Summer 2010 week 1:—5/10/10: Mon. 9:00 - 12:00

Hi Everyone,
This is the home of the blog for this class. I've sent an email out to the person that has already reserved DMA205.blogspot.com to see if he'll allow me to take over that name, but until then, I will be using DMA-205.blogspot.com.

Regarding this week's work, please make certain you understand most of what we did in class today (Monday). Each week, I will post two things: (1) the files that we produced in class that week; and, (2) the homework that will be due the following week.

Since I was late to class today and some students left before I arrived, I will count as extra credit (one assignment's worth) anyone who completes this week's homework by our next class.

Next week, I will assign the same homework, but it will not be for extra credit, but required; and I will also assign additional work next week. Therefore, it's in your best interest to go ahead and give it a try. One person has already completed it!

Since I am just now starting this blog, it will take me some time to get it into shape. So, if you have any difficulties with it, please let me know.
Carter-

WEEK 1

1. Syllabus
• LINK    class syllabus
2. Classwork
• LINK    This weeks classfiles
3. Homework
• exercise 1:

  Today, in this week's class, you completed a very basic animation with one small bit of interactivity, making the animation stop when you clicked on your button.

  1. What I would like you to do next, is to add a 2nd button (you may use the same button from the library that you already created, just drag another instance onto the stage next to the first one.
  2. Select this 2nd button by clicking on it one time, and in the properties, give it an instance name of play_btn.
  3. Lock the buttons layer, and then click in frame one of the actions layer (make certain it is not locked). Then, here in the actions layer, open up the actions panel and look at the actionscript you already have. You have a function named stop_it with one action, the stop(); action, and you have a listener, the last line of the code.
     
     Those things make the button work, make it stop the animation from playing. What we need to add is a set of code that may make the animation play again. We want to do this with the 2nd button you just added to the stage.
  4. Highlight the lines of code that are already there and copy them. Then, click at the end of the code, hit enter a couple of times to add some space, and paste the code you copied. This will give you 2 bits of code that are exactly the same.
  5. To make the animation play again with the 2nd button, you will have to change a few things: the name of the function, the stop() action, and the name of the button.
     
     In the first line of code that you pasted, change the name of the function from stop_it to play_it first.
  6. Change the name of the function in the last line of code that you pasted too, from stop_it() to play_it().
  7. Next, change the stop() action to a play() action.
  8. And then, finally, change the instance name of the button in the code from stop_btn on the last line, to play_btn.
  9. If you have errors that appear, preventing it from working properly, try to read and see if you understand what the errors say. If you double-click on the text of the error, it will automatically take you too the line of code where you have the problem. Look at the code I have given you and see if you can identify any mistakes.






• exercise 2:

  Similar to this week's in-class exercise, I would like you to create a brief little animation. Please do not spend too much time on this animation, but at the same time it shouldn't be a big ugly mess. This animation should have 200 frames. Also like our in-class exercise, you should have two fully-functioning buttons, play & stop, which should similarly stop, and play the animation.
  
  In addition, however, you should have a 3rd button. This button should use what we call a gotoAndPlay(); action instead of stop(); or play();. Look in the book exactly how to use this action, and I would like you to make it go to frame 100 and start playing from there when you click on it.