FlashMN

There have been many times in my life where I look at something that I
have wrapped, built, coded, or designed and said to myself, “Those
colors don’t look quite right.” At these times I usually hang my head
in shame and move on, not fully understanding the problem or knowing
where to look for a solution.

Thankfully for me (and hopefully for you too), John McCaffrey, a
Multimedia Design Instructor at Hennepin Technical College, will be
engaging our group in a presentation about how we can begin to address
the issue of “color” in our projects. His topic description follows:

–

“Making good color choices does not have to be hard. All it takes is a
plan. Learn just enough (and hopefully a bit more) color theory to be
dangerous.

Combining a bit of science, psychology, history, art, and modern
technology you will learn how we process color information. Armed with
this information you will be able to develop your own plan to use
color effectively.

We will examine how color is implemented in some of the different
design tools (Photoshop, Illustrator, and Flash). Learn how to manage
color between the different applications. Learn about the strengths
and weaknesses of each application when working with color.”

–

Please join us on Wednesday for John’s presentation!

When: Wednesday, August 20
Social: 6:30 PM
Presentation: 7:00 PM
Wrap up: 9:00 PM
Where: Easel Training, 23 Empire Dr., St Paul, MN 55103

Sincerely,
Toby Cryns
FlashMN
Vice-President in Charge of Sending Meeting Notices

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The Asteroid’s Game From Scratch in 60 Minutes with sound effects and all, with ActionScript 3 and Flash CS3

I’ll create the Asteroid’s game from scratch in 60 minutes. No ActionScript experience required. If you’ve coded

before you can follow along and see how easy it is to make web based games with Flash CS3.
If you want you can bring your laptop and follow along or just hang back and watch.

The recorded meeting is located here: http://adobechats.adobe.acrobat.com/p20254452/
The source files can be downloaded here: asteroids_src

Tags: events by admin
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June 18th, we have an exciting event coming up this month. Robert Bilyk, the founder of Lodestar Learning™, will be presenting on flash learning resources in LMS systems.

There will also be a software giveaway this month!

For a recording, go to:

http://adobechats.adobe.acrobat.com/p50256304/

Tags: events by admin
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Join us on Wednesday at Easel Training in St. Paul! The meeting will feature a presentation by Dan Krueger (Best Buy) about web services in AS2 and AS3. Following that, Nick Bilyk will share and demo a sweet new photo gallery site that he and I built recently.  (http://www.jdunnphotography.com)

ALSO, We are interested in having you present your work at FlashMN meetings! Have you done some cool work recently that you would like to show off? Did you learn a cool Flash trick that you would like to share with the group? If you would like to give a 5-minute demo or an all-out presentation at a future meeting, please email me at toby[at]themightymo[dot]com.

Doors open at 6:30.
Dan starts his presentation at 7.

See you there!

Toby Cryns
The Mighty Mo! Design Co.

Tags: events by Toby
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Wednesday, March 19, 2008

6:30 PM - 8:30 PM

Easel Training
23 Empire Drive
St. Paul, Minnesota 55103

Topic: GPS Technology & Photo Manipulation
Networking: 6:30-7:00 p.m.
Presentations: 7:00-8:15 p.m.
Social: 8:15-9:00 p.m.
Who: Anyone with an interest in Flash is welcome to attend!

First, Daniel Holth will share his work on a new Mapquest application he helped to create that uses GPS technology to connect photos with their geographic location on the globe. The application, MapMyPix, utilizes AIR and Flex 3. Daniel will discuss the process they used to create the software as well as his experience utilizing AIR.

Next, hang around as Toby Cryns presents a workshop on unleashing the power of Photoshop in your Flash applications. He will discuss new features in CS3 that make integrating those two pieces of software easier than ever. Also, as an added treat, Toby will walk you through the basics of getting some amazing effects in Photoshop, including: converting images to Black and White, getting the “rockstar” effect, and creating beautiful vignets!

Please register so that we can get an accurate head count for pizza!

As always, we thank The Creative Group for providing the pizza and Easel Training for providing the space and other technical support. Please give our sponsors a hug when you see them!

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Wednesday, February 20, 2008
6:30 PM

Easel Training
23 Empire Drive
St. Paul, Minnesota 55103

This month we learn about video! Chuck Preston will be giving a presentation on H.264 and a couple people from Video Ant will be talking about the project Video Ant and going from conception to completion. It sounds like there will also be some knowledge on video streaming.

Agenda:
Food at 6:30.
Presentation at 7:00.

Homepage
http://flashmn.com

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Wednesday, January 16, 2008
6:30 PM

Easel Training
23 Empire Drive
St. Paul, Minnesota 55103

Hi folks,
Come join us for the next Flashmn meeting. Yuichiro Tanabe from punygames.com is going to show us how to create game assets for Flash games.

Agenda:
Food at 6:30.
Presentation at 7:00.

Homepage
http://flashmn.com

Tags: events by csartang
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Hi folks,
As I mentioned in the meeting last night for Dec 20th (We moved it from Dec 19th Wed to Dec 20th Thur due to room conflicts) we would like to do a Flash code/design jam. Here’s the plan and we need your ideas to make it work so please chime in.
Objective:
To spend 2 hours working on a non-profit website and do a Flash project for them. It could be a website face lift. An intro clip. A simple game. A cool menu or widget. other? As long as it involves Flash in some way. It could involve other things as well but it should involve Flash. We’ll have wireless and laptops and three projectors to make sure everyone can participate or observe what’s going on. The objective is to see how this could be done. And for more experienced folks to show off their tips and tricks to the rest of us.
What could you do now to help:
* Spread the word that we’re doing this and see if any non-profit organizations are interested. If you run a non-profit website please chime in with your own proposals. Please see the sample email at the end of this message as an example of what you could send out to possible non-profit websites or folks you know.(Toby wrote this initially and I edited it a little). If you find someone who is interested please ask them to send a proposal with the following information to me at csartang@hotmail.com:
1) organization’s name
2) organization’s mission (1 sentence)
3) Project that you would like FlashMN to complete
If we have multiple entries I’ll try to choose one that would fit our code/design-jam constraints best. No worries we may do this again so other non-profits may get their turn in the future.
* We also need volunteers to lead three groups. I’m guessing we’ll need a Design group, Flash Coder group and non-flash coder group (php, SQL etc.). If you are interested in leading one of these groups please send me your name with your preference. Also if you would like to be a member of one of these groups please send me your name so that we can organize these groups ahead of time. The groups are not set in stone and you can switch once you get here but I would like to have at least the leads for the three groups figured out before we begin on Dec 20th. Please email me if you have ideas on how to improve our chances of success and fun.
Here are the rules:
1. We need a representative from the selected non-profit group that should be available to answer questions via email before the event and be present during the code/design-jam.
2. We need to make sure that we know our goal for the evening before the event. So the non-profit needs to decide what they want before the meeting. If they need some help with that I’m sure some of us can help out via email before the event to pin it down or do some mock Photoshop’s of it so come Dec 20th we’ll know what needs to be done. Basically we need to have a spec before we begin.
3. Bring your laptops if you have it. Come anyway if you don’t. We’ll be group coding and we need ideas, coders and designers. If you are a beginner please show up and observe and learn the tricks of the trade from the more experienced folks. We’ll have three paths during the jam that we’ll show through three projectors that way everyone can see what’s happening.
Example request to other folks you know so that we can get some proposals in.
Good afternoon!
I am part of an organization (FlashMN) that is looking into the possibility of offering some free website help to a non-profit or other organization on Dec 20th. FlashMN’s members are some of the finest and well-respected website developers and designers in town, and the plan is to spend two hours developing either a website(s) or a website component(s) in Flash during the group’s next meeting. This is an excellent opportunity for any organization that is looking to enhance its web presence.

In case you are wondering, Flash is software that is installed in 99% of all web browsers and does all the cool stuff you see on the web - video, audio, animations, dynamic menus, games, e-learning, e-commerce, etc. In a nutshell, it can pretty much do anything you can imagine doing in a web browser. :)

To submit a proposal, please submit the following information via email to Saviz Artang (csartang@hotmail.com):

1) Your organization’s name
2) Your organization’s mission (1 sentence)
3) Project that you would like FlashMN to complete for you

The deadline for entries is Friday Dec 10th at 5 p.m. Feel free to extend this invitation to any other organizations in town!

Have a great day!

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Agenda for Wednesday, Nov 28th - Easel Training 23 Empire Dr. St. Paul, MN 55103

6:30 Pizza

7:00 Intros

7:10 Presentation

Next meeting is going to be on the 28th of Nov.  This is due to the fact that the 3rd Wednesday of Nov falls too close to Thanks Giving so we’ll be holding the Nov meeting on the Wednesday after Thanks Giving.  Please mark your calendars.   This will allow us to keep Charlie Miller  for a very exciting presentation. Here’s Charlie’s words on what he’ll be presenting:

I was planning to discuss the intertwined emotional and cognitive roles of aesthetic design (and the impact of Flash on these values), present a new framework of design mindsets entitled Role-Based Design, and showcase a series of four recent Flash/Flash Media Server projects. I also plan on infusing photography throughout my presentation as I believe it is the driving factor in my Flash design and development. - Charlie Miller(PhD, University of Minnesota, Learning Technologies).

Sponsorship We now have a sponsor to help out with pizza and drink costs. The Creative Group (http://www.creativegroup.com) has agreed to help us out.  I want to thank Jason Ball for making this happen.  Also I’d like to ask the members to check out the offerings and job postings at The Creative Group.  For job or other business opportunities please contact  Jason Ball (Account Manager The Creative Group www.CreativeGroup.com voice 612.333.7990  fax 612.333.7697). I would also like to extend my thanks to Dustin Tauer and Easel Training (http://www.easeltraining.com) for their continued support of the group by providing the facilities to hold our meetings.

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Agenda for Wednesday, October 17th
6:30 - Food and drinks available
7:00 - Flash News Flash!
7:10 - Art for Coders!
8:10 - Wordpress CMS for Flash

“Art For Coders“ (~50min)
Jenny M from Visi will give us an entertaining overview of aesthetics, the principles that anyone can use to Make Anything (Web site, GUI, garden, Sistine Chapel Ceiling) Look Nice, regardless of artistic skill. Learn about how the Golden Mean makes even the simplest layout more attractive, how to use color and texture, and a few handy tips on using Photoshop to pretty up a graphic in a very short time.

“Wordpress as a CMS for Flash” (~10min)
Judah Frangipane will give us a presentation on how you can use Wordpress to pull dynamic data into your Flash site with only a few lines of code. Leave the content for your clients.

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