Quick as a Flash

What Is Flash?

Everyone knows Flash. You probably have, even if you don't know it. Flash games dominate school computers, where sites like Coolmath Games and Miniclip are widely used. As a general definition, Flash programs are interactive animations or videos that were widely used in the transitions stage of the web. It guaranteed universally identical content, not dependent on the user and their operating system.

Deterioration

Flash was still widely used when Stave Jobs announced in 2007 that the new iPhones would not support the plugin, marking the downfall of the program. This was in part due to users utilizing the program's ability to automatically run complex scripts on any website for malicious purposes. Among the other companies not supporting the program, Google has announced that Chrome 53 may be the last version that includes Flash standard, putting most companies at this point passed the Flash era. Flash's future is fairly bleak, because all media tends to deteriorate over time.

Still Important

Despite its rapid decline in recent years, Flash is still useful in many ways. In all, the program is the pioneer of video sharing services that most everyone is able to use, unlike the newer HTML5. The Flash Media Server is much more secure than sharing HTML5, keeping the content that is being shared on the creator's side, which in turn makes stealing their content much more difficult. Adobe acknowledged the decline of Flash in 2011, releasing Edge Animate, an HTML5 creator, that was mainly for mobile content sharing; most modern phones do not come with Flash Player installed automatically, and some do not have access to it at all. In doing so, they also stated during a press release: “This makes HTML5 the best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms.” Among the sites that still run the program (mainly free gaming sites), Facebook reigns supreme, with games like Farmville and others that are still i use by many to the day.

It's Halloween!

Photoshop Aspects

To create this Halloween themed website, we first made design elements that would not be possible with Dreamweaver. These consisted of the gradient background, the animated header, and a little animated pumpkin. the animations were a nice little throwback to e9, because even though I'm not taking an animation class, I really enjoyed animation itself. The background was made using the gradient tool constrained to vertical use and made small so it could be perfectly repeating. The animated title was made using the font tool (and I found this awesome font on DaFont!) and the color tools. That's it. The beauty is in the simplicity. The pumpkin was a little more complicated, drawing some aspects from graphic design and animation to create a little animated image with the illusion that a candle is flickering inside it. Overall the graphic design and animation aspects were a fun change of pace in this class.

Dreamweaver Aspects

This project was the first time I had ever used an iFrame, but it's fairly useful. It is a good way to insert other websites without taking the user off of the current one. I linked multiple websites, including Halloween Safety, History, and some Scary Movies. This was the only real big difference in this project, but it was a fun challenge nonetheless. 

Raccoons and Berries and Postcards Oh My

Foreword

Recently, my class and I designed raccoons using Illustrator, a template, and our imagination. I typically use Photoshop if I want to do a personal project, so it was a nice change to use a different program. I found that I enjoyed Illustrator much more than I did last year, and with the skills I have learned recently I hope to use it more often at home.

Raccoon with Leaves and Berries

My first experience with the raccoon was with this introductory project, in which we were given a template to make the raccoon itself, and then freedom to do what we wanted with the background and accessories. Making it was not very difficult, with only simple shapes and colors to deal with. Originally, pathfinder was not working properly for me, and I wasn't able to remove some shapes from the final design, but I worked through it, and finished the raccoon. The background and accessories gave us more freedom, even though a template was still used for reference. I used the berry template to make berries, and then modified it to be leaves for the trees.

Postcard

The postcard gave us a lot more freedom to do what we wanted, with the only guideline being: use the raccoon in some way and scan in text. I enjoyed scanning in my own handwritten text, and because my handwriting is not the best, I used the light board and traced over a font I printed off. This was fun because it gave me my own handwritten flare and taught me how to remove the background in order to put it on the postcard. Making the card itself was nice because it gave me complete control over what I wanted to do with the project. All in all, I enjoyed this project and how much of it was up to me. 

Raven vs. Crow

New Beginnings

This project was fun for me because it was the first bit of freedom we received. We were given just a bit of instruction and trusted to figure the rest out. I enjoyed working with the divs and editing the pictures. I wish that I had a bit more time to work on it, because it was kind of challenging, but I doubt it would have made much of a difference because this was a step into dreamweaver. I enjoyed working with Dreamweaver, because I have done work with it before, and I really like the new and improved CSS menus.

Hours d'Oeuvres

Out of the Blue:

For this project, we experimented with color values to make specific combinations of red, green, and blue. They are arranged with a six number (or letter) pattern that looks like this: #RRGGBB. Certain combinations make certain colors, with the higher the value equalling darker colors, an vice versa. They used a unique system that placed values on a range from 0-15, much like how we normally use the 0-9 values. Values 10-15 are represented by a-f respectively. So, for example, #000000 would turn out black, and #FFFFFF would turn out white.

Fontastic

Our goal with this project was to figure out what fonts could be viewed by virtually all computers, as well as be able to name and utatlize all of them. This is necessary because even if someone were to build a website around a font that another computer may not process, it will not look the same. These, however, can be view by all, and therefore are 'web safe.' There are two categories: serif and sans-serif. The serifs tend to look more formal, and include Times New Roman, Georgia, and Courier New. The sans-serif fonts have a more casual look (including one that is arguably TOO casual), and include Arial, Verdana, Tacoma, Trebuchet MS, and the ever popular Comic Sans MS.

Photoshop Reflection

What I Learned

In just this short amount of time my knowledge of Photoshop has increased tenfold. I have learned new ways to remove small details from images, or layer details on top of the original for a more complete look. The first few little projects were fairly simple, but as time went on they got progressively more difficult. The collage ended this little list of projects, and was a good test of skill as it incorporated the skills learned prior.

Key Tools

First off, we used the Content Aware Fill. It is rather situational, but can save the user from doing too much work if used correctly. The Patch Tool was next, and we learned how to remove a graphic from a t-shirt. This can be used in large areas that can be fixed with a similar space. Clone Stamp and Healing Brush was next, and even though I knew how to use them prior, this project helped me refine my skills, especially using the Clone Stamp. The Spot Healing Brush proved to be a very useful tool that could do what would take a user a lot of time very quickly, and has less room for error than the Content Aware Fill tool. I used all of these for the last project, the portrait collage, which was the final step in mastering these tools.

Reflection

The tool that I enjoyed using the most was the Spot Healing Brush, which did so much for me with so little effort. It could make the sky the correct shade of blue, remove a tree limb, or fix a fence post. My strength was using the tools in somewhat different ways but still getting the same result, only easier. My weakness was taking a lot of time to fix things that I thought were not perfect because of how much of a perfectionist I am, so it took me a bit more time than others because I wanted perfect results. I would spend even more time working on them to make them exactly perfect if I was to do something differently, but otherwise I was very satisfied with my work. I would same methods to achieve the same results. I really enjoyed doing this little group of projects and I am so satisfied with my results. I like Photoshop a lot and I am always looking for new ways to use it, because I have access to it at home, so I use it in my free time.

Photoshop Reflection

What I Learned

In just this short amount of time my knowledge of Photoshop has increased tenfold. I have learned new ways to remove small details from images, or layer details on top of the original for a more complete look. The first few little projects were fairly simple, but as time went on they got progressively more difficult. The collage ended this little list of projects, and was a good test of skill as it incorporated the skills learned prior.

Key Tools

First off, we used the Content Aware Fill. It is rather situational, but can save the user from doing too much work if used correctly. The Patch Tool was next, and we learned how to remove a graphic from a t-shirt. This can be used in large areas that can be fixed with a similar space. Clone Stamp and Healing Brush was next, and even though I knew how to use them prior, this project helped me refine my skills, especially using the Clone Stamp. The Spot Healing Brush proved to be a very useful tool that could do what would take a user a lot of time very quickly, and has less room for error than the Content Aware Fill tool. I used all of these for the last project, the portrait collage, which was the final step in mastering these tools.

Reflection

The tool that I enjoyed using the most was the Spot Healing Brush, which did so much for me with so little effort. It could make the sky the correct shade of blue, remove a tree limb, or fix a fence post. My strength was using the tools in somewhat different ways but still getting the same result, only easier. My weakness was taking a lot of time to fix things that I thought were not perfect because of how much of a perfectionist I am, so it took me a bit more time than others because I wanted perfect results. I would spend even more time working on them to make them exactly perfect if I was to do something differently, but otherwise I was very satisfied with my work. I would same methods to achieve the same results. I really enjoyed doing this little group of projects and I am so satisfied with my results. I like Photoshop a lot and I am always looking for new ways to use it, because I have access to it at home, so I use it in my free time.