Fireworks MX Class Projects

In September of 2003, I decided to take my first online class. I was skeptical about whether or not I would like taking a class that did not have direct face to face interaction with the instructor but the Fireworks MX class proved to be a lot of fun and the instructor (Stéphane Richer) was very knowledgeable and thorough.

The class was 6 weeks in duration consisting of lecture notes, reading and a new assignment every two weeks. Projects that were completed exactly as instructed, down to the layers and all required elements were given a "COMPLETE" rating. Projects that were otherwise exceptional were given a "NOTEWORTHY" rating. The instruction was both informative and insightful. Stéphane often explained why one would want to do something a certain way in addition to the "how-to's" that can be found in the book. Here are some of the topics that were covered:

Basics

Colors
Path Tools
Design Issues
Saving Files
Working with Objects
Fills
Strokes
Effects
Working with Bitmaps
Masks

Advanced Techniques

Automation Features
Importing
Optimizing
Animations
Hotspots
Slices
Behaviors
Exporting

Assignment descriptions

Assignment 1 | Assignment 1b | Stéphane's comments

We were given a link to a file and asked to do a variation of it. This meant that we must include every single element found in the original file but make it our own unique work. The specific elements included: squares and circles (outlines or fills, not both), duplicated elements, textured lines (edited strokes), textured fills, some text (basic - without effects), a small sentence "that makes no sense but does", a gradient color that occupies the entire background, similar hues and few colors, a document size of 800x135 and a file weight of 20K or less.

Assignment 2 | Stéphane's comments

Once again, we were given a link to a file and asked to do a variation of it by using the same techniques but not the content.

Use of the "Colorize" tool in "Hue/Saturation..." to make an object or image into variations of one single hue
Use of the "Brightness/Contrast" sliders to make images crisper
Use of "Convert to Alpha" to place an object or image's grayscale texture on top of another object or image.
I must see all of those effects in your "Properties" panel when I correct your file! In other words, don't do these effects in a separate file and then import them in your final product: If you do this, I can't know you did these effects in Fireworks at all... For this to work, apply your effects using the "Properties" panel instead of going through the "Filters" or "Command" menus at the top of the application! Very important!
Use of a Mask
Use of layers to stack objects (give a name to your layers!)

Assignment 3 | Stéphane's comments

We were given a link to a file and asked to do a variation of it by using the same techniques but not the content.

Buttons, more than one
Pop-up menus
A Slice over an image that your buttons will swap for either of these two possibilities: frames placed in the image below the slice (page 314)(this is what I did) or animated gifs the same size as your swapped image (page 316, first tip)
This time, anyone caught using techniques from other chapters in the book will be applauded and may risk getting a noteworthy mark.