Schleifstein.net

via Jib Jab, enjoy

I am starting a Google meta data experiment for FlashInsider.com below with a small flash movie containing text, hopefully a search for schleifstein filetype:swf will return the contents of the file as meta data.

While attending UNO for my senior semester as an art major I was required to an Artist’s Statement describing my influences and artistic ideas. Artist’s normally write Statements to introduce themselves to people attending a gallery opening, but I wrote mine to try to impress a small group of professors, who taught all types of art in all types of media, and to introduce them to the idea of web based media and Macromedia Flash being used to create art. Read the full Artist’s Statement after the jump. (more…)

MacNN has an article up about the software they think the big merge is going to leave behind. Based on a report from NPD Techworld, they say:

2004 U.S. professional graphics and Web market share figures show Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, and Flash as leaders in their respective markets, so it comes as no surprise that the four applications are expected to survive the merger, while Fireworks, Freehand, and GoLive will be eliminated.

I definitely agree with this accessment given the widespread feelings about the less liked application in the group. The article has stats on the programs’ market share and some interesting comentary on the report. The only thing i find odd is the reccomendation to Adobe to try to sell the Fireworks and Freehand programs. Fireworks may be able to find a buyer, but I can’t see Freehand finding one considering the lack of improvement the program has been given just from Macromedia in the past few years. My gut feeling says that even if Freehand and Fireworks could be sold the lack of use and market share will most likely kill the programs in a short period of time. Fireworks will only survive as a more professional alternative to Photoshop Elements and only because it has extra tools. I personally do not use Fireworks as an alternative to Photoshop but as an extension of Flash to do easy png manipulation, but I can see this being taken over by Photoshop. The missing links in all this are price and activation. Photoshop is just too expensive to be added to the Studio suite of apps and Adobe does not have a very good student pricing system set up. Product activation is completely different for Macromedia apps than for Adobe apps. One is the extremely easy fill out OPTIONAL registration form plus serial number on install(Macromedia); the other is a new complicated activation via web that requires Adobe’s direct permission to re-install much less to flip computers(Adobe). Which would you prefer?

So I obviously love the Camera() object, but what do all you Flash junkies out there get hyped over? Do you like the Microphone or Video classes? Maybe you have a really cool use for the Math functions. Of course there is always the extremely fun Object() object. Gotta love the obvious ones. So let me know, comment below.

After my first four semesters as an art major using mostly digital media, it was pretty apparent that I was going to be a web designer when I grew up but I wanted more, I wanted to program, I wanted to learn… Actionscript! While trying to come up with an idea for a senior semester project Flash MX was released. One of the major changes in this release was the ‘Settings…’ menu (found by right clicking [PC] or control clicking [MAC] inside a Flash movie). This menu selection brings up a Flash player settings window that includes the camera and microphone permissions settings. The user can allow their computer connected camera and/or microphone to be accessed via Flash player. What does this mean? Flash Communication Server was not released at first and the camera and microphone features were not listed in any Flash manuals when MX debuted, so I wandered bookstores for weeks looking through Flash books and trying to find the hidden camera and microphone setting meaning. Then inside the Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Actionscript Bible the Camera() object was finally defined. This object allows Flash to access and control a user’s camera in order to facilitate teleconferencing using Flash Communication Server, plus it can even detect motion. The only thing the Camera() object doesn’t seem to do is take ‘still’ photos.
Still photos could allow the developer to add their user to an animation or game and thereby enhance the user experience. But how? First you acquire the camera using the Camera.get() method. This allows the Flash file to access the camera directly. This method with return null if the user has disabled access via the settings menu. If the user has not ever set the access settings for the specific Flash file or web site, they will be prompted on load of the file to either give access to their camera or not. I recommend warning the user way ahead of time that their camera will be accessed. Now you can attach the accessed camera to a Movie Clip in your Flash movie and then animate and adjust the movie clip via Actionscript. Now you are ready to access an undocumented feature via a camera disconnection. Setting the attached camera null leaves a residual image of the last frame grabbed. Why is the feature undocumented? We can only wonder at Macromedia’s ways, but never question…
Click through for a sample photo movie (remember to enable your camera) and a code snippet of what you will need to enable the still photo capability. I do not have Flash communication server and do not say any image associated with the movie.
If you use this in one of your Flash projects please link to my site and give credit where it is due, thanks.
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In the email from Macromedia you saw what they had to say, but what does this really mean to Flash users and developers.

a) Flash Player keeps its sacred status.
This is a given, especially with the high penatration of flash players in web browsers and now mobile devices. Plus Flash is quickly becoming the goto for marketing content, just take a look at those CDs you get with every product these days. What type of software do you think they use to create a presentation advertising the greatest feature for their product on a cross plat form CD?

b) Flash MX tools slowly transform into part of the “Photoshop family.”
This means soon the Adobe CS2 design suite of apps with include Flash and you will be able to create a vector image in one of the high end apps (like Illustrator) and them immediately push it to Flash to animate, etc.

c) Server products get much-needed marketing support.
Adobe can now start pushing the languishing Flash Communication Server amoungst other things. FCS allows users to connect and teleconfrence via the web without browser or os dependence. It even supports multiconnection video conferencing (ever wonder what that camera() object was for in Flash MX and beyond). Not to mention the fact that now coldfusion will have some sort of native support, possibly within Acrobat. Imagine a world where business clients can run real time reporting within Acrobat instead of Crystal Reports and have those reports dynamicly online without purchasing the $30,000+ enterprise server edition of Crystal Reports.

d) Flash Video format gets instant credibility.
Flash added a video codec to MX and has been quickly integrating it to the point that a user doesn’t really need quicktime or real or windows media player to view web based video and its a heck of a lot easier for a web designer to stream Flash than to stream any of those other formats. Plus Flash can include some sort of time waster for its users while they wait for the download. And remember the communication server with realtime video conferencing?

e) FlashPaper becomes a feature in Acrobat.
Take a PDF and open it in a web browser… now wait two minutes for Acrobat reader to load or take that same PDF and convert it to FlashPaper that loads in Flash player and voila, immediate open of PDFs in web browsers!

Based on the PDF from Harley Manning
with Nate L. Root and Michelle Amato on the Macromedia merger page.