Flash Insider http://www.flashinsider.com Flash Insider http://www.flashinsider.com/media/feedlogo.gif Flash Insider http://www.flashinsider.com en-us Copyright 2010 Blogsmith, LLC. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/Review: Flash 8 Essentialshttp://www.flashinsider.com/2006/08/03/review-flash-8-essentials/http://www.flashinsider.com/2006/08/03/review-flash-8-essentials/http://www.flashinsider.com/2006/08/03/review-flash-8-essentials/#commentsFiled under: , , , , ,

Friends of ED has been releasing competently compiled web design books made with collaboration from some of the best for quite a few years now and when they offered a few books to the Flash Insider team to read I jumped at the chance. The first book I cracked open was the latest in their Essentials series, Flash 8 Essentials. The Essentials books are meant to grab current and future web designers and give them a quick dip into the latest web design software. This book was written a quick guide to Flash 8 and includes enough tutorial and code to get most designers and developers up to speed. The writing style of this book is similar to a motivational seminar on Flash. This helps the reader become extremely excited about the new version and can make you feel like you can do everything in the book.

Flash 8 Essentials has six authors, but the reader will not notice a definite change from one chapter to the next. Each author has already made a name for himself in the Flash design and development world. Two of the authors have already written a few books on this subject and one helped to create the current Developer Certification Exam.

read the rest of the review after the jump

Though the book doesn't come with a CDROM, all the referenced FLAs and samples can be found quite easily on the Friends of ED website. The screenshots within the book help to bring the content to the reader on an OS independent platform. This is good for designer like me who work with Mac for personal projects but on PC at work. If I have to reference back to the book at anytime in the future, I know it won't matter where I am or what OS I am in.

Flash 8 Essentials is divided into 10 chapters plus an appendix. The chapters take you down the road or all the new and improved features and leave you with the impress that coding will be very important for this version of Flash. The first chapter gives a quick overview of everything in the book. Each chapter after the first gives at least one concise example of a major feature and includes well-explained code and easily understood figures. Then the appendix gets into a few advanced tutorials that touch on dynamic bitmap manipulation, file uploads and more.

At the end of the book I felt ready to tackle a bunch of new projects and pondered ways to improve some old ones (I've been wanting to retackle an old Camera() based project for a while. I think most will find this a good addition to their technical bookshelf, but new Flashers will need to invest in a few other books in addition to this one as they come up to speed, including at least one Flash bible or over reaching glossary type book that explains it all. Experienced Flashers will find this to be an essential part of their library in order to transition easily to Flash 8, if they haven't already.

Now, what am I going to do with this book? If you are in the New Orleans area and come out the NOMMUG Tenth Anniversary of Flash party on Tulane's campus on August 14th, you will have a chance to win the now well-read copy I used for this review. See you there!

About this book:
Flash 8 Essentials
by Paul Barnes-Hoggett, Stephen Downs, Glen Rhodes, Craig Swann, Matt Vierman, and Todd Yard.
ISBN: 1590595327
publisher: friends of ED

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]]>bookessentialsflashflash-8-essentialsfriends-of-EDreviewMike Schleifstein2006-08-03T15:00:00+00:00Free Flash and Flex Traininghttp://www.flashinsider.com/2006/08/01/free-flash-and-flex-training/http://www.flashinsider.com/2006/08/01/free-flash-and-flex-training/http://www.flashinsider.com/2006/08/01/free-flash-and-flex-training/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , ,

IFBIN.com LogoOne of the most common post topics on the Adobe Flash User Forums is a request for tutorial recommendations. Well, here ya go! Great tutorials and it FREE!

IFBIN.com just opened their service to the public for free. It is a client that you need to download and install that allows you to browse and download the Flash By Example and Flex By Example code/tutorial libraries. Great stuff!

The current IFBIN.com site is a little sketchy on the details, but the FREE message is loud and clear. You can read Darron Schall's (one of the contributors) description of the service here.

IFBIN is the brainchild of Adobe Flex Evangelist Ted Patrick. Originally, a subscription service, the move to a FREE model is a little confusing, but it's certainly not time to look a gift horse in the mouth!

Geek Cocktail Party Bonus: What's better than throwing around alphabet-soup acronyms? Knowing what the mean. Check here to lean what IFBIN really stands for!
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]]>ifbinted patrickTedPatrickDavid Robinson2006-08-01T14:20:00+00:00Odd Job Jack files open to the publichttp://www.flashinsider.com/2006/07/27/odd-job-jack-files-open-to-the-public/http://www.flashinsider.com/2006/07/27/odd-job-jack-files-open-to-the-public/http://www.flashinsider.com/2006/07/27/odd-job-jack-files-open-to-the-public/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

Odd Job JackThe creators of the Canadian show Odd Job Jack will release all master flash files, bitmaps, art, props etc. of each episode every week. Also included will be tutorials and documentation so you can hack or remix to your hearts content via a Creative Commons license. Check for a new set every Monday via bittorrent. If you do anything with these files, post it in our comment section. Happy animating!
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]]>animationartfilesodd job blackOddJobBlackopen sourceOpenSourcesamplessource filesSourceFilesRussell Heimlich2006-07-27T07:45:00+00:00How to create your own YouTube sitehttp://www.flashinsider.com/2006/07/26/how-to-create-your-own-youtube-site/http://www.flashinsider.com/2006/07/26/how-to-create-your-own-youtube-site/http://www.flashinsider.com/2006/07/26/how-to-create-your-own-youtube-site/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

create your own YouTubeHave you ever wanted to know how you can create your own video hosting site allowing users to upload video, automatically convert it to FLV, and display it for the world to see? A recent post at Daniel's Random Mutterings (DRM - how clever) explains exactly how to do this with open source tools. Using a Djano CMS system, FFMpeg for the FLV encoding, FLVtools2 for writing meta information, and FlowPlayer for embedding the SWF file you'll have everything you need to get started. The code is pretty straight forward and a great starting point. Now go forth and create your new video distribution empire.
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]]>automationdistributionflvhow toHowToonlinetutorialvideoyoutubeRussell Heimlich2006-07-26T20:52:00+00:00Register now for Adobe Developer Weekhttp://www.flashinsider.com/2006/05/22/register-now-for-adobe-developer-week/http://www.flashinsider.com/2006/05/22/register-now-for-adobe-developer-week/http://www.flashinsider.com/2006/05/22/register-now-for-adobe-developer-week/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , , ,

Adobe Deverloper WeekAdobe is sponsoring a Developer Week (12-16 June). This is a free series of online presos aimed at developers. Lots of Flex stuff, an overview of the Adobe Engagement Platform, and AS 3.0 for Flash developers (in case you haven't started exploring AS3 in Flex). If you haven't had a chance to play around with Flex, this would be a good place to get an introduction so you know what's coming on deck.

Looks like there's some good information to be had here...and its FREE! So go sign up today.
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]]>adobedevelopereventDavid Robinson2006-05-22T10:08:00+00:00SWFObject (Active X Solution) Video Tutorialhttp://www.flashinsider.com/2006/05/04/swfobject-active-x-solution-video-tutorial/http://www.flashinsider.com/2006/05/04/swfobject-active-x-solution-video-tutorial/http://www.flashinsider.com/2006/05/04/swfobject-active-x-solution-video-tutorial/#commentsFiled under: , , , , ,

CartoonSmart.comJay Dyke over at CartoonSmart.com has posted a free video tutorial on how to use Geoff Sterns' SWFObject, a Javascript solution to the recent unpleasantness regarding Flash running in IE 6 on Windows. If you're a real visual learner and you need to see how it all works, this is the place for you. Jay rambles a bit, but he gets the point across eventually. And the SWFObject is an elegant solution once you're all set up.

I'll warn you that this is a ~20MB ZIP file download. Jay is offering tutorial files as well as the Quicktime movie of the tutorial which is almost 50 MBs (somebody get that guy a copy of Captivate!), so...

You'll also note that Jay is using the older "FlashObject" which Stearns has renamed the "SWFObject" for reasons explained here.
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]]>activexcartoonsmartflashobjectgeoff sternGeoffSternieinternet explorerInternetExplorerjay dykeJayDykeswfobjectDavid Robinson2006-05-04T10:27:00+00:00Explorers Abound!: Flash Gradient Explorerhttp://www.flashinsider.com/2006/05/02/explorers-abound-flash-gradient-explorer/http://www.flashinsider.com/2006/05/02/explorers-abound-flash-gradient-explorer/http://www.flashinsider.com/2006/05/02/explorers-abound-flash-gradient-explorer/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , , ,

Kinglong's Gradient ExplorerSeems like building Flash explorer-type apps is the new black! A few weeks back, we had the Transition & Tween Explorer. Now we have a Flash Gradient Explorer. Maybe the Flex Explorer and the Flex Style Explorer (warning: needs Flash Player 8.5....AKA 9) have just inspired folks to build this type of thing! And the rest of us get the benefits!

Check out Kinglong's Gradient Explorer! (The link is directly to the SWF file. If you'd can read Chinese or want to use Babelfish on Kinglong's post about the project, go here.) It's a great way to experience how code works in real time. See how and where the little numbers change the way things look instead of just playing around with sliders...and you can always cut and paste the code into your own Flash movies too!

[via Peter Baird]
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]]>explorerkinglongDavid Robinson2006-05-02T11:30:00+00:00Control the sounds of silencehttp://www.flashinsider.com/2006/04/27/control-the-sounds-of-silence/http://www.flashinsider.com/2006/04/27/control-the-sounds-of-silence/http://www.flashinsider.com/2006/04/27/control-the-sounds-of-silence/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , ,

InformIT put up a sound tutorial earlier this month that shows how to create a control a couple of sound buttons that mute and unmute audio that is playing from your library. The tutorial is meant as a starting point for new Flash users who want to integrate sound into their projects and want to give their users a little needed control of the audio. New Flashers can extend this tutorial by flipping to the Livedocs at Adobe's site and looking over the Sound object. You can take a user's experience to a whole new level with audio manipulation via balance, fade, volume and even dynamic control. I recommend even browsing the Microphone object to look into ways to create a visual experience that feeds on sounds fed into the user's computer (much like many of us are doing with the Camera object for video controls).
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]]>actionscriptcontrolflashinformITsoundtutorialMike Schleifstein2006-04-27T17:00:00+00:00PHP and SWF combine to create clean chartshttp://www.flashinsider.com/2006/04/25/php-and-swf-combine-to-create-clean-charts/http://www.flashinsider.com/2006/04/25/php-and-swf-combine-to-create-clean-charts/http://www.flashinsider.com/2006/04/25/php-and-swf-combine-to-create-clean-charts/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

NewsForge wrote up a quite PHP tutorial for displaying charts using the PHP/SWF Chart package from Maani. They take a few W3Schools stats and generate some easy to use PHP code for quick insertion and even quicker modification for your site. The charting package they use is an alternative to Flex for interactive chart creation and is a good package for individual sites that may want to avoid a lot of code, but I think developers benefit from the use of these kind of packages to get started if they plan on a stop gap solution only. These packages are good for an easy site throw up, but Flash developers and even some regular coders should really take a long hard look into Flex before building a site around this solution. If you don't want to learn Flex or ActionScript then stick with this solution otherwise take the chance and jump into Flex.
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]]>chartflashhow-tophpsampleswfMike Schleifstein2006-04-25T18:00:00+00:00Transition & Tween Explorerhttp://www.flashinsider.com/2006/04/06/transition-and-tween-explorer/http://www.flashinsider.com/2006/04/06/transition-and-tween-explorer/http://www.flashinsider.com/2006/04/06/transition-and-tween-explorer/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , , ,

Transition & Tween ExplorerClive Whitear over at Adobe Consulting's Work in Progress blog just posted a really nice Transition and Tween Explorer. Not the prettiest app you'll ever see, but really functional. Great way to learn some Actionscripting as well if you're new to the whole coding aspect of things. Have fun playing with the effects, then cut and paste the code into your own files! Download the files here!

Adobe should build this into future Flash UIs, similar to the filter explorer in Photoshop.
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]]>David Robinson2006-04-06T11:45:00+00:00Take your Flash to your TVhttp://www.flashinsider.com/2006/04/04/take-your-flash-to-your-tv/http://www.flashinsider.com/2006/04/04/take-your-flash-to-your-tv/http://www.flashinsider.com/2006/04/04/take-your-flash-to-your-tv/#commentsFiled under: , , , , ,

Chris GeorgenesWe usually concerned with Flash as a means of creating interactive, multimedia pieces for use on a personal computer, but Chris Georgenes reminds us that Flash can be used for a lot more. Check out his article, "Migrating Flash Projects to Video" on the Flash Dev Center site. He has some great tips on taking your Flash movies to DVD and broadcast TV. I especially like the nod to Flashants' SWF2Video. A couple of years ago, I had to reanimate pieces in AfterEffects for DVD menu backgrounds that I'd mocked up using coded animation in Flash because I couldn't figure out how to output the dynamic Flash movie to video. More recently, I've seen GeoVid's Flash to Video Encoder at work and been pleased with it, but I'm definitely going to check out SWF2Video now too!

Check out Chris' sites to see his work: Mudbubble and KeyFramer
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]]>animationTVvideoDavid Robinson2006-04-04T11:26:00+00:00Dynamic Designhttp://www.flashinsider.com/2006/04/03/dynamic-design/http://www.flashinsider.com/2006/04/03/dynamic-design/http://www.flashinsider.com/2006/04/03/dynamic-design/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

Javascript & CSS web designWhen I think of dynamic websites, I'm usually thinking about data-driven sites that have customized information. Mike Madaio over at Digital Web Magazine has started to think beyond the data to the design too. After all, not all monitors are created equal; there are lots of wacky aspect ratios hitting the market. Mike uses a really elegant combination of JavaScript and CSS to take care of the problem. Check out his tutorial here and design your site for screens of all sizes!

[via Metah's Blog]
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]]>CSSdesignJavascriptDavid Robinson2006-04-03T11:32:00+00:00Photoshop to Flash color correctedhttp://www.flashinsider.com/2006/03/04/photoshop-to-flash-color-corrected/http://www.flashinsider.com/2006/03/04/photoshop-to-flash-color-corrected/http://www.flashinsider.com/2006/03/04/photoshop-to-flash-color-corrected/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

In case you're like me and stuck no where near Seattle this week, but wish you could learn more about integration from Photoshop and Flash, Jack Nack has a few good links for your. Jack's buddy Michael Ninness compiled a set of tutorials and even gave a talk at FlashForward this week about the best ways to combine our two favorite pursuits. I only wonder if this means animated cartoons showing off the perfectly toned body attached to someone else's head... Back to the subject at hand though. Start your tutorials with one describing how to adjust your beloved Photoshop away from its print/camera roots and closer to your web needs. Then check out the rest at the link.

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]]>adobeflashflashforwardmoviephotoshoptutorialMike Schleifstein2006-03-04T01:00:00+00:00Flex and PHP fun from Adobe Blogshttp://www.flashinsider.com/2006/03/03/flex-and-php-fun-from-adobe-blogs/http://www.flashinsider.com/2006/03/03/flex-and-php-fun-from-adobe-blogs/http://www.flashinsider.com/2006/03/03/flex-and-php-fun-from-adobe-blogs/#commentsFiled under: , , , , ,

Looking for some Flex to fill out your Friday night? About a month ago (yes I know I'm behind, but I'm trying to catch up) Mike Potter of Adobe post a quick Flex and PHP write up and included the code for a simple app to update a SQL database via PHP from Flex 2.0. Check it out for yourself, but make sure you edit for functionality. One of his commenters notes that the code's simplicity leaves open a security hole via SQL query injection.

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]]>codeFlashFlexPHPMike Schleifstein2006-03-03T16:30:00+00:00Flash on X-Box 360http://www.flashinsider.com/2006/01/31/flash-on-x-box-360/http://www.flashinsider.com/2006/01/31/flash-on-x-box-360/http://www.flashinsider.com/2006/01/31/flash-on-x-box-360/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , ,

Flash on the X-Box 360 Our big blog brother, Engadget posted a great tutorial this morning showing you exactly how to run Flash (and therefore Flash-based-games) on you very own X-Box 360. Head on over for the full tutorial. Unfortunately the Dashboard upgrade released today by Microsoft will break this hack, but if you want to wait on the update try it out. I wonder if you could use this for basic FLV files too? If so, this would be a cool way to stream Google video (via the online player, not the purchased kind) or YouTube video to your X-Box 360 for HD viewing. Enjoy.

 

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]]>experimentflashgamehackmicrosoftswfxboxXBox360Mike Schleifstein2006-01-31T14:59:00+00:00New iRiver Mobile & Devices Dev Centerhttp://www.flashinsider.com/2005/12/08/new-iriver-mobile-and-devices-dev-center/http://www.flashinsider.com/2005/12/08/new-iriver-mobile-and-devices-dev-center/http://www.flashinsider.com/2005/12/08/new-iriver-mobile-and-devices-dev-center/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , , , , ,

iRiver U10Macromedia...er..Adobe...has launched a new sub-site of the Mobile & Devices Dev Center devoted specifically to the new iRiver U10. In case you haven't heard the U10 is a portable media player that just came on the American market. FlashLite 1.1 is baked onto its ROM. Its UI is in FlashLite and you can load FlashLite content onto it (as well as you MP3s, etc.). There's a lot of potential with this little creature.

You can get Flash games for the U10 here and here.

[via Bill Perry]
 
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]]>David Robinson2005-12-08T13:15:36+00:00Roundtrip with Studio 8http://www.flashinsider.com/2005/11/14/roundtrip-with-studio-8/http://www.flashinsider.com/2005/11/14/roundtrip-with-studio-8/http://www.flashinsider.com/2005/11/14/roundtrip-with-studio-8/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , ,

Studio 8 RoundtripMacromedia's Alan Musselman has posted a nice little show-and-tell to demonstrate the newly improved roundtrip features between Fireworks and Flash in Studio 8. (Make sure you take heed of his tips toward the end of the post though, like "just remember, when the you Roundtrip the PNG file back into Flash, it gets automatically saved so no reverting unless you made a copy of the file beforehand.")

I really like Fireworks. Don't get me wrong, I love Photoshop, but in my mind, Fireworks and Photoshop aren't competitors. Fireworks is a major part of my workflow, and I hope that it doesn't disappear in the coming merge. That having been said though, one of the really nice features of Adobe's Creative Suite is its cross-product integration, so I look forward to even more roundtrip goodness as these product suites merge.
 
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]]>David Robinson2005-11-14T13:30:25+00:008 The Projecthttp://www.flashinsider.com/2005/10/14/8-the-project/http://www.flashinsider.com/2005/10/14/8-the-project/http://www.flashinsider.com/2005/10/14/8-the-project/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , , , , , ,

8 the ProjectSomething to get your juices flowing on this Friday afternoon before MAX: Check out the Japanese website "8 The Project" built with Studio 8. This site rocks. Great visuals and really nice interactivity with the video character, 8-chan. I like the way they've used short video clips to increase the...dare I say it within the context of Studio 8?... expressiveness of the character. A great tour of Studio 8 and an inspiring site whether you understand Japanese or not.

[via Alan Musselman]
 
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]]>David Robinson2005-10-14T16:00:55+00:00Platform Game Tutorialhttp://www.flashinsider.com/2005/09/26/platform-game-tutorial/http://www.flashinsider.com/2005/09/26/platform-game-tutorial/http://www.flashinsider.com/2005/09/26/platform-game-tutorial/#commentsFiled under: , , , , ,

Platform Game TutorialNathan Stockton posted a nice tutorial for creating a platform game (you know, like Mario Brothers...does that date me?!) in Flash over at Kirupa.com. It may not be the most cutting edge OOP programming, but it will give you a nice intro to some fairly intricate code as well as some insight into translating game play into that code.

Well worth your time to look over, especially if you're interested in building games with Flash.

[via BeeDigital]
 
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]]>David Robinson2005-09-26T17:06:06+00:00Blockdude - Time Waster of the Dayhttp://www.flashinsider.com/2005/09/05/blockdude-time-waster-of-the-day/http://www.flashinsider.com/2005/09/05/blockdude-time-waster-of-the-day/http://www.flashinsider.com/2005/09/05/blockdude-time-waster-of-the-day/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

blockdudeToday's time waster is a blatant Nintendo rip out. The Flash-based Blockdude game encourages you to run around an original Mario Brothers style world. While jumping and running, your little dude needs to pick up and through blocks in order to surmount obstacles of various sizes. Interestingly enough, this game comes from the Moxiecode Flash game coder tutorial site. visiting the main page of the site will bring you to a list of samples and tutorials for various Flash-based games that seem to center in the tiled game genre. Check out today's time waster at the link below and then head over to the full Moxiecode site to learn how to create your own.

via Blog: Log of Growth

For more more Time Wasters of the Day check out our blog brother Download Squad.

Latest Katrina update: Read the original series that may have predicted the storm

 
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]]>Mike Schleifstein2005-09-05T13:00:00+00:00