April 26, 2008
AS3 camera, with rotation, and a more...
Loads of people have been asking me about an AS3 camera, or one that has rotation. Well, here's one that does both...
Enjoy, and thank Mr Heisey while you are there!
Now vCam AS3 brings a new array of options with added features including:
- Rotation
- Blur
- Brightness/Contrast
- Hue/Saturation
- and more!
Thats right. rotation AND blur AND all the other Flash AS3 effects. Cool.
And there's more;
The original vCam AS3 uses the BitmapData class to optimize performance during playback. When you view the vCam AS3 swf you are watching a bitmap transformation of the stage. While this is ideal for animation projects, it causes problems when you want to incorporate buttons or interactive elements into your presentation. I had a request this weekend for an interactive version of vCam AS3.
Posted by motiongraphics at 10:36 AM | Comments (3)
November 09, 2006
Software as art
Not nearly as well publicized as the Macromedia/Adobe merger, but this bit of corporate news is probably just as significant to the world of Flash...
All the key software developers involved in the early development of Flash have founded their own technology start-up company, softwareasart.com. It will be interesting to see what such a team come up with, and this is cetainly one to watch if you've got even the slightest interest in the future direction of web multimedia.
Posted by motiongraphics at 12:18 PM | Comments (0)
October 06, 2006
The state of Web Development in 2006/2007
What web technologies will we all be using in 2007? Well...
There's an interesting report up at Sitepoint on the state of web development in 2006/2007. Perhaps the most important bit of useful information for designers is 'what will we be using in 2007?'.
Although the report doesn't actually tell us what we will be using in 2007 directly (i.e. via absolute figures), it does give us enough information to find out; there is a graph showing what we are using now, and another one showing what designers would like to be using in 2007. By transposing the two graphs together and normalising the results to 100%, we can draw up a graph that shows both what technologies/applications the industry is using now, and their future take-up.
I was sufficiently interested in seeing such a graph to create it myself, and here it is. The lower, solid bars show the percentage of designers using each technology/application now, and the ghosted bars above them show the predicted change in the near future. The final size of each bar (solid plus ghosted) gives the absolute number (in percent) of all designers who will be using each technology in 2007.
Source : The State of Web Development 2006/2007, SitePoint Pty Ltd. and Ektron, Inc, August 2006.
Copyright (c) 2006, SitePointPty Ltd and Ektron, Inc.
As you can see, Flash and JavaScript Libraries have pretty much the same take-up today; 35% of all designers use each. AJAX lags both at less than 30%. Usage of both Flash and JavaScript is set to rise, but AJAX will soon be the dominant one.
My feeling is that AJAX and Flash will tend to be used together in the future rather than competing, and the increase in take up of AJAX is more a sign of browser stability and cross browser compatibility in HTML/CSS/JavaScript than anything else - and that's a good thing for everyone. To see a good example of AJAX/Flash integration, take a look a lastFM, and if you really want to have a laugh, you can always take a peek at my musical tastes. The site pages are mostly AJAX, but the LastFM desktop player is a Flash web application
Also, I have a feeling that the list of technologies/applications listed in the graph above is a little (mis)leading. If web technologies related to the upcoming Microsoft Vista release and perhaps Adobe Flex (which is sufficiently diverse from Flash to warrant its own heading, and a closer competitor to AJAX than Flash) were listed, the results would be significantly different.
My guess is that many more designers will be wanting to look at XAML and Microsoft's new vector/3D UI technologies, especially if the web portions of the new stuff ends up being cross-platform. Also, many exisitng Flash users would potentially want to learn Flex/MXML for 2007 as Flex is more web application oriented.
Still, its all food for thought, and yet another good indication that the web is becoming a more interesting platform, especially for motion graphics and web application designers/developers.
As a final aside, there's also a more general set of predictions at Imagining the Internet. Almost as interesting are the predictions made in the early 1990's at the same site, as seen here.
Posted by motiongraphics at 04:38 PM | Comments (2)
March 10, 2006
Click to activate and use this control
You may have started seeing tooltip text that reads 'Click to activate and use this control' or 'Press SPACEBAR or ENTER to activate and use this control' whenever you open a Flash web page. Worse still, the Flash page will not work until you actually click the Flash content. This makes many (all?) Flash sites appear broken...
You will see this new 'feature' if you have Windows update enabled and you use Internet Explorer. Microsoft have added this feature after losing a legal battle with Eolas.
The feature actually has no practical use (its not a security measure) and has occurred purely because of a legal issue.
The background issue revolves around the use of plugins on a webpage, which Eolas claim patents on. Any content that is included within a web page via the applet, object or embed tags will be affected, and this includes Flash. It is important that you fix this issue for any Flash sites you are maintaining because the user cannot disable this new operation through their browser. You have been warned!
There is a fix for this issue here.
Update June 2006
Macromedia have released a (flash 8) fix for the Active X issue... download here.
Posted by motiongraphics at 11:47 AM | Comments (28)
February 27, 2006
Updates to some freebies...
Forgot to mention that the 'FashionIsSoLastSeason' site files I made available in a previous entry way back in September 2005 have been updated, and you may find the new version useful if you are trying to get your head around preloading in Flash 7 and 8...
The 'FashionIsSoLastSeason' site has been updated so that it now uses the MovieClipLoader class as part of its preloading strategy. I did this because one of the most common problems I am asked to help on is preloading.
You can download the source zip file here (100kb).
Posted by motiongraphics at 12:18 AM | Comments (0)
January 25, 2006
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 at 11:28 PM | Comments (3)
December 11, 2005
Flash 8 Essentials: learning Flash 8 on steroids
Disclaimer before I go on: I have not written the Flash 8 Upgrade Essentials book, have nothing to gain from it, and didn't even know until today that it was in production.
Okay, on with the show...
A few years ago I wrote a book called Flash MX Upgrade essentials. Its out again for Flash 8 and I've just been given a final draft of it. If you know Flash MX 2004, and need to learn Flash 8 in a hurry i.e. you are busy designer who can't waste time re-reading stuff you already know to find the stuff you don't know (...so that's all of us!), this is the book for you.
During the Flash beta phase, Macromedia give early releases of the software to designers. These designers play with the releases, see what is cool, what needs changing, and what is broken. Most of all, they get 6 months ahead of the pack in terms of learning curve.
The first edition of the Flash essentials book was a journal of my experience as a beta tester on Flash MX. My aim with the book was to put readers on the 'six months ahead' curve simply by reading a book that condensed all the new stuff into something that could be read in a couple of days.
Although a book that only looks at the new/upgraded sections of an application seems like a good idea (and why don't more publishers do it, etc), there is a very good reason why more Essentials type books are not around... this kind of book is very difficult to write. Everything is new and there is nothing you can write quickly (such as updated content from previous editions), and when you start the book it is not even clear what the contents page will look like. Although its cool for the reader that there is only new content, it takes as much time to write something like an Essentials book as it takes to write any two other books. So, lots of kudos to the authors of this book (Paul, Tink, Glen and Chris over as CRASH!MEDIA, Matt, and Todd).
So what do I think of the new edition?
There's a lot of new stuff in Flash 8, but most of it takes some digging around to find... unless you have this book. It goes through everything - all the new design tools, all the enhancements, and of course all the new ActionScript.
I really can't recommend this book enough. A must-buy for anyone even remotely involved with Flash design and development. The book is especially useful for the busy design office that needs a book full of Flash 8 design techniques, tips and walkthroughs that can be learnt quickly, and used now.
Posted by motiongraphics at 08:04 PM | Comments (4)
November 02, 2005
Foundation Flash 8 at a store near you
Foundation Flash is now available at Amazon.
Just had a quick peek over at Amazon, and I noticed that my first Flash 8 book, Foundation Flash 8 is available here.
... and no, I don't have any copies yet, so I can't say how good it is ;)
Posted by motiongraphics at 07:16 PM | Comments (1)
October 26, 2005
vCam.v2 keeps on trucking
Trucking is a way of adding depth to an animated scene. It is also a long and difficult process to get right when you are using manual tweening, which is why we have decided to automate the process...
Trucking (also known as parallax for the non-animator dummies in the house... um... that’s me that is) is something that Phillips will be using in his latest animation blockbuster. Anyway, he asked me if I could save some time by doing it through ActionScript, and as usual I said 'Lemmee see what I can do'.
I’m told trucking is a real pain for animators to emulate in Flash so we (well, Adam) thought it would be a good idea to add it to the original vCam (virtual camera).
Here's a scene without trucking. It is a simple pan, created via the original vCam. Click the image to see the animation... oh, and if you can only see a blank space, it is probably because you need to download the Flash 8 player.
Here's the same scene with trucking, courtesy of the vCam in progress. Click the image to see the effect.
I think you'll agree that this one looks much more interesting - and it was knocked up in no time, using the first animation as the input into the vCam.v2.
Anyway, Phillips is happy, although he still keeps mentioning a depth of focus blur effect (using Flash 8 filters) that he also wants me to add to the vCam 'because then the vCam will have everything - panning, zooming, rotation, trucking and depth of field blur'... but I think he just wants it so that he can win another zillion animation awards as part of his ongoing devious plan for world domination.
Added 27 October
Bad terminology alert: I've had my wrists slapped over my bad use of animation terms. Adam writes:
Trucking is an old animation term, but the modern professional filmmaking terms are 'tracking' and 'dolly'.
A truck is a trolley that the camera sits on
A track is a mini-railway track that the camera rolls on
A dolly is a rubber-wheeled trolley that the camera rolls on
Therefore, the vCam v2 has track/dolly capabilities now. On researching the terms, I also found that the vCam is capable of 'craning' as well, which is an airborne version of tracking that goes in 3 dimensions.. I'll provide examples for all of these using the vCam in chapter 6 [of the O'Reilly Flash animation/scripting book myself and Adam have been writing together, watch this space for release date].
Anyways, just letting you know, so that you can change the words on your blog :D
I don't think I'll change the title of this blog entry though. It will take me weeks to come up with something even remotely as cheesy as vCam.v2 keeps on trucking.
Added 19 November
For the Flash 5 and 6 users who have been filling my inbox with requests for versions of the vCam for them, a Flash MX (Flash 6) version is available here and the Flash 5 version is here.
For those who want to extend the original vCam themselves, have a look at this article.
Posted by motiongraphics at 09:12 PM | Comments (26)
October 18, 2005
Macromedia Labs goes online
Macromedia Labs, the source for early looks at emerging products and technologies from Macromedia (read: alpha versions of upcoming software releases) goes online.
Macromedia Labs is one of the many results of Macromedia's new policy of involving the design community more. Worth looking at, because not only can you download the Flash 8.5 player (that supports ActionScript 3.0 alpha) here, you can also look at surprisingly detailed early information about ActionScript 3.0 here, here and here.
There is also an overview of ActionScript 3.0 here.
Posted by motiongraphics at 11:35 PM | Comments (0)
October 04, 2005
Autodesk aquire Alias
It has just been announced that Autodesk will aquire Alias.
The 3D application industry has become very competitive in recent years as the market has reached saturation (and become unable to maintain the rather hefty price tags associated with most high end 3D applications). Thus, mergers and acquisitions are not unexpected.
However, This aquisition sounds like bad news for either 3ds Max or Maya, given that they are competing products. Lucky for me that I'm a SoftimageXSI fan then!
Posted by motiongraphics at 10:55 PM | Comments (1)
October 01, 2005
First Flash 8 book about to go to printers
My first Flash 8 book, Foundation Flash 8, is about to hit the printers.
It will be closely followed by one other book for O'Reilly, with Flash Hacks 2 and other books TBA.
I got the cover for Foundation Flash last week, and here it is. As you can see, they've stopped putting famous cinemas on the front of the books...
Here's the other books in the same series...
Don't worry, the spines are still FoEd pink :)
The artist for the covers is Corne van Dooren. He comes in two flavors: personal site and commercial site.
Posted by motiongraphics at 01:10 AM | Comments (2)
September 29, 2005
vCam.v2
The Flash virtual camera v2 is nearing release...
Unlike many 3D applications (3DMax, Softimage, etc), Flash content is based around the concept of a static stage, and does not have a virtual camera. Last year, I created a Flash virtual camera (the 'vCam'), and you can read all about it here.
Although the vCam is very simple, amazingly, nobody had ever thought to do one before, and there was an army of animators who found it very useful. It appears in all sorts of award winning Flash animations, such as previous TGSNT winners and Flash forward finalists.
Anyway, I have been continually asked to add a number of new features. In particular, the most requested addition is the ability to add rotation transitions.
Well, we (me and Dave Dixon, .NET guy from work) have just finished such a vCam, and are busy getting something to Adam Phillips (our animator of choice) so he can test it and tell us if its good to go.
I'm a little tied up at the moment with some client work and book production, but watch this blog for the download link and example files, coming soon.
Added to this post 30 September 2005
To answer some email queries sent to me regarding this post, I am aware that others have created versions of the vCam as a commercial product. My vCam will be a free download.
Posted by motiongraphics at 10:14 PM | Comments (35)
September 22, 2005
We need YOU...
There are a few job vacancies at the shop I work at (North of England)...
Large design house (mostly e-learning, 6 ActionScript developers, 20 Flash content creators), location Shipley, West Yorkshire
First one is for an ActionScript developer (must have plenty of ActionScript 2.0 experience in applications using webservices, XML, etc - you will be creating Actionscript based engines that drive the Flash content... if you only do classes that control bouncing balls, you will get found out!).
Second one is for a Senior Graphic Designer (Illustrator, Photoshop, Flash, HTML - portfolio/links essential).
Applications by 30th September 2005.
Website is here (ignore the fact that the website says they have no vacancies - we're all far too busy to update the damn thing!).
Posted by motiongraphics at 10:37 AM | Comments (1)
September 21, 2005
Go to the Opera for free
Opera is now free. Lightweight, feature packed, and much more secure than certain other browsers. Bargain!
Opera was previously available only as a free but banner infested version or a paid for premium version. You can now get a free and banner free version here.
For non web designers, why switch from the all-conquering Internet Explorer? Well... there's always this.
For web designers, the news that Opera is now free means that we need to start considering Opera a little more in our cross-browser compatibility testing because more people will surely start using it... but we always test all our designs on the top 5 browsers anyway, right?
Posted by motiongraphics at 12:26 PM | Comments (1)
September 16, 2005
Article... about moi ?!
There's a rather long interview of (cough cough) me called 'Hacking Life' in the March/April edition of Computer Graphics & Publishing...
The interview is by Barbara Sansome, and it is published in Computer Graphics And Publishing, Febriuary 2005 issue (edition dated March/April 2005).
You can view all editions of CG&P for 2005 here, and there is an online version of the article (pdf, 500k) here. Note that CG&P is an Italian publication, and the text of the article in the PDF is also in Italian. Nevertheless, the article displays some of my previously unpublished artwork.
For those who can't read Itailan, here's some edited highlights from the original (English language) interview:
Q: Can you tell me your studies and your training? It seems that you know a lot about visual art, music, math, video and so on...
A: Unlike many designers, my formal training was purely technical. I was trained as an engineer, and am also chartered (and still am). A lot of the work I did following training was design based though - creating screens for safety critical computer systems (the sort of thing you see in aircraft cockpits and stuff), so there is a strong link between the work I did then and the work I do now - it’s all user interfaces.
I thought I would be the only engineer in web design, but there's lots of them around - yugo (www.yugop.com) and voxAngelica (www.voxangelica.net) are also trained engineers or architects who are well known in Flash web design for example.
Q: Who or what inspires your work?
A: I spent a lot of time working on Soviet designs in an earlier career. That’s not Soviet graphic design but industrial stuff - Nuclear power stations and other stuff like that - but I really liked the way everything they built was so over engineered and huge. I was part of a team of 6 engineers that was tasked with reviewing some of their nuclear designs to Western safety standards and advise them, but I think a lot of knowledge went the other way and affected me in terms of aesthetics.
In particular, their use of big bold designs and lots of color - the whole Constructivist thing. Also, the former Soviet Union saw science, process and design as art itself, something the western world is only starting to realize.
I am also lucky enough to have an immediate family with a very creative bias. I have two brothers, and one is a dj and record producer (he's had one number 1 and a few top ten hits in the UK and parts of Europe), and the other has been a graphic designer all his working life. We meet as a family for dinner once a week, and I pick up a lot of their ideas and thoughts, so I guess I must be influenced by them as well.
I was also in bands when I was younger. I played bass in a few rubbish goth bands in the early 1990s, and some of that shows in earlier work such as Draconis Coy and 'Beauty is only skin deep (but with her it starts from the bone)'.
Following strong style movements like that are good when you are younger (because they make a lot of decisions for you) but as you get older they become constrictions, so I don’t really go for that sort of stuff as a design style in my work now.
Q: Is hacking your life philosophy?
A: Everything is a hack when you are being creative, because new ideas have not had time to have rules attached to them, and that’s what hacking is all about - taking something and working with it in the absence of any rules.
Flash web design is all about hacks, because when you start, you begin with a bandwidth and performance limited environment. The trick is to make the user think you have all the bandwidth you need, and create something responsive and cool despite the limitations. To do that, you need to be hacking against all the problems all the time, coming out with new ideas and shortcuts. So yeah, design is all about hacking old ideas and thoughts to come up with better, new stuff.
Q: What software do you use more often and why?
A: The software I use the most in everyday design are Flash, Photoshop, Audition and SoftImageXSI. At the moment, I am also learning Combusion. I guess the last two might surprise a few people. For me, It’s an obvious progression.
Macromedia and others will tell you that the next big thing Is Rich Internet Applications. I think that is the case, but the concept of the RIA is looking at the supply side. Looking at the consumer side and thinking about what the user actually wants from their web experience, I think it will be video and live streams.
A: You're a great programmer. How do you like programming? Do you think that's a creative activity? In which sense?
A: flash is almost two applications in one. There is the stage and the graphic creation tools, and there is ActionScript. Although you can create content without ActionScript, if you do it that way, you lose the ability to create truly interactive content that uses the full facilities of the Flash player. So, for me, programming with ActionScript isnt something that is important for the sake of itself. Rather, it is the ticket that gains you entry to a treasure room full of all the high end features offered by Flash.
Knowing how to use ActionScript therefore gives you far more design options. there have been many people who have come from a design background and learnt ActionScript. The big change in their designs is obvious. Its like an artist who only knew about black and white paints suddenly discovering color. the creative possibilities suddenly go up in a very large way!
Q: Has new media and the Internet changed the art field?
A: I don’t think internet art has really 'broken through' yet. Traditional art is referential, because every famous traditional artist is part of a movement, or their work Is related or derived from other historical artist. There Is actually a hierarchy in art, and because web art doesn’t fit this hierarchy, it hasn’t broken through.
I think another big reason that web art doesn’t break Into fine art is because it is very quickly consumed by traditional web design and becomes part of graphic design rather than fine art. If you look at a lot of the Javascript based web art that was popular in the 1990,s you will see many of those ideas now adopted in traditional Flash UI design.
Q: A retorical and maybe banal question, but always provoking curiosity: what do you think that art is? Who's the artist, what does he do? Do you consider yourself an artist?
A: I think there are actually three parts to the creative process, and they are always lumped together incorrectly as 'art'. The three are design, art and storytelling.
Design is about creating. Art is about feeling. Storytelling is about narrative.
Design is about creating something that is there to be used, so by definition, all websites are primarily about design. When a website makes us think and gives us an emotional response, then it has artistic merit. If it tells us a story, then it is also a narrative.
so the answer is that I don’t consider myself an artist, because I create web sites, and they are a designed thing...so I am a designer. But in design, you will always crossover into art and narrative.
Posted by motiongraphics at 10:44 PM | Comments (0)
September 13, 2005
Flash 8 now shipping....
Nice article based on early beta hands-on experience of Flash 8 here. Get your trial here. Oh, and you can buy it here.
Worth noting that, unlike in MX 2004, the difference between Flash 8 Pro and Flash 8 Basic is not based along developer-designer lines, but on 'I use Flash professionally' vs. 'I use Flash occasionally.
This means that most existing Flash developers and designers will need the Flash 8 Pro edition. However, it has to be said that most of the design oriented features of Flash 8 Pro require a fair understanding of ActionScript, so it looks like ActionScript is now even more important to the creation of compelling Flash design.
Added 3 October 2005
There's a making of Flash 8 video here.
Posted by motiongraphics at 08:53 AM | Comments (0)
September 07, 2005
Previews of stuff in progress
Some work in progress files...
Here's a few files that show what I've been up to in the last few weeks:
FashionIsSoLastSeason is a quick and simple Flash site template that I've put together to show how easy it can be to create a bandwidth light site UI using Flash and ActionScript. You can download the source zip file here (100kb). The 'Fashion' site is discussed in greater detail in an upcoming book, Mastering Flash Design, written by myself and Adam Phillips (O'Reilly). It is also referenced in a book by Sybex, where I wrote a few chapters to help out.
The original futuremedia site was the book example site for Foundation ActionScript for Flash MX 2004. Im currently updating it to make use of Flash 8's new features. I'm also fixing a few issues that a few users disliked about it, mainly the fact that there was no way of seeing a full site map. Well, as you can (possibly) just make out from the preview image, the UI start page itself is just that - a complete site map.
I'm not sure if the futuremedia site will make it into the Flash 8 ActionScript book, but I'll post the link for the finished site files on this weblog when I'm done. Assuming it doesnt make it into the book, I'm considering making the futuremedia v2 site code use AS2.0 classes throughout, so that it will act as a primer into class based AS for folks who learned structured code from futuremedia v1.
Finally, I'm working on a number of enhancements to the Flash page turn effect that you can see here. I'm looking at adding a number of enhancements as requested by readers of the article, plus making it more efficient by utilizing new Flash 8 performance enhancements. Again, I'll post on this weblog when its done (oh - and since its a Flash 8 file, I dont think I can post the FLA until after Flash 8 release, goddamn it).
Posted by motiongraphics at 08:16 PM | Comments (4)
September 03, 2005
It moves! It breathes!
Oyea. I've finally set up that weblog I've been promising myself for ages. I'm on a mission now. I can feel it in my trousers.
I may even put the main site, motion-graphics.org, onto a non-vapourware footing soon.
Well, actually...
...now is a good time for me to start a new site/blog thing. As well as being a Flash web developer during the day job, I am a sometime author of Macromedia Flash books. Flash 8 release is imminent, perhaps within the next two weeks.
As with most Flash authors, I'm already gearing up to this Flash 8 release, with my first book nearing completion. Starting a blog at the start of this cycle just seems a natural action.
Posted by motiongraphics at 05:34 PM | Comments (1)