Eric's project #1

This is a schematic typical of how I would want to use flash: for demonstrating concepts I need to teach in the Microelectronics curriculum.

This is an electron gun aimed at an atom. The electron gun uses a voltage to repel the electron at high velocity towards the atom. Depending on its velocity it can do several things to the atom, including: bounce off, move an electron into a different orbit, remove one or more electrons from the atom, or even break apart the nucleus.

My methodology: I had a general idea of what I wanted to draw (as I described above). I wrote out the assignment criteria and then made decisions about what parts of the project would best be constructed with each of the assigned tools:

a. objects: The electron in the gun is a merged object. I wanted to smear it in a way to suggest speed. I could not use the Bezier handles to do this without distorting the spherical shape too much. I merged it with a couple of dabs with the paint brush, then shaped them. The other electrons, protons and neutrons are Drawn Objects. I wanted to keep them separate so I could move them around. I didn't see a great application for the Primitive object, but the circle indicating the voltage is Primitive. It made sense to me to keep it a circle with maximum control of its circular shape as I continue to improve this file. Note that all of these objects were maintained as perfect spheres by drawing them with the shift key pressed.

b. pen: the electron gun, electrode and wiring are all drawn with the pen. I like the pen, it is precise and does what I want. It is easy to use the subselection tool to precisely place the anchor points. The few excess points Flash added were easily removed with the appropriate pen mode. The curves were created while drawing by dragging a couple of the anchor points. I could then precisely place the Bezier handles to reproduce the same curve on both sides of the gun.

c. text: I changed color, size and font. I need to figure out how to go back and change these to sans. I'm also wondering if I should have made the particles grouped with text into symbols so I wouldn't have to go back and edit each one individually.

d. gradient: each particle is filled with a gradient. Using the gradient transform tool I rotated and adjusted the gradient limits to get the tones I liked. B5E0FD for the electrons, F43EE2 for the protons, FFFFFF for the neutrons. Of course, I think that is the color of the lightest part of the gradient since each shade should have a different hex - that's the point of having hex identifiers for colors.... Anyway, that is what the fill control listed with the gradient selected.

e. brush: as stated in a, the electron in the gun is a merged oval and a few brush blots. I just used the normal mode since I wasn't filling or painting any *thing*. Pencil: not a tool I see using much - I don't like it, I find it hard to control and messy. I signed my initials with it, and spent a painful amount of time messing with Bezier handles and anchor points trying to get it to look something like how I sign. Putting it in smooth mode helped.

f. deco: another tool I don't see using much. While pretty, backgrounds are generally distracting in technical drawings.I created a lightning bolt symbol, then used the Reflect Across Point mode to fill in a little background in the electron gun.

g. transform: I resized the particles and lightning bolt and rotated the text in the orbiting electrons.