Creating multimedia (and interactive?) video presentations

[Agent Smith]

Hi everyone,

I'm a teacher and I create Keynote presentations all the time, and I show my class various web-based multimedia presentations (something like this: http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/frames_asid_201_g_4_t_2.html?open=instructions). I'd love to be able to do something like that, but I thought I'd start off by creating non-interactive presentations. I'd prefer to create my own content to illustrate various concepts that I could customize to the learning needs of my students. I had a couple of questions for the fine people of MacRumors that I'd appreciate your time and opinions on.

First, my assumption is that Adobe Flash would be the way to go. Would it be better to get the CS3 suite, or just Flash by itself?

If Flash is the way to go, what is the learning curve on it? I don't presume to reach the level of knowledge of you good people (would people who are experts in Flash carry the title Grand Master - Flash? Sorry, couldn't resist ); I'm just looking to create animations.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this.

 

[7masscom]

Flash and Multimedia

My recommendation is you download the trial Flash app from Adobe:

https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=flash

try it for 30 days and see what you think.

Let it be known, there are many ways to achieve the sample that you showed (i.e. Flash, Java, Javscript, etc...). For me, working with Flash for over eight years, it would be my tool of choice.

As far as the learning curve... if you just want to do animations, then it will be short, a day or two. I'm talking basic algabreic equations where you create the frames and then animate to the solution. Now, if you want to do more interactive applications, then you will need to get into actionscripting. That could take a while, depending on your knowledge of scripting.

One thing you might try, is some of the flash forums, where they have tutorials that you could learn from to create your desired effect.

flashkit.com for one

Good Luck.

 

[Macnoviz]

I would also suggest Flash, although that example is pretty advanced, and it will take you quite some time to be able to make something like that. Although a lot of things in Flash can be learned quite quickly

 

[Agent Smith]

Perfect. Thanks so much for your help!