Ask a Flash Guy

We had a panel of veteran Flash guys who have been working with Flash for several years. We asked them about work habits, inspiration and where they see Flash going in the future.

Our panel:
Gabe Marihugh is a freelance designer for the past seven years (four years in the Seattle market) with a focus on custom Flash design.
(http://www.creativelevity.com).
Marc Hoffman has specialized in Flash since 1998 and is the owner/operator of Poison Dart Frog Media.
( http://www.dartfrogmedia.com/portfolio).
Jacob Hargrave has worked as a freelance developer/designer for a number of years, and currently works at Nordstrom full time as a Creative Web Developer in addition to performing magic shows on the weekend with his wife.
(http://accelermedia.com).

10 Minutes on Flash Presentations

• Jacob Hargrave / 3D in Flash
  accelermedia.com/content/3d-animation-flash
  www.accelermedia.com
• Daniel Kunkel / Arrays, Objects, and  Dictionaries in Flash
• Kwabe Fosu / Making of the Valentine Tree
• Marc Hoffman / Bird Chorus in AS2
  www.dartfrogmedia.com/portfolio
• Gabe Marihugh / Using free 3D software to render art and animations for Flash
  www.creativelevity.com
• Teresa Anderson / Tiki Bob a character she animated in Flash
  www.teresaanderson.com
• Keith Johnson / Flash Lite, How the heck do I start?
  www.keithjohnson.net
• Penny DeGraff / Demo of an Adaptable Slideshow Using XML
• Bruce Baguley / Flash Math

Umit Gokce
Accidental Educator: How Flash Led Me There
View presentation video

Being a left-right brainer, Flash is naturally my tool of choice when problem solving. And over time, the solutions I've come up with seem to share a common thread: they offer people a new understanding about things, ideas, and how to do stuff. As Flash pros, I think we all hold this potential. It gets really interesting when we apply that potential to help solve the many issues we face in education and public awareness.
I'll be talking about the technology and techniques I've used, show examples, and try to apply it all to a bigger picture.

Umit Gokce has been working in interactive media for 18 years. He is President of UBG Digital Media LLC (www.ubg.com), an Issaquah based business he started in Chicago in 1995 to focus on Web development and design. Umit has been a Flash user since 1998.
Umit is also Co-Founder and CEO of MedModule Inc (www.medmodule.com), an integrator of proprietary multimedia technology and expert medical information founded in 2000. He served from 1993 to 1999 as Executive Vice President of UBG International Inc, a wireless company operating in Europe. Prior to that, Umit was President of UBG Communications, an early pioneer of interactive multimedia based in Chicago.
Umit serves as a board advisor to the University of Washington's School of Business, board chair of the Around-n-Over educational foundation, and is actively involved in the development of community youth sports programs in the Seattle area. He previously was Executive Director of XYZ & You, a 4,000+ member computer graphics user group.

Tony White
Traditional Animator

This months meeting were really honored to have traditional animator Tony White speak to the group.

Tony has done so much it is very hard to decide what to put in this space, but I will do my best. If you have seen the Pink Panther Strikes Again you have seen his work in the opening animation of the film.

Tony has Studied advanced animation techniques extensively with Ken Harris (original lead animator of "Bugs Bunny," "Roadrunner," etc. at Warner Brothers), Art Babbit (original lead animator on "Pinocchio," "Fantasia," etc. at Disney) and personal assistant, then graduating to fulltime director/animator, for Richard Williams (3 times Oscar winner and author of “The Animator’s Survival Kit”).

He has earned so many awards for his animation it is too numerous to mention.
Has written two excellent books on animation “The Animator’s Workbook” (80,000 copies sold worldwide) and Animation from Pencils to Pixels Classical Techniques for Digital Animators”. Both books are available at amazon.com and I would highly recommend them to anyone interested in animation.

Tony is the founder and President of The Animaticus Foundation (www.animaticus.com), established to preserve, teach and evolve the art form of traditional 2D animation in the digital age.

Presently Tony is chair of the art department at DigiPen Institute of Technology one of the top animation schools in the country.

Tony will be playing his demo reel and talking animation.

Personal blog: http://blog.animaticus.com
Animaticus Foundation: http://www.animaticus.com
2D OR NOT 2D Animation Festival: http://www.2dornot2d.org
Online Portfolio: http://www.creativetalentnetwork.com/portfolio.php?id=229

Adobe’s very own Marty Mickelson
Co-manager of the local Flex group

Marty will be presenting on the relationship between Flex and Flash, and the similarities and differences that exist. He’ll give a basic, brief overview of what Flex is.

Michael Ninness, senior product manager for InDesign at Adobe Systems Incorporated
Pixel Perfect: Photoshop Production Tips for Flash Designers

Michael will briefly walk you though the new Photoshop and Illustrator importer in Flash CS3, and then he will show you as many tricks as time allows on how to make your pixels look their best before bringing them into Flash in the first place.

Michael Ninness is a senior product manager for InDesign at Adobe Systems Incorporated. He grew up in the Redwoods of Arcata in Northern California and moved to Seattle in 1989 to study for a Graphic Design BFA at the University of Washington. He paid his way through design school by teaching designers and photographers how to use digital tools and techniques. Michael has over ten years experience as a product manager and user interface designer of software products for creative professionals. Past positions include LiveMotion Group Product Manager and Senior User Interaction Designer for the Creative Suite at Adobe, and Program Manager for Expression Blend at Microsoft. Michael is a frequent and top-rated presenter at numerous industry events including Photoshop World, PhotoPlus Expo, PMA, Macworld, FlashForward, Flash on the Beach, Web Design World, The InDesign Conference, The Creative Suite Conference, the HOW Design Conference and Pacific New Media at the University of Hawaii. He is the author of the several Photoshop video training titles published by lynda.com.

The Creative Group

The Creative Group specializes in providing a range of experienced creative, advertising, marketing, web and public relations professionals with a variety of firms on a project basis. Our internal account managers typically have prior experience working within the creative industry, which helps them better understand our clients' needs. As a business unit of Robert Half International Inc., the world's first and largest staffing firm, The Creative Group is backed by a history of excellence. For more information, please visit our website at www.creativegroup.com or call 888.846.1668 for the office nearest you.

Amy Marshall
Program Manager for Big Fish in Kirkland

Big Fish is a staffing agency focusing in Creative, Marketing, Media and Technology positions – both contract and permanent. Amy has been with Big Fish since 2003 and has a background in education recruitment and retail management.

Kinsey Fobes
Presentation notes

Kinsey Fobes is an Adobe Certified Instructor a full time instructor at Renton Technical College and a part time instructor at Bellevue  Community College.  He teaches Flash, Photoshop, C# and computer hardware and networking.  He envisions world peace and strives to end world starvation.
Topic: Peg Puzzle tutorial - Basic game design using actionScript 2.0.  This is an introduction to programming Flash in AS2. The original was written in actionScript 1.0 and has several problems that we will resolve.  A future tutorial will then convert the code to AS3 and utilize Object Oriented techniques.

Greg Rewis
CS3 and also Flash Video

Greg is the Worldwide Senior Evangelist for Web Tools for Adobe Systems Incorporated with nearly 20 years of computer industry experience. In this role, Rewis spends up to 200 days of the year on the road talking with customers, giving product demonstrations at trade shows and seminars, speaking at industry conferences, and leading specialized advanced training sessions featuring Adobe Web Tools product line.

Patrick Keating
Working with Flash and Flex

Patrick is from Bluefire Productions. They just completed the flex/flash engineering and experience design work on Adobe Digital Editions.

Eric Smith
Resume, Portfolio Review and Recruiters Perspective on Who Gets Hired

Eric Smith is a Sr. Recruiter for Sakson & Taylor, an Aquent company, focusing on Designers (User Interface, User Experience, Information Architect, Flash/ActionScript, Graphic).  Eric has over 4 years experience recruiting with a B.S. from WWU.  During his degree, Eric also studied Industrial Design and worked as a Graphic Designer in the Silicon Valley prior to becoming a Recruiter.  He has a love for technology, especially software, and loves to keep abreast of the developments in web technology and in visual design trends.

Daniel Niland
Actionscript 3.0, Events and Why They're Cool

AS3 has a powerful and sane way of using events and knowing how to use them can make your applications about a zillion times easier to create. Daniel is the co-manager of our group. Read his bio here.

Steve Kilisky
Sr. Product Manager for Adobe’s After Effects

Steve demonstrated the new After Effects CS3.

T-Mobile spoke about Flash Lite.

Keith Johnson
Blue Screen Effect, After Effects into Flash Video

Keith is the manager and co-founder of the Seattle Flash User Group. He is a freelance Flash and Instructional Designer in the Seattle market.

Dan Florio
video.Maru

video.Maru is very simply a tool to help Flash designers create custom video interfaces without writing any code. With it you can add a play head, download progress, volume, mute, time remaining, reflection, and many other controls.

Dan Florio is the Senior Flash Developer for the Xbox team at Microsoft. You can see his his work on the Xbox.com and Zune.net websites. His job is to make the designer's work look good. Outside of work you can see his various projects and thoughts on the RIA world at polyGeek.com . He is currently creating a Flex RIA scheduled for public release on June 1st, called RunPee.com . He's also working on a book covering fractal geometry and chaos theory for Flex/AS3.

James LeMaster

Redmond Technology Partners and the services and opportunities they have to offer. James is the Senior Technical Recruiter for Redmond Technology Partners.

David Castillo
Buena Vista Learning LLC,
Simulation based learning with Flash

Flash is a powerful and extensible tool for creating interactive simulations for training, but how do you get started. David will demonstrate proven tools for kick-starting your project and managing project complexity. This session will introduce numerous strategies and techniques for designing and developing interactive simulators including:
Designing and developing components

• Parameterized components
• Getters and Setters
• Event Handling using listeners
  

High-Level design using State-charts

• Extending Finite State Diagrams
• Hierarchy and concurrency
  

Externalizing Data with State Files

• State file structure
• State File Parsing
  

David Castillo has designed large scale simulation based training programs for numerous companies in both private and public sectors. David is a co-author of Flash MX for Interactive Simulation and has presented at numerous technology and learning conferences including eLearning Guild, AICC, ASTD, ISPI, and Flash Forward.
www.flashsim.com

Eric Ressler
Senior Developer, Smashing Ideas
Creating Websites with Flash
Presentation notes

Flash is a great tool for creating engaging and comprehensive websites; but building a large scale, feature rich site can be complex and time consuming.  Eric will discuss ways to streamline the development process to avoid headaches and reinventing the wheel each time you need to build a new website.  This session will cover various aspects of website development, including:

Creating a core, reusable code framework:

• Load management
• Defining your File Structure
• Dealing with page transitions
• Using XML to drive your site content

Making each website unique – avoid the cookie-cutter

• Extending your core classes instead of starting from scratch
• Dealing with customized design and animation

Tips and tricks

• Taking advantage of intrinsic classes
• Using the Express Install feature to help users upgrade their flash player
• Utilizing the browser back and next buttons to navigate within your flash movie

Eric Ressler is a Senior Developer at Smashing Ideas in Seattle with over six years experience creating games, websites and rich internet applications in Flash.  He specializes in Flash websites and applications, and enjoys working on projects that push the boundaries of flash development.

Jeremy Kayes

Will be showing his latest cartoon and doing a Q & A on it. View more about him at...www.elvesofiax.com

Michael Ninness
Executive Director, Lynda.com
Photoshop to Flash: Optimizing Pixels and Workflow

Getting a layered Photoshop document into Flash used to be a time consuming and labor intensive process of saving out each layer in the Photoshop document as a separate .PNG file, importing each .PNG into Flash independently, converting it into a Symbol, creating a layer, placing each Symbol on its own layer, and then repositioning all the elements to match the original layered layout as it was in Photoshop. Michael will show several workarounds that can finally make this headache go away. This session will also cover how Flash handles embedded bitmap files and how you can control the optimization of each bitmap independently.

• Using ImageReady and Fireworks to prepare Photoshop files for import into Flash
• Using the PSD2FLA Photoshop plug-in
• How to control Flash’s optimization settings for embedded bitmaps
• How to load external JPEGs, PNGs and GIFs into a SWF file at runtime
• How to get colors to match between Photoshop and Flash
• Photoshop CS2 web optimization tips

Michael Ninness grew up in the Redwoods of Arcata in Northern California. He moved to Seattle in 1989 to study for a Graphic Design BFA at the University of Washington and fell in love with the Pacific Northwest. He paid his way through design school by teaching professional designers and photographers digital imaging tools and techniques. Michael was the former LiveMotion Group Product Manager and Senior UI Designer for the Creative Suite at Adobe, was a Program Manager for Expression Interactive Designer at Microsoft. In early 2005, Michael returned to his training roots and joined the team at Lynda.com, an award-winning publisher of self-paced online video training, CDs, books and events for designers, photographers, developers, instructors, students and hobbyists. Michael is a frequent and top-rated presenter at numerous industry events including Photoshop World, PhotoPlus Expo, PMA, Macworld, FlashForward, Web Design World and Pacific New Media at the University of Hawaii. He is the author of the Photoshop CS2 Essential Training, Photoshop Power Shortcuts and Photoshop CS2 & Flash 8 Integration video training titles published by Lynda.com, and is a contributor to Photoshop User magazine.

Daniel Niland
Actionscript3 , Part 1-
Data Types: Everything’s Different Under the Hood
Presentation notes

Actionscript 3 gets most of its additional power and efficiency from its new system of strict data typing.  But what is data typing and how will it affect your AS3 code?  We’ll explore the basics of the new data types as well as some of the gotchas that you’ll need to look out for.

I started as a freelancer with Flash 4 around 1999, and after many years, many technologies, and many projects got a job at the Disney Internet Group in Seattle two years ago. Since I’ve been with the Mouse, I’ve gotten to work on some very cool sites like ESPN and ABC. The video player platform I created is seen by millions of people a day and one of the projects I was involved in (primary developer of the ABC Full Episode Streaming Player interface) even won an Emmy. I’m very excited about the possibilities of Actionscript 3.0 and would love to share some of the things I’ve dug up as my job gets geared towards developing everything in that medium.

Marc Hoffman
Owner, Poison Dart Frog Media
Presentation notes

Our speaker will discuss his experiences and projects operating a one-person multimedia shop since 1998. He’ll show some examples of his work and talk about some of the challenges of brokering and producing Flash, including
 

• helping clients to define their wants and needs
• creating project specifications
• designing the architecture of a Flash file

Marc will then lead a Flash troubleshooting session. You are invited to submit a problem Flash file ahead of time, and we’ll discuss as many files as time allows. Before submitting a file, please contact marc@dartfrogmedia.com. We’ll finish up with a general Q&A to discuss technical and Flash-business questions.
Marc Hoffman grew up in New York and Boston, moving to Seattle in 1985. He was a musician and social worker before switching to Flash in 1997, when he founded Poison Dart Frog Media. He has created Flash content for Microsoft, Adobe, Hewlett-Packard, Eddie Bauer, Nickelodeon, and scores of other clients. Marc has taught Flash at Seattle School of Visual Concepts, Real Networks, and elsewhere. He now lives in Kirkland with his wife Tina, 17-year-old son Cory, Cory’s two rats, a cat, two large pond goldfish, two bullfrog tadpoles, two large snails, and an undetermined number of guppies. His hobbies include flatwater kayaking, photography, and nature audio recording

Keith Johnson

Manager, Co-founder, Seattle Flash User Group
Topic: Adobe Captivate
Keith has worked with Flash since Flash MX and has passed both MX and MX2004 Flash Design Certification tests. He also holds an Animation/Graphics Certificate. Keith is a freelancer in the Seattle area and is an advisory board member for the University of Washington Rich Internet Applications Extension Program.
His portfolio can be found at www.keithjohnson.net.

Jeff Jones, Multi Media Developer
Flash and Dynamic Database Content

The focus of this presentation will be a practical example of how to create a user login that validates login information using a database running on a web server then presenting dynamic content based on the users account.

Jeff Jones has dedicated most of his working life to building rich media applications that are driven web applications using a combination of HTML, Flash, JavaScript, dynamic content and web content management systems. Jeff currently works for Microsoft in the robotics division and has also worked for several government agencies and fortune 500 companies as a solutions architect. Jeff is the principal of <BLINK>Media, a web development company, and AutoIdaho.com, an Idaho online automotive portal. Other professional interests Jeff enjoys are movie directing, digital photography, video editing, technical speaking engagements and local political issues. Samples of his work can be found on his web site at: http://www.jeffjoneslive.com

Andrew Wright
Founder and President of Smilebox (smilebox.com)

Andrew will talk about developing your brand and making money on your own content as an independent Flash Developer.
Prior to forming Smilebox, Andrew was the VP of Games at RealNetworks, where he founded and built the RealArcade games business. Andrew was previously a Product Unit Manager at Microsoft Corporation, where he managed the consumer imaging and publishing business, including Picture It!, Home Publishing, and the Greetings product lines.

Volt is recognized as one of the nation's most outstanding staffing services. Since 1950, Volt has provided leading companies with dynamic solutions to meet their human resources needs. We serve Fortune 1000 corporations and are among a select group of staffing companies to be named to the Fortune 1000.

Volt is an employer of professionals in a wide range of job classifications. Our expertise is in providing qualified job seekers with challenging and rewarding employment opportunities by matching them with customers who are seeking qualified candidates.
Volt's Professional Placement Recruiters source candidates for companies' direct-hire needs. Our extensive network identifies exceptional candidates who are successfully employed and unavailable through traditional sources. Our recruiters use specialized interview methods and multi-layered reference techniques to select candidates that meet your specific requirements. www.volt.com

Ron Austin
Flash Video

Ron Austin has worked with Flash since 1998 and is currently using it to develop multimedia video presentations that enhance distance education. He recently earned his Masters in Education at UW Bothell. His focus of studies was on how we can use multimedia to improve online learning and simulations. 

Ron is currently teaching at Bellevue Community College, as well as working on independent contracts that make us of Flash, video, and regular old html.

Larry Asher
How Design Professionals Can Stay Ahead of the Pack

Larry will be talking about the need for constant education throughout your professional career--especially in the areas that most of us NEVER learn about in school: How to profitably run a small business, manage a team, or make more effective written and spoken presentations.
Larry Asher is the co-director of the School of Visual Concepts, Seattle's training resource for professional and portfolio development for graphic designers, art directors, web designers, and advertising copywriters. Larry joined SVC in 1994 after having taught advertising concepting and copywriting since the late 1980s. Larry has continued his successful advertising business, Worker Bees, so he--like all SVC instructors--can bring high-level, real-world experience into the classroom.

Lisa Larsen
Technical Recruiter with S&T who's focus is design and media.

Sakson & Taylor, an Aquent company, offers content design and development, marketing, and creative services solutions. We deliver project-based and staffing services in content design and development, learning, Web solutions, and knowledge management. For more than 20 years, we have helped provide solutions to clients such as Microsoft, HP, and Starbucks. We're a minority-owned business, committed to maintaining professional quality with a personal touch. We’re always looking for talented Flash designers.
Check out our current job listings at www.sakson.com

Kev Brockschmidt

Tuesday, April 18th.
Kev Brockschmidt has been a professional illustrator and designer for over 16 years working for such clients as Nintendo, Wizards of the Coast, and Starlog magazine. His specialty is humorous illustration but he also holds a degree in graphic design and worked for many years as the Creative Director for a large Internet company. His experience includes traditional techniques as well as computer-based art, animation and web coding. Samples of his artwork can be found at his web site:
www.KevsCartoons.com.

He currently resides in Kent, Washington with his wife Tami and their four children - Sarah Joy, Joshua, Cory and Aaron. His pastimes include Taekwondo, guitar, computer gaming, sailing, and traveling to tropical locales whenever possible

Andreas Heim

Tuesday, March 21st.
Andreas Heim is Director of Technology at Smashing Ideas (www.smashingideas.com) in Seattle and a Macromedia Advisory Board member. He specializes in projects that challenge his Flash expertise, preferably projects that include Flash-server interaction or lead to building reusable components. His insights and expertise in this area have lead to numerous contributions to books as well as earned him invitations to speak at several FlashForward conferences including the one just held in Seattle.

Andreas will be speaking about the work at Smashing Ideas, the process and how he got started with Flash. This will be a very interesting presentation.

Smashing Ideas creates online games and animation, mostly for marketing purposes, and develops Web sites. It is the largest independent studio in the country to specialize in Adobe’s Flash animation software. Clients include: America Online, Eddie Bauer, Kraft, Mattel, Microsoft, MTV, Nickelodeon, Yahoo and also created the Web site for Nintendo’s popular “Nintendogs” game.

Andreas teaches a class at SVC Seattle (School for Visual Concepts).
The next class will start in May.
Learn more here...