confused!

[hiImAmy]

Hi, I want to complete several diff't tutorials to expand my knowledge of multimedia production. What are some that are of the most useful and are any free? Anyone have any reccomendations? How long do they usually take?

Also, this looks like a great one, but i'm slightly confused......how do I know if I have Flash on my computer? Can I do the tutorial only if I have it downloaded?
Thanks a bunch!

Amy

[tg]

all of the tutorials on our tutorials page are free to use as tutorials. i believe most of them have source code to download, but you can read/do the tutorials with out downloading the source.

...which are most useful? well, if you don't know flash and actionscript, then all of the begginer tutorials are the most useful, because they will teach you all of the basic concepts you will need to know to move on to more challenging things in flash.

to find out if you have flash on your computer, you could download the source file from one of the tutorials, unzip them, and open a .fla file. if it opens in flash, then you've got it.


oh yeah, and welcome to as[org]

[Alphasnail]

Hi Amy,

There are actually two different applications you may have on your computer named Flash:

The first is the Flash Player. It's the browser plugin that is used to display Flash content that other people have created. You can't create anything with it, just view content others have created. It's free, so if you use the Web frequently it's likely you already have it. To check to see if you have the Flash Player you can go to http://duber.com/LetsTalk/playerCheck.html

If you don't have it, you can download it for free at:
http://www.macromedia.com/software/flashplayer/

The second is the Flash authoring tool used to design and create Flash content. This you won't have unless you've gone out of your way to download it. Macromedia has a free 30 day trial of Flash Professional 8, but after that it's $699.00.

You can download the Flash Professional 8 trial version here:
http://www.macromedia.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=flashpro

Please accept my apologies if the information above is more elementary than required, I didn't want to make any assumptions. I hope it helps!

[hiImAmy]

Thank you! No, I don't have those programs installed on my computer.......is there any way to LEARN multimedia programs such as FLASH, Adobt Photoshop, Fireworks, etc. without having to purchase the programs themselves (i.e. I don't have an extra $700 to shell out). I am looking to learn these multimedia programs myself, but I don't have thousands of dollars to purchase the programs. What can I do? I have a background in tv/video production, but would like to expand that to multimedia production as well, which is why I'd really like to learn these programs.
Thanks!

[Alphasnail]

If you are a student (or you know one who will buy it for you) then you can usually get the full versions of many Flash, Photoshop, etc. for a substantially discounted price for non-commercial, educational use.

Otherwise, it might be useful to consider buying a used copy of an older version of the application. I took a quick look at eBay and found a copy of Flash 5 for Mac currently going for $4.99! That would be way beyond sufficient for an absolute beginner to learn the basics. You can probably also get manuals and training for an equally ridiculous price.

One downside is that you have to be very careful when purchasing used software. You never know exactly what you are getting. Then again, getting scammed out of 5 bucks probably isn't earth-shattering.

[tg]

if you buy an older version, don't go beyond mx.

you can start learning actionscript using (free) third party tools that will alow you to write and compile actionscript into swf.
more info on this can be found at: http://osflash.org/