Source and slides for the Flash Platform Workshop (Updated)

Events, Flash, Flex, Interactive Design, Source Code,
2/25/08

UPDATE: The Adobe Connect archive of the workshop has been posted.

Workshop description: Flash is no longer just a plug-in; it has evolved into a massive suite of tools, services and techniques called the Flash Platform. Used for everything from character animation to interactive video to full-featured applications that rival their desktop counterparts, Flash plays a major role in shaping how users experience content on the Internet. This workshop will introduce the Flash Platform with specific emphasis on programming in ActionScript 3.0 and MXML and the basics of working in Flash and Flex (and how you decide when to use which).

For those attending today’s Flash Platform Workshop, this is the place to download the source code and slides.

I encourage you to leave comments on this post with your feedback (positive and negative!) about the workshop. Thanks!

 

LA Flash February meeting: Stateful applications and Wii installations

Animation, Events, Exemplary Work, Flash, Flex, Interactive Design, LA Flash, Wii,
2/22/08

Los Angeles-area Flash aficionados were lured out under Wednesday night’s lunar eclipse to attend the monthly gathering of LA Flash, a great local user group. Sam Rivello (whose blitting seminar I attended at last year’s LA Flashapaloozastock) gave a solid overview of various techniques for maintaining state in Flash and Flex applications, including one technique (custom namespaces) I’d never heard of before. I’d be curious to hear if anyone else out there is using custom namespaces to manage state, or for any other purpose. Afterwards I got to thank Sam for his seminar last year, as it inspired me to build a blitting engine as part of the forthcoming Precision Targets project I’m working on with Caren Kaplan.

Screenshot from 'Creativity Conducted'

Next up was Patrick Matte of BLITZ, the interactive director behind the amazing “Creativity Conducted” multiplayer Wii remote interactive installation. Gasps of “wow” and “cool” were heard from the crowd as Patrick deconstructed the development process, which utilized WiiFlash. The biggest revelation for me (although it’s really kind of a no-brainer) was the fact that the Wiimote won’t generate mouse events; Patrick ended up using the VirtualMouse class from Senocular to connect each remote to its own virtual cursor that sent the appropriate events in response to button presses. I saw this piece on plasma screens at FITC last fall, but wish I could have seen the more immersive “holographic” version when it debuted at MAX (a new iteration is reportedly in the works for this year’s MAX). Great presentation, and great to hear from another WiiFlash user putting the server through its paces. Now if we can just get a Mac version…

 

‘Designing for Convergence’ panel archived at Adobe; includes Wii remote discussion

Events, Graphic Design, Interactive Design, Wii,
2/17/08

Screenshot from the panel archive

Adobe has posed a Connect archive of the ‘Designing for Convergence’ panel I was on with Dmitri Siegel of Urban Outfitters and Peter Lunenfeld of Art Center College of Design back in November. I enjoyed this panel—Dmitri showed a selection of his recent projects with Urban Outfitters and Peter spoke about some the ideas in his forthcoming book The Secret War Between Downloading and Uploading. I showed some recent work, including Swing, SpringGraph database visualizations for Vectors, and a sneak peek at the Wii remote-enabled interface for Blood Sugar, the follow-up project to Public Secrets I’m currently working on with Sharon Daniel. We also got into some interesting discussions about professional vs. amateur creative output on the web and ways in which the Wii remote could be used to make experimental interactivity more accessible in installation or gallery settings. Take a look at the Connect archive here; there’s also a page featuring archives from other discussions in the series.

 

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