visualcondition blog - flash & ruby on rails

The Desuade Partigen 1.1 update has been released, featuring numerous enhancements and tweaks, such as a much lower file size and optimized UI. This is the first update of Partigen since the initial release last summer, which attests to the stability of the product.

It also uses my very own Twease tweening engine in place of the weightier Fuse, dropping about 12k off the exported SWF size. Nice!

There’s a coupon for Partigen that’ll get you 11% off: pgpromo11

Hurry up and use it though, it’s only good for the next 11 days.

Wow some big news from Adobe. Seems like they’re ready to conquer the rich media world with Flash with this one. What the hell am I talking about? Good question.

It’s called the Open Screen Project.

Long story short, Adobe is opening up the safe on Flash, removing licensing restrictions, fees, and publishing protocols.

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For those of you trying to install the Java 5 Runtime J2SE 1.5 on Ubuntu Linux Gusty on a fresh Slicehost install (or any Ubuntu box) that cant install it via aptitude, I may have a solution.

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So I’ve came across this little gem of a demo, which isn’t exactly a new idea or concept by any means, but the execution is brilliant and runs silky smooth.

It’s pretty sick, I’m not even going to lie: Paradox Engine

I’d post pictures and a more detailed post on it, but the demo speaks for itself. Trust me.

So the wait is finally over: Twease is now available in both AS2 and AS3!

I just started learning AS3 Monday, and today I have finished porting Twease 2.0 Beta into AS3. To be honest, most of if it really didn’t need to be rewritten, but a lot of the new compiler requirements made the loose checking of the AS2 version give me nightmares. I mean really, so what if it’s undefined? Ugh, but I digress.

This port was just to get the engine functional. There are almost zero optimizations made in regards to new AS3 features, but even so, I’m positive it will run fine for your average uses.

As i look back on the old Twease code after getting into AS3, I see a lot of places where things should be totally redone. But it works. And it works the same on both sides, so I’ll be letting it be.

There’s really not much more to say, except that Twease is now Beta 2, and that you should head on over to Google Code to get your AS3 fix on.

When you create a class that makes other developer’s lives easier, and see something that you made help make something pretty rad, it’s truly a magical feeling. When I see Partigen being used in the real world, I get giddy like a school girl. Albeit Twease is a bit different, it’s still a nice feeling.

So that’s why I’ve been hard at work on version 2 of this compact, yet powerful and robust tweening engine, packing in more bang-for-your-bytes. Originally it was just going to be a minor upgrade with added color and simple bezier tweening, but it ended up so much more.

This beta is, in my opinion, fairly stable, and is being used in my own production projects. In fact, some of the features have been birthed due to necessity. I’d like to package this up nicely with docs et all, but first want to give it a test-drive with the public.

So without further adue, here’s what’s new with Twease 2.0 Beta (from the change log):

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Wow, a crap load of new beta software at the Adobe Labs site:

• Adobe AIR Beta 2
• Adobe Flex 3 Beta 2
• AMP - Adobe Media Player Prerelease
• Adobe AIR Updates for Flash and Dreamweaver
• Adobe Flash Player 9 Moviestar Update
• Share Beta
• Spry Ajax Framework

That’s a lot of stuff! Check it out here on Adobe Labs.

So the next version of the Flash Player 10, code named “Astro”, is supposed to be announced today at MAX. Really looking for hardware support here, and speculating some 3D awesomeness. But I just got word from Carlos on the PV3D mailing list that the announcement was rather disappointing. He mentions the top 3 features demonstrated at the keynote, which are:

• Better test handling
• Custom filters using a language called Hydra
• “Simple 3D”

Apparently the filters are as fast as the predefined ones, and show some promise. I don’t have any idea what “Hydra” is, and a quick Google search came up empty. Carlos also mentions the simple 3D feature was quite disappointing, and that’s coming from the hardcore PV3D developer himself.

So I’m guessing there’s no hardware support, but that’s quite contradictory to what a little birdie told me. So I’m not quite sure what’s the deal with this announcement, but I know they’re working on it somewhere.

I’ll be updating this as the day/week goes on, as I get more details from abouts’ the web, because I’m way too busy to actually attend MAX myself. If anyone knows anything that I don’t, be sure to leave a comment.

[UPDATE]

Some information on Hydra here, thanks Ralph and Zeh Okay, at least we kinda know what it is.

Also I hear that they’re coming out with Flash Lite 3 with video. Exciting!

[UPDATE]

Aral just posted a video of the keynote here. It’s actually pretty neat. The basic 3D properties are nice, and a great step forward. The filters actually look pretty sick as well. And the type, pretty nice as well. I think these are quite nice additions myself.

This is the first (and only so far) XML image gallery I’ve ever made. It’s nice and tidy, and in 3 classes, unlike messy flas that you have to hack through. I made this almost exactly a year ago, and never really shared it for some reason, until now. It’s no use to me at all, and is not up to my OOP standards these days, but I’m sure many will find it useful in learning.

Given the fact it was my first and that it was such a long time ago, I really don’t remember the ins and outs of it. I just figured I’d put it out there since I wasn’t too happy with the quality of beginner XML gallery examples scattered across the ‘net.

So here’s a few features:

• Almost entirely XML based
• Class based, not FLA timeline
• Image preloading
• Fully customizable
• Tagging support in XML
• Visual tag filtering
• Thumbnail and expanded views with descriptions and titles
• Tag caching
• Image hyperlinking through XML
• And more little things

View Example

Pixgal and Example Included is the latest Fuse Kit which is needed. Also, this is made with Flash 8 and AS2, so I don’t know if it’ll work in MX2004.

My good friend Moses (of Fuse Kit fame), is working on a nice little framework he calls Go. I’ve had a sneak peak in the private pre alpha beta gamma theta, and while very much in its infant stages, it looks promising and very OOP.

Technically right now it’s not very useful, but that’s kind of the point. It’s made as a framework to be built off of for tweening etc yourself (or others), not a full blown kit a la Fuse. With an almost cult-like following of Fuse, I don’t think Moses will have a single problem getting this little framework heavily adopted, but, we’ll have to see.