and layout/design work using InDesign.

Required/Preferred Qualifications:
- Outstanding writing and editing skills.
- Experience with Photoshop and InDesign are required.
- Experience with newsletter writing and production is preferred.
Total Hours or % Appointment:
About 20 hours for about two weeks in November, February, May, and August, beginning this coming May.
Starting Hourly Rate:
$9.00 - $10.00 depending on the design work skill level
If you're qualified and interested, please send Dr. Huh an email (jhuh@umn.edu) with your resume attached.

via sjmc.umn.edu

Filed under // umn

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April 20, 2010

A simple image gallery with jQuery

Many of you have been looking for ways to do a simple thumbnails-based image gallery in your website. There are a limitless number of possibilities for solving this problem, and many of you have found unique ways of your own – perhaps learning a bit more code in the process! In case you are still trying to solve this problem, here is another solution.

The example shown above and linked below uses the jQuery.js (javascript library) file to load the thumbnails in the larger container when clicked.

View the gallery in action

Download the jQuery.js file (Right-click the link and "Save link as…") and put it in the same folder as your html page

Download the html file (ditto from above) and edit it to reference your own images/thumbnails

You'll notice that the html file has CSS that styles this gallery. You can edit this code to resize and restyle to fit within your website's design.

Note: Thanks to Erin for finding this great resource!

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April 18, 2010

Flashy sounds

(download)

Working with sound in Flash can range from basic sound effects to streaming audio files and complex event-based sounds. For your first foray into this, we'll be keeping things simple. You can get your sound working in 3 quick steps:

1. Import your sound

File > Import to library

2. Place the sound on the timeline

Create a new layer called "Sounds"
Select that layer
Open your library (Cmd + L) and drag the sound file to the stage

3. Stream the sound

Select any of the frames with the sound in them and open the properties panel (Cmd + F3)
Edit the Sound properties to "Stream" which will ensure that it stops when your animation stops

If you want to add additional refinement and polish to your sound, you can use some of the pre-built fades in Flash, accessible in the properties panel. You can also experiment with the sound starting/stopping at different points throughout the animation.

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April 16, 2010

Student sketchers wanted!

Olson will be shooting a U of M video at the Weisman next week Monday, April 19 at 2pm, and is looking for student sketchers to play a role! (You may even get a free lunch or on-set experience with the crew as part of the deal!) If you are interested, please send an email to Drew at dswain@umn.edu, with the subject "U of M Video at the Weisman"

BONUS: If you get chosen, I will excuse you from class. But you'll have to learn Flash sounds on your own…

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April 14, 2010

Animate in (a) Flash!

You have already learned how to use basic tweens to move and change the color and appearance of symbols along a straight path. However, you can also create organic paths (or guides) of your own design along which symbols can be tweened. (These can even include loops). You can also create a "shape tween" (instead of a motion tween) that transitions from one shape (e.g., a star) to another key shape (e.g., a circle). You can also use the "Bone Tool" to designate 'joints' (i.e., shoulders, elbows, knees) of symbols to make them appear as though they are walking or moving more naturally. See which of these might be helpful to make your ideas come to life!

Creating a guide path

A basic shape tween

Masking a layer (i.e., a clipping mask for your animation)

Bone Tool Tutorials

For figures: http://www.schoolofflash.com/blog/2008/12/the-bone-tool-flash-cs4-tutorial/

For inanimate objects:

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April 9, 2010

A GD Mural? Now that's awesome!

Click here to download:

MuralTemplate2.pdf (160 KB)

(download)

The Graphic Design Student Association (GDSA) has secured permission and funding to paint a mural in the downstairs hallway of McNeal Hall. For those of you who don't know how big of a deal this is let me assure you – it's a pretty big deal. GDSA is looking for student input on what to paint in this 58' x 7' space. Use the attached template to sketch out some thoughts and ideas. Then return it in person to GDSA officer, Ian O'Neill OR put it in the GDSA mailbox in 240 McNeal Hall.

FYI: The mural will be painted this summer and they need volunteers for that too!

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Student graphic designer wanted