flash
posted by Development
Hey, we know that HTML5 isn’t fully baked just yet,
but it won’t stop us from looking at what is in the works and picking
which new elements, APIs and other goodies we look forward to working
with the most. That is, if they don’t change drastically.
The first two elements we want to mention are the video and audio
tags. If your media file is a supported type (audio: Vorbis, MP3 or AAC;
video: WebM, Theora and H.264), you only need the necessary
HTML-looking tag. No longer will developers need to use a huge embed tag
or JavaScript plugin to implement this process. This element is also a
huge hit in the “Flash vs. HTML5” war. It is looking to replace many
Flash video and music players for a simpler experience and easier
implementation.
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posted by Development
Have you ever had to decide between a Flash site and a HTML site driven by a content management system (CMS)? Some situations need a flashy and truly engaging experience easily made possible with Flash. Other situations require enterprise-type management and collaborative work processes to allow content updating delivered via HTML.
Do you choose the highly interactive and rich experience that Flash provides to impress your users or do you deliver an organized and maintainable site that delivers content via your favorite CMS? With most CMS setups, you often feel like you must sacrifice the rich and interactive qualities that Flash delivers. You’re also hunting down the developer who initially authored the site to update the text or a page’s message in Flash. With today’s technology and speed of advancements, you would think there would be a solution.
The good news is that there is a solution. You can have your rich graphical user interface cake and eat it too.
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posted by Design
Visual effects are no longer exclusive to big-budget Hollywood productions. New technologies and processes enable many effects to be produced more efficiently. While most businesses don't have the need for high-speed car chases with explosions, there are subtle ways to incorporate visual effects into your promotional video or website.
Chroma key background replacement
Improved Internet connectivity speeds have offered more businesses opportunities to use video to deliver their messages. A creative way to do this is to place your spokesperson right on your website using a green screen (just like in the local weather report) rather than in a boxed-in video.
In the example below, we shot video of a company representative and placed him in a Flash banner on their website. Using software, we created a transparency, or alpha channel, around the person so he can be placed on any kind of background. While this process is fairly straightforward, it requires some fine-tuning to clean up the edges of the image and make sure the background is not showing through.
Watch this example in motion.
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posted by Development
Every day, our team members see new technologies appear on the scene that change the way we view our industry. As we kick off 2010, we share our expectations for how Web development will change this year.
Flash Animation
The amount of designers and developers using Adobe Flash – a technology used to create multimedia content – will continue to increase this year. The thunder::tech team hopes to use Flash for more complex and animated Web projects in 2010 as more Web sites are being converted from HTML to Flash because of its increased flexibility.
HTML, a document-formatting language, shares very basic features with Flash. However, Flash is a better-suited structure for the functionality and interactivity that an integrated agency needs when creating a Web site, because it can incorporate a wide variety of features such as text, graphics, video, audio and applications much more effectively. As a result, designers and developers have more control when developing sites and applications.
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posted by Design
For this edition of get::ting answers, Art Director Dave chats with Flash Developer Ben.
Dave: Describe your typical day at thunder::tech using only words that start with D or rhyme with awesome. You can have unlimited "the's" and "and's."
Ben:
Depart the dwelling and during dash down the drive;
Dialog the dodgy designer Dave dealing the draft;
Down delicious drinks;
Devise the device dialect and derive the deliverable;
Doctor the dire domain designation disaster,
Disappear,
Directly drop possum dead.
D: You have a unique opportunity w/yr position where you work on both a Mac and a PC...so, think different or is yours really here?
B: Actually... I miss MS-DOS. Macs and PCs, despite the advertisement wars, have about the same amounts and types of problems. These days, they're both too glittery.
D: If a flash banner got in a fight with an animated gif (but not any normal animated gif...one of those beveled and embossed spinning ones that has flames shooting out of it, and maybe an asteroid rotating around), who would win?
B: Like everything else, it depends on the circumstances. Normally I'd say the gif, but you have to account for the possibility that someone with taste could always come along and delete it before the banner got beaten up too badly.
D: A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. What do you gotta do, Ben?
B: According to the Rally's commercials, I gotta eat. I simply cannot argue with that logic.
D: Finish this joke: "A designer and a developer walk into a bar..."
B: They both ordered drinks and were served. The designer was under 21, however. The bar has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down. Would you like to tell Microsoft about this problem?
The designer and developer shortly after they walked into the bar.
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