• Banner ads: Most advertising on the web has relied on the small file size (well, hopefully it’s kept small) of Flash SWF files to deploy ad graphics, including micro sites for product demos. With chatter I’m seeing on twitter, I’m getting the impression that many people believe web ads will just “go away” and good riddance. While I’m not a fan of annoying banner ads (and most of them are, indeed, obnoxious and annoying), I’ll take the lesser of all evils and suffer a small Flash SWF eating up a minor portion of my bandwidth than some other multimedia format. Future without Flash prediction? Banner ads could turn into video ads that are much larger in file size and data transfer than the equivalent animation/experience in a Flash SWF. Poetic justice, perhaps, for the already crippled AT&T 3G network that the iPhone uses for its open web experiences.
• Web applications for e-business: Many businesses rely on Flash technology to deploy rich internet applications (RIAs). While a portion of these applications could be built with current HTML/JavaScript/CSS capabilities, many businesses prefer to use SWF because now, more than ever, the programming required for the front end SWF file (ActionScript 3.0) can be utilized across multiple platforms, from the web to the desktop (Adobe AIR) to mobile devices–Flash Player 10.1 is finally gaining ground this year on mobile devices! Businesses also want to protect their front-end intellectual property by using the SWF file format, thereby preventing exposure of their user-interface capabilities via HTML/JavaScript/CSS. It’s true that SWF files can be decompiled, but from a legal standpoint, if company B “steals” code from company A’s SWF content, it’s pretty clear they took extra steps to access the code and extract it. Perhaps more importantly, let’s look at the software development process in general. Web applications are not web pages–they’re apps in the browser. So, they’re written, usually, by experienced computer programmers who need grown up programming languages. If you’re not aware, Flash Player’s scripting language, ActionScript, has grown up over its 10+ years of life, and more “traditional” software developers continue to embrace Flash technology with the growth of Adobe’s open source Flex framework and its free compiler. You don’t even have to give Adobe any money to make a web application. (I prefer to use their tools because it’s usually much less hassle, which means less $$$ my clients have to spend to get something built quickly and reliably.) JavaScript has to play a lot of catch up to reach the capabilities of ActionScript 3.0. Also, many businesses want their applications to run across the web and on thin clients. I’ve worked on two projects for companies targeting gym chains, and they can take their application from a Linux client running nothing but the OS and AIR with cheap hardware to the “normal web” without a complete reinvestment in a new solution. As more and more devices run multimedia content, from cars to boats to kitchen appliances, reuse of existing IP is critical.  Future without Flash prediction? Growth of killer applications running on a wide range of devices will stagnate, as more money will be required to deploy a solution across multiple technologies.
• Customized video experiences: Video is not just a click to play experience for many sites on the web. Sure, YouTube.com is all about going to a site for a quick fix of entertainment by sitting back and watching a video. However, many sites that produce e-learning solutions, for example, might need alpha-channel videos of instructors placed seamlessly on top of other interactive content. They might need an interactive live video chat between instructors and students, and have the web app talk to a native desktop app (this is possible with Flash Player in the browser and AIR applications on the desktop). There’s also the need for digital rights management (DRM) solutions for web video content. AFAIK, HTML5’s <video> tag’s only “protection” of video assets would be adaptive HTTP streaming technology, but I don’t think we’ll see ABC.com or NBC.com use the <video> tag anytime soon for the most recent episodes of popular shows. Future without Flash? Forget about shared real-time video experiences. Less video content on the web from big players in the industry. Apple’s play? More video purchased via iTunes by the majority of users. Apple controls how and when you access media content, period.
• Games/entertainment sites: I’m not an online gamer nor does my child use the web yet, but most web entertainment sites use Flash content to drive their experiences to their audiences. Future without Flash? Apple is the “game nazi” (pun on the soup nazi from Seinfeld). No games for you! — unless you get them on the app store.

Since I’m in rant mode, let me just make some other points regarding Flash. I don’t have exact tweets that I’m reacting to, but these points are my response to what I’m reading on the social networks. I believe that:

• Flash capabilities fill a very real need for the e-business community. Their customers would love to be able to have a consistent feature-by-feature experience with any e-business product, from desktop to mobile to car to airplane to whatever.
• HTML “standards based” production should be used for most content on the web. Flash should serve very specific purposes.
• Adobe is hardly a monster that does whatever it wants with the Flash Player. With my 10+ years of experience with the Flash runtime, I’d say 99% of the features Adobe adds to the Flash Player are driven by end users of their products. I’m not a spokesperson for Adobe, but I’d say that Adobe wants to enable people to create engaging content on the web.
• There is no authoring replacement for Flash content. Where are Apple’s tools to create awesome HTML5 content that’s just as good if not better than Flash? QuickTime Player has some amazing capabilities for multimedia experiences beyond just watching video, but where are the tools to author for their player? And that’s still not “standards” based, QuickTime Player. Where are the tools to create compelling content that work across all browsers without having to cater to multiple flavors of JavaScript, CSS, and DOMs?
• H.264 is not part of the “open web”. H.264 requires licensing fees, you fools. Yes, let’s say you make a web site for a realtor who charges subscription fees for wannabe realtors who sign up for a monthly subscription fee to watch instructional videos encoded with H.264. Guess who’s gonna pay fees for H.264 video deployed on the site? Your client, the realtor. Ok, they have to have a lot of subscribers before they have to pay, but they want to have a lot of subscribers, right? You don’t want to impose a limit on the number of subscribers just to avoid licensing fees, do you? Sure, the client might go unnoticed by the MPEG LA consortium, but you wouldn’t want to knowingly use a video codec without knowing your potential licensing obligations, would you? Conversely, the “real” open video codec, Theora, is license free, but it’s not the HTML <video> standard that recent beta releases of YouTube.com and Vimeo.com are using. The Flash Video formats by Adobe (FLV files) are also license free for deployment. Only encoding companies pay a license fee for FLV-based codecs, not the end user. And another thing: MPEG LA’s current licensing terms are expiring this year. That means license fees could increase and/or encompass more usage scenarios than the current ones. You really want to place your video future in that? And you then complain about Flash? I don’t get it. For the record, I love H.264 video, from an encoding and quality point of view. But the licensing requirements? Scary. Apple doesn’t care about that, because they pay their licensing fees for purchases made from iTunes. But the rest of us? Well, we could distribute all of our money-making video content through iTunes, and not worry about it. But don’t believe you can just distribute your H.264 video online without potential repercussions.
• Flash Player should not necessarily be used for all engaging browser-based content. I do think a lot of Flash content would probably be better served in an HTML format. Flash Player should be an option while other technologies improve and become _real_ standards that all browsers implement.
•  Flash Player has performance issues on the Mac. Apple and Adobe have to come together to make their technologies work better. I don’t think this will happen any time soon, and the Mac platform (which I use for my work as a web consultant and developer) will have to suffer in the meantime.
• Video experiences cannot be replaced now with HTML5 and the <video> tag. Most users haven’t upgraded their browsers to HTML5 compliant versions, while the Flash Player reaches 90% adoption in about 10 months from a new release. (This adoption rate would be just as fast with or without YouTube–Flash Player adoption was almost as fast before YouTube.com was ever invented.) Sure, we could make steps for a lot of video content to _try_ the <video> tag first, and then fall back on other technologies, but this approach won’t satisfy the business requirements of many projects that content creators want to make a reality on the web–simply because they’re not just “play to click” video experiences.

After all I have said here, I’m not optimistic about Apple adopting the Flash runtime this year or next. They’ll have to see more customers complaining about the lack of accessibility to content they can watch or use on their desktop browser. But maybe Apple will put up with it while they work on some new authoring technology that will enable Objective-C to run in the browser–deploy your app in a browser! Or maybe Apple’s working on QuickTime authoring programs to enable more interactive QuickTime experiences to replace Flash and other plug-in driven content. One of the only QuickTime authoring programs left is LiveStage. I want to enable my clients, especially in these trying economic times, to more easily and cheaply deploy rich content, not spend more time developing separate technologies to accomplish the same ends. Some would argue that the solution would then be to just build everything in HTML5, but it’s HTML5 that has to prove it can do it–Flash already has.

Share This

I’d love any feedback on video quality that’s created by the system, so go ahead and sign up for an account at http://www.videoRx.com!

P.S. You can see parts of videoRx.com in action during my Adobe MAX 2009 session, “HD Experiences on the Web”.

Share This

http://experts.na3.acrobat.com/p60867419/

Many thanks to Dave Schroeder for the sixth Flashbelt! I’m honored to be part of the tradition.

Share This

Save Yourself Now: What Your Boss Won’t Tell You

In this full-day workshop, Robert Reinhardt teaches you how to build up your self-defense skills as an independent contractor for multimedia/web design and development. If you’re considering venturing out on your own or don’t expect your current employer to watch your back much longer, this workshop is for you. Learn the do’s and don’ts of running your own consulting business without breaking the bank or jeopardizing your future options. This workshop is geared to experienced web design or development professionals who are confident in their skills and yearn to expand their current prospects.

By luck or circumstance, Robert has preserved his career autonomy over twelve years of varied job roles and responsibilities, including teaching, writing and consulting. Robert’s experience with both small and large projects has helped him develop strategies that reduce frustration and anxiety—for clients and production teams.

In addition to his freelance work and evolving his own company, Robert has experience working in-house for companies of various sizes. In one five-year stint, he built a team of just two Flash developers in a small start-up to a full-blown department for a multinational agency. Pulling from personal experience and specific case studies of real world projects, here’s a brief overview of topics Robert covers in the workshop:

• Picking a legal entity for your business, from sole proprietorship to S-corp
• Determining hourly rates or project rates, and when to call in for backup
• Managing your projects on the fly, including open source tools for version control, report tracking, and time tracking
• Setting up production for Flash CS4, Flex Builder, and FDT
• Tapping third party Flash resources, from open source libraries to licensed components
• Improving your own brand through writing skills, from maximizing your tweets to writing published works
• Leveraging the potential of social networking to further your business and career goals.

If you think this is the workshop for you, register and sign up for the “Freelancing Workshop” (not my preferred choice of words) at the Flashbelt site. If you’d be interested in attending an online version of this workshop, post a comment.

Tonight, I’ll be giving a 15 minute sneak peek at some of the material I’ll be covering at the Flashbelt workshop.

Watch the recorded event here:

http://experts.na3.acrobat.com/p33706601/

I presented this session to the FlashMN user group in Minneapolis. Hope to see you there!

Share This

The update to my original Adobe Press book on video and Flash is finally available in bookstores! The new edition has a different title too: Video with Adobe Flash CS4 Professional Studio Techniques. I’ve updated this book to cover the Flash CS4 IDE, as well as adding important updates that weren’t released when the last edition went to print:

• AVC/H.264 encoding tips, including coverage of CABAC, B-frames, and Main/High profiles
• Discussion of my new Web Video Bitrate Starter application, which helps you get started with the right video and audio bitrate for your preferred video dimensions, frame rate, video codec, and audio codec.
• Updates to chapters covering real-time streaming (via RTMP) and Flash Media Server (FMS) 3.5 dynamic streaming

I also created a video encoding tutorial covering Flash-compatible output for DesignProVideo.com. If you’d rather learn by watching step-by-step how to create high quality video, or you want to augment the coverage of my book with more hands-on examples, then you’ll like this video training. But don’t take my word on it–just read this review on the forums at DesignProVideo.

Gotta get back to a client job–it’s a pretty sweet AIR app. More details when the product has been launched this summer.

Share This

I delivered my Personal Brand Building session on Tuesday at 12:30pm, and managed to do a pretty decent recording via Acrobat Connect:

http://experts.na3.acrobat.com/p57973590/

I’ve also posted a PDF version of my slides here:

http://www.flashsupport.com/2009/fitc/FITC_Amsterdam_Personal_Branding.pdf

Note that I have modified one of the last slides that used the acronym “swear”–many thanks to Erik de Vreede for recommending a change to “sweat” where the “r” (for RSS) is changed to a “t” for teach. Definitely makes more sense given the rest of my presentation.

Many thanks to the sponsors of the two parties–Influxis and Media Temple–for an awesome time. Of course, a huge thank you to Shawn Pucknell at FITC for inviting me and organizing such a fun event.

Share This

Fill out the subscription form if you’d like to receive future announcements.

Share This

http://groups.adobe.com/posts/d3a78258e3

In this presentation, I talk about the importance of various video and audio encoding settings found across video encoders, especially for AVC/H.264 video.

You need to login to Adobe Groups with your Adobe ID to view the video. You can also directly open the Brightcove video player with the following URL, but the video scales to the size of your browser window:

< View video in new browser window >

Share This

http://www.designprovideo.com/tutorial/flashcs4101

There are free downloads available as well. The NED Player that the video series uses is pretty nice too. Check it out! Here’s the table of contents:

Chapter 1: Part 1
Section 1: Interface Fundamentals
01. Introduction
02. Start Page
03. Preferences
04. Document Properties
05. File, Edit, View Menus, and Using Rulers
06. Using Snapping and Window Overview
07. Document Window: Stage, Pasteboard, and View Settings
08. Panels and Workspace Layouts
09. Customizing Workspace Layouts
10. The Timeline: Working with Layers
11. The Timeline: Working with Frames
12. Properties Panel
13. Tools Panel

Section 2: Introduction to Publishing and Managing Flash Movies
14. Section Overview
15. Quick Publish HTML and Flash Movie
16. Accessing the Publish Settings
17. Flash Settings: Player and Script Version
18. Flash Settings: Global Image and Sound Quality
19. Flash Settings: Global SWF Settings
20. HTML Settings: Template Options for Full Screen Mode
21. HTML Settings: Detect Flash Version
22. HTML Settings: Dimensions
23. Working with Test Movie
24. Using the Play Command
25. The Bandwidth Profiler: Frame-by-Frame and Streaming Graphs
26. The Bandwidth Profiler: Simulate Download
27. Employing Adobe’s Flash Player Detection Script
28. Downloading SWFObject 2.x from Google Code
29. Reviewing the files included with SWFObject
30. Copying files for SWFObject implementation
31. Modifying the sample HTML file to use your own Flash SWF file
32. Setting up Folders for Flash Production
33. Setting Folders in Publish Settings
34. Using the Project Panel to Organize and Publish Flash Content

Section 3: Drawing in Flash
35. The Shape Tools
36. The Rectangle Tool and Object Drawing Mode
37. The Oval, Rectangle Primitive and Oval Primitive Tools
38. The PolyStar Tool
39. Shape Tool Settings Box
40. The Pencil Tool
41. The Brush Tool
42. Using a Tablet with the Brush Tool
43. The Line Tool
44. How Lines Interact
45. The Pen Tool
46. Drawing Preferences
47. Line Properties
48. Smoothing Options
49. Selection Tools: Selection, Subselection & Lasso
50. The Spray Brush and Grouping
51. The Spray Brush Settings
52. The Deco Tool

Section 4: Modifying Graphics
53. Color and Alpha
54. The Color Panel
55. The Ink Bottle and Paint Bucket Tools
56. The Swatches Panel
57. The Transform Panel
58. The Free Transform Tool
59. Gradients and The Gradients Transform Tool
60. Changing Gradient Styles
61. Using the Adjust Color Filter
62. Using the Drop Shadow Filter

Section 5: Working with Text
63. Overview of Text Section
64. Selecting the Text Tool and Creating a Text Box
65. Resetting the Autosize Control of a Text Box
66. Customizing Font Face and Color
67. Changing Font Size
68. Setting Text Alignment
69. Controlling Anti-Aliasing Options for Text
70. Linking Text to a Website URL
71. Linking Text to an Email Address
72. The Difference Between Embedded and Device Fonts
73. A Note About Text Field Types: Static, Dynamic, and Input Text

Section 6: Importing Artwork
74. Importing Illustrator Files to the Stage
75. Import to Stage Options
76. Working with Imported Layers and Objects From an Illustrator File
77. How Imported Objects Appear in the Library
78. Importing Photoshop Files to the Stage
79. Working with Imported Layers and Objects from Photoshop
80. Importer Preferences
81. Bitmap Properties
82. Using Bitmap Fills
83. Tracing Bitmaps

Section 7: Symbols, Instances, and the Library
84. Working with Libraries
85. Working with Multiple Libraries
86. Common Libraries
87. Managing Assets in the Library
88. Graphic Symbols
89. Movie Clips
90. Button Symbols
91. Creating Symbols
92. Swapping Symbols

Chapter 2: Part 2
Section 8: Timeline Animation
93. Animating Content Frame-By-Frame
94. Using the Onion Skinning View Modes
95. Animating a Single Object with Frame-By-Frame Animation
96. Creating a Shape Tween
97. Using Shape Hints with a Shape Tween
98. Editing Multiple Frames

Section 9: Object-Based Motion Tweens
99. Creating Object-Based Tweens
100. Working with Motion Paths
101. Editing Tween Spans and Property Keyframes
102. Viewing Keyframes by Type
103. Changing the Target Object
104. Using Motion Presets
105. Easing
106. The Motion Editor
107. Editing Eases with the Motion Editor
108. Tweening Raw Shapes

Section 10: 3D and IK Tools
109. 3D Rotation
110. 3D Translation
111. 3D Motion Presets
112. Vanishing Point and Perspective Angle
113. Inverse Kinematics: Bone Tool on a Shape
114. Inverse Kinematics: Bone Tool with Symbol Instances

Section 11: Adding Sound
115. Section Overview
116. Overview of Sound File Formats: WAV, AIF, and MP3
117. Importing a Sound File
118. Auditioning an Imported Sound File
119. Using an Event Sound with a Keyframe
120. Using a Stream Sound on a Keyframe
121. Using a Stream Sound as Sync Sound with Animation
122. Using an Event Sound in a Button Symbol
123. Stopping Sound Playback with a Button Symbol
124. Stopping All Sounds with ActionScript 2.0
125. Stopping All Sounds with ActionScript 3.0
126. Opening the Adobe Soundbooth CS4 Samples Library and Adding Sounds
127. Adding Fade In/Fade Out Effects to Sound
128. Controlling Global Sound Quality and Compression in Publish Settings
129. Controlling Individual Sound Quality and Compression in the Library

Section 12: Working with Flash Video
130. Section Overview
131. Overview of Video File Formats
132. A Cautionary Note About Video Codecs
133. Overview of Flash Player 10 Video Codecs
134. Adding a Source Video File to the Queue in Adobe Media Encoder CS4
135. Selecting an Encoding Preset in Adobe Media Encoder CS4
136. Editing a Preset in Adobe Media Encoder CS4
137. Renaming and Compressing a Clip in Adobe Media Encoder CS4
138. Previewing a Flash Compatible Video File in Adobe Media Player
139. Importing a Flash Compatible Video File with Flash CS4 Video Import Wizard
140. Testing the Created Assets from the Video Import Wizard
141. Placing the FLVPlayback Component on the Stage
142. Assigning a Flash Compatible Video File to the FLVPlayback Component
143. Setting the Skin Options for the FLVPlayback Component
144. Adding a Full Screen-Enabled Skin to the FLVPlayback Component
145. Removing a Skin to Prep for Your Own Custom Controls
146. Building Your Own Playback Controls for the FLVPlayback Component
147. Publishing a Flash Video Experience

Section 13: Introduction to ActionScript and Components
148. Section Overview
149. Overview of ActionScript: Comparing ActionScript 2.0 and 3.0
150. Changing the ActionScript Version of a Flash Document
151. Using a Stop Action on a Timeline (AS2/AS3)
152. Placing and Naming a Button Instance
153. Playing a Timeline with a Button Instance in AS2
154. Playing a Timeline with a Button Instance in AS3
155. Enabling a Button-Click to Open a New Web Page in ActionScript 1.0/2.0
156. Enabling a Button-Click to Open a New Web Page in ActionScript 3.0
157. Making an Invisible Button
158. Building a Clickable Web Banner with ActionScript 1.0/2.0
159. Introduction to Components (ActionScript 2.0 vs. 3.0)
160. Adding a Scrollbar to a Text Field in ActionScript 3.0
161. Loading an External Image file with the UILoader Component in ActionScript 3.0
162. Skinning ActionScript 3.0 Components
163. Wrap-Up

Share This

http://chartjunk.karmanaut.com/taxplans/

Oops, I copied and pasted the wrong URL! That’s the difference between Obama and McCain’s tax plans. I meant this link:

http://library.creativecow.net/articles/hurwicz_michael/flash_cs3.php

Share This