Last night, Phillip Kerman and I co-presented a Flash 8 feature overview at the DevGroupNW meeting www.devgroupnw.org. You can find the session files/notes/Breeze Live recording URLs at this thread on FlashSupport.com:

http://www.flashsupport.com/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=74

If you’re interested in reviewing notes, files, or watching the Breeze Live recordings related to my three talks at the php/web|works conferences in Toronto, then check out the forum thread here for URLs:

http://www.flashsupport.com/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=73

Sessions include:

“Multilingual Flash”
“Flash and XML”
“Flash Video”

So, since Flash 8 is just about to be released, I expect many of you (since most of you on this list are former students of mine) will seek training in one way or another for the new toolset. In general, what types of content do you look for? I’m trying to assess what kind of new training materials I should be focusing on, and any input would be greatly appreciated.

<survey> 

Which of the following topics do you prefer?

1. Comprehensive soup-to-nuts coverage
2. Focused topics that interest you (e.g. Flash Video, ActionScript, etc)
3. Project-based training (workflow, “building a Flash game”, etc)
    

What’s your preferred method of receiving training?

1. Self-paced via book
2. Self-paced via online instruction (tutorials at CommunityMX.com, online courses for example)
3. Self-paced via CD-ROM/DVD-ROM (Lynda.com discs, Captivate demos)
4. Live instruction

How much time to you spend, on average, per week upgrading your skills with the software tools you use?

How much time to plan to set aside to learn Flash 8 skills in the next 6 to 10 months?

</survey>

I’m trying out the new SMIL support featured in the FLVPlayback component in Flash 8, and would like to get a decent sampling of test cases. If you have Flash Player 8 installed and a few moments to spare, go to:

http://dev.themakers.com/fp8/video/bandwidth/detect.html

Answer the questions below the video area. For “Choppy?” simply indicate whether you think the playback is smooth (not counting seeking, although you’re free to do that). If you choose another clip in the clip list, you can resubmit your observations. Thanks in advance!

This example will be featured across several sections in the Flash 8 Bible, and shows new embedded cue points at work:

http://dev.themakers.com/fp8/video/cuepoints/cuepoints_embedded.html

The Flash 8 Video Encoder enables you to embed more metadata, include cue points. In this example, the flower/plant names are label properties, while the position of the text is a position property (e.g. “lt”, “rb”, etc). Those are my own custom properties for each cue point –you can create whatever properties and values you want for each cue point in the Flash 8 Video Encoder. One of the drawbacks, though, as you can see in this example, is that the video preview UI in the encoder is poorly designed. For example, you can’t go to specific time points by entering a time value; you have to manually drag the playhead, and you can’t nudge the playhead with arrow keys, etc. 

Here’s the frame 1 script for that example.

This is a work in progress, and throughout the Bible, I’ll show the new FLVPlayback component working with data binding, SMIL, and other nifty features. 

Note: The footage of the plants, as unexciting as it may seem, is real footage from our yard in Portland. That pumpkin may get as big as 500 lbs! WHOAH!