Fall 09 week 6:—10/19/09: Wed. 9:00 - 12:00

Hi Everybody,
You all seemed to jump right into working on your midterm projects, which is a good thing. It's a bit of a push to get it done this week, but I'm confident all of you can get a lot done in one week if you put your minds to it.

These projects will be due next week. This means you have to have all of it done by next week. That DOES NOT mean they have to be perfect. We will continue working on them throughout the rest of the semester, adding features and editing what you already have.

The most important part of this project is to get the ACTIONSCRIPT to work. Design is very important, but should take a backseat.

WEEK 6

1. Midterm Requirements:
• page size: 1000px X 700px
• page number: 5 pages
1. bio: this page is about the artist and should include sufficient text, and then enough accompanying images to help explain or demonstrate the text.
2. art: this page is about the art, and should, like the bio page, contain sufficient text and images to accompany the text for us to have a basic understanding of the art.
3. gallery 1 & 2: these pages should contain thumbnail images which, when clicked on, cause a larger image to show up with a caption below it—the best way to do this is to place the large image in a separate Flash file and type some text below or beside it. Each page must have at least 5 images and each should show up with a unique caption to go with it.
4. bibliography: this page contains a list of links and a brief description of at least 10 online resources that have information or images. Also, list some recent books or films about the artist and/or his/her work. This should include who wrote it and when it was published it if is a book; or who directed it and when it was released if it is a film.
2. Midterm Grading:
• topic: 10pts—this is a giveaway of points (10% - a whole letter grade - of the final grade) if you all follow the topics you chose;
• color: 5pts—this has to do with whether you've seriously chosen your color scheme: if you choose too many colors or if they simply don't go together, points will be taken off; so, if you're not sure, keep it really minimal, or use the COLOR INDEX;
• images: 5pts—another point giveaway if you use enough images AND if you DO NOT DISTORT THEM; and also if you don't use images more than once in such a small website;
• text: 5pts—once again, another giveaway of points if you use enough text and if you spend a little time formatting it: a couple suggestions are that you should NOTstretch text all the way across the page, but break it up into a couple columns instead; also, like color, make sure you do not use too many fonts, especially multiple decorative fonts together;
• layout: 10pts—you should carefully consider the organization of each of your pages and, especially, keep in mind that consistency from page to page is very important;
• title: 5pts—make certain that there is a title and that it is present (in the same spot) no matter what the user does;
• buttons: 5pts—buttons should be fully functional, should have 4 frames in which the hit frame is a simple gray rectangle, and they should be designed well&#a hint here: students often make their buttons too large;
• content: 5pts—yet another point giveaway and it is simply points to determine whether you have enough content in each page;
• movie-clip container: 5pts—do you use a movieclip container (box_mc for the index and bigImg_mc for the gallery, for example)?;
• initial load: 15pts—when the user first opens up your site using the index, does content AUTOMATICALLY LOAD as it should, or does the user have to click on a button to make something appear when the page loads up initially?—this also pertains to the gallery pages;
• button loading: 20pts—this simply refers to the functions connected to the buttons on the stage: does content load when you click on all your buttons?
• folder organization: 5pts—the folder that you give me next week should be organized, meaning that images should be in one folder. Also, right before you give me your project, put your .fla files into a separate folder as well. You should also remove any images or other files that are not being used.