Changed My Blog Name

Away3D, Flash Platform, JavaScript Libraries | Posted by David Jumeau
Jan 26 2012

Due to the ever-changing culture of the web, it is no long realistic to just focus on the Adobe Flash Platform. At this stage of my professional career, it is important to know the nuances of differing web technologies particularly related to HTML5. Last year, I have seen this paradigm shift of web development emerge from several events:

  • The conferences I attend to no longer just focus on the Flash Platform; it is a migration of web technologies to javascript libraries and HTML5
  • The market increasingly demands in mobile app development and in compliance for HTML5 type of browsers

Although I love working with the Flash Platform, it is important for a developer to know the pros and cons of using any sort of technology and to know which tool is best for the job.

This year, I plan to get my feet wet in certain JavaScript technologies (jQuery, node.js, impact.js [for game development]). Regardless, the Flash Platform is still a viable platform for development particularly in the gaming industry and in 3D application development taking advantage of the Stage3D features of Flash Player 11. Away3D is also another Actionscript library to look forward to since I had attended last year’s Flash in the City conference seeing how the .awd file format renders 3D objects at a phenomenal rate.

In e-learning, I’ve had the chance to create simulation-based courseware, and I am pariticularly happy how things worked out. I hope I can get the time more into widget development. But I expect the CS6 suites to come out in the spring time, so I might have to wait it out.

There is so much to learn, but it is definitely an exciting time to be a developer.

Cheers and Happy New Year!

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Attending RIA Unleashed Boston

Conferences / Events | Posted by David Jumeau
Oct 25 2011

I will be attending RIA Unleashed in Boston this Thursday Oct. 27th and Friday Oct 28th. I am considering whether I should go to the Habs / Bruins game with my Habs jersey. If I do, I don’t know whether my wife would see me again.

Anyway, looking forward to attending the sessions on HTML5 gaming with Jesse Freeman. (If I wanted to learn how to program in HTML5, why not in gaming?) as well as building mobile apps with the latest Flex 4.6 SDK with Christophe Coenraets and Holly Schinsky.

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Post 2011 Adobe Max: Fireworks CS5 Notes

Adobe Products | Posted by David Jumeau
Oct 08 2011

Fireworks Product BoxI always had this love for Fireworks since it’s inception along with Dreamweaver back in the Macromedia days. A lot of designers that I have met have a vague idea about its use in web development. To me, I think using Photoshop for web design is plain overkill or bloated software that’s useful generally for print based production. (Of course, this is a false assumption. I find it very interesting in video and 3D development. I happen to also use onOne Software’s Perfect Mask 4 software for background image replacement.) Fireworks has its place particularly for web design, wireframing, Flex skin development, and much more…

Anyway, Fireworks CS5 has been garnering a bit of attention lately from 2011 Adobe Max last week. I recently viewed David Hogue’s “I did not know that you can do that in Fireworks” presentation on Adobe TV. Through his presentation, he gave us a wealth of tips and information on extensions and commands that you can download.

I took note of two sites dedicated for extensions and commands:

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Away3D Cookbook Review

AS3, Away3D, Books | Posted by David Jumeau
Aug 11 2011

Away3D 3.6 Cookbook I had the opportunity to get a sneak peak of Michael Ivanov’s book on Away3D 3.6 Cookbook graciously provided to me from Packt publishing. So I thought I would have a go at it to give a sneak peak on what’s covered.

Just a heads up, it is recommended to first go through the basics of using Away3D. A good introduction would be Packt’s Essential Away3D 3.6. Flash magazine’s tutorial series on Away3D is another good reference online to get things started.

Michael goes through several techniques in Away3D development. What is great about his recipes are that he addresses topics that you are not likely to see from basic courses, but the cool stuff, or the things that might be potentially requested by a client. It is a great reference to pick things up right away.

Some of the interesting things that are covered in this book:

  • Away3D materials to view video on demand (VOD) streaming, and usage of the Pixel Bender toolkit.
  • 3D interactivity
  • Special effects (using the Camera, bitmap manipulation)
  • Solutions to depth-sorting, and optimization
  • Tips in using software to improve your workflow (Prefab3D, and importing/loading 3D assets of major 3D software tools [3DsMax, Maya, Blender])
  • Away3D Lite development. This optimized version quadruples the performance compared to the standard engine (with the trade-off of a limited feature set, but ideal for simple projects)

There is much more. But I also like to mention about the appendix on FlashPlayer 11 and the Stage3D API (aka Molehill). Adobe labs just released the beta of Air 3 and for FlashPlayer 11. This would be a good opportunity to test it out.

Now, the question is that should I wait for the next Flash player to come out before tinkering with Away3D? I asked Richard Olsson, the co-developer on the Away3D team at the Flash and the City conference last June and he says that there would be no problem to migrate over to Away3D 4 once you grasp the concepts of 3D development with Away 3D 3.6. So it is a good time to start learning 3D development.

I hope this review was useful. These are exciting times in Flash development, particularly in the area of 3D.

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July 6th, 2011 – Montreal Adobe Flash Usergroup / SWFMontreal get together

Conferences / Events | Posted by David Jumeau
Jul 07 2011

Just to mention that I had a good time with some Flash / Flex devs at our first 5 @ 7. (Thanks Adobe & LordAlexWorks for the drinks and snacks.) We talked about Flash Catalyst, and heard conversations about micro-architectures (Parsley, Robotlegs) and what we want to do for our next general meeting targeted for the end of August. Our next 5 @ 7 would be held at the beginning of August. To get free tickets, it is best to follow LordAlex‘s Tweets.

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