Playing with my new software

[voxwoman]

I made a new animated icon. I had a much nicer one, where the images blend into each other, but it's too big for LJ. :(

I'll probably be working on these tutorials for at least a month.

I finished all the EQ6 tutorials, and I'm starting to create a library of designs just in case I get commissions for stuff.
 
I'm on Lesson 5 in the Illustrator Classroom in a Book (out of 15). It would probably go faster but after each lesson, I take a break and attempt to do my own stuff for a while.

I still need to tackle the Photoshop, InDesign and Dreamweaver books - I may try to learn Flash with my old books for Flash MX, but I think I'm going to have to buy an Action Script book - it looks complicated from the instructional videos.

In other news, I'm being headhunted by a financial software firm. In lower Manhattan (and other offices in Midtown). The money is very good, if you include the bonuses; otherwise the high salary works out almost the same as me working for myself part-time (because of increased taxes and commuting expense). I don't know that I'd like to be away from here 12 hours a day. However,  I would really like to understand this subject, and having to learn it to write about it is very tempting. We'll have to see, I suppose. It's flattering that people keep offering me work without me really having to go look for it, but if I want to make it as a consultant, I think I need to be a bit more aggressive in finding new clients.

I was also really intrigued when I heard that freelance graphic artists make 50% more than I charge per hour at the bottom end of their payscale. This is one of the reasons I've purchased all the design software, the drawing tablet and the training materials - so I can really take those kinds of jobs when they come my way (I got really close to getting one in September, but I didn't have the right software to do the job properly).

I have a fantasy of creating a portfolio using Flash that I create completely by myself, so that the navigation and UI is also my design, and having it on a CD-ROM for interviews (and online as well, I suppose). I probably won't have the skills to finish it for 6 months at this rate.

Comments

[kelli217.livejournal.com]

Well, of course to make something really nice, you'd want proper Adobe Flash authoring software. But you can make a simple Flash slide show with OpenOffice.org Draw.

[voxwoman.livejournal.com]

I have the proper Flash authoring software, but I don't know how to use it yet. Give me a month...

[kelli217.livejournal.com]

I kind of figured you did. But you know: "baby steps." The thing I was getting at is that by all means, go ahead and learn Adobe Flash, but right now what OOo allows you to do is throw together something quick, and yet not dirty. You can take pictures of your physical art pieces and put them on slides, and your Photoshop work, and your Illustrator work, and make a Flash presentation of all that before you delve into Flash itself -- but then of course once you get a handle on Flash, you can make the nice snazzy one.

Consider OOo a way to make your Flash portfolio v0.5, and then the real Flash version will be v1.0. :)