I had recently worked through a quick tutorial on FreeSpin3D on the Adobe Edge magazine December 2009 edition. I had noticed this software through an ad on Flex and Flash developer magazine and so I had decided to check out the demo. Of course, using 3D in real-time to design your site is very cool and convenient. The 3D Phone above is simply applying a motion tween on the layer containing the 3D object and using the trackball to change the rotation about the y-axis.
Here are some of my notes during my tutorial experience:
1) CPU resources take a hit during development and during rendering. Would it be preferable to be working off a workstation during the design? Regardless, even on the freespin 3D website, the rotating the IPod was chugging along. I wonder if it is an issue with my computer? (However, it is a year old and runs off a dual core Centrino, it should be responding well.)
2) Behaviors:
Mouse control doesn’t respond well
Adding behaviours can be finicky. In some cases, I could not delete the behaviors I worked with.
3) I would have liked to manually enter the x-y-z rotation values in text fields beside the trackball – feature request perhaps?
4) It’s nice that they offer a 20% discount when you download the tutorial. This is fair for those who have really tried out the software.
As far as I heard from Lee Brimelow while taking a “What’s new in Flash CS4?” course at FITC last April, the help for the CS4 suites were left much to be desired because it required a connected environment to the web. There is a work around for this since the help files are actually installed on the users’ computer. (I will update this once I find my notes on this.)
I tweeted RJ Jacquez, senior product evangelist for the E-learning and Tech Comm suites, and asked him since Adobe produces Robohelp, why wasn’t a Robohelp used for the help for the CS4 suites? It turns out that they did not have enough time, but the Captivate 4 team managed to include it. (See screen shot below.) This is a taste that you will find when CS5 is released. (I hope not too soon, I am just getting used to CS4.)
Adobe version 2 is based off Adobe AIR. It has a much improved interface and using AIR’s internet detection features, a user is permitted the user to toggle between “online” and “offline” help modes via the circle icon at the bottom right corner of the interface. I really like the comment pod (see the caption icon on the menu bar on top) where you can insert private notes or upload your comments to the Adobe community.
Found out from various blogs (flashblog & Duane’s world) that Flex Builder will now become “Flash Builder”. It is a more appropriate name for flash platform development.
Found out from various blogs (