I want to take a moment and talk about Flash and and what You can do with it. This is a mini-guide for people who are looking into Flash as their primary platform but have not made up their mind yet.

Introduction

As you might know, Shockwave Flash has been around since 1996. Today the highly evolved Flash Player 9 is the most popular software on the planet. According to the latest statistics (2007/11/11) available on Adobe.com, Flash Player reaches 99.3% of desktop Internet users and over 95% of internet users have the latest version, that’s over 3.3 billion desktops worldwide. It is also one of the few software packages that reach users behind corporate firewalls.

So before jumping into the bandwagon and joining millions of Flash content developers let’s see what is this technology all about and what you can squeeze out from it for yourself.

Flash for Designers

If you are a designer or graphics artist you will love to work with Flash CS3 IDE. The easy to use software gives you access to a stage area and a set of tools to quickly prototype your ideas as vector drawings and then animate them using keyframes and layers. You will also find that some Adobe Photoshop CS3 effects (dropshadow, glow, etc…) and blend modes are already integrated into the environment so you don’t have to jump from one software to another if you want to achieve a desired look.

When done drawing you can export your creation in various formats ranging from postscript for print or rasters and vector formats for web to high resolution video files.

Skills that you will need:
- Vector drawing know-how
- A bit of creativity

Skills that might help you:
- Animation know-how

Where to go from there:
- Add interactivity, animation, video and sound to your drawings and designs, make them come alive.

Flash for Animators

If you are an animator you probably already use Flash

Flash for Website Developers

If you are a website developer, Flash can be a very important addition to your existing skillset or it can be a total turning point in your career. Flash will open you the doors to many well known brands that invest largely into creative web advertising. Clients want video, sound and interactivity, they also want the content to be available to widest possible reach without any browser incompatibilities.

Flash is unique in a way that it gives you the content delivery, media and scripting capabilities in one package. You can use it to create animations, interactive components, or full blown broadband websites with 3D – it’s your choice.

It also plays well with existing Javascript libraries if you decide to do hybrid web development (HTML+JS+Flash).

However I suggest you to be skeptical when learning Flash and you will be pleasantly surprised.

Skills that you will need:
- Web development skills

Skills that might help you:
- OOP knowledge
- Artistic skills
- Knowledge of C# or Java

Where to go from there:
- Get some inspiration visit The FWA and see what are the world’s greatest brands up to.
- Sell your creations online via FlashDen

Flash for Web Application Developers

Corporate customers can enjoy the benefits of MXML language and Flex framework. MXML is an XML based language for creating visually rich corporate web and desktop applications. The language together with Flex IDE which lets you create data-driven applications without writing a single line of code.

Skills that you will need:
- Web application know-how

Skills that might help you:
- OOP knowledge
- Database know-how

Where to go from there:
- See what Flex is all about
- Check out what’s new in Flex 3

Flash for C# and Java Developers

Actionscript 3 introduced with Flash Version 9 will feel familiar to C# and Java developers.

The third ActionScript language version (based on ECMA-262 edition 3) has features such as interfacing, clearly defined class/package structure, refined event system and strongly typed variables, making the language very clear and easy to understand and extend to your needs. You can even draw graphics pixel by pixel, write byte arrays, communicate to sockets and load content from other websites using REST and SOAP, control video streams, sound and user interaction using easy to understand syntax.

There are several IDEs available for Actionscript 3 besides Flash CS3 which is more targeted at designers and animators. Flex versions 2 and 3, the opensource Flashdevelop 3 and Powerflasher FDT 3.0. What I personally find very nice is that Flex 3 and FDT 3 are both based on Eclipse so you will feel like at home using these tools.

Skills that you will need:
- OOP knowledge

Skills that might help you:
- Strong C# or Java background

Where to go from there:
- Create and publish stunning websites filled with visual effects, create advanced corporate web and desktop applications, or just have fun quickly prototyping your ideas and publishing them to web or desktop using Adobe AIR.

Flash for Game Developers

If your call is creating games – Flash is your best friend. At your disposal – open source 3D engines (such as Papervision 3D and Sandy), Physics engines (Fisix), specific data structures and even game creation frameworks.

Skills that you will need:
- OOP knowledge

Skills that might help you:
- Strong C# or Java background

Where to go from there:
- Create and publish your games to web and desktop using Adobe AIR.
- Track their usage using Mochibot
- Make money by selling in-game advertising through Mochiads

Some Final Suggestions

• If you are a coder, DON’T use Flash CS3 IDE for development. Unfortunately it lacks proper code completion and debugging that are available in other tools and it lets you cheat around the language specification thus making your code non-reusable. I suggest starting of with Flex 3 IDE
• There are lots of open source libraries for Actionscript 3 for extending your website, game or application.
• If you are undecided which Actionscript version to learn – start with AS3, it’s faster and more capable than AS2.
• Stay on top of news and see what the Flash community is up to, make a bookmark

Hope that was helpful!
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This entry was posted on Saturday, December 8th, 2007 at 10:15 pm and is filed under AIR, Actionscript 3, Applications, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.