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Microsoft Expression CTP available.
No, not Crash To desktoP. It's a Community Technology Preview, which means that this is a stable and free demo release for first adopters who want to see what all the fuss is about regarding Expressions.
Expressions is Microsoft's vector based interface system that will appear with the next version of Windows. Expressions is looking pretty cool already...
Microsoft Expression is Microsoft's user interface building system that will be part of Windows Vista - due later this year.
Not only are the graphics in Expression drawn using vectors, the whole Expressions user interface is also built from vectors. You can see this by varying the Workspace Zoom slider in the Expression interface. Wow!
As a Flash designer, you really need to take at least a look at this (especially if all the rumours I am hearing about cross browser, cross platform plugin support are founded). Expressions looks a lot like Flash in many respects - right down to a timeline based animation system... plus the fact that a few notable ex-Flash names have been working on Expressions for the last couple of years (Sam Wan, Manuel Clement). For developers, there are a number of programming languages to choose from via Microsoft Visual Studio. You can get the Express versions of all of the supported languages (Basic, C#, C++, J#) here.
You can get Microsoft Expression Interactive Designer (and the required WinFX runtime components) here.
Is Expressions really a Flash killer as some sites have been telling us? Well, thats not the issue... and even if it becomes the issue, I don't want to get into that line of discussion. Expression is a very interesting motion graphics system. That in itself should be enough to heighten the curiosity of any Flash designer (especially if you are not put off by the fate of liveMotion, the last 'Flash killer'...).
Oh, and you might also want to have a look at KineticFusion. This will allow you to convert a Flash swf into XAML (Expression's native format), something that will be very useful if Expressions does turn out to be an integral part of Microsoft's successful world domination plan.
Posted by motiongraphics on January 25, 2006 11:28 PM
KineticFusion only seems to convert swf to xml, no XAML-specific features. I think it would require quite an undertaking to actually convert swf->XAML with this. Flash's compound shape format is a bit special. I also imagine morphs will be pretty hairy to convert.
AFAIK, there's no good converter for swf->XAML, and I've put quite some time into the matter. Interestingly, MS doesn't seem that eager to create a converter, although it should benefit them greatly.
Posted on January 31, 2006 02:50 PM
Hi Jonas
Yeah, it says the XML can be converted to XAML via third party tools at
http://www.kinesissoftware.com/products/index.php. I missed the part about 'third party' :/
Personally, I think Macromedia will be in trouble if the Flash player installed userbase ever falls much below 90%, and MS might achieve that in three years if Expressions has support for more than just PC IE.
Macromedia's handling of Flex hasn't been that good, which is worrying as it seems to be their one big technology that would prevent application developers moving to .Net, Visual Studio + Expression. Having seen the advantages of C# in the VS environment, I think the competition will be strong.
Either way, its a good time to be a developer!
Posted on February 2, 2006 02:23 AM
You guys might want to check out my SWF2XAML conversion too: http://www.mikeswanson.com/swf2xaml/
Posted on March 27, 2007 12:29 AM