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I took the Flash MX test at Brainbench. I’ll probably take the Flash 5 and 4 ones this weekend, plus all the Directors, and venture into the Adobe programs to annihilate my ego.

I must say their site is flaky in response times and very slow when wiggs out. And that Survey pop-up makes me want to beat the crap outta whatever web designer “took orders” and implemented it. You made a choice bro, time to pay. Sometimes it works very quickly and is responsive… other times it just flakes out. I left the browser window open at the end of my test because it was the 5th time I had taken it in 2 days… I never made it past question 15 without the browser hanging. I figured, fuggit, 404 or bust. Amazingly, it came back.

I must admit, too, a few of the questions were dodgey, but maybe that’s because I claim to know Flash pretty well, and get irritatated when I don’t understand a question. Like, one question about debuggers asked what you couldn’t do… but all 5 could be done. Another one about debugging was really horribly worded; I had no frikin’ clue what the “user” wanted to do, so I’m like… uh, if I want to skip a function, I just don’t set a breakpoint, but they made it sound like you already set it… and could move the code arrow in the debugger… wtf.

BTW, anyone know how valid these gents are? I’ve heard “they’ve been around for a long time”. That doesn’t mean anything to me, but I have read of an employer that hired someone cause they had Brainbench transcripts and another candidate did not. Regardless, if it’s not valid, I won’t publicly support it and vice versa… just curious.

Anyway, here are my scores. Think you can do better, sucka!? Then hurry, all their tests are free until the 14th.

Name: Flash MX Score: 4.49 Date: 2004-07-09

Scored higher than 96% of all previous test takers.

Demonstrates a clear understanding of many advanced concepts within this topic. Appears capable of mentoring others on most projects in this area.

Strengths
– Advanced Actions
– Animation
– Scripting
– Symbols

Weak Areas
– None Noted

Sub-Category Scores
– Conceptual 5.0
– Problem-Solving 4.0

My island as she’s coming along… soo many pieces to build and can’t spend more than 4 minutes on each as a rule. Also, the dock I broke my 4 minute rule on. It’s amazing how quick this stuff is to create; I guess that’s why my attention span is still not bored with all of this.

Da Boardwalk

Island Cove

Da grip is my mouse.

Here are some props I’m using in a music video I’m making in Flash in my spare time. A lot of work goes into the scenery once you get past the simple black and white line drawings. I could of continued on the same style, but this whole idea is one big experiement to see what’s possible now that I don’t have to scan sketches in. I’m getting to learn my stylus by doing this project, and it’s pretty fun. I’ve got 50 billion other songs I want to make videos to, so if this goes well in a decent timeframe, I can do a “mix adventure” next.

The Protaganist

Palm Tree

Foilage

Island Hut

Honda Generator for Island Raves