Brian Leon Mays

i managed to somehow delete all the comments on the site. Not that many were here but if yours was one deleted my apologies. Playing around with iphone tech has been an adventure today.

Posted on May 10th, 2008 by Brian Mays
Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

Lately I’ve been brushing up on my Flash and ActionScript 3 skills to try to pass a certified expert exam. I’ve picked up the Essential ActionScript 3.0 book and have been meticulously going through it (which is another way of saying that I’m moving through it slowly). This is the third ActionScript book from O’Reilly by Colin Moock, and the second I’ve owned. I’ve also sat in on some of his lectures in the past and found them very informative and helpful. So I have high hopes for the book.

Two of the areas that never seemed to stick for this graphic designer are classes and objects and how to use them. In the first chapter these concepts were explained in a way that makes sense to me (although I admit to not yet knowing when and where to employ this knowledge).

Classes - blueprints to use in construction

Objects - what is built using the blueprints

Coding can be frightening (or flat out traumatizing!) for many designers who haven’t utilized it beyond Flash’s drag-and-drop fill-in-the-blank scripting interfaces. However, it can be broken down to resemble sequences and concepts which we already know.

When we create a graphic or button or movie clip and save it into the library we create a symbol. When we place a copy of the symbol from the library onto the stage in Flash we create an instance of the original symbol. We can apply the same thinking to understand objects and classes.

Think of classes as being similar to symbols. Each one has a master version somewhere. Both also can be used numerous times. Symbols are used numerous times as instances on the stage. Objects are very much like instances, and can be thought of as instances of classes.

More coming soon…

Posted on March 23rd, 2008 by Brian Mays
Filed under: Education, Flash, Flash Learning | No Comments »

Can full Flash sites be bookmarked?

Will they optimize for search engines?

This is my new quest! Stick around for updates as I look into this.

Posted on March 9th, 2008 by Brian Mays
Filed under: Flash, Web Design | No Comments »

Ever wondered what Adobe might do if they rolled out a word processor?

Wonder no more.

http://www.buzzword.com

(Actually, Adobe purchased the company that originated this software, but it’s still very nicely done.)

Posted on January 8th, 2008 by Brian Mays
Filed under: Flash, General | No Comments »

If you’re in Oklahoma and you’re a graphic designer you may be interested in AIGA’s January event featuring Jeff Fisher.

January 24th Jeff Fisher will be speaking at OPUBCO Communications Group at AIGA’s first event of 2008. We’ve begun to finalize all the arrangements for the next few weeks. I’m looking forward to this. Not only do I own books by Jeff but I’ve also had the pleasure of conversing with him via newsgroups and web site forum. Jeff has been a tremendous help and encouragement over the past 6 or so years. Now I’ll finally get to meet him face to face, and be his tour guide for his trip to Oklahoma.

If you’re interested, Jeff has two great books that have come out in the past few years. The Savvy Designer’s Guide to Success is a great book for anyone thinking of going on their own. Identity Crisis is Jeff’s most recent book. I received it for Christmas and haven’t had a chance to get through it yet, but it’s on my “must-read” pile!

For me, this event will be a chance for me to meet one of my design heroes.

Posted on January 8th, 2008 by Brian Mays
Filed under: AIGA Oklahoma, Branding, Business, Graphic Design, Self-Promotion, Writing | No Comments »