(Notes from Flash in the Can conference)

Ryan: “They’re trying to sell me something which I have no choice but to buy.”

MIKE DOWNEY
Flash player adoption rates:
FP7: 75% in 12 months
FP8: 94% in 12 months
FP9: 84% in 9 months

PaperVision demo
-rhino
-xwing obstacle course

Flash Player 9:
-now has full-screen video support. Not full-browser — FULL SCREEN
-10 million downloads a day

CS3 is now shipping
All CS3 products now have a standardized interface

Flash CS3:
-timeline is now in its own panel
-can now import Photoshop files into Flash IDE
-selectively import layers from PS
-multiple options for importing text from PS
-jpeg compression engine is now using the Fireworks engine

-Can now (natively) import Illustrator files into Flash, rather than needing third-party library

Robert Penner stuff
-timeline animations can now be exported as Actionscript/XML.
-this can be done per-layer
-Actionscript class which interprets the outputted XML is included with Flash CS3

TED PATRICK : FLEX
-Flash CS3 can be used to build Flex components
-timeline and “states” integration
-event integration
-download MPX plugin to allow Flex app export from CS3
CTRL+ENTER export of .swc export (.swc == flex component version of .swf)
-a flex component can be ANYTHING

KEVIN TOWES : FLASH MEDIA SERVER
-intelligent streaming
-can detect bandwidth
-can detet player version
Akami — “tour of California” video — streaming 60 gigabytes per second through the media server
-awesome demo of LIVE ENCODING! No Delay! Real-time encoding of webcam feed into .flv ready for streaming.
-standard flv playmack component has been significantly improved
[demo of live video inside flash movie]
-media server can record live video as it happens and save it to the server.
-mention of photobucket.com, which has a tool which allows you to assemble the stuff you have up on photobucket.com into a .flv, rearrange, add effects and titles, etc.

APOLLO
-Deploy Rich Internet Applications as desktop applications.
-Company called “effective UI” created a desktop app for eBay.
-Apollo runtime includes: —Flash player —WebKit HTML engine (the one used in Safari)

-DEMO: Apollo RSS reader — Built using AJAX (the Yahoo! library). Cool stuff!
-Apollo currently available in public alpha www.adobe.com/go/apollo
-plugin coming for Dreamweaver and Flash to natively publish Apollo apps.

ADOBE MEDIA PLAYER
-sneak peek of Alpha build
-RSS-aware
-a lot like the Democracy player
-fully skinnable
-RSS feed can deliver colors, background, ads, content, thumbnails, the whole bit.
-demo of Reno 911 clip, pulled from RSS along with Background image and embedded ad.
-seems to have been built with Apollo…?

MORE APOLLO STUFF
-allows file I/O
-local data storage
-custom chrome
-system notifications and alerts
-multi-window support
-drag/drop
-copy/paste
-apps can run in background
-network API
-hypothetical example: eBay app. You bid on a product, tell the app to run in the background, then get a window alert if someone out-bids you.
-finetune.com? findtune.com?—sneak-peek at desktop player built in Apollo

TED PATRICK
-preview of Flex Builder III
-Flex is for building Applications; not so much about websites or experiences.
–sliderocket.com — Flex-based, online presentation creator

-BUZZWORD: online competitor for Microsoft Word

“Moxie”: Code-name for Flex III SDK and Builder — lots of work being done to make Flex “back-end neutral”; should work equally with all middleware

technologies

(Notes from Flash in the Can conference)

“Based on a true Story”, by Hoss Gifford, www.flamjam.com

Engaging speaker but (by his own admission) a disorganized wanker.

Did cool work for “Liberated Theatre” in London (http://www.liberatedtheatre.co.uk/chorus.htm)

narrative is what provides meaning and context for your work

“You don’t hire an artist and tell him how it should be done. You hire him for what he does”

[interesting project: environment which changes based on the time of day as pulled from the computer on which the project is running]

FLASHTERBATION

www.newbirth.org

site created by

www.sharperfx.com

[BOOK TO FIND: The Long Tail]

the context in which we apply our skills, rather than the specifics of our skills, is what gives us our job titles

Flash animator + big screen = film-maker
Flash animator + DVD = multimedia presentation creator
etc.

(Notes from Flash in the Can conference)

Flash 8 AdverGaming Development- Sam Rivello. www.rivello.org

casual games — extremely simple gameplay — allow gameplay in short bursts — 2d, abstract graphics — generally mouse-based

Trial-purchase business model
-try
-buy
-[subscribe…?]
right now: $6b online gaming
2009 — est. $9.8n billion annually

consumer type — 29% casual = $2 to $3 billion a year

Bejewelled is the “crowning achievement” in casual games

the more abstract a game, the longer its shelf life —up to a point

flash games — extremely low development overhead, compared to PC/Console games.

[look up code for surrounding/lasso-ing with a mouse]

how long should the game be played? length of visit
how often should the game be replayed? number of visits

design game to be update-able — keep it fresh

8 weeks seems to be the standard lifetime of a (version of a) casual game

-proposal — just put in enough info to get them to accept the idea. Not so much that the idea appears inflexible . don’t get bogged down in the details.

-pitching the game can be more difficult than building the game

“high frequency gameplay” : Won’t play long, but will play frequently.

-are you measuring number of gameplays, or length of gameplays?

-remember to explicitly point out what is NOT in the game

-Make sure you are specific about WHO OWNS THE CODE!!!!
-review rounds
-payment schedule
-secure assets
-begin programming

-work directly with ONE POINT of client contact

-agree upon a maintenance contract/schedule — update game on a regular schedule — new questions, new power-ups, that kind of thing. Keeps eyes coming back

-DO A POST-MORTEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Notes from “Flash in the Can” http://www.fitc.ca conference)

Bumptop: Pushing the desktop metaphor, by Anand Agarawali

http://www.bumptop.com/

-computers are still in the “cave painting” era of user interfaces

-making it pretty doesn’t make it different or better

-bumptop — new paradigm — gesture based

-mimics the physical paradigm of “stuff on your desk”
-mimics physics without being bound by physics
-rigid body simulation
-the laws of thermodynamics do not apply
– “works for applications at all levels of the interface hierarchy” vis. return a google search as a group of icons of screenshots of the result pages

-user-tested: intuitive, takes advantage of spatial memory.
-feels more realistic than the current “desktop” metaphor

-TONS of buzz — video up on youtube, Dugg twice.

also showed us this thing; kind of a virtual overlay of the real world:

http://www.dgp.toronto.edu/~ravin/ — Presentation #60, “Interacting with dynamically defined information spaces using a handheld projector and a pen.” Some of the other stuff on this page looks pretty cool, too

(Notes from Flash in the Can conference)

Making Flash components (Actionscript 1) to create generative/controlled chaos art.

Components are encapsulations of code which allow a more user-friendly way of updating things on the stage, so non-nerds can basically have powerful rendering and animation tools available without having to learn a lot of code, or rely on snarky developers.

How to print the output of a Flash movie:
MAC — save PDF as PostScript

EXPORT FLASH SCREENSHOT AS .EPS

-instructions here:
http://diary.joshuadavis.com/2006/05/29/bmw-estoril-portugal/
instructions about 75% down the page
-no gradients
-no alpha transparencies
-no bitmapdata
Saves (from Firefox) to C:Program FilesMozilla Firefox with no file extension
Add “.eps” file extension to file, then open in Illustrator, or something

• does not seem to work for bitmap-type files, like that matters for vector art.

OR, just download the PC postscript drivers from Adobe (I haven’t tried this one)

JD says “word” a lot. Also, “rockin'”

3 frame Movieclip as button without using actionscript
1. make MC
2. label three frames “_up”, “_over”, “_down”.
3. MovieClip automatically responds to mouse action as if it were created as a button. No ActionScript needed.

Example of springs and damping for “bounce” effect

Useful tool: http://colorstripping.joshuadavis.com/
-generates string color palette from a .gif

EXPORT VIDEO OF ACTIONSCRIPT ANIMATION FROM FLASH

-DIRECTOR
-import desired Flash movie (.swf)
-add .swf to director timeline
-property inspector: END FRAME: 600 (for 20seconds at 30fps)

File-export->all frames->quicktime movie format->

Basically takes a bunch of screenshots of the desktop then compiles them into a Quicktime movie.

Go to Eric Natzke talk — dynamic animation dude.

-be sure to replace Flash 6 plugin (inside of Director) with Flash 8 plugin for good stuff. Search on MM site for appropriate download/plugin

FOR PRINTING: Make sure hairlines are larger than .25. .25 is often too fine to be printed—

Flash 9 can, in theory, do all of this without all of the hoops to jump through

Ideas come from getting out in the world — NOT looking at the stuff other people do or staring at a computer.
Take photos, find patterns, trace with WACOM.

Using drawings in conjunction with Actionscript. Don’t go all Actionscript because it loses that warm, hand-drawn feel.

“I am successful because I make stuff for ME, not because I make stuff for YOU. You hire me for MY stuff, not YOUR stuff”

VERY inspiring speaker.

Experiment all the time, save all of your experiments. You never know when something, years from now, will be useful.