If you spend anytime on the Web you will encounter Flash. From bits of animation and video to entire sites, Flash continues to be a popular tool for multimedia development. Flash orginally started as a user-friendly program for beginning designers. It quickly progressed to an advanced, professional-level program with many bells and whistles.
You will be getting your feet wet by learning the basics of Flash. You will learn simple animation effects that will allow you to create interactive buttons, moving text, etc. You will also learn how to use Flash video and create preloaders.
Actionscript is the language that really makes Flash move (literally). You learn some basic Actionscript to get you started.
Let me go ahead and warn you - Flash is the hardest thing that we will tackle this semester. If you are comfortable with nonlinear video editing you will find Flash easier to learn. However, Flash has it's own way of doing things. Once you get the basics down you will find it much easier to pick up more advanced techniques.