Below is the full interview with OOOii about their use of Flash and AIR in feature films like Star Trek. It is very interesting to hear about their process. There isn’t a low-level discussion of Flash techniques however, as they need to keep those details to themselves for obvious reasons. Enjoy!
Lee
I’m really excited to be teaching at full-day workshop at Flash on the Beach focused on low-level programming with the ByteArray class. One thing that the masters of Flash have in common is that they can all program the Flash Player at a low-level. Most conference sessions take for granted that people know how to do things like bitwise operations and the fundamentals of binary. This workshop will be an introduction to these topics and will hopefully dispel some of the myths surrounding byte programming.
Throughout the day you will learn how to create file encoders/decoders, low-level server connections, dynamic sound effects, and other low level projects. Make sure to go an register for your spot as they will not last for much longer.
See you there,
Lee
I’ve been waiting almost a year now to tell you about all the cool Flash work that is featured in the new Star Trek movie. OOOii, which was formally named BlackBox Digital, is a live visual effects company run by Kent Demaine and is located in the heart of Hollywood. They design a lot of the amazing interfaces that you see on computer screens and other surfaces in feature films. Their credits include Enemy of the State, Minority Report, and The Island.
For Star Trek, senior developer Dave August created a complete ActionScript 3 framework for compositing and sequencing various effects that was used live on the set during filming. He also created an AIR application which was used for authoring the various sequences and also to control them as the actors manipulated them.
Today I flew down to Hollywood to interview them about their work. Below is a little teaser of some of the footage. These guys have the coolest Flash jobs in the world! Check out their site and go see Star Trek to witness Flash on the big screen.
Lee
We at Adobe expected that the renaming of Flex Builder to Flash Builder would cause quite a bit of conversation in the community and indeed it has. After waking up this morning and reading all the reactions on various blogs and on Twitter, I feel like I need to answer some of the questions and concerns people have. So here goes:
Are you planning on phasing out the Flash IDE?
Of course not. The day that happens is the day I walk away from my job. Flash authoring will continue to be the premiere tool for design and animation for the Flash Platform. We are also putting some work into the code editor for Flash CS5 to help people who are writing frame scripts and/or just getting started with ActionScript.
Isn’t it going to be more confusing when talking with clients about Flex?
On the contrary, Flex is now much more understandable. Flex is an ActionScript framework for creating RIAs and that is not changing. This name change actually makes the Flex brand more solid and understandable.
This screws up my resume and will make job interviews confusing won’t it?
Here again, I feel the opposite will be true. You need to stop thinking in terms of tools and instead focus on the technologies. You are a Flex developer if you build applications using the Flex framework. Many people would say they know Flex when in fact they simply use Flex Builder.
Don’t you think this should have been done earlier?
Absolutely but nobody has a crystal ball at Adobe. When Flex Builder was created its primary purpose was to create Flex framework projects. But over the years we have seen a massive amount of people who use it for their pure ActionScript work, myself included.
Will Flash Builder still be based on Eclipse?
Yes it will continue to be an Eclipse-based product and apart from a ton of new features, Flash Builder 4 will continue to have the Eclipse experience.
Why do we need all these tools for creating Flash content?
I understand this sentiment and it would be nice if we could create a monster do-everything tool for the Platform but this just isn’t feasible nor would it be a good idea. Animators and designers are used to the Flash IDE and like its focus on creating completely custom Flash experiences. Flash and Flex developers generally do not like spending their time in the Flash IDE and prefer to be in a powerful code-centric environment like Eclipse. Of course there are also the hybrids like myself who enjoy both. We plan on making life much easier for hybrids who go back and forth between the two tools.
What about clients who cringe when they hear the word Flash?
Here you have two options. You can continue to simply use the term Flex or you can educate them that Flash is now a mature development platform and not simply annoying skip intro movies. We as a community need to spread the word about what Flash really is now. Also you really have to have your head under a rock to not realize that Flex applications run in the Flash player.
What about the Flex SDK?
There are no current plans to rename the SDK at this time. I realize that many use it to compile pure ActionScript projects. But again, you don’t need to be talking to clients about the SDK so this shouldn’t create a lot of confusion.
Lee
| There have been many rumors about an upcoming name change for Flex Builder. Well I’m now finally able to talk about it a little more. As I have hinted before the name will indeed become Flash Builder. So what does this mean for Flex? Nothing really. Remember, Flex is a framework, not a tool. The reality is that many developers were using Flex Builder for pure ActionScript work so removing the word Flex from the tool is very appropriate. Calling yourself a Flex developer still makes total sense and is even more accurate now. It means that you specialize in developing with the Flex framework. This change will take a little getting used to but I firmly believe that it will clear up confusion more than it will create it. |
Lee
| I am very happy to announce that today we shipped a free update to Flash CS4 which addresses most of the issues that people have been having with it. Many of you gave some very honest feedback in this post and I want you to know that it was instrumental in getting this update out. The Flash team has been working around the clock to fix these issues so I want to give a big shout out to them for their tireless work. Product manager Richard Galvan has all the details on the bugs fixed in this update. Go and get the update and please let me know how it works for you. |
Lee
I had the idea that I wanted to do an augmented reality project that used a white rectangle on black instead of the usual black on white. After some discussion on Twitter it was clear that I needed to invert the BitmapData coming out of the camera before sending it to the FLARToolkit. Now there are many ways which you could do that but I decided to use a Pixel Bender filter just for the hell of it. It worked perfectly and it doesn’t seem to affect performance much at all.
You can download the full source which is just a modification of the code used in the gotoAndLearn tutorial on augmented reality. Once you go black, well you know the rest.
Lee
Lee Brimelow is a Platform Evangelist at Adobe focusing on the Flash, Flex, and AIR developer communities.
