Radley Marx

Flash Catalyst and Flash CS4 updates announced at FITC

Flash Catalyst

(fitc.ca) Mark was using a very fresh build of Flash Catalyst from code that had been completed last Thursday.

 

Flash Catalyst will not be available as a Eclipse plugin like Flex Builder when it is released, as it was made as designers tool not a developers tool. There’s also a technical reason, as Mark mentions this is because they chopped up Eclipse to make their Flash Catalyst and currently it won’t work at a plugin.

“Not your grandfather’s flex code” is a great line Mark jokes as he shows the underlining Flex 4 code being generated in Flash Catalyst. :)

 

Flash CS4

(fitc.ca) The big announcement and demo was supposed to have been an update to Flash CS4, but unfortunately it was not ready yet in time for FITC… There was also interesting update on the headless Flash Player that Adobe has been supplying to search engines. Developers who have created various case studies to track what Google has been picking up have noticed that results have been changing and improving as time goes on.

Well, apparently it’s not just the search engines that have been refining their search techniques of Flash, but Adobe continues to improve the headless Flash Player.

Adobe are working on network management in the headless Flash Player which will give search engine more control on viewing the files that an SWF file is loading in the Flash Player. Once this is implemented Flash should get another SEO boost, with concerning additional files.

 

(via FITC)

thanks to Nathan Mitten / AUG

Why I use a cracked copy of Traktor

I’ve got a gig this next weekend. Nothing big, but I do have to play in front of a crowd. As part of that gig I expect to play digital tracks via TRAKTOR. But this afternoon, I was surprised to find I couldn’t actually run TRAKTOR.

The application (that I paid for) would only open as a demo. If I tried to reactivate TRAKTOR I was directed to the Native Instruments ServiceCenter software, which attempted to connect to their server to confirm my license and couldn’t. Not knowing what was going on I went to native-instruments.com and saw this message: 

Server Downtime

Dear Visitor,

Due to technical problems, our site is temporarily not available. We appreciate your patience and apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. Please try again in 30 minutes.

Your Native Instruments Online Team

 

Since the NI website is down, I can’t connect to confirm and actually use my software.

Two things struck me at this moment (i.e. 5pm PST). First, anyone who relied on the legitimate version of TRAKTOR for a live gig right now (i.e. it’s 1am in Europe) was just screwed. Second, I personally had a crack of TRAKTOR left over, so I’m in the clear and can journey on.

Why exactly do I have a crack? Because when I purchased TRAKTOR I experienced a very similar problem: ServiceCenter wouldn’t let me create a user account, without which I couldn’t get whatever prerequisites. It was a Saturday and I had just paid $500 for this software and wasn’t allowed to play with it for more that 30 minutes at a time, until this problem could be resolved.

To add insult, Native Instruments only provides live support Monday through Friday 9-5pm (PST). That means no night and weekend support (which ironically is when most people are using their product). I’d have to wait until Monday morning until I could actually use my software and try again that night. But if there were any more problems, wait again until the next morning etc.

So now I use a cracked copy of TRAKTOR.

My advise – get the crack. It’s available everywhere, is more reliable, and isn’t handicapped by bad DRM.

 

[Update 6pm] looks like the website is back up. But TRAKTOR still needs to be reactivated and ServiceCenter wants my Serial Number before I can play. For me, I just have to dig into the closet to find my TRAKTOR box that has the card. But for those of you trying to perform right now, I recommend a couple of kamakazis to kill the pain. Hopefully you’ll still get paid.

10 ways to put “Creative” back into Flash CS5

As a response to Kevin Suttle’s post: Found and Lost: The Flash IDE, I posted a (slightly exaggerated) rant yesterday summarizing the recent shift to Flex that is taking place in the Flash world.

To follow up, I’ll start by asking you to consider this: At the time of the Macromedia acquisition the last thing Flash professionals expected from this glorious merger of multimedia masters would be a Java/Eclipse “revolution”.

I say meh.

We wanted more. We expected more. We imagined more. We dreamed the big dream: a magical mystical prodigal child borne of Flash and After Effects lust!

And finally it… kinda happened. Kinda. After Effects and Flash kinda work together. At least they merge well enough.

But the glow of Flash is fading and needs more creative fuel for our passion. So here’s my fix list for Adobe to revitalize Flash and the Flash IDE. I’m going to leave out the obvious stuff (code completion, webcam/microphone fixes, call it Flash Animator instead of Flash Professional, etc) and focus on solutions that would be a real revolution for media artists:

1) Buy Perian. Or at least work in some kind of FFmpeg solution. Flash video was revolutionary five years ago, but other codecs have caught up and have beat Flash in online broadcasting. As a media developer, I need access to professional web and broadcast video. If that means sucking up to Microsoft to get WMV, then do it (or better: barter ruthlessly).

2) Give us dynamic, optimized sound. Currently sound in Flash is just good enough to stay relevant. I don’t think we have the chipmunk bug any longer, but there’s still major problems and we need more more more. A powerful DSP, independent SoundManager, better memory management, more codecs(!!!!), 5.1 / 7.1 sound,  Dolby/THX/AC3, pitch/tempo control, and VST APIs would all be fantastic.

We need Flash audio to be amazing, not passable. If player file size is a deal breaker then at least partner with reputable digital DSP providers to allow us to outsource the signal.

3) Think motion. We dreamed of After Effects and Flash – give us After Effects in Flash. It can be done. Really.

More »

Flash is Dead, Long Live Flex (as Flash)

I’m writing as a response to Kevin Suttle’s post Found and Lost: The Flash IDE which asks the question: what happened to the Flash IDE?

Over the past few years, Flash Professional has been marginalized more and more to make room for Flex Builder and the upcoming Flash Catalyst. As a professional Flash developer/designer I’ve ranted many times about these changes and decided to throw my opinion into the debate.

The life of Flash (as we used to know it) peaked with the rise of Actionscript 2 and Flash video. Prior to this time, Flash was exciting, artistic, experimental media for delivering websites, animations, and the occasional ad banner. When Flash video became mainstream, internet and media teams jumped to the Flash platform.

With the jump came very talented programmers who produced a lot of great stuff in Flash. At the same time they looked upon AS2 and declared “this is not optimal” and looked upon the timeline and exclaimed “WTF!?” 

So something natural happened: a coup d’etat. Regime change. Unfamiliar with what Flash was, these talented programmers started replacing Flash with what they knew: Java and Eclipse. Around the time of the release of CS3 emerged Actionscript 3 (Java) and a new IDE (Flex/Eclipse) that enabled programmers to do Flash in their old familiar environment, using their native language.

No longer necessary for “real projects”, Flash Professional got tossed in with Creative Suite. As such Flash Pro became one of many aging creative apps downshifted to semi-annual maintenance updates and half-baked features. I say half-baked simply because bugs are no longer seriously addressed in periodic updates. Instead they are released in concert as part of a paid upgrade every 18 months. So half-complete features such as Flash’s new Motion Editor won’t be updated until the release of CS5. In contrast, Flex programmers can grab nightly builds of Flex 4 (long before it even goes beta) to use with their free Flex SDK.

Despite that rant, I’m pretty much past the point of being shocked or upset. The fact is Flash Professional is going the way of Director, and Flex has risen to be the center of the Flash Platform. Programming is center stage and creative media has been left alone, coasting along from it’s own inertia (for now).

So how should Adobe fix the Flash IDE and make it creative and media savvy again?

I’ll save that for my next post.

Now a Co-Manager for SilvaFUG North

As I’ve stated in the past, I’ve ranted far too much on my blog about Adobe and felt it was time to step up and be part of the solution. I’ve volunteered to be co-manager for SilvaFUG North, a Flex/Flash user group based here in San Francisco.

For those who are stumbling upon my blog for the first time, my background is Flash/Flex development and design, but my views are predominantly design-centric. I hope to bring to the table a much-needed voice for clarity and simplicity in the Flash Platform.