PE1_Adobe Flash CS5 (Part 1)

For this experience, I decided to go with working with Adobe Flash CS5. The last time I actually worked in Flash was way back in 2003 so I thought it would be a good idea to get reacquainted with the program (and to maybe spruce up my own personal website for later!). I always loved seeing neat Flash websites with all their interactive buttons, sliders and animations.Needless to say, when I first delved into Flash way back when, it was quite daunting as it is pretty much similar to making a full on animation from my time in the computer animation courses. This time proved no different, however, as I booted up Flash CS5 on the Mac, ready to go to town on it. The very first thing that greeted me was a totally redesigned work area in the program, with all the useful tools in different positions than what I was used to back in the Macromedia Flash 2004 days.

Macromedia Flash 2004 look

Adobe Flash CS5 look

Needless to say, I had to take a little bit to just look over all the tools again and get a feel for the new layout of the program. Once I got an idea of where everything was, I started tinkering in the work area to see if it was like riding a bike and all my knowledge from before would get me up and going. Well, needless to say, it took a lot longer than I expected to dredge up just some basic knowledge of how to work in Flash, but so far I was able to get a few things on the work area as well as get a few layers going.

Wow! Rough times!

Just getting to that took was not easy and I knew I was going to start needing help in kick-starting my brain so it would remember my learning in Flash. It is amazing just how bad we become when we let a skill we used to be good at go unused for so long. I completely felt like a novice at Flash when before I was creating some very interactive websites for companies up in Chicago almost 9 years ago. So, swallowing my, by now, trashed pride, I went and started searching for some tutorials online, where I finally just went to lynda.com. I am still watching all the tutorials and lessons they have to be able to tackle this program and get my skill back up to par! Check back to see how well I did after all the tutorials!