FlashMN

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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Dustin and Toby at Code Jam 2007.

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A picture of the Red Team coding Joust.

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All FlashMN members are invited to attend (re)desine. This monthly event is scheduled for Monday, September 24, at 8:00pm sharp at The Steak Knife in Dinkytown. Here is a link to directions:

http://www.steakknife.us/directions.php

There will be an EXCITING double-header lined up with Pete McCauley and Jeff Abbuzahab (two exceptionally-talented video gurus from the University of Minnesota). With the recent corporate and instructional focus on streaming High-Definition video over the web, and Adobe’s confirmation that the new Flash plug-in will support full-screen H.264 video (see http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200708/082107FlashPlayer.html for more information), we will inevitably see an influx of poorly-designed video being “re-glitzed” for HD format, essentially littering the web with larger file-size versions of the same old junk.

Pete and Jeff will cover the process of capturing, editing, and optimizing high-quality (technical and content quality) video from start to finish (with some very cool videos playing throughout the night). For example, Jeff will demonstrate a few of the techniques behind mixing grass-roots videography with Photoshop and looping audio clips to create aesthetically brilliant pieces. For those of you who haven’t seen some of the recent Polar Husky videos, or Pete’s collection of sea-horse training documentaries, you will definitely be in for a treat! Even if you are not interested in web video, you will definitely enjoy the tone of the evening and the friendly company.

Remember, feel free to bring anyone and everyone (designers and non-designers alike). In the past we have had approximately 25-40 people in attendance, and we are hoping for more this time around. (re)desine is a very informal get-together that is more about having a relaxing night with friends than putting on our profound instructional designer hats. As always, we will have a few door prizes (including all-new (re)desine t-shirts that you won’t want to miss) and drink specials throughout the night. The event typically lasts about an hour - however, feel free to stay after and meet some new friends!

Hope to see everyone next Monday at The Steak Knife! Check out the newly re-designed www.redesine.com for more info (actually it’s less info, but now you have the link again!).

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Agenda for Wednesday, September 19th
6:30 - Food and drinks available
7:00 - Announcements
7:10 - Flash News Flash!
7:30 - Flash with Paypal
7: 50 - SWX Presentation

“How to setup Flash with Paypal and IPN” (~20min)
Saviz Artang will give us a presentation on how you can setup your Flash site with Paypal and receive Instant Paypal Notifications (IPN).

“SWX Presentation - What it is and how it makes your life easier” (~20min)
With SWX, working with data in Flash isn’t rocket science. SWX RPC is a remote procedure call protocol encoded in SWF. It’s simple enough that you can get up and running with it in about five minutes. SWX RPC is perfect for building mashups (with easy-to-use APIs for Flickr, Twitter, and others), mobile applications (Flash Lite 2.0 and 2.1), and other data-driven Flash sites and applications.

Super Adobe Prize Contest!!! (worth $2100 in Adobe Software)
This month we will announce the winner of the Adobe software of your choice (value up to $2100). Second place is Sams Teach Yourself Adobe Flash CS3 Professional in 24 hours. Third place is Que Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 on Demand

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Flash CS4 Features 
- new stage rendering core built on Player 10
- can see live video at authoring time
- better WYSIWYG on stage, less need to preview
- easier timeline use
- tweening bezier adjustment: no more keyframes
- 3D-style bones in shapes *and* movie clips
- inverse kinematics

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Adobe regularly sponsors prizes, breeze meeting room, food, and more.

Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information. For 25 years, the company’s award-winning software and technologies have redefined business, entertainment, and personal communications by setting new standards for producing and delivering content that engages people virtually anywhere at anytime. From rich images in print, video, and film to dynamic digital content for a variety of media, the impact of Adobe solutions is evident across industries and felt by anyone who creates, views, and interacts with information. With a reputation for excellence and a portfolio of many of the most respected and recognizable software brands, Adobe is one of the world’s largest and most diversified software companies.

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Easel Training is an Adobe Authorized Training Center and industry leader specializing in Creative Suite, Flex, ColdFusion and LiveCycle. Easel Training offers both public and private training courses. Visit http://www.easeltraining.com for more information

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Agenda for Wednesday, August 15th
6:30 - Food and drinks available
7:00 - Announcements
7:10 - Flash News Flash!
7:30 - Moving from AS 2.0 to AS 3.0

“Moving from AS 2.0 to AS 3.0″ (~45min including Q&A)
Dustin Tauer from Easel Training will be giving us an introduction of ActionScript 3.0 including some of the differences from AS 2.0 and what’s new. At the end of this presentation you will feel comfortable reading and writing basic ActionScript 3.0. Dustin guarantees it.
Super Adobe Prize Contest!!! (worth $2100 in Adobe Software)
This month is the last month to enter the raffle to win Adobe software of your choice (value up to $2100). Each visit gets you an entry to win. Each friend you bring gives you an additional entry to win. In our September meeting we will announce the winner.

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