Watch “Sita Sings the Blues

Watch “Sita Sings the Blues” online

Sita is a goddess separated from her beloved Lord and husband Rama. Nina is an animator whose husband moves to India, then dumps her by e-mail. Three hilarious shadow puppets narrate both ancient tragedy and modern comedy in this beautifully animated interpretation of the Indian epic Ramayana. Set to the 1920’s jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw, Sita Sings the Blues earns its tagline as “The Greatest Break-Up Story Ever Told.”
Watch the full film on Reel 13 right now:


http://www.thirteen.org/sites/reel13/blog/watch-sita-sings-the-blues-online/347/

Enter This today!

http://www.theadcc.ca/awards/student_competition.asp

Deadline for entry is next week: April 30.

JAM ON: Thursday April 23, 9pm-12am

JAM ON
Looking for drummer, bass, singers...
Note the later start: 9pm-12am
BIG ROOM BOOKED: PA, amps, and drums supplied.

$10.00 fee to cover the room.

Please RSVP me to tell me you're jamming....


http://www.amusikzone.com/

748 Av Broadview ( Just a few steps south of PIZZA PIZZA)
Toronto, ON M4K 2P1
(416) 462-1731
www.amusikzone.com

Week 15: Jukebox Presentation Day

Today's class:
Be prepared to present the final jukebox project.
Be sure to also submit a copy on DVD-R or CD-R.

Please note: There are no extensions.

Week 14: In-Class Answer

// FRAME SCRIPT
var songList:Array = ["beach", "africa", "shogun"];
var what:Number = 0;
var path = "songs/";


// PLAY Button SCRIPT

on (release) {
// PLAY MP3
whatever = new Sound();
song = songList[what];
NowPlaying = path+song + ".mp3";
whatever.loadSound(NowPlaying,true);
whatever.start(0,1);
what++;
if (what>songList.length-1) {
what = 0;
}
}

TIP: Movie Clip Cursor

// Did you know:
// Scripts may be placed on Movie Clips.

// Procedure for a Custom Cursor using a Movie Clip
// 1) Mouse image uses an instance of a Movie Clip
// 2) Place script on the instance of the Movie Clip

// In this example the cursor is now a custom designed hand
// using typeface Wingdings 2, SHIFT B.

// The Script:
onClipEvent(enterFrame){
Mouse.hide(); // hides the pointer
this.startDrag(_xmouse); // Assigns the drag
}

YES April 23 6pm

School of Design Year End Show (YES) - The 2009 student design exhibition will showcase the best and most notable work from the School of Design. Exhibition runs April 23-28, 2009 with opening reception on April 23, 2009 at 6 pm at 230 Richmond St. E. More details available at www.yes09.ca.

Lesson_14: Publishing

This week we will learn how to publish for a MAC, PC and for the Web.

Enlighten Up

Acoustic Jam Band Live at The Drawing Club

Mitchell tore up the place with Blue Oyster Cult's Don't Fear The Reeper... Dylan's All Along The Watchtower... and an improvised original "Coltrane"...

Arpeggio master Matias provided lead trajectories..

Saxman Jesse played in his coltrane style

Vlad was steady on the nylon string acoustic

Shane kept a solid rhythm on the steel string acoustic

Sarah held the beat on the djembe

Kodzo from The Drawing CLub, joined us for a couple songs on the djembe

Sophia played the percussion shaker

what a great evening... topped off with couple large pizza's and more deep design discussions....

Lesson_13: Preloader

A Preloader is used to load the SWF and start the telling of the design story. Usually the viewer will see some type of loading bar to indicate the wait time.
Today we will design Preloading graphics and assign Actionscript.
We will also look at the bandwidth profiler.

We will also look at examples of the Final "Jukebox" Project.

ACOUSTIC JAM WEDNESDAY 6pm...

Bring your acoustic instruments to this week's JAM.
It will be held in our SCHOOL OF DESIGN.
RSVP me.

guitar-pro SHEET MUSIC PROGRAM

http://www.guitar-pro.com/en/index.php

ELECTRIC JAM BAND March 25, 2009

SCHOOL OF DESIGN ELECTRIC JAM ON!!!

WOW!!! What a great evening...
Sarah settled early into the Djembe, then held the beat on the Pearl drums for most of the evening. Awesome!!!
Shena took over on the Djembe, after shooting some video of the evening!!! Great vibes on the Djembe!!!
Shane and Matias swapped guitars for part of the evening and tore the frets off the necks, as usual!!!
Vlad drove the bass, played some heavy guitar, and sang a tune in his unique metal vocal style. Awesome!!!

After three hours of knocking the roof off the rehearsal hall... the group dropped into the local Pizza Pizza for a medium Hawaiian and an x-Large pizza with three toppings special (Chicken, Green Peppers, and Pepperoni).
We chatted about music, psychic phenomena, and other design matters... over a some cans of Sprite, Iced Tea and Coke...

We missed Jesse (the Saxman) as he was minding the Computer Lab :-(

Next up : Acoustic Jam (This time Sarah will sing for us, along with her YAMAHA guitar)

Some pictures of the event...
A YOUTUBE Video is in the works...

Loading and controlling external SWFs

1) KARAOKE SWF
This week we will be loading the Karaoke swf into another swf for playback.
A mask will also be used to set the karaoke swf into a TV set.

Some useful scripts:
/********** LOAD SWF VIDEO MOVIE *********/
//LOAD MOVIE BUTTON
on (release) {
// loads movie into the placeHolder_mc
loadMovie("KaraokeVideo.swf", placeHolder_mc);
}

The following script loads into the root.
/* NOTE REGARDING USE OF _root
on (release) {
// loads movie into the root,(on top of everything )
_root.loadMovie("karaoke.swf", _root.placeHolder_mc);
} */

//PLAY BUTTON
/* PLAY SWF */
on (release) {
_root.placeHolder_mc.play();
}

//PAUSE BUTTON
/* STOP SWF */
on (release) {
_root.placeHolder_mc.stop();
}


2) AUDIO ONLY SWF
We will also design and load an audio only SWF file into another SWF,
and create play and pause controls.

Some useful scripts:
/****** FRAME SCRIPT LOAD AUDIO MOVIE *****/
loadMovie("AudioOnly.swf","AudioOnly_mc");
/*----------------------------------------*/

/****** PLAY AUDIO BUTTON *****/
on (release) {
_root.AudioOnly_mc.play();
}
/*----------------------------*/

/****** STOP AUDIO BUTTON *****/
on (release) {
_root.AudioOnly_mc.stop();
}
/*----------------------------*/

DESIGN MUSIC JAM ON... Wednesday 6:00pm-9:00pm

RSVP to my email if you intend on coming as there is only room for about 5 jammers + a few seats for guest artists/designers/film-makers in the room.
Also, $10.00 per person to cover room expenses.

We'll meet at our SCHOOL entrance for about 6:05pm then hop on down to catch the King Street 504 Streetcar East to take us up to Broadview and Danforth for about 6:30pm start time.



http://www.amusikzone.com/
748 Av Broadview
Toronto, ON M4K 2P1
(416) 462-1731
www.amusikzone.com

MP3 Play Multiple Songs Using An Array

/* FRAME SCRIPT */


var songs=new Array();
songs = ["beach", "shogun","africa"];
// --------------------------------------

// get a song
var n:Number = 0;// item in the list
whatsong = songs[n];
extension = "mp3";
songFilename = whatsong + "." + extension;
// -------------------------------------------

// load the song from inside a folder
ThisSong = new Sound();
songFolder ="songs/world/";
ThisSong.loadSound(songFolder + songFilename,true);

var whereAmI:Number = 0;
ThisSong.start(whereAmI,1);
songName = "Now playing: " + whatsong;


/* NEXT SONG BUTTON */
on (release) {

if (n == songs.length-1) {

n = 0;
} else {
n++;
}


whatsong = songs[n];
songName = "Now playing: "+whatsong;

extension = "mp3";
songFilename = whatsong+"."+extension;

ThisSong = new Sound();
songFolder = "songs/world/";
ThisSong.loadSound(songFolder+songFilename,true);

var whereAmI:Number = 0;
ThisSong.start(whereAmI,1);

}

Lesson_11: MP3 & Sound()

This week we will be playing external mp3 files using some Actionscript.

// ****************
// * FRAME SCRIPT *
// ****************
// Setting Up The Sound Object //
// 1. Assign the file folder and filename to variables
// 2. Create a new sound object
// 3. Load the sound file
// 4. Initialize the start position to 0
// 5. Start Streaming the sound file (true – streaming, false – event)
songFolder = "songs/";
songFilename = "patsong2007.mp3";
playThisSong = new Sound();
playThisSong.loadSound(songFolder + songFilename, true);

var whereAmI:Number = 0;
playThisSong.start(0, 1);


// *******************
// * Pause BUTTON *
// *******************
on(release) {
// Where Am I when I paused?
// 1. The position is stored in variable whereAmI
var whereAmI:Number = playThisSong.position/1000;

// 2. The song is set to stop playing
playThisSong.stop();

// 3. Trace to the Output Window WhereAmI
trace(whereAmI+newline);
}


// ***************
// * Play BUTTON *
// ***************
on (release) {

// Start playing the song from the most current position
playThisSong.start(whereAmI, 1);
}


// *******************
// * Rewind BUTTON *
// *******************
on (release) {
// reset position to beginning
var whereAmI:Number = 0;
}

Deep linking

Perhaps the easiest way to organize a Flash-based website is to use a different keyframe on the main Timeline to represent each "state" ("page" or "screen") of the site

I was looking for this ... and here it is:
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/articles/deep_linking.html

MovieClip.currentLabel property

I was looking for this code... here it is...
at http://lassieadventurestudio.wordpress.com/2008/09/16/movieclip-frame-labels/


The first and most basic new feature is the MovieClip.currentLabel property. That gives us the frame label of the current timeline frame. While that may seem pretty straight forward, it’s a huge step up from AS2 where the current frame label was not available at run-time (…which always seemed like a pretty big oversight to me).

However, I think the best new feature is the MovieClip.currentLabels property, which gives an array of ALL frame labels on a timeline, along with their corresponding frame numbers. AWESOME. That means that we can quickly and easily set up a scenario that will let us browse all of a MovieClip’s labeled timeline frames at run-time. Here’s an example:

import flash.display.FrameLabel;

// _displayClip = MovieClip with timeline to access.
// _select = Flash UI ComboBox component instance.

_displayClip.stop();
_select.removeAll();
_select.addEventListener(Event.CHANGE, this._onSelectLabel);

// get and populate all of displayClip's frame labels in the select menu
for each (var j:FrameLabel in _displayClip.currentLabels)
{
// add list items with FrameLabel object properties: name, frame.
_select.addItem({label:j.name, data:j.frame});
}

function _onSelectLabel(evt:Event):void
{
// update displayClip when a new frame is selected
_displayClip.gotoAndStop(_select.selectedItem.data);
}
If you set that scenario up in a new Flash document and give the _displayClip a few frame labels to browse through, then you’ll be able to select and display the various frames in your MovieClip using the combobox (…just be sure to put different graphics on each labeled timeline frame so that you can see a change in appearance when you switch between frames!).

So, what can you do with this? I’ve used it in the new Lassie Shepherd editor so that a developer can select frame labels to display within externally loaded SWF media. It works like a charm. This would also be a good means to build a really simple navigation scheme: you’d set up and label different content frames along a timeline, load that movie into a shell, and then you could populate navigation options within the shell based on the frame labels. The beauty here is that if you ever added new content frames to the loaded media, they’d plug right into the shell movie that rendered the navigation.

Lesson_10: Importing Video

This week we will be importing our Karaoke video into Flash and creating controllers to be able to start and stop the video. We will also create labels and buttons to jump to the label in the video.

banner ad contest

FITC is running a banner ad contest. Design and build a banner ad.
First prize is 4 nights at the Hilton, plus tickets to FITC Toronto.
http://www.fitc.ca/contest/toronto/2009/

Banners
Creative Concepts are to be submitted in the form of a Flash banner ad:
Flash. SWF. 300 x 250. Max file size is 250 kb.
Audio is allowed, but not necessary, but must have a volume control in the piece
All banners must contain the following text info...
• FITC Toronto 2009
• The Design & Technology Festival
• April 24-26, 2009
• as well as including The FITC Logo, which you CAN modify.

Lesson_09: Karaoke Video

This week we will be creating a karaoke video for use in the Jukebox Project.
Remember to bring the song (mp3 or AIFF) and the lyrics to class,
and be sure to BRING HEADPHONES.

Animated Masking Example

Dragging a Mask around the Stage

You can have some fun animating by using a Movie Clip symbol for the mask, and assigning some drag Actionscripts to the Movie Clip. The Viewer will have the ability to drag the spotlight around the Stage, illuminating the type. Try it when you have the time.

Masking & Motion Guides

What's up this week
1) Masking
2) Motion Guides (for guiding symbols in an animation)


































































































Some other examples:
Dragging a Movie Clip Mask :
http://graf2028.blogspot.com/2009/02/dragging-mask-around-stage.html

Creating a mask that follows a Motion guide requires some extra effort:
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_15781

Modbook Pro... start saving now :-)

The link: http://www.axiotron.com/index.php?id=home

Lesson 05: Using Library Sounds

This week we will explore using sound in our Flash designs.

STEP 1:
Import the sounds into the Library
FILE / IMPORT TO LIBRARY

STEP 2:
Access the sounds from the Property Inspector drop down menu

STEP 3:
Set the SYNC in the Property Inspector
- Event, use this for buttons only (place sound in the down frame)
- Start, Stop, use this for starting and stopping a timeline sound
- Stream, use this for sync with an animation in the timeline

Today's three examples:
1) Start & Stop a sound
2) Button sounds (placed in the down frame)
3) Streaming sounds in the Timeline in sync with an animation

FLASH HELP & FLASH CLUB

FLASH Help
When:
Wednesday 2-3pm
Thursday 11-12pm

Where:
In my office

FLASH CLUB
When:
Wednesday 6pm -7pm
After Class


I am also looking for a classroom for Flash CLub... stay tuned on this one.

PR

TIP 02.01.2009: HIT Frames & Type

Be sure to include a solid shape in the Hit frame of the button.
The Hit frame indicates the clickable area.
If there is only type in the Hit frame, then only the outline of the type will become the clickable area.
ALWAYS PLACE A SOLID SHAPE IN THE Hit FRAME.

Project #2 Examples

http://www.harrisonkennedy.ca/
Mostly Flash and some HTML for the sound sample pages

Jump Menu Navigation Using Movie Clips

This week we will have some fun with Movie Clips and talking to them from a higher level.
In this example:
Chapter Movie Clips are embedded inside a Booklet Movie Clip which is placed on the Stage.
Chapter Movie Clips hold pages ( frames).
All the navigation buttons are located in the Booklet, yet reference chapters and pages embedded within.

The Stage view looks like this:

Forward Button Script (Click to enlarge view):
_root means the Stage
_booklet is the MOvie Clip
[what] holds the name of the Chapter selected

Chapter 02 select button:
1) Sets the variable what to "c02"
2) Turns the alpha to 0 for the other Chapter Movie Clips on the Stage

3) Sets the Playhead to gotoAndStop at frame 2 in the Chapter Movie Clip
NOTE: All of the Chapter Movie Clips have nothing in the first frame.

Reset Button

FLASH IN TORONTO FESTIVAL Group Rate For Class

what: FITC Design & Technology Festival
when: APRIL 25-28 (Sat / Sun / Mon / Tues)
where: Hilton, Toronto

VERY IMPORTANT
Please let me know next class if you will be joining our field trip to FITC. I am hopeful we will get a student discount group rate of $80.00 per person. If you attend the festival outside of our group it will cost you $275.00 per person.

Thank you.

http://www.fitc.ca/

Painting with a Bitmap

Lesson_03: Linear Navigation

This week we will design a slide show application with forward and backward navigation buttons.

we will use the following actionscripts:
stop();
play();
next();
previous();
gotoAndStop(x) ; where x is the frame number to send the playhead.

Interactive Music JAM Today 6-9pm

Calling all musicians & vocalists
Join us for the School of Design music JAM series, session#1
6-9pm
33 Villiers St. location (see directions below)
Cherry Beach Rehearsal Studios
http://www.cherrybeachsound.com/

Cherry Beach Myspace page:
http://www.myspace.com/cherrybeachsound

Cost per person: $10.00 (cash) to cover room and equipment ( amps, drums, PA) rental cost for 3 hours

See sign up sheet in the Computer Print Lab

Prof. P.


DIRECTIONS:
Cherry Beach Sound is located at 33 Villiers St., just east of downtown Toronto, in the Port Area. The nearest major intersection is Lakeshore Blvd. E. and Cherry St. Villiers St. is east off of Cherry, one block south of Lakeshore, just over the drawbridge.

We are on the south side of the street, and recording studio access is from the parking lot on the west side. Rehearsal studio access is from the street on the north side. Parking is free. Cherry Beach Sound is wheelchair accessible.

By TTC 72A Pape

Take the 72A Pape bus (not the 72) south from Pape station or from Union station at the southeast corner of Front and Bay. Once the bus turns onto Cherry, get off at Villiers and Cherry. Walk east to the end of the block on the right hand side. This route only operates on weekdays. Check the TTC schedule or view the route map.


From Don Valley Parkway

Head south on Don Valley Parkway to Lakeshore Blvd. exit. Instead of turning left or right on Lakeshore, proceed straight through the lights on to Old Don Roadway and immediately take first right onto Villiers. We are on the south (left hand) side across from the Toronto Harbour Commission building. Access is from the parking lot on the west side.

Lesson_02: Trace Bitmap & Tweening

This week we will explore the following:
1. Tracing a Bitmap (BRING A PICTURE OF YOURSELF)
2. Creating a typewriter effect using "distribute to layers" for text
3. Motion Tweening a Symbol
4. Shape tweening to morph a vector image

Research tweening
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tweening



Try the following preparation exercise for the class this week:
Create a presentation using your name as the content for the following:
1. Step by step animation of the text using "distribution to layers" technique;
2. Motion tween a symbol (with your name inside) adding tint and/or alpha to the symbol;
3. Shape tween (morph) a vector version of your initials (HINT, you will need two layers for this);
4. Have a Bitmap picture of yourself as the background layer to the whole presentation.


Some very cool tweening sites ( For now or later on...)
actionscripted tweens

Try to create this using flash

Lesson_01: Symbols

What must I do to pass this course?
Each week I must research and prepare for the class, through reading about the upcoming topic, and practicing/playing with the FLASH application.

Here is what I found after googling this week's topic: Flash Symbols, Importance, and The Three Types:
Some basic information and tutorials are found at this site: http://www.smartwebby.com/Flash/flash_symbols.asp

Great overview from Adobe on how to make a simple banner with symbols using Actionscript 3.0:
ttp://www.adobe.com/designcenter/video_workshop/

Try this at home in preparation for the In-Class-Exercise_01: Using your name as the content, create a graphic, movie clip, and button symbol and publish to a SWF file.
---

Kick off the new year with Flash :-)

motion design contest, deadline January 23, 2009

Toronto link:
http://www.cutandpaste.com/events/2009/mar/14/toronto-2009/


The deadline for North American competitors is January 23, 2009 and European and Asian designers have until February 20th. Here are some details…

· This year, Cut&Paste is introducing the first-ever live 3D design and motion design contests

· The 2009 tour will begin in North America in March (Europe and Asia will follow)

· The Global Championships—which will feature a winner from each of the 16 participating cities—will take place in New York City in June 2009

· Grand Prize: One Grand Prize winner from each category in each city (48 in total) will receive an expenses-paid trip to New York City for the Global Championships.

For a complete list of prizes, visit: http://www.cutandpaste.com/tours/program/formats/

Welcome to 2009

I am hopeful you have found this site, sooner rather than later.
I have posted the two project spec sheets, and some links to some flash tutorial sites to help get you into the flash groove.

Project #2: The FLASH Music/Video Player (Jukebox)

Presentation & Submission Due Date: Week #15

Theme:
“Music is a spiritual thing – the force of sound comes from the spirit.” (Ali Farka Toure)

Rationale:
The purpose of this assignment is to create a music player for audio and video files. The practical rationale for this project is that musical artists require song samplers for inclusion on WEB sites, CD’s, and DVD-ROM’s. Music tracks will be used to create a musical song sampler. In addition, a Flash (FLV) video will be designed and produced with one music layer (streaming) in-sync to visual layers containing lyrics and graphic images.

Requirements:
To be eligible to receive full marks, the presentation must include the following:
1) A picture of the musical artist/artists – Trace Bitmapped;
2) Hyperlinks to the WEB page / myspace.com / YouTube.com/ sites of the musical artist;
3) A brief BIO of the artist;
4) Lyrics to all of the songs included in the sampler (minimum 3 songs);
5) Examples of Audio in all of the following formats:
A Library Sound: “Start” Sync audio (this may be a looping background sound) in the main timeline or a movie clip;
An External swf file: Audio played (loaded) from an external swf file;
An External mp3 file: Audio mp3 file played/stopped via a Flash Sound obj().

6) An FLV Video (with a text/type lyric in-sync with music track) with a Controller;
7) All Buttons must include sounds, embedded in the down state of the Button;
8) SWF, and FLA files named as follows LastName_FirstName.swf , LastName_FirstName.fla;
9) Design Evaluations: by self AND by a class peer;
10) Contact and Project information from the designer: full name, student number, email address, course code, project number, hours worked on the project, date due.

The presentation must demonstrate full understanding of the following Flash
features in order to receive full marks:
1) Importing, compressing, and streaming audio;
2) Playing/Stopping an external Audio mp3 file using the Sound Obj();
3) Creating an external swf with a streaming music track (note: “stop();” in the last frame)
4) Naming and using Movie Clip instances in the Main Timeline;
5) Creating, exporting, and importing/linking an FLV video using Flash;
6) Linking to a WEB site using the “getURL” script;
7) Assigning a Controller for FLV video playback.

The Presentation will be evaluated according to evidence of creativity, aesthetics, demonstration of design principles, meeting all content and technical specifications, functionality, and ease-of-use.

Submit the FINAL project, with all working files, on a DVD-R, or a CD-R.
Due Week 15.

Project #1: The Animated Self

Due Date for Presentation & Submission: Week #7

Theme:
“The medium is the message.” (McLuhan)
The screens and speakers were charismatic mediation points, through which universal emotion and symbols unrolled. They embodied, and channeled, the implications of world-feeling. Waves of energy were plurality itself.
Powe, B.W. (2007). Mystic Trudeau. Toronto: Thomas Allen Publishers.

Rationale:
The purpose of this assignment is to create an animated presentation representing your explorations into the world of multimedia. The look and feel of the presentation should reflect you, the way you see the world, and the way the world sees you.

Requirements:
To be eligible to receive full marks, the presentation must include the following:
1) A picture of yourself – Trace Bitmapped;
2) A Hyperlink to your WEB site or a Hyperlink to a WEB site that you recommend to help new media designers understand multimedia;
3) A brief mission statement (this statement defines your unique multimedia design perspective);
4) An animated Movie Clip;
5) Examples of all three Symbol types: Movie Clip, Button, Graphic.
6) SWF, and FLA files named as follows LastName_FirstName.swf , LastName_FirstName.fla;
7) Design Evaluations: by self AND by a class peer;
8) Contact and Project information from the designer: full name, student number, email address, course code, project number, hours worked on the project, date due.

The presentation must demonstrate full understanding of the following Flash
features in order to receive full marks:
1) Shape/Motion (shape, text, symbol) Tweening;
2) Converting Bitmaps to Vector shapes;
3) “Breaking Apart” text and images;
4) Adjusting Stage fps, size and colour;
5) Using Movie Clip symbols in the main Timeline;
6) Using basic frame Actionscript (stop) and the use of a button symbol instance with the correct script to navigate.

The Presentation will be evaluated according to evidence of creativity, aesthetics, demonstration of design principles, meeting all content and technical specifications, functionality, and ease-of-use.