I’ve been assigned a role at my workplace. This role is to learn as much as I can about creating online training.
I have a couple proprietary programs which allow me to create very basic online training courses. However, we have the ability to add Flash animations and whatnot to our classes as well.
The department, in order to further my edumucation on this topic, has volunteered to pay for a course to learn Flash. However, I don’t want to get in over my head – can a reasonably-educated computer user get by on good looks alone in a Flash course?
FTR, I know basic HTML coding, and I know just enough to be dangerous when putting together a web page. Other than that, I’m basically a novice.
Any suggestions?
Yep. Flash is rather simple. It took me a few weeks of practise to get it down pat (plus a little more time to learn the particular scripting environment that flash uses).
So don’t be intimidated.
You might also look into a basic primer on Flash at your local bookstore to get your feet wet.
Learning Flash animation is actually more about knowing basics of how animation works (concepts such as key frames, tweening, etc.) and graphics design than any computer geeky programming stuff. It’s not immediately intuitive, but I learned the basics of Flash just by getting the program and running through their built-in tutorial. That’s more than enough to get your feet wet and begin making your own animations. You can get the basics down in a couple of days, but the more complicated stuff will takes weeks.
It’s mostly a matter of just getting a hang of the working environment and putting together multi-media presentations. But creating a good Flash animation is mostly about artistry, good use of design, typography, etc, than it is technical.