As a designer who has tried to learn as3 and failed several times, you can only imagine how excited I was to hear that Catylst was in production. You can ask anyone at BlackBlack, and they'll tell you that I'm a little bit of a control freak, when it comes to our html projects, I love to take on the whole project and see it from its first initial comps, to the final development, so you can understand my frustration when we have a flash projects and i have to hand it over. Its like giving up my first child. Now I'm sure I'll get some angry comments from our talented, talented, flash developers who know what they're doing when it comes to flash development, but I'm sure you designers out there hold you're breath a little when you see the final, wondering if it plays out exactly the way you saw it in your head.
From what I've seen of Catylst it looks like a dumbed down version of flash, import your illustrator file, choose an object and then click 'button' and there you are, you have a button. Creating transitions is just as easy. One of the things that kind of disappoints me, but also interests me at the same time is that the code that the project creates is all in Flex. Now I hate to say this, but I personally don't know much about Flex, but looking at the code, it does look easier to understand than as3. So I think I have a new personal project, to learn how to code in Flex before the release of Catylst.
When Nuit Blanche had its first 'all night contemporary art thing' in 2006, it seemed like the only people who visited the galleries were actual artists or those interested in art. 3 years later I found that most of the people who were out that night were drunk. I overheard a few conversations, people complaining about the art in Toronto. These people didn't seem like the type who constantly walked along queen west hopping in and out of galleries on a regular basis. Its hard not to be upset when you see drunken ugg wearing teenagers critizing art, but at the same time Nuit Blanche is a great way to inspire those who aren't used to gallery hopping. Its also a fun way to explore the city. Each year it gets bigger and bigger. I found myself inside buildings I would have never stepped into if it weren't for Nuit Blanche. With a total of over a million people wandering the streets that night, Nuit Blanche was a definate success.
Being an interactive agency we've been following the growth of silverlight, but the question that's on our minds and I'm sure yours is, 'does Flash have to worry about it's competition'.
Some flash developers I know, have just choosen to ignore silverlight, thinking that there is no way that it could come close to Flash. We have always thought that its a good idea to pay attention to what's going on in the world, technology moves fast, and if you're not paying attention, you're bound to be left behind.
With all the changes to Flash in the last couple of years, AS3, CS4 and Flash Player 10, it makes you wonder if any of these changes came about in reaction to Silverlight. We've seen many times before that competition brings some great changes and hopefully this rivalry will continue so that we can continue to benefit from it.
From all the research I've done, it seems to me that Flash is better for creating websites, and since that's what we do here at blackblack, we'll be sticking to Flash.
Anyone who's given out a business card knowing that their site is currently under construction knows that embarassing hot feeling you get when you have to explain that the site will be up soon.
For the longest time we kept saying "yeah, this week when we have some time we'll work on the site" and then the phone rang, another project. In a way I guess its great that we never had the time to work on it, cause it meant that we were too busy to, but getting new clients is kinda hard when you have to tell people "no, the sites underconstruction, but you can go here, here and here to see some of our work, just trust me, we're good"
But its up, finally, and we'd love to hear any comments, or suggestions for the new site. Please email us at info@blackblack.ca
If you haven't seen the new GE site, go now, check it out, its one of the most amazing, inspirational sites I've seen in a long time. This site has won numerous awards for its design, and flash work. FITC gave it three awards. I first found it on FWA a couple months back and was completely blown away.
The intitial loader, the way the text comes in, the details in the 3d pieces, the colours, the layout, the bottom navigation, everything is amazing. I'm the first to critize a site, which I know is a horrible thing to do, and I swear I'm not doing it out of jelousy, but I think its a good idea to look at something and see the errors, so I don't make the same mistakes. When I looked at this site, there was nothing I could say, nothing I could negatively comment on.
I think we should all aspire to make sites as perfect as this one.
For those of you who have attended Flash in the Can it was probably just another great inspiring event, but for me, a FITC newbie, it definately made my year.
Seeing Joshua Davis, someone I've followed for years was the hightlight of my FITC experience. Last year one of the other BlackBlack members actually got Joshua Davis to sign one of his garbage cans that Umbra was selling. It was exciting and inspiring to see his new stuff.
One of the things that I found hard about FITC was choosing which presentation I was going to attend. With five speakers presenting at the same time, it was hard to choose one. I found myself jumping from room to room, trying hard not to look too rude as I left half way through the presentation.
The first day was exciting, learning about Adobe Catylst and seeing Joshua Davis' presentation was the highlight for me. Maybe in a later blog entry I'll talk tabout how crazy cool catylst is.
I laughed when i read the title of Daniel Schutzsmith's presentation; "Marketing your skillz (aka self promotion for the shy creative type)" it was like he knew I was coming to FITC! His presentation was great, very informative and it gave me lots of ideas that I can't wait to bring to blackblack.
The MTV Jackass prestentation was hilarious. I was lucky enough to get the last 'Fecail Dynamics' t-shirt. Even though this presentation wasn't as inpiring, informative, or educational as some of the others at FITC, it sure was entertaining. I can't wait till the actuall MTV air app comes out, I'll definately be one of the first to download it and get my friends to do the same. Dick branding someone eles' computer will be the first thing I do - trust me, it'll make more sense when you get the program.
