Flash professional?

Se7ven · 25 Aug 2010 at 11:09

Is it worth studying Flash to become a professional?

Are there even any OU courses you can take on Flash or would that be something thrown into a course like Webpage Design.

I always see people or websites looking for flash developers, and people making a ton of cash from flash games.

Would be a fun thing to study since I am going to have a lot of free time on my hands, what are peoples experiences on this?

gord · 25 Aug 2010 at 12:38

Depends who you listen to, Jobs Mob will have you believe that Flash is on the way out with HTML5 and Apple's "we don't support Flash" attitude. Frankly, Flash is massive and you could make decent money from having Flash skills, both design and developer.

You wouldn't cover Flash in enough detail with anything less than a Flash design/developer course.

Saying Flash developer, that will literally be the functional side, so probably Actionscript etc.

radderfire · 25 Aug 2010 at 12:46

I work in web marketing, although I'm not a huge fan of Flash and hardly ever use it myself, as I don't think it's great for usability. That said, a lot of big digital marketing agencies are mad keen on it, and there are certainly opportunities for gifted Flash developers. I'm sure you could specialise in Flash development if you have the talent and passion.

Whether you need to do a course or not is debatable, I find you can learn these things yourself.

Rgds

K@rl · 25 Aug 2010 at 13:05

I have produced quite a few flash adverts and banners for a design company. There are loads of free resources on the internet that will help you do most things, I'm completely self taught and wouldn't consider wasting money on a course.

Se7ven · 25 Aug 2010 at 15:19

thanks guys

just curious though, what will take flash's place if "JobsMob" are saying its on its way out?

gord · 25 Aug 2010 at 15:49

Well, thats mainly concerning video playback. Flash is quite versatile in that sense. The technology has been used to facilitate interactive sites, video playback, gaming etc.

I believe the HTML5 spec has video delivery covered without the need for a third party tech like Flash. As such: http://www.youtube.com/html5

It appears Vimeo has HTML5 examples running too.