Flash Article

Inside the Flash 8 Beta

During the first week of August 2005, Macromedia made a bold claim in announcing Macromedia Flash 8 as "one of the most significant releases of Flash ever." So what does it really mean for designers and developers? It seemed timely to dig a little deeper and hear from users who have been getting to know the features of Flash 8 through the Macromedia Beta Program. We wanted to hear from beta testers how the new features inspired them—what Flash 8 enabled that wasn't possible before, and what surprised and maybe even delighted users about the latest version of Flash.

We talked with a handful of our beta users who were working in two areas that we've spent a lot of time thinking about for this release cycle: video and mobile. What we learned about both areas was truly exciting. As always, designers and developers are already pushing the boundaries of creativity, embracing this new version of Flash and building content and applications we never anticipated.

What Do You Love About Flash 8?

When we're planning a new release, we always try to zero in on the problems we're solving. We validate our view with customers early on, but it's sometimes hard in the abstract to know whether we've been successful. Now that the product is near completion, we thought we'd turn the question around and ask what problems the new video and mobile features in Flash 8 were solving for our beta users. Here's what they had to say:

• Video quality: "The video quality has vastly improved with the superior On2 VP6 codec. Not only does the video appear sharper and clearer, the amount of compression artifacts have been extremely reduced. We can encode the same video at lower bit rates [compared to the Spark codec], essentially saving our clients money on bandwidth." [Joey Princz]
• Alpha channel: "Within the last six months we have been developing a lot of Flash-based projects that we have shot greenscreen for. By having the ability to bring an FLV file into Flash with an alpha channel, we will reduce development time immensely. The time we used to spend compositing the footage onto the background, rendering the QuickTime file, making the FLV file, importing into Flash, lining up the layer, painting out subpixel movements, etc., will be drastically reduced." [Joey Princz]
• Video encoding with alpha: My jaw dropped when I encoded my first video with full alpha transparency. Now, I can switch graphics on-the-fly behind the video within Flash. Playback speed is so elegant and smooth and digital artifacting is barely noticeable even with higher compression ratios. Macromedia listened to their clients and delivered a truly advanced application for delivering video with full transparency at a smaller file size with embedded audio. Additionally, the simple-to-use encoder that is included with Flash Professional 8, takes the guesswork out of video compression." [Garrett Nantz]
• Great quality video at smaller file size: "Bye-bye PNG sequences. What we would normally render from After Effects, and export as PNG sequences with an alpha transparency, can now be replaced with an FLV file. The VP6 codec will yield excellent results at a much smaller file size. This in essence allows for more visual experimentation, again, at a reduced file size, hence quicker load times or more objects on the screen." [Joey Princz]
• Mobile emulator: "I spend a lot of time moving Flash files to my phone for testing. The mobile emulator cuts out about 75% of my on-the-phone testing time with its ability to accurately display the phone's color quality and form factor. I can also swap out phones very easily to test even on the phones I don't own, giving me a better sense of how the content will function across so many devices." [Justin Everett-Church]
• Script Assist: "Flash 8 makes developing Flash Lite 1.1 content a breeze. If you aren't familiar with the Flash 4 syntax, the new Script Assist feature in Flash 8 will help tremendously. You don't have to remember what was available in each version of Flash. Script Assist will only let you choose code that will be compatible with Flash Lite, and it will help you format the code, in case the syntax is unfamiliar." [Justin Everett-Church]
• Rapid iteration: "The ability to quickly select various device templates and perform quick tests with the new mobile emulator (especially for testing keypresses and device-specific buttons and controls) is a great boon to productivity. When fleshing out a framework and interface for a mobile app in the past it was constant sessions of develop, publish, move your SWF file to your device, test on the device, lather, rinse, repeat. Now I am able to cut down a great deal of that back-and-forth time by doing quick tests on the mobile emulator for some of these initial steps in building an application." [Robert Hall]
• Device templates: "Flash 8 provides device templates. Macromedia works closely with the handset manufacturers to get specific details on the handsets. The templates provide designers and developers the exact capabilities and general information (size, layout, etc.) of a target device. No more googling for a specific device screen resolution." [Mike Krisher]
• Improved workflow: "Something that may not be evident to everyone right away is how Macromedia has started to create this workflow for creating mobile Flash applications. First, you pick a template. Second, you build your app. Last, you test your app and because you used a device template, the application auto-magically assumes the emulator as the test environment. From the very beginning your application is 100% mobile, aimed directly at the Flash runtime for the device you are targeting. I am sure this is just the beginning. This workflow, along with the emulator, are going to make Flash one the industry's top choices for developing mobile content and applications." [Mike Krisher]

Top 8 Predictions for Flash 8

One of the most exciting things about launching a new version of Flash is that designers and developers often come up with ways of using the product that we never anticipated. To get an impression of where the community is going with Flash 8, we asked beta users what trends they expected for the future, what kinds of applications they foresaw, and what their dream projects would be. Here, in no particular order, are the top predictions for video and mobile future trends with Flash 8:

• Greenscreen/alpha video: "With this release of Flash the trends are almost limitless. There is so much you can do with this release that it is mind-boggling, especially if you are a designer and programmer. I think we're going to see a lot of greenscreen/alpha video. Since most people don't know how to execute this properly (and it looks horrible with a mini-DV camera), we'll see a lot of attempts out there that will not look good. However, once all the hoopla calms down, you're going to see some of the best immersive eye-candy ever put onto the web." [Joey Princz]
• Intranets/extranets: "We expect to see more internal and corporate use of Flash. We've developed corporate intranets with full CMS control—all in Flash. Flash gives us the ability to deliver beautiful engaging intranets while still executing the brand culture and experience from paper to the computer screen. No other platform can do that." [Joey Princz]
• Two-way video with Flash Communication Server: "Our dream projects have always involved interactive two-way experiences. The dream started being fulfilled with the release of Flash 6 and Flash 6 video. It's only gotten better as the technology has advanced. I believe that with Flash 8, Flash Communication Server will finally see its day. Due to the better codec, Flash 8 video should be recognized on par with QuickTime and Windows Media." [Joey Princz]
• Mobile portals and games: "I'm by no means a device savant, but I can say history repeats itself. To understand the future is to understand the past. Look at what is currently successful in Japan, and some of that will be our future. Mainly, portals and games done in Flash." [Jesse Warden]
• More mobile apps: "With all the new features that are added in this release, I think that drives home a real message that Macromedia is committed and behind delivering the same rich feature set for mobile as it is on the desktop. Once individual developers catch on to this, and realize they can leverage existing skills to make mobile content, they are going to start building everything under the sun. The emulator is going to really encourage this as well because not everyone has access to some of the more advanced devices at this point, at least in the US. But I see this changing by the end of the year—more and more folks will have Flash Lite capable devices." [Robert Hall]
• Content reuse: "The ability to repurpose content and redeploy for the desktop, or mobile devices also has a great appeal that I feel people are only now beginning to catch on to. The whole notion of Flash as a platform is really going to mean more and more as the capabilities of Flash Lite and mobile devices reach parity with the desktop platform." [Robert Hall]
• Occasionally connected apps: "I see 'sometimes-connected' applications benefiting from the new emulator. Obviously a desktop connection is always on and isn't the same as a network connection over a cellular network, but testing the application to make sure the logic is parsing the data sent over the network correctly, right in the authoring environment, rapidly decreases the amount of time an application takes to develop." [Mike Krisher]
• Location- and presence-based applications: "The type of projects I dream of using Flash 8 for are location- and presence-based applications that are context sensitive. By that I mean, applications that are aware of your location, situation, or surroundings, or are designed for very granular types of experiences that a person on the go would not previously be capable of experiencing or interacting with. Combining GPS data or cell tower data, or snapshots from one's surroundings—some way merging these bits of data with applications created in Flash with rich, easy-to-navigate interfaces— we'll be able to provide extremely compelling applications with rapid development times compared to other mobile development platforms." [Robert Hall]

Tips, Tricks, and Favorite Features

Finally, we thought it would be fun (and potentially useful) to compile a list of tips and tricks related to the mobile and video features in Flash 8—advice for those who are just getting started and things people found useful that might otherwise be overlooked.

"My favorite trick is importing the video into Flash and applying a blend mode like you can in Fireworks and Photoshop such as hard light, overlay, and screen. This allows the video to blend in more creatively with the graphics in the background." [Garrett Nantz]

"You can blur, control contrast and brightness, add a drop shadow, and blend video in amazing ways with your graphics at runtime both with ActionScript and through standard animation techniques. Also, you can embed cue points that can trigger synchronized events with other objects on the screen. Lastly, even if you just want a better way to deliver video to your customers, the new codec is light-years ahead of anything else I have seen." [Garrett Nantz]

"My favorite feature of Flash 8 is actually the entire application. Prior versions of Flash don't even compare to Flash 8, as it is so feature-rich and groundbreaking. Who would have thought in one major release you'd have clean video with a live alpha channel? The filters are amazing and will reduce so much dev time, plus they can be keyframed. You now have clean-rendering text; you can play back 32 channels of audio simultaneously; you can import PNGs, JPGs, and GIFs into movies; you can upload files through Flash Player—how can anyone pick which is the best feature? Should you want to begin developing for mobile, the emulators open that door as well. The Macromedia team has outdone themselves and has given us a playground rather than a toolbox." [Joey Princz]

"It is a subtle feature, but my absolute favorite. When in the mobile emulator, I can actually see how my bitmaps and gradients are going to look on the phone. If this hadn't been included, I would still end up moving file after file over to the phone for testing. Because of this feature, I can rapidly try multiple compression settings for a graphic and test them. In truth, if this feature weren't there, I probably would have settled for a less optimized file in favor of the development time savings. Now I get both." [Justin Everett-Church]

"As a Flash developer in the United States, I often don't have access to the latest in mobile technology or features. Through the emulator, I've also gotten to see and demo ways of using Flash that I can't currently otherwise make in the US market. I am very appreciative of this ability to get up to speed on what is probably coming next in the US market." [Justin Everett-Church]

"Even though phones are accelerating technologically at a fast rate of speed, the best at the time of this writing is a 256 megahertz. Deferred instantiation is your friend; if you can't create 15 movie clips, create one per frame, and generate a 'done' event at the end, for example." [Jesse Warden]

"When developing for mobile, random LoadVars don't work economically; some people pay per data transaction. Therefore, you must be clear in your intent of accessing the Internet." [Jesse Warden]

"The Flash Lite Exchange is another great place for inspiration—there are some great useful apps on there I would have never thought to build myself, but they gave me ideas for things I might want to try to build." [Robert Hall]

"I have made my own quick trick for publishing my Flash Lite content—I used the Mac OS X ability to attach AppleScripts to folders. I have a folder setup so that every time I publish a SWF file to it for mobile development, my custom AppleScript grabs the SWF file, and uses the built-in Bluetooth file manager in OS X to automatically transfer the new SWF file to my mobile device, in my case a Nokia 6680, for quick testing. This saves me many keystrokes, and mouse strokes, that are pretty repetitive." [Robert Hall]

Hopefully this article has given you a peek into the Flash 8 beta, with insights from users who have had a chance to pound on the early version of the product. We're glad to hear that ultimately Flash 8 solves some of the problems for video and mobile development that we set out to address (and some that we didn't imagine). We're excited about the future of Flash 8, to see how the trends you are anticipating will evolve and play out and how the landscape will change. And most of all, we're eager for you to start using the video and mobile features in Flash 8. We can't wait to see what you come up with. Surprise us, we'll be watching.

I'd like to thank the following Flash users for contributing to this article:

Joey Princz, Director of Advanced Technologies at AgencyNet
D. Garrett Nantz, Senior Art Director at Big Spaceship
Justin Everett-Church, Rich Media Evangelist at Yahoo!
Robert Hall, Director of Technology for Talisman Interactive
Mike Krisher, Flash Developer and Mobile Consultant
Jesse Warden, Flash Developer at Roundbox Media

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