Flash Catalyst and Illustrator - vector shadows, gradients and primitives
July 29th, 2009
Everybody is asking me - how is it with converting vector shadows and gradients from Illustrator to Flash Catalyst.
Answer is YES, Flash Catalyst can do this. Thanks to new MXML 2009 graphic primitives library combined with powerful gradient fills and drop shadow - which are natively supported classes in ActionScript 3.0.
FAQ:
- Gradients are converted to LinearGradient Class or RadialGradient Class
- Shadows are converted to DropShadowFilter Class
- Rounded rectangles are converted to Paths (not RoundedRectangle Class - while it’s defined in Illustrator as Path
- Patterns are transfered as PNGs and put into Library
- Star, Spiral, Polygon and others are represented as Paths
- Opacity/Alpha is reflected as well as native ActionScript 3.0 parameter
I have created this demo Ai file and imported into Flash Catalyst:
More and More Opened Adobe
July 23rd, 2009
Recently we have launched few interesting open-source frameworks in Adobe, which might become very useful for you.
Open Source Media Framework (code-named Strobe)
Lightweight ActionScript 3.0 framework, which solves most of the aims for building successful and extensible Flash Video Player. Main goal is to keep this core video player functionality behind one powerful and standardized library so when someone will continue working on project you started (or vise-versa), you will quickly understand how the player was built.
There is also MXML Flex version provided.
Get it here: http://opensourcemediaframework.com
Open Video Player
This iniciative takes OSMF power and gives you the possibility of using pre-cooked lightweight Flash Video Player.
Go ahead: http://www.openvideoplayer.com/
TextLayoutFramework goes open-source
Well-known formatting and layouting framework now unhides it’s magic, which you can extend, learn from and easily reuse.
Let the fantasy go beyond: http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/tlf/Text+Layout+Framework
More Adobe open-source projects: http://opensource.adobe.com/
FlashLite 3.1 Distributable now available in Czech Republic
July 17th, 2009
In June - we have added numerous countries to support FlashLite 3.1 Distributable player to count of 29 ( Read here at FlashMobileBlog.com).
Yesterday we have added Czech Republic, Poland, Romania and many more to total count of 45 countries! See the map of supported countries.
Two weeks ago - we have delivered Flash support on Android mobile platform with HTC. Read here and also check the video: Â www.adobe.com/go/htchero.
This year we have organized also FlashLiteDeveloperChallenge.com - recommend to see the winners (screencasts of their apps).
If you want to start with FlashLite today - check Serge’s videotutorial.
Also don’t forget to check Adobe Labs for additional sources http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/distributableplayer/.
Good Luck with Flash for Mobile!
SharedProperty - AFCS best practices
July 8th, 2009
SharedProperty is very useful class in Adobe Flash Collaboration Service, which simplifies all data sharing and shared data binding. The core of SharedProperty is based on CollectionNode.
If you are familiar with Flash Media Server - SharedProperty is similar to Remote SharedObject, however you can’t define function on SharedProperty - on SharedObject you can.
Common use cases for SharedProperty in Collaboration apps:
- - shared parameters of components (size, zoom/scale, position, scrolling)
- - shared text selection
- - shared mouse position
- - shared radio button toggle
- - shared location/navigation
- - everything you want to make realtime changeable by others
- - and more…