According to Steve Jobs, Flash is dead. He should know, because he’s the one holding the murder weapon. Flash is dead to Apple because they are not allowing it on the iPad, a device which otherwise would seem ideal for viewing the kind of rich media content the Flash platform excels at.
Obviously, Apple’s decision, and Jobs’ declaration, is not a prescient message from the future, but a company policy intended to protect the profits from their app store. They do not want their sexy device to be able to access all the rich content from the web, they want to be able to charge you for it instead. Even so, when someone like Steve Jobs declares Flash is dead, people take notice. So if the future is no longer Flash, … what is it?
Even before Apple weighed in, I’d noticed the demand for Flash has been on the wane. And even more noticeable has been the wavering interest of my fellow Flash devs. Symptomatic of these times, the Flash Brighton group, the collective home of the finest Flash designers and programmers in Brighton, is in the process of a rebrand, which will very likely include (gasp) dropping the word “Flash” from the group name.
On an individual level, I’ve seen many of Brighton’s finest recently devoting their attention to non-Adobe products. And these are the folks who know. So here are some of the technologies people have been playing with:
Unity – a 3D games engine, also banished from the iPhone via their T&Cs, but capable of some amazing browser based interaction. See http://blurst.com/ for many fine examples. If you want a Unity developer, may I recommend my friend and colleague Iestyn.
OpenFrameworks – a C++ framework, capable of creating multi-platform content. Ideal for interactive art, ambitious installations and audio-reactive work, but also capable of publishing to devices such as the iPad, iPhone and Android. This has been my own favourite toy of late.
Processing – a highly accessible language based on Java. Not so great for the web, but excellent for digital art, video or offline interactive work. For the web there is Processing.js, a JavaScript port, which is probably the best Flash animation alternative currently. I have written an introductory book on the subject of Processing, if you want to get up to speed that might be a good place to start.
HTML5 – this is Jobs’ answer to the lack of Flash on the iPad. Unfortunately, while HTML5 has a huge amount of promise, it is still many years away from Flash’s current power. Even if Adobe were to cease developing Flash/Flex today, by the time HTML5 had caught up the iPad will be a distant memory (because we’ll all have migrated to Android devices long ago).
Objective C – inevitably, many Flash devs don’t like being locked out of the platform-de-jour, so have been awarding their attentions to Objective-C, Apple’s OS language. Again, if you want an iPhone developer, there are people I can recommend.
Flex – while Flash demand is dropping, Flex demand has been on the increase. Flex app are still using the Flash Player, so they’re no more welcome on the iPad than any other breed of Flash, but it still remains the best solution for rich media online.
Personally, I disagree with Apple; there is still a future for the Flash platform. Although Adobe are going to have to pull their socks up to fight back, ignore Apple’s greedy posturing, and focus on all the things that HTML5 can’t do very well. Video for example. Or how about 3D?
You may be sick of hearing it, but Apple, and in particular their iPhone/Pod/Pad, are setting the standard for instinctive and usable interaction. And I’m sure the iPhone will influence the next generation of Flex components, but until then I’ve rolled one of my own.
My client was reporting the primary school children their app was aimed at were having trouble entering their (given) passwords, the logs showing some needing 20 or 30 tries. The iPhone way of entering passwords, showing the last letter typed, solves the issue of imprecise keying on a touchscreen. But it also serves as an accessible alternative for any user group who may need it.
I was going to post this as a Flash/Flex component, but it is so simple I may as well just post the code, then it is easily translatable into JavaScript, PHP, Processing or whatever is your flavour.
private var _passwordEntered:String = "";
// this will store the password as it is typed
passwordTI.addEventListener(Event.CHANGE, passwordEntry);
// the TextInput component - make sure "displayAsPassword" is turned OFF
private function passwordEntry(e:Event):void {
// update _passwordEntered with whatever has been typed
var newText:String = passwordTI.text;
if (newText.length < _passwordEntered.length) {
_passwordEntered = _passwordEntered.substr(0, newText.length);
} else if (newText.length > _passwordEntered.length) {
var diff:int = newText.length - _passwordEntered.length;
_passwordEntered += newText.substr(newText.length - diff, diff);
}
// hide the text in the field, apart from the last char
passwordTI.text = "";
for (var x:int = 0; x < _passwordEntered.length-1; x++) {
passwordTI.text += "•";
}
passwordTI.text += _passwordEntered.charAt(_passwordEntered.length-1);
}
Flex has been around a while now and is ramping up in terms of popularity. I had a handful of Flex projects last year, all of which were a positive experience, and I have more lined up for this year. But while Flex has been embraced quite happily by the Coders (mainly because it is the first decent ActionScript IDE) I’m not convinced it has penetrated our symbiotic co-species; the Designers.
For all Adobe’s claims about improving workflow with the use of Flex Builder, which it certainly has for writing code, I’m not sure the way of creating components and skins for Flex (which cannot be done easily without one of Adobe’s other products) is quite as instinctive. The reason I suspect this is because for every Flex project I have worked on we have had real difficulty finding a suitably skilled Designer.
One of the stigmas associated with Flex is that every Flex site you see on the web, looks like a Flex site. So many times you see the default loader, default buttons and even the default grey colour scheme, which suggests to me the Designers are nowhere to be seen on these projects.
So if you are a Flex Designer reading this, or a Flash Designer who isn’t scared off by Flex, please get in touch. Especially if you are in the Brighton or Birmingham area and are affordable. I have projects you can be helping me with right now.
And Adobe, listen up; Flex isn’t going to change the world until we can get the Designers on board. So perhaps you might want to make it a little easier for them to work with it.
When I started working as a Flash freelancer in Brighton I assumed the whole world and their wife were all out there doing the same thing too. But I have since come to realise that while there are plenty of freelance Flash professionals out there (not so many Flex Developers though), there are only a few whose ActionScript is worth their day rate. Also, the good ones tend to be booked up months ahead, so don’t have any particular need to advertise their talents.
So, for those of you who are looking for an ActionScript freelancer, below is my pick of the best of Brighton.
Naturally I’m putting myself at the top of the list, as I need your work just as much as anyone else. But if you have spoken to me and I am busy, or you owe me money, or you’ve taken offence to my haircut or something, try one of the other guys. My colleague Kris has a longer list here, but these are the people I will personally vouch for.
If you contact them do let them know you found them via me. Beer is very expensive in this town.
If it is a Flash Designer you are after, rather than an ActionScripter, they are much easier to come by. Your best bet may be to tap people randomly on the shoulder while wandering around Churchill Square. Roughly one in every five will be a Flash Designer.
The simplest ideas are always the best. I did a project a few months back with the very talented Paul Lloyd of FourTwo.net. We built a little Flash carousel component in AS3 for a corporate client. And it came out pretty well.
The data that runs it all came from a remotely hosted XML, so rather than use a fixed set of cards, a whole new application could be created just by pointing it at another XML. Which is what I have done here – making some of my blog posts look pretty.
Now here’s the cool bit – if instead of using a fixed URL I tell the swf file to read the path to the XML from the QueryString, it becomes reusable by anyone. Even you. Here’s an example:
… and, wahay, we have a slick looking carousel showcasing a selection from my portfolio.
The structure of the XML should be self explanatory, so feel free to try it. Except when you try it with your own URL it doesn’t work. Why is that?
There’s one more thing you need: you have to give permission for the Flash file to use data from your domain. Flash Player has very tight security features, and won’t let swfs grab data from other domains, unless that domain has said it’s okay by putting a crossdomain.xml file on the top level. This applies both to the URL of the XML and the URLs of any images specified inside that XML. For more info, see here. The crossdomain.xml I used for the example above is here, if you copy this and put it at the top level of the domain where you placed your XML/images it should do the trick.
The portfolio has just received a long overdue update, with some recent projects added to it, one of which being (slightly prematurely) the CD-Rom I am currently finishing off for Natural England, which I put together using Flex3 and AIR. I mention this because in the process of doing this project I have come to realise that I now owe Adobe a small apology.
A year ago O’Reilly books generously sent me a review copy of their Apollo For Adobe Flex Developers Pocket Guide. Apollo, or AIR as it has since been re-christened, was only at alpha stage when the book was released, and was full of bugs. I had spent a lot of time hacking away at both that and the documentation-less Flash 9 Alpha that had been released not long before. With AIR, even with the help from some of the development team, I couldn’t get even the most basic of applications to run. Because of my frustration (and because I thought I was oh-so big and clever) I wrote a deeply sarcastic review of the book for Blogcritics.
So this is my apology. I made my peace with Flash 9 and ActionScript 3.0 some time ago, and now, since AIR finally got it’s first 1.0 official release last month, I have had a complete u-turn in my opinion of that too. AIR is an utter delight to work with. And with Flex reaching version 3 to coincide with the release, they go together like Peters And Lee. Harmonious.
I’m sure this isn’t the first PaperVision game, but I might make claim on it being the simplest. But then I only really had a day free to do this, which doesn’t allow the time for any sexy 3D modelling or texturing. Otherwise, you’d be looking at day-glo Tron Light Cycles racing around the grid below, rather than blue blobs. The keys are A/D or Left/Right arrows, and the idea is to collect the green things. The rest you can work out for yourself. Fullscreen version here.
What you’re looking at is PaperVision 3D. Not the silly snake game, but the Flash 3D engine rendering all those polygons. PV3D is probably the greatest Flash Open Source success story to date. At my local nerd club, a recurring topic of conversation is the “Open Source question” – i.e. should I open source my code or not, and what exactly do I gain by giving away my work for nothing? The creators of PaperVision, Carlos Ulloa, John Grden and the rest of the crew, answer this question. Rather than being the authors of a great 3D engine no-one knows about, by setting their code free they have become the leading experts in a 3D engine that EVERYONE uses.
At November’s FOTB conference PV3D was on every developer’s lips, within six months even clients are asking for PaperVision. By giving away their work, the creators of PV3D have made themselves coding mega-stars. This is how Open Sourcing works, the trade is in kudos, not commodities. The Open Source movement is the economic paradigm shift of the 20th Century, it happened in software five years ago, last year it made it’s mark on music, this year it will be publishing. The year after that … who knows. As the Chili Peppers advised, give it away, give it away, give it away now…
It’s been six months at least since I’ve had the spare time for any ‘leisure’ coding but I finally found a few hours to get back into my Flash isometric 3D engine this week. And I’m really chuffed with what I’ve achieved.
You can move the ball with keys QAOP (once you’ve clicked on the movie) but the really interesting bit is the sliders. Thanks to AS3’s speed, I can now redraw the isometric space at runtime, so it is a “true” 3D engine.
If you’re in the mood for some outside the box thinking on interface design, how about putting a bit of physicality into your learning and controlling it with a Wii remote?
Already you can run Flash content on the Wii, and control it with the remote. But now there are third party apps for reading data from the Wii-mote on a Mac or PC.
Lets just ignore the accessibility considerations for now, and think about how much more fun eLearning would be if it involved flinging your arms about.
Currently Flex Developers are a rare commodity, hard to pin down for freelance work. This may be about to change, in Brighton anyway, after Flash Brighton’s Big Day Out event, where Adobe were generous enough to give out a free copy of Flex Builder 2 to everyone who attended.
The Flash Devs of Brighton have been really spoilt this month, with Flash On The Beach, The Big Day Out, and the rest of the Digital Festival. I’ve been to so many events over the last few weeks that my collection of freebie promotional geek t-shirts is now spilling out of the drawer.
Major respec’ to the Flash Brighton crew for the organisation behind the Big Day Out, it was a really good day. Two highlights – 1. Seb and Dom’s 15 minute masterclasses. 2. Andrew Shorten’s preview of Thermo (which is a long way away, but is already getting everyone excited).
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