VideoGames Evolution

Fantastic video from MSLBVR, the animation was planned and animated as the prologue / intro to a documentary. (That explains the absurd, seemingly unfinished, ending. That is where the actual documentary starts.... )

The briefing was to show an evolution of computer games.
The documentary itself is about different people, based here in germany, showing their everyday life, and their addiction to the same specific, famous MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role playing game) that starts with a "W".

Every game character in this prologue was reinterpreted, redrawn (...one pixel at a time), and animated frame by frame.

Video Games from MUSCLEBEAVER on Vimeo.

Rich Media

I had a little chat with a friend working for Eyewonder and decided to post about it.

In Spain, and differing from other countries the rich formats leader is Eyeblaster. There are also some new firms as Richandreach but the other two are the main ones.

Eyeblaster has just published the content of the sessions they already did in Madrid. You can watch this video of Pablo Morales from Eyeblaster talking about future and change. Also take a look at the other videos of the congress on the right.

Mas allá del click - Pablo Morales - Eyeblaster from Eyeblaster Spain on Vimeo.

Ok, let´s talk now about Eyewonder!
My friend told me: Now it is the time for videoplayers, tickers and overlays. You will see also a lot of lateral scrolls. For example:

This is a creation from Eyewonder Germany. It has 3 banners, two of them sincronized, with a superlateral layer (2400 x875). I scored 374m, did you beat me?

Another one will be this, usually they go inside this kind of websites.

What about crisis? Internet is beatting the TV, all of us know, anyway campaings are a bit poor cos there are creativities without video or impressions are passed to display (gif, jpg, etc.)

The cost of a campaign is between 1.000 and 2.000€, it depends. Some charge just CPM (cost per 1.000 impressions), it is usually standard and depends on the work donde.
Take a look at this one and wait for the banner to load.


What can I say about this?
Ok, if you have to work with them, just don´t do like me!, call them first! It´s better!

Mad009 Report

So this is what I feel like about the event

Day 1 / Friday 26

- Design Interaction Masterclass: I couldn´t go because of work. It was about prototyping and things like that.

- LaDespensa: Neither did I go. This is a Spanish Agency centered in video and advertising.

- GrupoW: Nice! I have always thought tha GroupW abuses of using video websites, specially as the y haven´t the same speed as Europe (Mexico). Some of their sites have excesive preloading times. Anyway, I liked very mucha their interactive sites, their advergaming, the making of of the projects, and yes, yes we flash!!!

- Interbrand: Very interesting, they made a seminar in DMSTK some time ago. I didn´t know they had done the trademark of Mad009. Very serius and corporative. It is quite curious the alliance between DMSTK + Interbrand, can be a great one! They´re planning exporting the format of the event to Lisboa, London and some place more I miss.

- Herraiz & Soto: One of my favorites related to interaction. In the past they were the best hand to hand with DoubleYou, but this one lost a lot when Borgström left them. They talk about making Rock and Roll and having fans instead of customers (as Apple). Also they talked a lot about where is the advertising market going. They defend and promote technology. Great!

- Antoine et Manuel: These two amusing french people have lots of talent and many many jobs, some even in the Louvre. I´m happy to have news from our neighbours. They had some problems with the English but it was great when they talked about the money they got and things like that.

- Alex Trochut: Designers were really enthusiastic with this boy. It was interesting to hear about his trayectory and his family. Alex Trochut or how to become an artist, I would say. I think he´s got much more work than what he showed. Anyway his speech was about his progress.

- Johny Kelly: A last-minute exibition cos he was the substitute of n Hilman Curtis que estaba enfermo. He is the author of Procrastination and The Seed. Told us about the making of of his motion graphics. He even tried to record the noise of lobsters boiling!!! Saturday we had the opportunity to have meal with him and he told us how is it to work in London.


Day 2 / Saturday 27

- Laura Meseguer: I couldn´t go because of work. She´s a tipografist talking about which type to choose and when.

- DNX Group: If you follow Mad009 impressions he is being critizised. This is because he talked about a university that he wants to place in Spain. People misunderstood him and thought all he wanted to do was selling a Master. But it wasn´t, cos everything comes from a fundation. Anyway, he also explained about a travel he made around Europe and America getting in touch with the best Interaction and Design Colleges.

- BaseMotion: For me the best. They talked about workflow, creative phases, interaction customer-agency. The works Perspectives and Telex are really good!

- Agency Republic: I think this man know a lot about advertising, but I´m not sure Augmented reality is the best way to make an exhibition. His theme was creativity, with a lot of examples. His voice would be something like: - Believe!

- Domestika: From the organizers of the event, I couldn´t attend.

- Waskman: Last year was the best. This time they took the Marketing Director of Vodafone Spain so as to see the customer´s point of view. This is an agency making events and promotions, really funny. It´s amazing how they use advertising laterally (using bloggers or news).

- Trevor Jackson: This was an interview with this multidisciplinar artist-designer. Nice format.

- Pentagram: Great works but I missed a bit more rythmical exhibition.

What can I tell about the organisers? It was good. This year you could see two screens instead of one. More media. Masterclass (special class about tipography and interaction).

Actually this is a multidisciplinar event in touch with Design, Motion, Art, Interaction, Music, and at the same time answering some important questions everyone of us have: Workflow, how to make things? Why? Where is all these going? etc.

Johnny Kelly and Comet

The event organisers´

Sponsors

Mad09, there we go!

If you are in Madrid tomorrow and you´re interested in Flash and Design, you should attend to MadInSpain09, this is a Spanish event from Domestika related to Design, Motion, Interaction, Web, events...

I´ll be posting about the event from my iPhone so us to keep you updated

Flash/Flex jobs names

Whenever you look for jobs in the Flash/Flex Market, it is interesting how many names you can find in it.

So I took I walk on the jobsites to see how are people calling them.

First we have the skill: Senior, Junior, Expert, Freelance, Interactive, Creative, Digital, Front-End, Multimedia, Visual...

Secondly the main software the candidate uses, Flash, Flex, Silverlight or it could be just "software" or "Actionscript 3.0"

Lastly the main function: Animator, Designer, Developer, Programmer, Manager, Producer, Devigner, Engineer, Professional...

From that you can make lots of combinations like: Visual Flash Programmer, Senior Actionscript 3.0 Developer, Interactive Flash Producer, Flex Engineer, Front-End Flash Developer, Digital Professional, Visual Producer or whatsoever...

What´s yours?

Comet&Actionscript, last 20 posts

1- Thoughts on Infographics websites
2- Thoughts on Flash Analytics and indexing
3- Iñaki Villuendas Lagunas
4- The internet mapping project
5- New iPhone features, Flash unlikey support
6- Google Wave Coming
7- BooneOakley.com a Youtube website
8- Interactive Credo
9- Can´t stop surfing
10- Microsoft 2019 Lab Visions
11- Yes we can, Comunica+A
12- Flash on the iPhone Comic
13- Augmented Reality: levelHead v1.0, 3-cube speedrun...
14- Los Peces Making Of
15- Web Trend Map 04
16- What´s the meaning of Advertising?
17- Revising Web 2.0 Congress
18- Banners with one frame, Recursive Call with TweenLite
19- Demystifying Interaction Design
20-Web Design FlashFolios

Thoughts on Infographics websites

This is a personal ecuation I have:

Infographic + Gaming website = Success!!!

Ok, let´s see some examples:

This is called PlayPrime, comes from Japan, awarded in DesignLicks. Although it should have a better English version (I can´t read Japanese by now), you can select a player, move around the scenario, play games. Very amusing.


Second example: DodgeQuest, it looks like an 80´s game, pixel fonts, dialogues, this is gaming! A very good idea!


Third example: ComcastTown, just awarded in FWA and mentioned in AdobeEdgeNL. You can interact with the town, discover, move and whatsoever.


Fourth example: Desktop Vacation from HybridWorks, this is just like an interactive screensaver, but it has the same idea. A relaxing interactive infographic.


You can see more infographics here, some dinamyc. Also there are good videos on YouTube although I prefer websites...

Thoughts on Flash Analytics and indexing

Recetnly I had the opportunity to check how good it works the Google Analitycs library for Actionscript 3. Also I checked what they say about flash searcheability in Adobe, in Googleblog and in GoogleWebMasterCentral.

So, what are my conclussions?

A big step was taken, but we still can do more. I´d like to shut up all those stupid bigmouths talking about Flash not indexing on Google and so on. I can do it in a 50%, but I still want more!

I had a look in the forums from SEOmoz and SEO pages, to see what´s their opinion about Flash searcheability. Their opinion is quite near to mine, they think things have improved but there´s still a lot to do in this area.

Google Analytics For Flash

View more OpenOffice presentations from Dominic Gelineau.

Iñaki Villuendas Lagunas

This is a work from an old companion from school. He has just won the prize for my hometown festivals. I can say he is really good, even better drawing than designing.

Great work Iñaki!!

The internet mapping project

A idea from one of the creators of the internet (kevin kelly). You´ll see it better here.
It reminds me of mind maps. Check more info about them in kk.org.

You can do yours downloading the pdf here

Wouldn´t i be greater to make an interactive version of it?

New iPhone features, Flash unlikey support

At least that´s what they say on this draw from Crave. We already knew it.
The question is: Is it possible to change my 3G iPhone for one of this?
:(

Google Wave Coming

So, what is this? The competence to Facebook?
At least it looks good!

Check the video from Google Wave:


You can sign up for the beta here.
Also another video from Linkedin Interactive Group:


Some screen of the app:
More info on Mashable

BooneOakley.com a Youtube website

Take a look at this. A good implantation of cue points, frames and so on:

Interactive Credo

What´s your interactive Credo like? Mine would be something like this:

Can´t stop surfing

Too much work these days, no time for blogging, social nets, web surfing or so. Just animation, work and work. Anyway it seems things calm down again. Some good links I found today:

Microsoft 2019 Lab Visions

<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-GB&amp;playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:a517b260-bb6b-48b9-87ac-8e2743a28ec5&amp;showPlaylist=true&amp;from=shared" target="_new" title="Future Vision Montage">Video: Future Vision Montage</a>

Interesting Motion, it reminds me of surfer

Yes we can, Comunica+A

A video presentation of the Agency where I work.

Flash on the iPhone Comic

I don´t know why but there´s a special connection between flashers and the iPhone, for example we had a flashers´meeting last week and there were seven of us, out of eight, having and iPhone.
So, here are some flashes for the iPhone:

Flash on the iPhone: Faster! More speed!

Flash on the iPhone: Spectacular!

Flash on the iPhone: The film, ¿Steve Jobs or Ming?

Flash on the iPhone: Just download the plugin!

Flash on the iPhone: Brilliant!

Flash on the iPhone: Only for heroes!

Flash on the iPhone: Special promotions!

Flash on the iPhone: A story of love and hate

Flash on the iPhone: Portrait

Flash on the iPhone: I hope my sons see this

Flash on the iPhone: Run! Don´t wait!

Flash on the iPhone: You can download the comic

Flash on the iPhone: Logo

Flash on the iPhone: T-shirt

Flash on the iPhone: Includes the original soundtrack from Queen

Flash on the iPhone: CS4 Release

Flash on the iPhone: Cool

Flash on the iPhone

Augmented Reality: levelHead v1.0, 3-cube speedrun *SPOILER*

As yet unseen footage of the first stable version of levelHead, an augmented-reality spatial-memory game by Julian Oliver.

This is a spoiler for the first 3 cubes: the relatively easy red cube, the tricky green cube and finally the very difficult orange cube (dubbed the 'Apartment').

Don't watch this if you want to solve them yourself!

Read more about the project here:
http://julianoliver.com/levelhead

For a better quality version of this video, see this Vimeo page: http://vimeo.com/1320756

Los Peces Making Of

This are some photos and videos about the website www.lospeces.es

Los Peces is a pop Spanish band from Spain. For their second LP we released a new version of their website. So this is how we made it:

First we had the previous website from 2006. It was me who made it. Just simple, a menu with a photo slide.


We had also a logo simulating the yin-yan, two fishes biting their tails:
Before anything we had the new video of the band, with a stop-motion pop theme.


So, the video defined the cover of the album as you can see in the photo.


So, before doing anything we uploaded an "on construction website" with the launching day of the project, March 14th, just the day the LP was on the shops.


The first stories of the website: The election of one of the components of the band, relation to deep sea, fishes, bubbles, the menu...


More, we sent also a mailing to all the Media, radios, tvs and promos announcing the launching of the LP:


Next step was the promotion photos, so we met the photographer Blanca del Amo and we had this:


We had a good material. From some of the photos the illustrator made the draws, this first one for Santi:


On second place the draws for the singer, Clara:

We had also more draws for the fishes, the background, etc. here´s one:

About the programming: I would say this is a migration web from AS2 to AS3, it is made in Actionscript 3 but still with the forms of AS2. I didn´t have time to use a framework or so. For example I used the classes of GSkinner for Collision Detection, Tweenlite with recursive callings, Liquid Design from NoPonies, Google Analytics for AS3, etc.

Here the first trials, you can check the initial movement clicking. You can check the liquid design changing the browser width and height.


At the end we chose illustrations instead of photos. I have to say here, first time I saw the white background I told the designer:
- Ey! But the sea is blue!
She laughed a lot about this. So I gave up my narromind and realised:
- Oh, it´s good to have a designer surprising me!

So, this is how the website works: There´s a little intro where you choose your character, then you just go swimming, you can go up or down pressing the mouse. Also there´s a wave and the sea background moving, with the fishes which are also the menu onRollOver:



We did also a bit of socializing and 2.0. This was:
An oficial blog for the band components to post:


A YouTube Channel:


A flickr gallery:


And a facebook profile sincronized with all the previous 2.0 content:


Lastly there´s a shop, we´re still building it:




These are the credits for all this:

Concept: Fernando Comet and Miriam Arjona
Art and illustration: Miriam Arjona
Programming: Fernando Comet
Loops: Santiago Comet
Music: Los Peces
Social nets: Fernando Comet and María Díaz

You can watch the project also on Behance

hope you enjoy it!

Web Trend Map 04

InformationArchitects has just released the WebTrendMap04.
What can we say about it?
I tend to think this time we have no as much 2.0 as previous versions. You can see the WebTrendMap08 here.
I´m not sure, probably it´s not time yet to say where the web is going. Some want to have the semantic web, others want to kill the browser, I don´t know, we will see...

What´s the meaning of Advertising?

I´m reading just now 99Francs, the book from the advertiser Francs Frederic Beigbeder



And here is a nice quote taken from Inusual, for all people working in Advertising:

"To all through those that you work and live of the advertising, to all that you are consuming what this one announces, that please should get you into your head that everything is provisional: the love, the art, the planet Earth, you, I. The death is something so unavoidable
that it(he,she) plunders to the whole world for surprise. How to know if this day will not be the last one? We are thinking about having time. And then, suddenly, already it(he,she) is, we suffocate, end(purpose) of the regulation time. The death is the only(unique) appointment that is not annotated in our agenda PDA.

In my book (and now movie) I am called Octave (Octavio in Spanish) and take APC's clothes. I am a publicist: it is, I contaminate the universe. I am the uncle who you sells shit. That makes you dream of these things that you will never have. Eternally blue sky, aunts who are never ugly, a perfect happiness retouched with the PhotoShop. Re-licked, musical sticky(parasitic) images. When, by force of saving, you manage to buy the car of your dreams, which I threw(launched) in my last campaign, I already will have achieved that I am gone out of fashion. I take three seasons of advantage to you, and always I contrive them in order that you sintáis frustrated. The Glamour is the country to the one that never manages to come near. I drug you with innovation, and the advantage of the new thing is that it(he,she) it is never for a long time. Always there is a new innovation to achieve that the previous one ages. To do that you the slobber is fallen(fallen due), that one is my priesthood. In my profession, nobody wishes your happiness, because the happy people do not consume.

Your suffering stimulates the trade. In our slang, we have baptized it " the depression poscompra ". You need urgently a product but, immediately after having acquired it, need other one. The hedonism is not a form of humanism: it is a simple cash flow. His(her,your) motto? " I spend, then I exist. " To create needs, nevertheless, turns out to be indispensable to foment the envy, the pain, the insatiability: these are our weapon. And you are my white(target).

I spend(pass) the life to myself telling you lies and they pay it to me fully. I gain(earn) 13.000 Euros to the month (without counting(telling) the diets, the car of company, the stocks-options and the contractual shielding). The Euro has been invented in order that the wages of the rich ones seem to be sixteen times less indecent.

I am Everywhere. You will not get away yourself from me. Anywhere that you look queen at my advertising. I prohibit you that you get bored. I prevent you from thinking. The terrorism of the innovation serves me to sell emptiness. Ask any surfista: to be kept in foot turns out to be indispensable to have an empty space below. To do surf consists of slipping on an enormous hole (the addicts to Internet know it so well as the champions of Lacanau's surf). I decree what is Authentic, which is Beautiful, what it are Nice. I choose the models who, in six months, you will make her(it) hard.By force of seeing them portrayed, you baptize them as top - models; my youngsters will traumatize any woman who has more than fourteen years. You adore what I choose. The more I play with your subconscious, the more you obey me. If I sing the excellences of a yogurt in the walls of your city, I you guarantee that you will finish buying it. You believe that you enjoy free will, but when you least expect it you will recognize my product in the section of a supermarket, and will buy it, this way, only to prove(try) it, believe me, I know my work.

Mmm, to penetrate your brain ensues from the most agreeable thing. I move along in your right(straight) hemisphere. Your desire already you does not belong(concern): I impose you mine. I prohibit you that you wish at random. Your desire is the result of an investment which
amount is coded in thousands of million Euros. I am I who decides today what you will like tomorrow.

Does not it(he) turn out to be frightful to verify up to what point the whole world seems to consider this situation to be normal? You give me disgust, insignificant slaves submitted to my more minimal caprices. Why have you allowed that I should turn into the King of the World?

I would like to solve this mystery: to quarrel with what way, in the most culminating point of a cynical epoch, the advertising Empress was crowned. In two thousand years, an irresponsible cretin like I had never achieved so powerful being. I would like to leave everything, to clear off of here with my savings, taking drug and a few prostitutes to me to a shit of desert island. What am I going to do to him(her) if the humanity has decided to replace God by products of great consumption?

To submit the humanity to the slavery, the advertising has chosen the discretion, the agility, the persuasion. We live in the first system of domain(control) of the man for the man against enclosed whom the freedom turns out to be impotent. On the contrary, his(her,your) major achievement consists of betting precisely loudly for the freedom. Any critique gives him(her) protagonism, any pamphlet reinforces the illusion of his(her,your) dulzona tolerance. But it(he,she) finishes surrendering anyhow. Everything is allowed, nobody throws(adds) a wrangle if you disturb the henhouse. The system has reached his(her,your) aim(lens): even the disobedience has turned into a form of obedience."

It made me think a lot...

Revising Web 2.0 Congress

I wasn´t there but someone let me see all the information shown there. So I took a look at it.

The things that I liked more or that impressed me: Twistori, Braintraffic, Coremedia and this presentation about Whuffing:

Making Whuffie

View more presentations from Tara Hunt.

Banners with one frame, Recursive Call with TweenLite

So, this is an example of how to make a banner in Actionscript 3.0 with no timeline animation.
You can see it here. You can download the .fla here.

The code:

import gs.TweenLite;

function infiniteMovement()
{
cuad_mc.x=0;
TweenLite.to(cuad_mc, 5, {x:250, onComplete:onFinishTween, onCompleteParams:[4,tracker_mc]});
}

function onFinishTween(parameter1:Number,parameter2:MovieClip)
{
infiniteMovement();
}

infiniteMovement();

stop();

tracker_mc is just a movieclip out of the stage. This way, after five seconds of animation I use this movieclip as a reference just to call again to the function infiniteMovement()

More about tweenlite in GreenSock

Demystifying Interaction Design

Robert Fabricant - Behavior is our Medium from Interaction Design Association on Vimeo.

Nice video from FrogDesign, IXDA and Adobe: What is exactly interaction design?

Web Design Flashfolios

This is one of the last releases from Taschen.

I can say this time this book is a good one. Every Art Director should have it. There are good websites about revival as 2xu, from photographers like Chris Woods or Fabio Lana, color playing as Cheval Detroie, good french sites as hello hikimori ,Julie Bayard, Dankastudio and Lamoscope, fullscreen video sites as Gudrun Gudrun, other reference sites as Angle Management, Neutral or the one from N-load, Gringo or Uniform, cool!

The author is as usual, Julius Wiedermann from Brazil. You can get more info about the book here.

Other post about Julius Wiedermann:

- Web Design Video Sites
- Web Design Interactive & Games
- Guidelines for online success

Creativity Screensaver

I have programmed this screensaver for those interested in creativity. Developed in Actionscript 3. I have made two versions, black and white. You can watch online the black version here or the white version here. Feel free to download it for Mac or Pc.

In the past I made some work with CID which is an association promoting Creativity and Innovation Day, on April 21st. So I decided to do my best playing with bubbles, colors, inspiring creativity sentences...

I had some problems with the recursive calls in tweenning while using greenshock classes but at the end I resolved them.

Hope you enjoy it!

The banner is dead?

This stupid statement is what I rode last week in an article from Ainda. What can I say? Probably it is written from a websurfer´s point of view, not from an average user. Moreover, these people are always talking about usability and those things...

Sometimes I spend time looking at the creativity of banners, take a look at BannerBlog. I was surpised last week when I firs saw Skittles.

My question here is if in the future banners will still be made with Flash. Perhaps Adobe should launch another software just for banners or perhaps it will be Flash while Flex will be for RIAs.

This is animation

Khoda from Reza Dolatabadi on Vimeo.

Great job!

CLICKTAG ACTIONSCRIPT 3

Problem: Making a clicktag for a banner in Actionscript 3

In AS2 I would do:

buton_mc.onRelease=function(){
getURL(_root.clickTag,"_blank");
}

So, it didn´t work all that I found in jumpeye, KirupaForum, Ultrashock, Actionscript.org, or in Google Forums.

Besides, in Google Adwords they don´t say nothing about it, and in the help of Adobe CS4 they still have old methods of AS2 (getURL), watch it here.

I found some interesting info in AdForm you can even check it online.

I talked to someone from EyeBlaster and fromEyeWonder, they have their own classes, but I don´t know where the banners are going.

Even more, I find some information in this post where they say "the HTML tags on your movie must have AllowScriptAccess set to always. If AllowScriptAccess is set to never or sameDomain, the call will fail".

Not all is negative, there is something in Adobe Developer Center, here:

try
{
var url:String;
var paramObj:Object = LoaderInfo(this.root.loaderInfo).parameters;
url = String(paramObj["url"]);
}
catch (error:Error)
{
trace(error);
}
var request:URLRequest = new URLRequest(url);
navigateToURL(request,"_self");

I opened a discussion also in ASNativos.

So, by the time I was making some trials with this all my work had to be changed cos they wanted Flash 8 as much. So I had to return to AS2...

Conclusions:
- Programmers don´t make banners, there´re no good or clear tutorials... Desinformation
- Collin Moock was right when he said getURL shouldn´t have been removed.
- Banners are still made in Flash 8
- Evangelist should think also in these things besides of thinking in RIA development.

Adtertainment: Smart, the smallest game

We had played before to PlaySmart, but this is really cool!

The Aquent Orange Book

Aquent, a global firm specialising in staffing solutions for the marketing, communications and creative industries, has just published'The Salary Survey and Industry Monitor for the Marketing, Communications and Creative Industries'.

They make a study out of 7 countries: The Nederlands, France, Germany, Poland, Spain, UK and Czech Republic. This is a very interesting study of different aspects such as salaries, rotation, freelance, profiles, market perspectives.

I strongly recommend you to have a look at it.

Actionscript Generative Art

Just some thoughts on generative art. I have visited recently this Behance Project about it, the blog from Strep, some works on some random dude and last works from Joshua Davis, specially the lab.

Well, this is all about how to put an online work on an offline platform. This goes against the idea of the direction offline -> online. So the workflow upside down, as it should be, some say. Besides it has the random component with the idea of uncontrol, or I would say, not 100% control.

I like more the idea of interactive random generative art as in Levitated or Liquid Journey, net art and things like that.

Timeline or Script Animation, hard decision

This is what I wonder today. Where is the limit to take one or other step?
I have made a lot of banners with script animation, but I realise sometimes it is faster doing them in timeline. Where is the limit? Is it depending on how big is the film? I tend to think that script animation is better if the customer is used to make a lot of changes (speed, transitions, elements). But building it costs more time than timeline.

Timeline is comfortable, what you see is what you get! Coding is for a programming point of view. I would use code in long animations, not in banners. But, scripting is more expeditive, what you do with programming you hardly ever do with timeline. I always say I can do many things programming that a designer can´t see.

Making the intro animation for a microsite, for example, I would use code. Why? Because there would be more changes, be sure! And probably the animation would take longer. There´s other aspect you can use with programming, the factor or randomizing! You can make animations so they will never be the same (random colours, random movements, random shapes). I like it!

Some thoughts on Art Installations

Before being a designer/programmer I used to work in events. So you´d realised I´m fascinating when I see things as UniversalEverything or Mark Jenkins. I decided to look for more art-installations of this kind and if possiblyrelated to Actionscript although they usually use other software. Some examples I like:


Forever at the Victoria & Albert Museum from Universal Everything on Vimeo.


installation art from atlnav on Vimeo.


VP3L from satoru HIGA on Vimeo.


art video installation - "Migraine" from Samuel Jørgensen on Vimeo.


VP4L from satoru HIGA on Vimeo.

See more here

7 days of crisis, flash jobmarket in Europe

The word "crisis" comes from greek, it means change. I have always talked a lot about job market for flashers and actionscripters, so here is my experience.

Day 0: Monday 18:00 hours I´m given the sack. I´m told there´s no production, don´t come tomorrow Mr. Comet! Oh yes! I´m happy! What an illusion!
Days 1 y 2: I just sleep only 4 hours working in my cv, portfolio, preparing contacts and all that.
Day 3: How is the market! Websurfing on portals, webs, consultants, get in touch with headhunters, contacts, friends. The answer: The market is OK. There´re plenty of offers, both for flash design or for hard flash programming.
Days 4 - 6: Just in one week I have talked to more than 5 interactive agencies. Ok, this is Madrid and I have contacts but I am not a crack in programming or designing although I do both things. I say again, there´s no flasher unemployed, at least here.
Day 7: I have an offer, I accept, end of the crisis.

So, what can I say? I have moved fast, I don´t like to be stopped. It called my attention there´s a huge market now for freelancing.

About my last job I won´t say anything, just that things can be done better. What I can say is that flashers continue being special, they look for us. Consultants, headhunters, agencies, portals, etc. Where is the next generation of flash designers/programmers? I can´t see it yet...

Web Design: Video Sites

So, here is my opinion about this book. You can have it here in Taschen.

I miss more theory content instead of just screens and screens. There was a news in Spain some time ago saying that we spend more time in internet than in tv. This idea is taken by Wiedemann, he reminds the song "video killed the radio star".

Other main idea of the book is the "do it yourself", cos now everyone has access to make videos, but for me videosites should be more than just playing videos on the web, interactivity is the key. So the main points here are speed (see Japan sites please) and interactivity.

There are good examples from Adidas, transitions as the ones from blackbeltmonkey, or maximeperelmuter, music sites as muselive, funny sites as relearntodrive or wouldyoulikeawebsite. But I am more interested in whole video sites, so please visit feelSomething or the nice timeline of whalefootage or this one from Saab.

So although I like very much Wiedermann I would say many of us could make this book just in a day. I miss cue points, miss more about interactivity and definitelly miss vodafoneJourney

Other posts about Wiedemann:
- Web Design and Interactive games
- Julius wiedemann, guidelines for online success

LosPeces, StopMotion vs. SlowMotion

Pay attention to this marvellous video from RARO for LosPeces


LosPeces, Ocho brazos para abrazarte from fernandocomet on Vimeo.

Can you tell me how this great video was done?

To tell the true, I have serious doubts between what do I like more, StopMotion or SlowMotion? You decide!
- StopMotion examples
- SlowMotion examples

Here´s one of my favourites about SlowMotion:

Shaking / Alternate Take from Tommi Kortesniemi on Vimeo.

2009 First week Link Farm

Just some quick links from this web surfing week.

I came up with TheCoolhunter.net art newsletter and found nice work from chiho aoshima and others like Kenji Hirata. So I decided to take a look to Wooster Collective and some institutional places promoting art as ArtOnTheUnderground does in London, nice work there from past and actual exhibitions. Finally I took a look to Art&Architecture Guardian section, I cannot say we have the same here in Spain.

Going around the globe I let you this photo collection of Japan mixed with LCD Soundsystem

Japan from Eric Testroete on Vimeo.

How can Adobe make learning ActionScript 3 easier?

I was censured yesterday after making a comment on Mike Chambers' blog, How can Adobe make learning ActionScript 3 easier?

This is what I wrote:

"I am an animator-programmer with a background design migrating from AS2 to AS3

- First thing I shall say is that opinions in this blog don´t come from designers as expected (I am specifically interested in input from anyone who does not consider themselves hardcore developers).

- Second: Related to migration to AS3:

- We need more examples: There are good ones in Kirupa or in theFlashBlog but we still want more. For a designer examples must be CLEAR and SIMPLE, I have not found yet a good example about a whole website or frameworks.

- The DisplayList is bad done. There are things which used to be much more easier in AS2 and methods removed. Read Collin Moock. Usually a designer doesn´t need too much code. he just makes banners, microsites, maintennance work and websites. If you want a designer to use Flash with AS3 I think there´s no point. He will probably move to Flash Catalyst or will stay in AS2. I think this is a question of profiles, you cannot place a designer to program in OOP with AS3. If you want him to use Flash with AS3 you will have to think in other alternatives.

- There are good books as "Learning ActionScript 3.0 a Beginners Guide". But I cannot say the same from Adobe."

So, I understand he doesn´t like my opinion, but I think it should be there with the others...

Happy Year 2009 to all of you!

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

A Devigners´blog, The future of this blog.

This year has been a mixed cocktail as usual. First I should say that I have definitely jumped to flash programming and as a result you will see more contents related to this in the blog.

You won´t see code, there´re many blogs about it with better programmers than me. However you will find lots of contents related to Flash, interactivity, Flash Design sites, photograph and books´review. So Design and Interactivity will be the main line of the blog, a devigner´s blog.

Other important point in this blog has always been the preocupation about the work and job market for flashers and actionscript developers. For that we created the Actionscript Linkedin Group. I hope this initiative can help many people, recruiters and flashers.

In third place we will be keeping an eye to Flash Catalyst. I look forward to hearing the day I can play with it! Related to this we will talk about workflow, concepts and prototyping.

Other point of this blog is showing some experiments or labs that I just do: Animation, actionscript 3, interactivity, etc. I used to be a designer and like to show my works. I apologise if some is too bored of hearing "Comet!" every place here.
;-]

Lastly we will talk about events as MadInSpain, AdobeAirTour, AdobeMax, campaings of our fauvorite trademarks (Nike, Apple, etc), awards, interesting blogs, feeds and of course about Adobe.

I´d like to give thanks to every people reading or making comments in the blog. I began this as a hobby and am quite happy about this blog. So I hope you have a great time in 2009 and have fun!

XMas webs, promotions and cards

Just a few words about some Xmas cards or sites I receive lastly. In first place Sony Ericsson.
Some companies as CocaCola Spain (see below) make interactive microsites.

I like very much this one from WeGotIt, well done!
Also you can take a look at the video of AKQA or take part into some funny quiz as this one about the king of Spain, kingandwin, where you can win 1500€.

Where is the internet?

Friday humor.

Flash Design & Interactivity Inspiration

Sometimes people ask me for Flash websites. I have in my bookmarks some sites to look for Flash Design inspiration. These are: Coolsites from Domestika, DesignFlavr, the InspirationRoom, Behance, the romanian site DesignCollector and one I have lastly discovered, a japanese site called Straightline.


You could also take a look to NetMag, Flashprayer or this particular site from India, ChooseIndia, apart from SmashingMagazine (see here and here).

Web Design: Interactive & Games

A little resume of another Taschen web reference book.
What can I say about this book? Well the format is the same as previous numbers of the same collection, you can see all works published by Wiedemann here, we already posted about him here.

We miss some more explanation about the sites but I understand this is more like a visual guide for web surfers. I like the concept of Adtertainment of Mike John Otto from BlackBeltMonkey.

There are no many websites about play games (they could make other book about them). I like very much the sites from BMW, Free Running, Adidas Game, BeBoard, Kia Motors,
Impossible Story, Moving Day, Solitaire, Pharrell, Driftlab and the one I like more "One fine day in London".

Flash Catalyst Workflow, Serge Jespers´ Interview

The are two main ideas I get from this video, both related to workflow:

- First one: This is about Flash Catalyst, "We try to solve a really big problem, try to make designers and developers speak the same language". So the designer won´t see any code although it will be there as in Dreamweaver Design/Code interface. There will be prototypes. And the workflow will be easier as it can go forward (Designer -> Developer) or backwards (Developer -> Designer). This first idea is really a challenge. I dare say Adobe is taking a risk here. But I like!

- Second: The connection between Flash and Flex. Serge talks about the future and easier integration by Gumbo so as to have the same aim: Designers, developers and animators working together.

These are good news. Now that we know that FlahsPlatform is the priority for 2009 as Mike Chambers says, we still want more!

Flashers´ future: multidisciplinar against specialized profiles

For all flashers: This is a challenge many of us have. Some have to do with Design, others with motion, video, animation, corporative identity, music, etc. There was a time when this kind of profiles were the best paid in web services. Now we are perhaps in the times of specialization, so when you go to a job interview and say what you can do, usually they are only interested in some of your skills, but not in all.

This happens, at least in Spain. How can you know if someone is better designing logos or magazines? I think it´s hardly difficult. Probably structures here are rather closed, closed minded people thinking in "one man for one thing". That´s why I talk a lot about devigners. And I see many success cases in multidisciplinar people, just check iso50, Evasee, etc.

Probably many of us have a career evolution and have begun with video or design and then jumped into Flash or Actionscript technology. And what´s there later? You can stay there, migrate to Flex, learn server side, Flah Catalyst,... I see some people making good things with Flash, After Effects and Premiere, etc.

I tend to think many of us can do more than one thing, not just programming or designing, in fact, sometimes I feel I can give a 60% more to my activity. This didn´t happen when I used to be a freelance (I spent 4 years freeelancing until I joined an interactive agency). So if you´re more interested in Self-fulfillment than in money perhaps the way is freelancing, becaming an artist or a consultant.

Front programmer. How much do you earn?

One ot the things we´ve posted about in this blog is the Actionscript job market, not only in Spain, but also in the rest of the world. In fact, we support this from Linkedin.

So, last weekend I was surfing on the web in some of the marketing links I have. I discovered "el libro blanco de los contenidos digitales", it is a spanish publication about digital contents. Also I came up with the "Estudio de Honorarios de Marketing Directo e Interactivo 2008", I would translate it as "The Direct and interactive marketing wages research". We posted about the Coroflot, la Design Salary Survey some time ago. If you want you can participate, I think it´s until last day of december, and look forward to hearing from the results.

Back to the pdf, there´s a big mistake cos they´re talking about money in Euros per day when everypeople here talks about thousand Euros per year. There are also huge differences between for example a 'front programmer' and an 'advanced front programmer'. So, which is the limi? Actionscript 3? Flex? The server side? We shall ask them...

Comments on Adobe Catalyst video

Introduction to Adobe Flash Catalyst from ScaleNine on Vimeo.

I am just amazing with the content of this video from ScaleNine. As far as I can see, I think we will have many of these until the official launch comes. When will be the day? Who knows? We´ll have to keep an eye on AdobeLabs.

First thing I see is that the interface looks like the Flex one. However, I think this is more a software for designers than for programmers because I see the video and see how easy it is to use.

Shall I say devigners instead of designers? Probably. I see here the answer to all those designers migrated to Flash programming and in the jump to Actionscript 3 or Flex. And also an answer to all designers looking for easy interaction.

Photographers in the web: Yann Arthus Bertrand

I found ina spam mail some good photos from boston.com. Besides, I just saw in the shops the new book from Yann Arthus-Bertrand and decided to visit his website. I like it, specially once you are inside it.

With black background it looks clean, simple, and intuitive. I miss some slideshow or a better miniature navigation. But it´s ok!

Comet, last twenty posts

1- No Flash for the iPhone
2- Adobe Flash Catalyst: Yes they can!
3- My brother is Han Solo: Framerate experiments
4- Actionscript vs. Timeline Animation
5- Actionscript Bad Habits
6- Pixel Awards
7- Google Street in Madrid
8- Shakleton: Todo se va a la mierda
9- Fantastic infographic animation: Desktop vacation
10- Nikestore new look
11- Issuu: The simplest and easiest way to make an online portfolio
12- Comet slideshow video
13- Photoshop.com vs. Sliderocket
14- Fifty people one question
15- MadInSpain 08: Critics
16- Linkedin Actionscript Group
17- MonaLisa in 80 miliseconds
18- RevistaFaz + Interacción
19- Java vs. Actionscript: We feel fine!
20- Andy Gilmore Art

No Flash for the iPhone

After reading Wired and Microsiervos (the most popular blog in Spain) many of us could think seriously about the idea of buying an iPhone. Mainly because it looks like it won´t have flash support as it is said in the article.

Before there were some rumours saying that it was all a question of politics between Adobe and Apple and they even launched a history of all the agreements and disagreements between them. But to be honest I believe more in the point of view of Wired.

So. Any alternative?

Adobe Flash Catalyst: Yes they can!

So here it is! Codename Thermo called now Catalyst.
We are happy about it! If you are a designer you should take this train. You will have work for ages. Moreover thinking of the many companies devolping in Flex.

This is the answer for designers and interactive programmers. It looks like Dreamweaver for Flash but well done.

This is my question: Will designers use it instead of Photoshop? I don´t know, probably you can use them together with some good import options. Adobe wants to change the workflow, and yes, they can!

Be informed here!

My brother is Han Solo, framerate experiments

This is my brother Charlie! Following examples from Learning Actionscript 3.0, a beginners´guide and thoughts about it form Llops´blog, I found my brother.

My little brother Charlie is working in Switzerland, he is an engineer working as specialist in materials. So he was scanned in different positions so as to measure material tensions. Then he sent me about 70 photos of the scan that I placed every 4 frames in the timeline. Later I just adjusted the possibility of changing the framerate here.

I think that from 61 frames and more it goes ok.

-> Chalie experiment.

Actionscript vs. Timeline Animation

Why is it better to animate with code?

In most of the cases I find the following reasons:

- There are not 1500 frames as I´ve found in timeline animation.
- There are not 50 layers or so.
- There are not 100 movieclips. I make script animations with 2 frames or just one, and two layers (content an Actions) or a Document Class. Sometimes more layers just to see it clearer.
- I don´t use masks, if I had to use one I´d do it by code.
- Animating by code I have more control of the film.
- This is much more better for maintenance, I have to make a change I won´t die in the try or diving into timeline.
- I can use tweens or similar libraries, so I can make movements that otherwise wouldn´t be possible.
- I can use bitmapData.
- It is clearer, more organized and more effective.

Actionscript bad habits

Hereby a list of things I find daily in my job:

- Malicious code: Code in lots of items such as buttons, movieclips, etc. It takes a long time to see all the code. It should be nested in classes or just in some frames as much, but I find files with code in more than 50 places.

- Using variables instead of arrays. They usually use "Eval" instead of "for in". Using a lot of boolean variables.

- Bad terminology: Something like this: mc_car instead of car_mc. Same for buttons.

- Thousands of movieclips and items in the library instead of using dinamyc creation of them.

- Library Caos: It is not so difficult to make folders: img/sound/mc/buttons

- Excesive use of timeline instead of code. One frame is enough, a bit more depending on your preload (if it´s AS2)

- No version control. So you find files names like: car_definitive.fla, car_definitive2.fla, etc.

- Magic numbers instead of using constants or stage proportions

- Code not tabbed.

- Unnecessary spaces in the code.

- Nule documentation or no comments at all.

Pixel Awards

I like the results fo these Awards, specially more than theWebbyAwards or theFWA.
Why do I say this? I tend to think FWA is too influenced by tecnological advances. About theWebbyAwards I´ll just say that there´re almos 100 prizes or so. Too many...

All of us, programmers, designers, devigners and interactive workers should take a look at them.

Google Street in Madrid!

Just a little experience here in Gran Vía, Madrid.
I found more info about it here. Or just see the video:

Shackleton, Todo se va a la mierda.

This is the new Xmas events promotional video of Shackleton, one of the most creative agencies in Spain, also known for the campaign of the iJam. You can read more about the video in Brandlife.

Fantastic Infographic animation: Desktop Vacation

Just amazing what one can do with an infographic! We all knew about this release but this is very nice and relaxing. HybridWorks playing hard! This is Flash power, yes it is!

More details about it here.

NikeStore, new look

NikeStore is launching a new image. It looks more like a restyiling or a new look. To be frank, I think none of us knew about this.

How would I do a RIA like this? I must say that here in Spain we don´t have yet the same internet speed as other places. So contents are slower.

Can we expect more from Nike? I think so! Why not?

Issuu, even more!

Get your own - Open publication

Issuu: The simplest and easiest way to make an online portfolio

Calling all designers who just want to place their work online.
Follow these easy steps:
1- Prepare JPGs with all your works
2- Make a PDF out of them
3- Upload it to Issuu
Technology will do the rest...



Read also: How to make a portfolio website?

Comet Slideshow video

In case you had bad connection...

What is Comet?

Photoshop.com vs. SlideRocket

We already posted about Photoshop in the web, this version, previously known as Photoshop Express, is now officially launched as Photoshop.com.

I am quite happy about this and all things you can do with it. The most important ones for me is the possibility of importing photos from Picassa, Flickr or Facebook. Of course, you can also make arrangementes to photos and all those things we already know. You can also publish an album. And the best thing is that is free!

On the other hand we find SlideRocket. This is about slideshows, something I like if you have seen my website. You can import a Powerpoint so as to prepare the slides. The transitions are great and you can publish the material in the web also.

So, this kind of applications are perhaps the future. Why do you need to have them in your computer if you can have them on the web?

Fifty people, one question

Nice video to make a little stop.


Fifty People, One Question: Restored from Benjamin Reece on Vimeo.

From Benjamin Reece

Comet Photo Slideshow: What is Comet?

Right now, as I go on with my migration to Actionscript 3.0 I have just made a preview of my portfolio, check it out at www.fernandocomet.com.

I have also created a Comet Facebook Page, it´s quite easy! And also have created an event for
the Comet Portfolio 3.0 Launch.

So I will be posting here and there about my experiments and advances!

MadInSpain 08, crítics

What can I say about this Design event? Is it all said? This is my personal opinion about it:

- Alberto Corazón: He rode a lot, good ideas but a bit boring.
- Albert Foch: I already knew the fanzine 137, great job! I can´t understand how three people with so good ideas can work together.
- LaMosca: Well, I couldn´t see the infographics very well. It was interesting what they said about workflow.
- AKQA: This people talked more in a concept sense. Perfect.
- Zinkia: Interesting, I don´t think they will have same success with new trademarks as they havd with Pocoyo.
- FarFar: His message: "Create time, ongoing advertising". It was great what they said about workflow: Online should be previous to Offline.

Saturday morning I couldn´t go, so I was there again after lunch:
- Carlos Ulloa: Papervision at all!
- Jung Von Matt: A bit boring, I think due to timetamble. I had listened before to some ideas as writting ads with ASCII in GoogleAds (aMinima).
- Waskman: This was the best. The way they exposed ideas, the workflow, he was a Master!
- Brand New School: I think all of us knew their job for Adobe. It looked like they were showing all the rejected works of the company.
- Joshua Davis: A showman. Truely, all flashers wonder how can a man reach so far with that generative art.

In general it was good. I liked it althought many told me past year was better. I suppose it is difficult to make it with three disciplines: Design, Video and Web, although we saw a lot of multidisciplinar people.

Perhaps they should make 3 days instead of 2.

Half Genetsis in MadInSpain

MadInSpain 08

So! There we are!
Lastly we have a Designers/motionners/programmers festival here in Madrid!
And we are very happy about it. We´ll meet there, change experiences, see other´s people work, interact, have a party. It sounds nice!

If you happen to be in Madrid next friday 12th or saturday 13th, you must be there. There´s no chance!


Some of the people talking: Alberto Corazón, AKQA, Carlos Ulloa about Papervision, Domestika (organizers), Farfar, Helio Vega, LaMosca, Spin, Zinkia, Albert Folch, Brand New School, JVM,
Joshua Davis, Rufus and Waskman.

Some people from motion: Cocoe, Tavo López, Boolab, iikki.

Even more: Abel Martínez, 33rpm, El moreno, Emil Kozak, IAAH, The Hejz, Urban Sapiens, Vasava and VuduMedia

More on MadinSpain

Discover Underworld!

Linkedin Actionscript Group

I created some months ago a group called "Actionscript Group" for those of you who use this application. This a summary about the group:

"This is a group for Actionscript Developers professionals to expand our network of people and ideas.

The mission of the Actionscript Group is to help us to be more effective in our daily work and open doors to opportunities using the professional relationships we already have."

So, as I have posted a lot about Actionscript job market I decided to create this group. The main aim is to make connections between people related to Actionscript. The only requirements to join us are:

1- To be in LinkedIn
2- To be related to Actionscript

If you want to take part just follow the invitation, or check my profile at Linkedin.

Mona Lisa in 80 miliseconds

RevistaFaz + Interacción

Some people from Inusual , creative social net, propose RevistaFaz, a magazine about interaction. Check previous numbers online here or just the new one.

Quite curious! The theme is about emotion + interaction. Previous numbers seem to me
less interesting. You can even publish there.

I miss more material about interaction. Please stop talking about web 2.0 or usability. There are much more things in the web. We posted about this when we talked about Thoughts on Interaction Design.

Ready for this? You should programm less and thik more my friend...

Discover Underworld!

Java against Actionscript: We feel Fine!

Interactivity at its highest,

This website tells me about competence between Actionscript and Java. I can´t say where is the balance now. Actually we can´t talk about server side or mobile market, even more, lots of installations and digital art works use to be done in Java.

This website, we feel fine, basically searches for blogs where it says "I feel", and then results are presented to user. You can read more about it in methodology and mission.

Andy Gilmore Art

Andy Gilmore reminds me of Levitated, you can check more works from him here in Flickr. I´d like to give movement to his compositions.

Aurora, another navigation way

I tend to think there´s coming another revolution for computers, mouse was one, what will be future?

Here´s an idea from Adaptative Path called Aurora, a way between windows surfer and an Apple?

Video 1

Aurora (Part 1) from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

We will watch the watchmen

We posted about it time before. Now see the trailer online, visit the web or the blog.

Last 22 posts

1 - Expo Zaragoza 2008
2 - Behance Network
3 - Moock Against Adobe
4 - DoubleYou against Joakim Borgstrom
5 - Best Flash Websites
6 - Google on Gay Pride Madrid 2008
7 - Thoughts on Google indexing Flash
8 - Julius Wiedermann, guidelines for online success
9 - Actionscript Mythical webs III: Studios I
10 - GIF Optimization
11 - Contemporary Graphic Design
12 - Max Kiesler: Another place to look at
13 - Firefox 3 & Flash Xtensions
14 - Dificulties learning AS3
15 - item list for Adobe
16 - Publicaciones IndexBook
17 - Thinking about designers coding
18 - Actionscript Mythical webs II
19 - Interaction Design
20 - Papervision: Fashion or victim
21 - AS3 or freelances´run
22 - Actionscript Mythical webs I

Expo Zaragoza 2008

Although I live in Madrid since the last three years, I spent the weekeend in my hometown, Zaragoza, visiting the Expo Zaragoza 2008, International Expo "Water and Sustainable Development".

It was a very nice experience, lots of pavillions from differente countries, activities, multimedia experiences, deep thoughts about water in the world. If you happen to come to Spain until September 14th, I strongly recommend you to visit Zaragoza and the Expo.

Moreover, my personal recommendations for this event: This weekend Expo passed the visitor 2 million so you´d better visit it from monday to thursday. The first thing you should do is taking the fast-pass to any of the more visited pavillions. There are over 90 pavillions, If you like multimedia I recommend you Japan, Germany, Morocco, Lithuania, Aragón and Spain. More related to design is the pavillion about thirst and the one of cities of water. Besides if you like adventure don´t forget to go to Extreme Waters pavillion.

There are also exhibitions, I show three: El hombre vertiente, El despertar de la serpiente and Iceberg.

Some videos in the Expo:

Behance Network

Surfing around I found the NL from Frame, nice place, it took me to an interview in Behance Magazine, which took me to Behance Network. This a NY Creative network, perhaps the best one, you have there the Creative Network, the gallery and every thing you want. Can make a profile (see mine here) or even a fast and good portfolio, I can also give my example, but you could play there video, multimedia, projects, etc.

Anyway, a good place to take ideas and to see what´s being done in NY.
Behance.

Moock against Adobe

So, this is the famous article of Moock from InsideRIA, let´s see what StevenSacks says.

Now Moocks says there´re things wrong in Adobe CS3: Right! Me and many said that a lot of time before and Adobe-believers attacked all of us. We were just thinking in designers, not in RIAS. But they allways justified it in one way or another.

I can´t hear many people now criticising Moock. So, who is wrong? Adobe or Moock? Moock is a programmer and can change his point of view, specially if he has to sell books. Adobe can make some things wrong. It is not so hard to admit it. You don´t need to know a lot about marketing to know that Flash CS3 and Flex was a good operation for RIA market. Now CS4 comes so as designers can design better. Designer: The one who designs, programmer: The one who programmes. So what´s this? A bit conservative vision of the workflow. Isn´t it?

Things usually are not black or white, they are usually grey...

DoubleYou against Joakim Borgstrom

So: Everypeople here are talking about DoubleYou as a chatterbox in Spain. I have decided to make my own investigation. Where is the success of a company? In the people or in the talent of a person? This is my question right now!

First of all, you can read references about him in InteractivaDigital, latinspots, Inspiración, Offf2005, DoubleYou Festivals, DoubleYou Interviews, ElMundo, Anuncios or even Microsoft. He is member of IADAS and moved to Wieden & Kenedy.

See below some works of Wieden & Kennedy from Japan:

After reading all this info about Borgstrom and his works with DoubleYou, what can I say? Probably time will say which percentage of success comes from Borgstrom.

Best Flash websites

As I am making some research on this (see Actionscript mythical webs III or II or I) and I found a post of Rob talking about the best flash sites ever, I had decided to make some noise here.

First of all I must say that Rob´s list is out of place. There are many sites from before year 2000 and he doesn´t take into account programming, just design (I see some webs there in 800x600).

So, if you wanna know which are the best flash sites ever, gotoAndPlay: Taschen, FWA, Designflavr, perhaps Ebizmba, take a look at the blog bestFlashWebsites, or see on your right my list of Portfolios and Studios, or go to flashprayer, Adobe, Wordpress, webDesignStuff or Flash99good, SmashingMagazine ,FlashDen or FreelanceSwitch. Am I right?

Google on gay pride Madrid

I just saw this caravan on Madrid Gay Parade last saturday.
They have a wifi connection. Curious.

Thoughts on Google indexing Flash

I am reading about good news coming from Google Webmaster Central Blog, , my question is if googlebot will be able to read all the scattered code from websites made in AS1 or AS2 or just in the Classes. My strong recommendation about this is using also Google sitemaps, mainly cos they´re not reading XML unless you use it (specially for those websites with content from XML). Another problem that I find is that Javascript flash content is not rode. I don´t use, but I´m afraid many non flash-programmers did. You did wrong!

So, I hope next time Google Robot makes a turn around the web, Flash websites are better indexed. Probably I think we´ll have a great GoogleDance.

More info in DigitalBackCountry, GoogleBlog and Seomoz

Julius Wiedemann, Guidelines for online success

I was wondering how to title this post. First I thought about "Julius Wiedemann" only but after a while I decided to post it together with his last publication.

I come up with this fantastic book called Guidelines for Online Success, from Taschen and together with Rob Ford. As you can check here, there´s a flip about the book, you can even zoom the first fifty pages of the book. This book is all about websites, specially fantastic ones. I can say I almost know a 75% of the websites appearing in the book, probably you will also if you like web surfing.

So I decide to investigate a lot about the man I consider one of the best websurfers of the web, Julius Viedemann, probably together with Einsmann. You can see all publications from Viedermann here, hard-work! I rode the cheaper ones (6.95€) and recommend them to you if you didn´t know them. You can read a review about them here and other about Guidelines for Online Success here.

I surfed a while an found an interview with Julius here. So he is a brazilian who studied design and marketing (nice, only missed programming!) and what I like most of him is that he always gets the best from websites, very positive in his comments.

GIF Optimization

Imagine you have to do a .GIF in Flash with a background image. Imagine that you have to use Flash cos there´s an animation of letters. Overmore and again: There is a background image.

Besides we are talking about a very important and international customer who doesn´t want to use CSS or Flash for it. This could have been really easy embedding a .SWF or just using the .GIF and another div down with the background image. But this is not the case, our customer wants a .GIF all together with a background image with less than 100 Kb and good quality.

So, this is what I did:
- I made the animation of letters in Flash and saved is as a .GIF with no background image. Parametres for the .GIF: Play it as a bucle, animation, color optimization, soft, Transparent, None, Web snap adaptative, 255
- I opened it in ImageReady and saved it as a .PSD
- I opened the .PSD in Photoshop, put the background image and saved a sequence of .JPGs for every frame
- I created a new .GIF with the animation so that the background image is in every step.
- I saved the new .GIF. with less than 100 Kb and good quality.

Conclussions:
- Flash is stupid for creating .GIF (still is!)
- Fireworks did not solve much
- I strongly think Adobe should have not removed ImageReady

Actionscript Mythical Webs III: Studios I

Usually lots of designers get inspiration from thefwa, ok, that´s good. But there are more places, some of them the ones you see below. These are the best studios, every designer and even programmer would like to work here.

Hi-Res

They published a book about their works here, where they say: "The London-based design studio Hi-ReS! (Handsome information – Radical ent-ertainment Systems!) was founded by Alexandra Jugovic and Florian Schmitt in 1999. Over the last years, Hi-ReS! has established itself as one of the leading studios worldwide in the realization and implementation of sophisticated interactive commercial projects... The strength of Hi-ReS! lies not only in its masterful linear storytelling, but also in its creation of sensual interactive experiences that pair an artistic, tongue-in-cheek approach with strong marketing sensibilities. As the work in this book with DVD shows, it’s a combination that allows the studio to meet client goals while remaining true to the pioneering spirit of the online world."

They play with video, although I don´t like much Goldfrapp, brilliant works such as DolceGabbana, Beck, Papervision with Hidefhigh, uniqlo, the japanese trade mark (although not so good as uniqlo try)

North Kingdom

They are no afraid of using white backgrounds, good animations as in Gettheglass, toys to play in Brio, future and lot about cars as Toyota. The work I lik more is the experience web of Fjallbrynt. I think they also made VodafoneJourney

Hybridworks

They are japanese. I like the use of colours, all is clean, soft, so as in Yorisuki or Haunted Hotel. Specially I like Desktop collection (down right), another experience web stylish, relaxing, peacefull, all right brother?

Contemporary Graphic Design

Last times I think this blog was taking a wrong direction. Too much about programming and less about design. And as I said when I created the blog a year and a half ago, this is exactly in the line between Design and Programming. Interaction is where I feel comfortable and where I wanna be.

So, you will see a little move on contents, getting nearer to Interaction Design again. Related to this, as a present from my birthday, good friends made me a gift, it was the book Contemporary Graphic Design from Taschen. You can read also critics from Gráfica Coletiva, Design Related, ComoLaNadaMisma and Balladora.

What else shall I say about it? Well, as a difference from other similar books, this one has lots of explanations about design and designers. Usually you only see works and that´s all. This is better. I like knowing how a campaign was launched, why the designer made things in that way, what he was looking at, etc. Moreover, I think in Design as a velocity runner, so you have to be aware of what´s on every time. In my opinion this book makes it, there are many people I didn´t know and they´re quite fine and stylish!

Max Kiesler: Another place to look at

I have found the website of Max Kiesler, and am fascinating about all the proposals this website makes. Although most of them are made with Java, we can have good ideas and inspiring surfing around this site, specially the DesignDemo area.

One of the places I liked here was Viewzi, a new searcher. The difference with the others is that this one focuses on images. Take a look around and experience it

Firefox 3 & Flash Xtensions

Hope we make the record today!
I´ve seen several things, by now, we don´t have any more FlashTracer until new version is released. Same for other Extensions. I hope in next days all are ok. I like the look&feel of the new Firefox. And something I do not like, some disgusting things as these:

Flashkiller:


FlashBlock:

IndexBook publications

This is an interesting book about what marketing people say of design and programming. You will laugh a lot with it.

IndexBook is a Spanish Design Editorial which has many good publication. Have a look at it! Usually they make a challenge for all designers to have some of their designs published in their books. As a result about this I have some of mine published in the book Symbols, siluetas, iconos y pictogramas (Symbols, siluettes, icons and pictograms). These are some conceptual draws that I made. They are called the Icon Machine Toys, because the idea was that all of them came from the same creator machine.

AS3 Learning difficulties

My main problem migrating to AS3 is not the language or the sintax, it has to be with OOP, and specially with frameworks, I can´t find good examples of frameworks for publicity. I have seen MVC, PureMVC, Cairngorm, ARP and some more. But they are usually too complicated and have the server part which is not one of my interests.

I think people do not want to see his code exposed, moreover if they have their own classes constructed or libraries or whatsoever.

What´s other people using? There are not good examples there. Those who feel themselves as gurus, they have this problem, they think all people have same level as them. And it is not! So this is what I feel like...

Adobe things-to-do list

Hereby is my sincere and humild opinion about some sad topics about Adobe. I am tired of hearing all people saying how fantastic Adobe is. Ok, Adobe is good, but they still have to improve. These are some things they should improve in the future:

1- Flash Editor: Let me laugh about it! Editor de Flash. I even heard that it is not a priority for the Flash team. Oh my God! What is then? Papervision?

2- Changes in the names of the software programs: Obviously this is responding to a good markeging planification. Previosly Apollo then Air...

3- Removing some useful software and keeping on others useless. Freehand: Removed! Image Ready: Removed! Have you tried to make a .GIF in Flash? Oh my God again! Do you know Adobe Output Designer?

4- Removing Actionscript methods useful for designers. There is not answer about this: LoadMovie is removed, and as this, much more. Now, they would say that the proccess is better now, blah blah blah. Come on: They used one line for loadMovie and now they have to use three or more. Say whatever: This a mistake!

5- This is one of the biggest, perhaps because of its predominance along the time. It is keeping on those users manuals, .pdfs, Help of programs and so on... Come on, they have no point at all. They are made by programmers or designers, they should make more attention about this.

Do you have anymore?

Thinking about designers coding

From my point of view sometimes programmers are not as respectful as they should be with the work of designers. I am talking very seriously at this point. Sometimes I hear despective comments even in distribution lists or forums, usually complainning about the workflow or whatsoever.

Some days ago I was talking to a Creative Director and we wondered what is going to happen with designers who used to code with the new versions of Actionscript. Specially due to the reason that the learning curve of Actionscript 3.0 is not the same of Actionscript 2.0, mainly because that designer who used to programm in AS2 some things, now has to learn also OOP. So the jump is not so easy.

I used to be a designer and migrated to programming by the Actionscript way. And to be frank, I don´t have the answer to the question I mentioned. Probably we can have some with next version of Flash (CS4) and perhaps with Thermo. On the while you should take a look to the link below. This application is called Wix, it is a beta but you can easily ask for a license. It is a interface which generates a .swf just with drag&drop and customizing.

Ok, it is not Flash but I think something like this could be a good opportunity for designers. More, why Adobe does not make something similar? Because it is made by programmers? I don´t know but they should. Definately!

Actionscript mythical webs II

Let´s talk about the Actionscript introduction of video in the web!

Comming from telecommunications in first place there used to be the Vodafone Journey website, yet on line. This was an amazing event in the introduction of video formats and cue points for the actionscript community. Made by North Kingdom, one of my favourite studios with hi-res, but we´ll talk about studios other day.

Apart from the friendly blonde girl, called Lucy, we can watch almost a movie in this site. I think this website was fascinating at its launch, and still is! Don´t know why video hasn´t been on the road lastly! But this was really a big point from Flash. You can move around the timeline although some more interaction is missing, isn´t it?


Another video flash site I like and was at least curious is the one from IKEA, so: what´s happening there? Is it a movieclip? Timeline? Video integrated? How do they do it to move from one side or another? Lots of questions about this websites. Actually they have used something very similar in the last launch of anothe IKEA section. In this one you feel like in an elevator. Check it out and answer please: How did they make it?

First example: Some years ago, 2006:


Second example: Just now (elevator experience):

Both done by IKEA Systems, cannot say more about it.

Interaction Design

Back in our way, away from Papervision prophets I come up with Interaction Design. I have found Jon Kolko, I think he is a member of IDXA (Interaction Design Association). I strongly recommend you to have a look at that site, if you didn´t know it before.

So, far from programming we are talking here about concepts, and concepts should be before any programming, creativity or whatsoever. Jon Kolko publishes via web a book called Thoughts on Interaction Design. I think you should have a look at it also. He is talking about Interactive Design from a conceptual point of view. I like the way he sees designers, but these ones should be specialised in interaction, something not very common, at least here in Spain.

It has good examples and talks about very interesting things such as Prototyping, scenarios, the emotion-technology binomial, the process of interaction, concept maps and these so fascinating things for those who have used the mind maps of Tony Buzan and similar things.

Papervision: Fashion or victim?

This question is not mine, alghough it could be. It comes from one of the creators of Charlie and the factory of shit banners (banners collection).

But don´t miss out of the title. Papervision, fashion or future? Tendence or technology? fashion or victim? I´m really tired of this, as much as you should be one year before of hearing about web 2.0 and all that stuff. This is the same, yes, we all like In an absolut World, Tag Galaxy, Five 3D, Away 3D, Papervision, Sandy, Spectra, VaryWell, etc etc.

Do you really think this is gonna be the internet tendence? Come on, don´t make me laugh!
Cubes are nice, ok, but I dare say nobody is talking about it in one year time, same thing that happened to SecondLife, unless you are a prophet of the web.

So now is coming Flashplayer 10 with things related to 3D. Ok, that´s fantastic! Good for them! I do not understand why they don´t make that out of the fascinating BitMapData class, much better and nicer than those cubes moving.

Is it technology that wants to make a tendence? That was made with the invention of the mouse and the windows. If I want to say wow I will see PerceptivePixel or surface . 3D is ok, if you want to be the first perhaps you´re late (well, not for the whole mass), but you will see more and more websites looking the same (same as Flex).

AS3 or Freelance´s run

I´m living here in Spain something related to the Actionscript job market. Something we use to talk in this blog as here.

This is my theory: Adobe launches Actionscript 3 and there´s a big break between flash users. Many designers can´t make the jump to Actionscript 3 programming or they just don´t wanna do it because it is too far from what they wanna do (just web design).

On the other hand there are many Java or analog programmers migrating to Actionscript, or just using it besides their programming mother tongue, but from a much more technological view, using server side moreover Flex.

So there´s the hole, the job of creative-programmer or programmer with a designer background or devigner or whatsoelse you want to call it, grows up in the market, it is demanded in such a way that there are not people enough to cover the market. Wages go up and many freelance programmers (with a design background) gather with companies of media and technology. Or they just make their owns companies, who knows? I have seen this many times in Madrid, and I have lived it. This is the Freelances´ run. I don´t know exactly if I can talk about this as a global fact.

Before, it was cheaper to contract freelance. Now perhaps they are so qualified that it is better to contract one of them, you control him better and don´t have to go on that way of subcontracting...

How long? Perhaps until there is the total implantation of AS3 or until the new Flash CS4 version, until Thermo... Who knows...

Actionscript mythical webs I

There´s a job related to the internet I have not done yet. I think it is due to the fact that I haven´t seen it in the news, just only for once. It is called "web surfer" and is hardly related to design and programming. Beetween a coolhunter and a web analyst.

There´re lots of people making something similar with CSS, HTML and all that stuff, but not with Flash or Actionscript webs.

For all this I am gonna make a new section talking about some flash websites which have been mythical for all flashers and perhaps for web in general. I´m not gonna say anything new, it´s all in my link list.

The first two selected make reference to the impact of flash programmers in the web. First is son Mjau-Mjau, related to Ultrashock , second Ecotonoha from Yugop. Both were very relevant to the interactive web community.


Where do I wanna go? I´m just talking about something related to workflow:
Creative-Designer-Writter-Back programmer- Front programmer
Now let´s make a chance! How does an actionscript programmer make a website? I´m sure y0u are not thinking about usability or screens. If you think about MVC, data models or so, then you are deeply a plentifull programmer.

I think in boxes and how the boxes will move. I´m not talking about Flex, it is just interactivity, and I dare say I know how things move in a flash website so I have there my point when planning a web.