The Flashfoward Video Podcast continues...

Day 2 of Flashforward2006 Austin kicked off with a keynote from Adobe, featuring Kevin Lynch, Mark Anders, Garrett Nantz, Mike Downey and Justin Everett-Church, showing off all manner of first-look previews of upcoming Flash technologies. Tuesday also marked the start of all four session tracks and the opening of the expo hall. In this video podcast, Garrick interviews Kevin Lynch, popular speaker Chris Orwig, some ehxibitors and attendees.

Note that if you prefer to watch these podcasts in Flash video we are also posting the latest episode on our home page as an FLV. Enjoy!

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backstage view of Flash Player 9 running in a Linux browser

Today we launch the first full day of sessions at Flashforward2006 Austin, beginning with the Adobe Keynote. This blogger is watching it from backstage, so it’s a bit difficult to hear; if any of these tidbits are completely backwards, you know why. Anyone with more to add, please chime in!

Chapman Bros video honoring Flash 5

Kevin Lynch: Flash 9 player penetration: forecast to achieve 50% of web users in 3 months! (well ahead of even the Flash 8 curve)

Garrett Nantz: Showed Flash 9 player on Ubuntu Linux (running Nike Air site)

Mark Anders: Demo of FlexBuilder 2 on 15″ MacBook Pro (built sleek Flickr browser)
Then showed it running as a self-contained app… Apollo on a Mac!

Justin Everett-Church: Showed Flash 9 Public Alpha (on WinXP on Parallels on 17″ MacBook Pro); cool demo of huge speed increase from AS2 –> AS3 (sun-like vizualization built from particles)

Mike Downey: first public demo of Flash 9 internal build (on WinXP on Parallels on 17″ MacBook Pro)

- imports PSD files: control over every layer, group, effect, etc — and control the import options for every layer right in the importing tool; auto-placing the layered import (and/or individual layers/groups) into MovieClip(s), etc.

Imported text can be designated editable, or rendered to vectors, etc.

Can tweak (render-time) compression settings per object right in import tool, and preview the resulting size of the objects (easier initial optimization)

- space-efficient new interface options (tools recede to the edges of the screen until called on)

Flash Complaint: The designer/animator protptypes his work on the timeline (lots of keyframes, tweens) then developer starts over in code; does it match? No

New workflow: devised with Robert Penner. Shows ladybug animation with all this type of animation, all built in the timeline. Then right-clicked selected frames in the timeline and chose “Copy Motion as ActionScript 3” (applause) and after a couple prompts, you can paste the resulting code (XML-heavy) onto a new instance of the bug, which then animates EXACTLY the same way as the hand-animated bug! (applause)

Then you can take the code over to Flex Builder and continue working with it! (Applause)

Components: users requested components that are smaller and easier to skin

Beau Ambur and Grant Skinner are helping out with those new components, and they meet those requests! Will be demoed in their respective sessions.

Q&A is still underway but I honestly can’t hear it very well so I’ll let someone else blog about that.

What an exciting start to the day!

Update: Robert Hoekman posted a list of highlights from his perspective, and Lee Brimelow took a couple screenshots of the key Flash 9 features that were demonstrated. Woohoo!

Update 2: Flashmagazine and Aral Balkan posted their recaps of the keynote as well! Many interesting details there that escaped me, so check them out.

Update 3 Regarding that 50% penetration statistic — after reading other bloggers’ recaps of the keynote, I now think Kevin said this penetration rate is a forecast, based on the current shape of the curve, but hasn’t been achieved quite yet. FP9 hasn’t even been out for three whole months — this press release is dated June 28:

http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200606/062806Flash9.htm

So no one should cite that as a fait accompli until you see the Adobe press release in a couple more weeks. :-)

The Flashfoward Video Podcast continues...

Day 1 of Flashforward2006 Austin kicked off with a keynote from Lynda Weinman, followed by a selection of all-day workshops. In this video podcast, Garrick interviews Lynda, along with some of the atteendees, volunteers, and speakers at the conference.

Since iTunes is closed at the moment (!) you can't subscribe via the iTunes link below, but you can watch it here!

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Category: Game

Finalist: Guardians of Altarris

URL: www.shockwave.com/gamelanding/guardians.jsp

Creators: Original Concept, Engineering and Character Art by Scott Stoddard, World Art by Adam Ford, Music by Ethan Halvorsen

Artist’s Statement: Inspired by classic arcade brawler gameplay and Judeo-Christian themes with a Fantasy / Sci-FI flavor, “Guardians of Altarris - The Sinless Blade” is the first chapter in an epic Sci-Fi Flash game.

We set out to produce a Flash based game with unprecidented polish and gameplay. The production for this first chapter included the creation of a Flash based engine and took about 6 months to complete. Each episode will be playable for free and generate advertising revenue while the remaining chapters are completed.

This staggered process generates revenue before the game is completed and also enables us to respond to users more effectively in the design of new game elements in later chapters. The forth chapter will be sold in a package with the first 3 chapters as a complete game and allow fans to download the game to their hard drive.

The graphics where created using a combination of methods. The characters where created and animated in 3D then rendered out to toon shaded sprites and imported into the Flash environment. The worlds were created using a combination of 3D models and traditional painting with 3 layers of paralax.

The music was digitally composed with midi software. Most of the particle effects, cinematic frames and menus where created with vectors in Flash. The first chapter has demonstrated substantial popularity and we are excited to continue the series in coming months.

Category: Cartoon

Finalist: The YuYu

URL: www.biteycastle.com/theYuyu.html

Creators: The YuYu was written, directed and animated by ‘Brackenwood’ series creator Adam Phillips. The music was created especially for the movie by Spider Stacy (www.pogues.com) and James Walbourne.

Artist’s Statement: I’ve always been a fan of Irish music and I take much inspiration from the music of ‘The Pogues’. I thought it might be nice if I could get one or more of The Pogues guys to create some music for my Brackenwood series… just 20 or 30 seconds of intro music that would be used at the start of each episode.

I managed to get in touch with Spider Stacy, the whistle player from The Pogues. He liked my online works and agreed to get some friends together and record a tune for Brackenwood. When Spider sent back the finished music it was 3 minutes long… not just intro music, but an entire song! I loved it, but I couldn’t use it as intro music, and there’s no way I could bring myself to cut it short.

So I decided to create a kind of music video, with the story and animation inspired and written especially for the music. The result was The YuYu. This movie is a sequel… as it ties in with the end of my earlier Brackenwood movie, and last year’s Flash Forward Cartoon Category Winner LittleFoot.