boostworthyisryantaylor

[Update: June 2nd, 2007]
v2 is now live.
[/Update]

v2: Because you deserve better.

The new system has been described as the hottest thing since 70’s flight attendants. The management system and virtual timeline system have been merged into one package along with a bunch of amazing new features, full-blown documentation, and a large collection of example files that range from basic to advanced topics. Here are just a few of the new features that will enhance your lifestyle:

- Easily create motion paths for display objects with the option to auto-orient to path.
- Advanced animation control using paths as value maps.
- Specify the render method (enter frame or timer) on a per animation basis for all animations.
- Even more extensible than it already was with a new structure and additional interfaces.
- Complete animation event support using start, stop, change, and finish events.
- Full-blown documentation using ASDoc (same as Adobe livedocs).
- Large collection of example files to help you get familiar with the system faster than ever.

This system is a developers best friend. With strictly enforced OOP best practices, naming conventions, and plenty of commenting - you will be hard-pressed to find an animation system with more elegant, readable code. As a result, you are left with a system that you can easily customize and add on to for your individual needs.

Are you an AS3 baller? Beta testers are needed…

I am in need of a small team of beta testers to test out the new system before the public launch. As a beta tester, I will be looking to you for bug reports, system suggestions, and feature requests. If you are a Flash or Flex developer with a knowledge of AS3 and are interested in participating in the beta, please email me at:

rtaylor11 [-at-] gmail.com

Again, I will only be accepting a limited number of applicants so, if you are interested, get in touch with me as soon as possible.

In AS3, metadata tags play a much more important role than they did in AS2. Here are some of the biggies along with samples of their usage.

SWF

You can use the SWF tag after your imports, but before your class definition. These settings will override any MXML compiler options, however if you compile from the Flash IDE, these settings will be overriden by the settings in the properties panel. The advantage of using this tag is that your settings stay independent of your build files.

Embed

Here's an example of embedding an image into the SWF file.

Now, to use that image:

What's even cooler is that you can create SWF files that are used strictly for their library much like you would with runtime sharing setups.

Really useful stuff.

ArrayElementType

You can use this tag to have the MXML compiler perform type checking on the elements in the array.

Frame

Keith Peters posted a really detailed write-up of how to use this tag for preloading a few months ago. Basically, the deal is that you can use this tag to force the compiler to create a two-frame SWF file.

The reason you would want to do this is so that you have minimal logic (ideally just the preloader code) on the first frame and everything else on the second. So you place the frame tag above your class definition in your 'Main' class, then all the preloader logic in the factory class.

Event

The last tag I want to mention is the event tag. This is more of a Flex-compatibility tag. If you try and use an event name in MXML without declaring the event with an event tag, the MXML compiler will throw an error. So here's how to avoid that:

As with the frame and SWF tags, event tags should be placed after imports, but before the class definition.

eBay is now accepting registrations for the beta of their San Dimas project which is being built using Apollo.

http://www.sandimasproject.com

When it comes to showreels, visual effects studios normally create something simple and straight to the point; leaving all the cool reels to motion graphics studios such as MK12, Stardust, and Shilo. Digital Domain's new 2007 reels are a breath of fresh air for the visual effects industry; I really like them a lot.

http://www.digitaldomain.com/links/screening_room/screening_room.html

At last, Flash CS3 is finally here. Though many of us have been building Flash 9 applications for over a year now, there is no denying the fact that the new IDE is about to boost the Flash 9 world in a big way.

The new interface design is quite nice. I really enjoy the new single-column tool panels in the CS3 applications. Generally speaking, most of the panels in Flash have not changed greatly. Certain elements in some of the panels have been moved around slightly enough to throw you off a little at first, but overall everything feels great.

First off, the feature that I know many of you are the most excited about is the ability to import PSD and AI files into Flash. As you can see below, it is really simple to load in a PSD and select layers to be brought in as movie clips, customize quality/compression, or even layers to keyframes.

The entire PSD is imported into the library as a graphic file. Inside the graphic file, you will find the exact same layers that existed in the PSD (including the layer names) intact with bitmaps of the graphics that were on that layer. For text layers, you have the option of bringing them in as editable text, vector outlines, or rasterized. Overall, I am very impressed with the feature. It is going to do absolute wonders for our workflow.

Next up, we have the new v3 components. Created by Grant Skinner and his crew, these new components look to be much more promising than previous components bundled with the Flash IDE.

One of the first things you will notice is that you can drag the components into your library from the components panel and then immediately drill down into them to do some reskinning. No more having to go copy the original library assets over into your project like with previous versions.

A quick browse through the components source directory ("Adobe Flash CS3\en\Configuration\Component Source\ActionScript 3.0") will get you familiar with the new architecture.

Another hot new feature is the ability to generate XML from timeline animations for use with the new motion library that is included. Having browsed through all of the files, it looks to be a pretty solid system, though more geared towards the specific needs of the timeline compatibility. The flow starts by importing the XML data into the Animator object which then passes it on to the Motion object which then creates keyframes based on the keyframe nodes, then finally the keyframe objects do the remainder of the parsing.

Beyond just being a cool system to check out and learn from, it will also be very, very nice for artists to be able to prototype animations using the timeline, then turn the code over to developers. The motion library can be found in "Adobe Flash CS3\en\Configuration\ActionScript 3.0\Classes\fl\motion".

In regards to how the XML data is generated in the first place, this is all handled with JSFL files. The beastly 'MotionXML' JSFL is responsible for most of this matter.

The 'MotionXML' file and more can be found in "Adobe Flash CS3\en\First Run\Javascript".

The last thing I want to talk about is the new debugger. In the past, there was very little offered with the IDE in terms of debugging. Now, developers have a pretty nice set of tools to help them debug applications.

By using breakpoints, you can easily step through your application bit by bit and monitor things as they progress. The call stack provides you with a list of methods in the order that they are called. You also have the variables panel which not only shows the current value of variables while the application is running, but more importanly you can edit them while the application is live. This enables you to quickly and easily test various aspects of your application without having to build test interfaces and so forth.

There is obviously a lot more to the new CS3 IDE than I could talk about in a single post, however I wanted to cover some of the biggies and share my thoughts on all of them since many of you may be holding out to see if the features really are all that they have been talked up to be. I personally love it and see it as a must-have upgrade.

Through some act of chaotic mystery, one of the files that I modified for that recent update I posted didn't make it into the download. I apoligize for this and hope it didn't confuse too many of you. Here is what the directory properties should look like in the 'build.properties' file:

The file is now included in the download, so you can either re-download the template or replace the directory properties in your existing 'build.properties' file with the ones above.

Download 'boostworthy_fd_apollo_template.zip'

First off, the CS3 Design and Web editions are now shipping. Since the latest statistics indicate an 84.3% Flash Player 9 penetration, you can start taking advantage of Flash 9 as soon as you get your hands on it without too much worry. There are also prerelease versions of both After Effects and Premiere on Adobe Labs.

Secondly, some of you may remember a post I did a few months ago that talked of an Adobe project called "Philo". Soon after I posted, I had to pull it down (I'm sure you can guess why). Well, at NAB, Adobe finally publicly announced the project under the official name of "Adobe Media Player". As I mentioned before, it is an internet TV application which consumes media RSS feeds and can be reskinned per channel. It will be interesting to see where things go from here.

Last but not least, Peter Elst has a new article up on the Adobe Developer Center which covers the very nice debugger that is packaged with the new Flash IDE. It's a very welcome addition and definitely something worth checking out.

Today at NAB, Apple held a special event in which they announced Final Cut Studio 2. In addition, they also presented a new video codec called ProRes 422 which promises uncompressed HD quality at SD file sizes.

Final Cut Studio 2

- Final Cut Pro 2
- Motion 3
- Soundtrack Pro 2
- Color
- Compressor 3
- DVD Studio Pro 4

Apple ProRes 422 Codec

- Uncompressed HD quality at SD file sizes.
- 10-bit, 4:2:2, VBR.

IO-HD

- Hardware box that provides realtime conversion into ProRes 422.

Those of you who are familiar with the Apple software lineup may have noticed a new name in the suite, Color. Color is a professional color grading application; a fine addition to the suite indeed.

Final Cut Studio 2 will be shipping in May and is priced at $1299 new or $499 upgrade from Final Cut Studio. The IO-HD hardware will be shipping in July and is priced at $3495.

I was really pumped when I saw the new CS3 video suite updates, however Apple has certainly answered with a lineup of fantastic additions to their top of the line video solutions. Video demonstrations of key new features in each application can be found on the Apple website here. At $1299, you are getting a bargain deal for is what is undeniably the best video suite on the market.

I want to start off by thanking everyone who has been putting this template to the test and notifying me of issues that they have come across. With the Apollo framework being new and the fact that there are several different approaches to how an Apollo application can be built, the initial template release was good, but not perfect.

This following changes have been made in this update:

- Paths for both the Apollo framework and Flex 2 framework are included in the ANT build file.
- Instead of including the Apollo framework and library in the source folder, it is now being referenced from the Apollo install directory.

This should cure any errors you may have come across when trying to use the Apollo framework.

Download 'boostworthy_fd_apollo_template.zip'

NOTE: The changes are included in the download on the original post as well.

The talented team at Tronic just completed some cool spots for Target's new "Art for All" campaign. The stylized look in addition to the well-done HDRI lighting makes for some real eye candy. Thanks to Bobby for the heads up on this one.