3D Environment Creates New Dimension for Flat Images

A brand-new Flash component from Flashloaded.com, allows developers give depth and perspective to groups of images or symbols/graphic objects using Macromedia Flash. Useful for web design and graphic design applications, it makes building attractive interactive Flash-based interfaces and displays easy as it requires no 3D modeling. Developers simply define the position of the objects within the three dimensional space using a user friendly interface. 3D Environment is available for purchase and download from Flashloaded.com

A group of pictures on a typical web page is a flat, lifeless grouping; web surfers can look at them, but not interact with them," said a spokesperson for FFF Web Media, the company behind Flashloaded and 3D Environment. "By using 3D Environment, the individual pictures can be rendered with depth and dimension making the pictures a key part of a 3D interactive world in your web design.

Designs employing 3D Environment let surfers interact with images and make their way through the 3D space, scrolling up and down, to the left and right and zooming in and out in relation to the images. Through depth and perspective, it creates the illusion of a three dimensional world. The end user can also rotate the 3D environment around all axes.

One design example they have on there site depicts a ride through the solar system," a spokesperson for the company said. "One click and people can travel from Earth to Mars. Each planet appears in relation to the next and on a backdrop of a star filled galaxy, creating the illusion of a 3D world.

Macromedia flexes flash muscle

Flex, formerly code-named Royale, allows developers to create scripts in common languages such as Java and .Net and to run them on top of Web applications. Flex breaks them down into a Macromedia dialect of extensible markup language (XML) that can be read by the Flash Player, the widespread Flash client commonly used to spice up Web pages.

Jeff Whatcott, a vice president of product management and marketing for Macromedia, said the main use for Flex will be to create compelling and attractive interfaces for Web applications, an area that often gets overlooked by developers.

"It's focused on enabling enterprise application developers to get involved in creating rich applications," Whatcott said. "Improving the user experience helps ensure the application actually succeeds."

Macromedia is in the midst of a broad effort to expand the Flash format, once mainly used to present blinking ads on Web pages, into a broad platform for delivering Web applications and content. The company has launched a Web conferencing service based on Flash, begun an experiment to run Flash applications outside a Web browser and added video and other multimedia capabilities to the format.

Flex extends the Flash campaign by allowing mainstream developers to take advantage of the format without having to learn Macromedia's Flash development tools, which use a timeline-based interface more familiar to graphics professionals.

"For people who typically program in Java or .Net, the tools didn't quite work the way they work," Whatcott said. "They wanted to be able to use their existing tools to program rich applications, and that's what Flex enables."

whitespace

The article I have chose basically goes in detail about the importance of having white-space in your composition whether it be a flash document or a simple print design. It over the differences being that normal white space is the major sections that don’t include text or captions, those are referred to as micro-whitespace due to the face that it is a physically small white space between the words or what have you.
The article also explains in detail how white space will effect legibility. By using very simple fonts it will create more white space “Micro whitespace” to help with the reading. This will also give a very clean look to your page. But as a general overview of the article, it strongly points out how the tiny “itty bitty” changes to a document like changing fonts or moving object around so that they look “well balanced” is the key.

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/whitespace

New Quiz Software that Uses Flash

We all know how popular quizzes and surveys are now in the ever growing population of MySpace, blogs, Facebook, etc. It's now the coolest way to let everyone know everything they did AND didn't want o know about you. An LA based company, Wildform, Inc., has created and released a program called Quiz Creator. This is a "standalone software program" that allows the user to easily create LMS compliant, customized Flash quizzes, tests, assessments and surveys in only minutes. All you have to do is come up with your content, preview and make any changes the BOOM! approve it and you're ready to thwo that baby on-line.

Some of the features this program offers are:
~it exports Flash quizzes
~the question templates include: multiple choice/single answer, multiple choice/multiple answer, true/false, fill in the blank
combine multiple question types in the same quiz
~you can create fully customized quiz templates by choosing design, fonts, navigation, time-limit, etc.
~ you can generate score reports
~LMS compliant – supports SCORM 2004, SCORM 1.2, and AICC
Some of the additional outputs include HTML and projectors for Windows, Mac and Linux.

Quiz Creator is a user-friendly program that is able to produce quizzes in Flash format, which is now the most widely viewable multimedia format on the net. You do not need any special software inorder to see all the quizzes put on-line which is great becuase it doesn't leave anyone out and they play on all browser types and bypass all firewalls. The quizzes can be used by themselves on a website, distributed on CD's or DVD's, played on mobile devices, integrated with other presentations or connected directly to SCORM or AICC compliant learning management systems for online testing.

As of release (January 2007) Quiz Creator is olny available for Windowsand is an efficient and cost-effective way to create dynamic, Flash-based surveys and assessments without the need for any training and development time. The introductory price was $99, but list price is $199.

It's obvious that Wildform, Inc. has a finger on the pulse of youth today. You can hardly go anywhere on-line without running into some sort of "Have you ever... with your top 8?" or "220 things ALL ABOUT ME!" quizzes and surveys. Although most of the kids out there will have to beg mom and dad for the program since by now it probobly costs more, it's still a great was create and individualize your own unique surveys rather then use the generic ones already on-line. Not to mention, you don't need to know anything about Flash in order to do it! You get all the great features Flash has without having to go through and do it yourself.

In time I'm sure there will be more applications like thins becasuse it is my opinion that survey will never die, just like Elvis.

WildPresenter

There is a company based out of LA called Wildform that focus’s on presentations, video and animation software has just exstended the capabilities of the most robust flash and video software avaible. They just announced an update to WildPresenter Flash Presentation software. The name of this updated version has also been modified to Wildpresenter Pro. There are a lot of modifications to the software such as a new slide navigation player export. This allowing to view and navigate your data using a series of slides. More slide templates so u can easy create a complete slide layouts easier. They have also added better streaming FLV capability so now you can add live straming FLV’s to your WildPresenter Projects. This update will also include a new and improved flash to power point conversion and vise versa. This new software will free a free update for any WildPresenter customers and has been having great reviews during the testing.
I think this is a great tool to use if your in the office and like to give you’re presentations a little extra flare. Nothing like going over the top and adding some flash made files or movies and seamlessly incorporating them into powerpoint presentation. This will allow for more interactivity and keep the attention of the audience without putting them to sleep with the normal and basic power point.

scott

Flash On Mobile video devices

In this blog I am not so much talking about an article as a device. The device in question is the i-river clix mobile video player.
the player will be one of the first to support flash video files. Ironically enough it also uses flash memory. The i-river is not yet available in the united states in it's current incarnation. It is only available in Korea retailing for about $211.00 american dollars.
It has a wide range of file support beyond Flash video.

the need for these types of devices are questionable. With the i-pod and soon to be available i-phone, third party manufacturers need to think long and hard about where their products fit in the market. devices like the i-river are refreshingly less expensive than the i-phone but it is missing all of the additional functionallity like web browsing. The i-river has it's uses but is one of many video players now available. The one thing that sets it apart from the rest is it's ability to play a wide variety of file formats.

in my opinion the i-river is just another wanna be i-pod. I have seen many of them and this one is no different it is frugally priced but does not wow me or excite me in anyway. I think all of apple's competitors need to get into the mobile technology race as innovators not just followers. Competition is one of the biggest motivators of emerging technology. In this category apple needs some competition to help even out prices, and further the rapid advancement of technology

Time To Say Goodbye to Desktop Office Apps?

The article I chose for this weeks current events is an article that talks about web based programs replacing your regular apps such as Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop. It is a web based suite of programs that Transmedia has come up with called Glide OS 2.0 and it is attempting to replace software on computers and allowing people to have them online. At the moment its expectations are far exceeding its ability to deliver. The suite offers a variety of programs such as a e-mail, calendar, contact list, chat, and file sharing, along with a music player, video player, word processor, a photo editor, a drawing program, a presentation program and a blog writing program.
All of the work you do is not stored on your hard drive but rather Glides servers, which allows you to access your work from anything such as a modbile phone to you desktop computer and everything in between. Only problem is that you need a fast broadband connection so it will work for home users but for people who need to work on the go wont be able to access it unless you are connected to the internet.
This article is important because it could be a reality very soon, although I dont feel it will be as effective as they hope it to be. Not everyone is going to want to have there programs online where they can't access them whenever they feel. Yes, it is nice to be able to access your files from any computer or mobile device but I don't think people will get rid of there actual programs. If I were to get this online program, I would keep my programs and just have the online features for certain things that I know I will be able to access when I have the internet.

article

Bridgette Blenker
4da
Flash
Article


The article I picked was on the new iriver clix 2. I found it on http://www.clixhere.net/blogicles/showentry.php?e=10 This Little divise is like the ipod just not as popular. But the clix has something that the ipod don’t. It has a flash based user interface. This helps the user navagate around without a mouse. This music player has also a AMOLED screen which makes everything pop out to you. Th clix also has anpowe r off or sleep mode. This player also plays video as well as music. It comes in 2G, 4G, and 8G coming april. This is the new ipod.
I think This is an awesome dives, it’s competion for ipod if it becomes popular but it has a flash based user interface.This is Imporatnt because flash is being incoperated in so much technology now a days. That’s awesome that technology has come this fare. I think that the clix will make it eventually.

EyeWonder Upgrades Their AdWonder Flash Component

EyeWonder, ome of the leading providers of rich media and online video advertising products and services, has upgraded their AdWonder Flash Component that is used by many top ad agencys for online advertisments. The new version, 8.1, is easier to use and also comes available for an immediate upgrade. This program is designed to help ad agencys reduce the time it takes to deliver vidoe and rich media ads to the public.
This component is a "full-blown Flash-based production environement." It was created to help revolutionize the agencies create and execute ideas for video and rich media ad campaigns. EyeWonder also is pleased to announce that in the three months since officially releasing the Component, eight of the top ten U.S. interactive agencies have already embraced it for the creation of multiple new video and rich media ad campaigns. AdWonder also works intuitively within the actual Flash program. This was desginers are no longer wasting time having to learn new platforms, figure out not so helpful tips and trying to use a labor-intensive API. Within 3 months of its release, thew version is being used by 8 of the top 10 agencies in the US and many of these agencies have said that production and approval times were cut by over 50%. These agencies are also creating better quality ads and videos because they have more time. The 8.1 version now enables users to import and export projects, as well as, share them among multiple users.
This componet was a genius idea and the fact that it has been so well received speaks wonders for EyeWonder. By cutting production times in half, it's no wonder that so many users are creating better stuff, not to mention more interesting. And by working within Flash itself only makes this program so much better. Not all computers can handle more then 1 open program at a time, and the tim eit takes closing and loading programs can be very detrimental to agencies. With better ads comes higher sales and in the end that is what agencies want. When they actually get the product to sell, especially if it works better then planned, companies are going to continue using that agency, not to mention that MORE agencies will come to them.
I think that EyeWonder is going to keep AdWonder up and running, improving as they go. This program is obviously very effective and it's possible that it will one day help to revolutionize the ad world even more then it has already. It's in my opinion that AdWonder will eventually be used by more then just ad agencies and that it will continue to effectively help it's users.

~Donna~