Lab 7

Lab 7 has been posted to the following link: http://mason.gmu.edu/~alechner/lab7.html. The hardest part of this one was getting the splash screen to work properly. I did the scene method, but since it made the spash screen scene 2 by default, it always played the map first then the flash screen. I found that I had to rename/rearrange the scenes under the scene panel (visible under "other panels" in the Window tab. I also found that script assist works well in coding the play button on the spash screen to play frame 1 of the second scene, as long as you pick under the arrow button next to Scene in script assist. I spent a long time trying to code it based on scene number, but it didn't work.

The link and rollover effects were very easy to get to work, and add a whole new dimension to the project. I also added in sounds again (I love using sound clips). Hope you enjoy them!

Unique Visualization

I was intrigued by the aerial image visualization on the site. A screenshot of it is provided above. Its actual location is at the following link: http://www.ittc.ku.edu/wlan/index.shtml. The site also describes this project--how the designers used aerial photography and interpolation techniques to visualize wireless signal strength. As a person with remote sensing imagery background, I find this visualization particuarly interesting since it functions as both a map and as an image. I like the straightforward color scheme, and the transparancy effect so that you can see the ground underneath. It symbolizes the invisible nature of a wireless signal quite well. With the street labels and detailed image basemap, it would be easy to use as a reference map to find the best place to get a signal.

However, it also has some flaws, notably that it does not precisely state the location of the map. I will assume that it is in Kansas somewhere because of who made the map, but I can't be sure without it mentioned. Also, the color scheme would probably not work for multiple wireless towers since it would likely create a cluttered map with too many contrasting colors. While it works well showing one, it would probably not work well when showing many in a small space. Lastly, the designers could have moved their watermark/label to the bottom of the map. While I can see they want the credit, its current location distracts the viewer and makes it difficult to focus on the map. Either shrinking it down, or moving it to the lower-left corner away from the legend would help.

Lab 6

My Lab 6 has been posted to the following link: http://mason.gmu.edu/~alechner/lab6.html. This one was a lot easier than the last one, since it was tweaking what was already there. The polygon tween was easy to do once I figured out what had to be done. I also changed my timeline around a little from the last one to make it more interactive. I am proud of how the "moving tank caret" in the timeline worked out when I did a motion tween. I hope you enjoy it!

Lab 5

Lab 5 has been posted to the following link: http://mason.gmu.edu/~alechner/lab5.html. The animation portion was suprisingly easy to get to work once you have the procedure down pat. The hardest part of this lab was interpolating the old map with the new boundaries map. I had to guess at the location of many cities in order to orient the troop paths on the new map. I also needed to use a lot of cities as reference points for this, so the basemap looks a little cluttered. I also used modern flags as my troop symbols to go with the modern boundaries map, even though the actual flags were different during WWII. I got errors initially when I went to my uploaded project link, but you should be able to see it if you add it to your trusted sites. It also takes some time to load, perhaps because it is a big file.

I have also included a screenshot of how the map looks in case you cannot get it to load.

Lab 4

Lab 4 is posted to the following link: http://mason.gmu.edu/~alechner/Lab4.html. I had a lot of trouble getting the scripting right for this assignment--I just couldn't get the syntax/spacing right. I finally found that the best way to get this script to turn out was to copy/paste from the digital version of the assignment on WebCT. This worked great and made things much easier. I tried using shades of purple in my map, but based on the shade I chose, and the alpha values, it looks more like shades of gray so it is not the most colorful of maps. I will try a more vibrant shade next time around to hopefully get a more visually appealing map. I am so pleased with how easy it is to add sounds to a Flash file, that I added sound to this one too (a 35 second exerpt of "Hail to the Chief"). I hope you like it!