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Flash, XFL, and a Look Back to the Future of Flash
Not to be confused with the defunct WWE meets NFL Mashup, XFL seems to be one of a series of really promising technologies coming to the Flash application. In short, XFL is taking the FLA format and adding XML to the mix. There are a multitude of possibilities by adding the custom importing and exporting of XML into Flash. In one example, a user could create a series of animations in Flash, and the graphical elements of this animation could be edited in Photoshop, allowing you to keep the animation safe from those edits. Go over to Colin Moock’s site to check out his blog entry talking about this.
While this, on a technical level, can get you fired up about the next evolution of Flash – it got me thinking to a couple of key pieces that have been showcased for Diesel (The next level of Flash coming up), and they are worth taking a look at. Click on the jump to take a look at the videos that will make you jump for joy at what is to come, as well as a tutorial alert. Promise you will not be disappointed.
The Diesel Tween Engine
One of the things that is a bane of existence for designers in the Flash application is the tweening of graphics for animation. Moving symbols around in the stage space requires you to be clicking on start and end symbols, as well as worrying about the manipulation of the motion guides that are associated with it. Diesel seems to promise a new Tweening engine that takes a lot of that pain away, allowing for very quick and easy tweening, as well as painless modification of those tweens in the Flash space.
Check out the Youtube Video talking about this (From FOTB 2007)
Inverse Kinematics in Diesel
Inverse Kinematics for Flash can be explained in one simple concept – Joints – joints for your symbols, which can be used to create Skeletal animations. Imagine taking a series of shapes that are grouped together, and giving them joints, similar to the way your arm has joints at the shoulder, elbow and wrist. With a couple of setting clicks, you can create a symbol that can move just like your arm does, with all of the hassle of setting this up largely removed.
Check out the FOTB 2007 video for this feature by clicking on this link.
New Black and White Tutorial from Chris Orwig
We finally leave you with a tutorial from Chris Orwig on creating great black and white images within Adobe Lightroom. Click here to check out the tutorial.
That’s it for today, everyone. Have a great Monday!
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