In the coming weeks we will be publishing interviews with some of our speakers. Today we have Michael Ninness from lynda.com. Michael will be presenting Photoshop CS2 & Flash® 8: Optimizing Pixels and Workflow at Flashforward2006 Seattle.

Flashforward: Can you introduce yourself briefly?

Michael Ninness: I joined lynda.com in March of 2005 to manage our video training business after working for seven years at Extensis, Adobe and Microsoft as a product manager and user interface designer of products for creative professionals.

FF: Tell us a bit about your session, and why people will want to attend.

MN: Getting Photoshop layered content into Flash continues to be a cumbersome workflow. My session will teach you several methods and workflows to make this task much easier and efficient. Also, I’ll sprinkle in as many useful Photoshop tips and techniques as time allows for getting great image quality and small file sizes.

FF: Are you using any new features of Flash 8 that you’d like to share?

MN: I think the new bitmap features are fantastic! The ability to apply Filters and Blend Modes directly in Flash is a huge time saver, and it enables designers to go beyond the traditional Flash vector aesthetic that has dominated the visual appearance of Flash-based content for years.

FF: What projects do you have in the pipeline?

MN: We plan on publishing many new video training titles on Flash at lynda.com this year, such as Flash 8 Video Integration, Flash 8 Audio Integration, Flash & After Effects Integration, ActionScript Animation, and more! Check back often at Lynda.com for these and other exciting new training titles.

FF: Any sessions that you’re looking forward to attending?

MN: Less Ordinary by Erik Natzke. I always leave his presentations feeling inspired. I am also very excited to attend April Greiman’s Think About What You Think About session. She was one of the designers that inspired me to pursue a Graphic Design BFA. And of course, I’m getting an early seat at the hoops and yoyo: Character Development session. Maybe I can get the presenters to autograph my hoops and yoyo plush dolls for my daughters, who are the biggest hoops and yoyo fans ever!

FF: Any parting words to encourage people to attend your session and/
or the conference?

MN: This conference is going to kick ass! Break out of your day-to-day routine and get inspired by hanging out with the world’s most creative Flash designers and developers.

We’ve been experimenting with different Flash banners on our home page — some built by us, some commissioned from in-house designs — but none of them were really accomplishing what we needed: to promote the speakers and sessions of Flashforward2006 Seattle while looking very cool.

“Who do we know who’s cool?” we asked ourselves. Right about then, Brendan Dawes, longtime friend of Flashforward, made the mistake of sending us a New Years greeting.

“Hey, Brendan is cool!” Email was sent. The result is now gracing our home page, and we think you’ll agree that it finally does what it should: look cool. Thanks, magneticNorth!

We asked Brendan to tell us a little bit about their inspiration and process for this project, and he sent the following. Read on to find out what all this has to do with James Bond…

Brendan Dawes:

When Lynda contacted us to see if there was anything we could create that would lift the Flashforward homepage, that could be done quickly, we looked into what stuff we had been playing around with that might be appropriate. Downsampling images was something that we were exploring but as always we were looking for a creative application of the technique.

We knew we had essentially 3 assets — the speaker images, their names and the session names. There was no time to put in a request for any kind of new imagery so we looked at the downsampling technique using the speaker images to create a rotating banner to show the confirmed speakers.

Using a technique though just for the sake of it is never what we’re about as a company — there has to be solid idea behind any kind of use of technology. I’ve always been a big fan of movie title sequences, particular the work of Maurice Binder and Saul Bass. One of my all time favorite ones is the Dr. No titles created by Maurice Binder. As you can see from the screen shots it’s a very graphical piece, based on the use of circles in juxtaposition to the type. So I thought this would be ideal inspiration for the Flashforward piece — a sort of a dynamic data driven update of that very title sequence, with the circles being generated by the images themselves.

Within a few hours we had a working piece that used the data from the Flashforward database. Notice there’s no “loading xml” message or any kind of preloader. We wanted to try and make the whole thing seamless — and anyway putting “loading xml” type messages is just far too geeky — newsflash: nobody cares! The other thing worth mentioning is the use of the images to generate the circles. You could say when the circles are big you can never make out it’s an image so why even bother loading an image in? Why not just use random colours. Well simply due to the fact that the composition of colours in a photograph is much more aesthetically pleasing than simply allowing the machine to randomly choose a colour.

Little projects like this are always great because they allow you to distill an idea down to it’s absolute essence, and with the time constraints we had there was never any chance of over analyzing the work — we just made it.

Brendan Dawes
Executive Creative Director, magneticNorth Interactive

Early-Bird Discount Ends January 20 — Register Now!

Flashforward2006 Seattle probably sounded impossibly distant when we first told you about it, but now it’s only seven weeks away: February 27 - March 2.

Save $100 off any three- or four-day conference package if you register in the next two weeks. After January 20, the early-bird discount will expire, so register now!

Attendees not only have four tracks of content to choose from throughout the event, but also gain admission to the Flashforward Film Festival, Expo Hall, parties, networking events, complimentary lynda.com Online Training Library memberships, and more.

And don’t forget our “five for four” group discount — if four people register at the same level, at the same time, a fifth can attend for free. We also offer special discounts for faculty, students and non-profits. Please contact registration@flashforwardconference.com or call or call 877-435-2744 toll free (001-410-386-0646 outside the US) during East Coast business hours for details.

See the finalists…

Vote for the People’s Choice Award…

Look at the pretty pictures:

Congrats to all the finalists! An email will be sent later today with congratulations and instructions — if it’s not in your inbox by tomorrow, assume it got caught in a spam-trap and contact us at festival@flashforwardconference.com.

It’s one thing to have fun at your job — if you work with Flash, it’s hard not to — but it’s better still when your job is to help people have fun. From cartoons to games to the only e-cards you actually enjoy receiving, Flashforward2006 Seattle will have several sessions on creating Fun with Flash…

• The Evolution of Flash® Animation: Bedrock Revisted (presented by Sandro Corsaro, Crest Digital)
• How and Why Homestar Runner Cartoons Get Made (presented by Matt Chapman and Mike Chapman, Homestar Runner)
• Build Your First Flash® Game (presented by John Davey, Develop Ltd.)
• hoops and yoyo: Character Development (presented by Tim Stout and Bob Holt, Hallmark Cards)
• Flash® Game Development (presented by Andreas Heim, Smashing Ideas)
• Cut, Paste, Animate: Collage Animation (presented by Evan Spiridellis, JibJab Media)
• Deconstructing Nintendogs.com (presented by Andreas Heim, Smashing Ideas and David Wharton, Nintendo of America)