To celebrate the launch of Flash Builder 4, Adobe have sponsored this month’s meeting with free software prizes, T-shirts and pizza. We will be taking Flash Builder 4 for a test run. Let’s see just what Adobe have achieved with this new release in their drive to increase creativity and productivity.
After a short overview of the ever-expanding Flash Platform, we will have a live demo of Flash Builder 4. To liven things up Flash Oxford have challenged Dreamweaver Oxford to a “design smackdown”. The task is to produce a web app in just 30 minutes from scratch (well, almost from scratch). How much easier, better, and sexier is Flash Builder compared to Dreamweaver and associated tools? Join a team and help John, Tim, Alun and Glenn avoid public humiliation!
This will be followed by free pizzas and the prize giveaways. (Please RSVP email@flashoxford.com with your pizza topping request).
Prizes this month
Two copies of Flash Builder 4 and Cold Fusion Builder 4 to be won.
Adobe quality T-shirts
Dreamweaver Oxford’s raffle: $2100 of Adobe software to be won.*
http://www.adobe.com/flashplatform/
Hope to see you at OFVM next Thursday night!
54 Catherine Street
Oxford
OX4 3AH
http://bit.ly/ofvm-loco
Advance notice: the next meeting is Thursday May 20th - the Flash group has a visit from Jodie O’Rourke to talk about Adobe’s Open Source Media Framework.
http://www.opensourcemediaframework.com/
As an Adobe User Group we are entitled to give away over $2000 worth of Adobe software biannually! Up until now we have done this through a raffle but this time we thought we could try giving people an opportunity to win it based on merit.
Slapdash is (hopefully as the name suggests!) a competition for anybody to have a go at making something in flash without spending a lengthy amount of time over it.
There will be three main categories we will be judging the submissions on :-
- Concept
- Creativity
- Technical implementation
We are very aware that there is a wide mixture of abilities and interest within the group and are very keen to cover as wide a base as possible. We welcome submissions from anybody and an entry really could be won on almost concept alone (but we would like to see an attempt at implementing something)!
The deadline is May 21st and we plan to run Flash surgeries every session until then. Please feel free to ask us any questions, no matter how basic or complex and we will endeavour to do our best to get you on your way!
We ask that entries be new creations (i.e. not previously completed work etc) and look forward to your submissions!
Email us for submission details (email@flashoxford.com).
Winners will be announced at the June meeting.
This month we are doing a joint meeting with the two other Adobe User Groups in Oxford. Each will be running a half hour slot so hopefully there will be something for everyone.
Flash Oxford will be reviewing Flash and Flex Developer magazine. A free PDF based magazine dedicated to our favourite software. Featuring articles on ever widening array of Flash products for animators, designers and developers we try to decide if this is a useful and informative publication or another promotional tool.
Dreamweaver Oxford will be looking at Prezi, a Flash presentation tool and Adobe’s BrowserLab.
Premiere & Post will give a demo on chromakey in Premiere & After Effects using key light plug-in.
Venue: OFVM Film Oxford, http://tiny.cc/yTEyB
After an extended Christmas break the Flash User Group starts afresh this Friday. We have been working hard to come up with monthly themes to take us through the year. As ever we are hoping to cater for a wide range of Flash users and provide an opportunity for informally meeting other Flash users. We also will continue our regular software give-aways.
This month we will look at Camtasia. This is a screen recording software suite that allows you to record a presentation or tutorial to a video file. You can then edit and save the result as flash web page. There are some great features in this package and John Twycross will demonstrate how to use it and also how he has used it to teach animation. TechSmith, the makers of the software, have given us a free copy of Camtasia and Snagit to give away on the night.
Tim Watts will be introducing a competition to take place of the Adobe software raffle entitled “Slapdash”. The winner of the competition will win an Adobe software bundle worth over $2000. More details will be revealed on the night.
Finally to round off the night we will have a Flash Surgery. This is an opportunity to ask for help or advice on any projects or ideas you are working on. Feel free to bring along any work to show. This is an open session where you should not be embarrassed to ask questions and join in the discussion.
We hope to see you there.
Venue:
OFVM Film Oxford
54 Catherine Street
Oxford
OX4 3AH
Presentation by BAFTA nominated animators, The Brothers McLeod + Christmas social event - pizza, beer, juice, films, free software!
Bring your own (short) animation to show us all.
The award winning, BAFTA nominated Brothers McLeod (Greg and Myles) have a track record in creating animation for TV, web, and film. They are represented by Aardman Animations as Commercials Directors and have directed campaigns for Skittles, Stena Line, and Guinness amongst others. They have written and directed series for BBC (Pedro and Frankensheep) and Tate Galleries (Art Sparks), and written for a range of TV, Games and web projects (Noddy, SpongeBob SquarePants, NHS Relationships and Sex). They have a well established YouTube channel and have had several internet successes including Spamland and Fuggy Fuggy which was picked up by MTV and Mondo Media. In 2009, they were nominated for a BAFTA in the Short Animation category for their film Codswallop.
http://brothersmcleod.co.uk/
Venue: OFVM Film Oxford, http://tiny.cc/yTEyB
