Are you ready for the holiday’s? Are you all shopped out and in need of a tasty treat? Well look no further than Lee Brimelow. Lee has prepare two, that’s right two tasty treats for you to check out.
In the hustle and bustle of the holidays if you get a chance treat yourself to some flash goodies.
A big thanks to Bittersweet Harvest for shooting and posting this video.
Here are the slide I promised. I hope you enjoyed the session.
Creative Interactions: Flash Experiments Slides
If you don’t mind, please let me know how I did.
http://speakerrate.com/talks/1563-creative-interactions-flash-experiments
Tomorrow is FlashPitt 09 and I’m totally pumped!
My slides are ready, my jokes are horrible, and I’m all prepped and ready to go. I’m boiling with excitement over geeking out with some of the greatest people in the world. I’m really looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones. And I’m especially looking forward to the geek debates that I’m sure we’ll have over primanit sandwiches. So Cheers to FlashPitt eve, and all of the wonderfulness that is about to ensue.
This year I’ll be doing a workshop on Intermediate ActionScript 3.0 and a session on Creative Interactions: Flash Experiments.
I hope to see there. There’s an excellent line up this year and it would be insane not to come
I’ve been experimenting with new workspaces in Flash CS4. Although I seem to make slight adjustments every few days this is the workspace I’m going with right now.
I may have spoke too soon in my last post. Adobe has a demo of Flash running on the iPhone as a tool for app development.
It still doesn’t solve the lack of flash content in the iPhone web browser, but it’s a good first step.
They got clever. In Flash CS5 you can export to a .ipa (iPhone application). Brilliant. Instead of waiting for Apple to support Aodbe, Adobe has bridged the gap. Interesting move guys. (man I love this industry!)
Ohh and the best news yet. You can develop using AS 3.0 to make the apps. Now that’s what I’m talking about.
(Shoutout to Ben for the tip)
A few weeks ago I was involved in an interesting conversation with some super smart people debating the future of Flash. Everyone seems to have a different perspective ranging from not worried, to OMG the writing’s on the wall can’t you see it!? I must admit I’m a little concerned. But mostly due to the hype of HTML5. I keep hearing that HTML5 is supposed to do a lot of things the Flash Player is already doing, and that it will minimize the need for a plug-in like Flash.
Plus that Goolge, Apple, and Mozilla are the major players in developing the HTML5 spec and so far Adobe has stayed out of it. None of those companies really have a stake in the Flash Player so you can’t help but wonder where Flash fits in with the future of web content.
This week is Adobe Max 2009 and there’s a lot of buzz and questions floating around as to how Adobe will respond to HTML5. Despite that fact HTML5 is not released or even completely speced out. I really hope Adobe makes a statement. Or a decloration of their future of the web and how Flash will be apart of it. But in all likely hood there will probably be a whole lot of no comments.
I don’t think it’s time to panic just yet, but it makes me really wonder about how the future will look. It wasn’t that long ago that shockwave was the way to deliver “Flash Like” content, and Director has since then gone the way of the Buffalo.
Adobe seems to be focused on other areas at the moment. In this article Kevin Lynch was interviewed about Adobe’s take on HTML5 and where they see Flash. It appears that Adobe see’s a great need to secure the mobile environment. They appear to feel secure about Flash’s role in web content delivery, for today and tomorrow. I dig that Adobe is aggressively persuing the mobile market, there are a lot of users there, but I just worry about where the Flash Player will fit in with tomorrow’s internet. I’m sure they have something up their sleeve and will reveal it when it’s appropriate, but it just makes me wonder about a fractured market. Flash’s strength is it’s ability to deliver cross platform content easily, and if Adobe secures mobile delivery will they have to sacrifice the desktop internet market?
I don’t know… It’s something to keep an eye on.
In the very near future Adobe has the Flash 10.1 release, rumored to take Flash Mobile content to that next level. What about the iPhone? Well Apple’s not on board with that. So we’ll have to wait. Apple is in no hurry on inviting Adobe to the party. I just wonder if Apple will shut Adobe out for good. Not just with the iPhone, but with HTML5.
It feels like the winds are changing and I’m really interested in what lies ahead. Adobe seems to think it’s a mobile world. Which it may very well be and for now we can still develop and enjoy Flash content. But I just hope Adobe hasen’t put all of their eggs in the Flash Mobile basket. The life cycle of a phone is much quicker than a computer so the climate of the mobile world could change at the drop of the hat leaving Adobe in the dust.
I still believe there is a huge need for our content to live and breathe with use. To be as dynamic in it’s creation as it is in its engaging. Right now Flash gives web developers the best tools to content design in temporal space and as long as that is the case Adobe has the upper hand. But be weary there are uncharted waters ahead. This might be the beginning of a climate change in the ever evolving internet landscape.
Here is a basic Drop Down Menu for Flash. It’s a topic that often comes up when I’m working with students or new Flash Developers.
Although it would be more efficient to do pass arguments and reduce functions. This was created with the intention of helping young developers get quick results.
Last week I participated in panel discussion ( Refresh Pittsburgh and Flash User Group crossover ) about the use of Flash and it’s future. Is it doomed? Will it be replaced? Does anyone care?
As with many talks like this, the conversation eventually takes a turn towards a Moral Kombat blood bath over Flash vs HTML. Which is really a debate of ActionScript vs JavaScript. Although I do enjoy the debate it’s a shame that it gets boiled down to only two options. Which, in my opinion, is very “anti-web”. The web, in my eyes is very much a democracy allowing the developer to chose the technologies they believe will achieve their specific results in any combination they see fit. Good, bad, or indifferent.
Now I think we can all agree that there is a time and place for specific technologies and no matter our selections they should be centered around the desired outcome. So the Flash vs HTML debate is a kind of a waste, but I do enjoy revisiting some of the time tested stereotypes. Such as:
Not so true. Adobe and google have made large gains this area. it still has a long way to go but it is searchable. And there are interesting projects going on helping to solve this problem. (http://www.flashnseo.com/)
Although this is true, everyone should be further defined. Everyone seems to be broken up into a two categories. Desktop/laptop and mobile/other devices.
Most desktop, laptops, etc have flash player and currently 98.9% of the global market have adopted Flash Player 9 with 86.7% using Flash Player 10. (http://adobe.com/products/player_census/flashplayer/version_penetration.html) It’s a pretty safe bet to deploy a web solution viewed on most desktops and laptops in Flash Player if you have a need for what Flash content provides. Now this doesn’t mean I’m saying an ENTIRE website should be made as a .swf. I’m merely suggesting that .swf’s have a large user base.
The desktop / laptop screen is no longer the final destination for what we are creating these day. Many mobile devices as well as speciality devices do not support flash player. Despite Flash-Lite being a huge force in Japan, the US has been slow in adopting flash based content on their phones. If you’re looking for a unilateral solution from desktop to mobile, flash isn’t the right answer. However, HTML and JavaScript have their problems too. With no real set standard for screen size, mobile browser, or methodologies it appears the browser wars from the late 90’s have re-emurged to our cell phones. Using anything is a mixed bag and will produce varied results.
Once again knowing your customers and expectations are key. We no longer live in an era were we can reach 100% of internet users. Even when we that 100% didn’t include all of the actual customers. It was a focused group of customers that used the internet.
At first I got a little scared about this one, but after more thought I’m not too worried. Yes HTML 5 is supposed to make playing other media in the browser more accessible, but consider this. HTML 5 will have to be adopted by not just the developing community but the users that have the browsers. I know I know Firefox 3.5 has some of the HTML5 and CSS 3 things, but the real benchmark is the death of IE in 2014 (http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/08/18/microsoft-support-ie6-2014/).
Until the user base is using the NEW and IMPROVED browsers, HTML 5 will have a low impact until it reaches critical mass. The other thing that doesn’t scare me about HTML 5 being a Flash Video killer is the need for streaming media. I do realize there are a lot of standalone flv files on the web. Heck I use them myself, but once your 5 or 6 videos grow to about 20 or 30 and your monthly bandwidth is getting chewed up, a media server becomes a critical piece in delivering video over the web. Unless HTML 5 can deliver and manage extremely small file sizes Flash Video still serves a need that many people have.
True. It can, but do you ever have to tweak your code base so IE 6 allows for the animation? What about Opera or Safari? The great thing about Flash is right out of the box basic animation just works across all desktop platforms
I know that JavaScript has a timer and Please don’t get me wrong I LOVE JavaScript, but it’s a nightmare with temporal design. Communicating over time is what makes Flash well… Flash. That’s what draws us in. It’s not that things move, but meaningful information is presented over time and tells a story.
The best way I can describe it is like this. JavaScript at best is a key-note or power point. It can help you change states, transition you from point A to point B and heck it even looks nice if you take the time, but it’s not and never will be a Movie. Flash is a movie… no no a story that unfolds over time. A presentation is something that informs you a story is something that captures you. Now just as all stories are not good, not all uses of flash are good, but the potential is there and when used well it’s an experience like none other. That’s when information transforms into a story. It’s engaging, entertaining, and we love it.
Flash gives the developer, designer, and artist a nice and clean way to design over time. Temporal decisions beyond on and off. That one key element is what separates the two technologies. Just about all functionalities in one way or another can be achieved via JavaScript or Actionscript. But until I see a JavaScript cartoon I won’t be convinced that it’s they way I want to tell the story of some of my most engaging content.
