Flash Video Avatar

Flash 8 has added some exciting video features, including the ability to add masks on top of a video. I created an avatar that "busts in", and introduces my About Me page. Click on the avatar to make him do some jumping jacks.

This was an ultra low budget project. I shot the video using a 4 year old Cannon 2 megapixel digital camera in my hallway. Using Windows Movie Maker, I edited it down into 7 sub clips -- "wave", "talk", "idle1", "idle2", "point left", "point right", "jump" -- and imported them into Flash. (In retrospect, I should have made the "talk" cycle a bit longer, since that's what appears most of the time.)

Once the video was in Flash, I laid out the videos on a timeline. I created a separate timeline for the audio, and using basic labels, and gotoAndPlay() functions, I synched up the 200 frames of video with the audio timeline.

Finally, I integrated the video with my web page. I found an excellent tutorial on CommunityMx.com that helped me get the transparency working correctly in my Flash movie, so that it appears behind the other layers on my web page.

Though SWF ended up being about 1MB in size, preloading is not an issue, because the video is the last thing on the page to load, and the user doesn't realize there's going to be video on the page until it's ready to play. A users with slow connections might miss the video entirely, but they won't notice that it's missing, and they can still enjoy the rest of the page.

Total Production Time: 8 hours
Total Production Cost: 0$
I think you could make a fantastic avatar using the same basic techniques, but a slightly more sophisticated production environment. You'd need a green screen to make it easy to extract the background, a better video camera, and a copy of Adobe After Effects.

Book Review: Flash 8 Essentials

With Flash 8, Macromedia (now Adobe) gave veteran Flash Developers a wealth of new creative options to explore. Many of the features, while clearly powerful, are not intuitive to use. This fact is primarily due to the inherent complexity of the new tools. Filters and gradient focal points are not as easy to figure out as the basic timeline and drawing tools. And trial and error is simply not going to lead you to a solid of understanding of how to use External Interface to communicate with JavaScript, or what the Cache As Bitmap setting does. Unfortunately, the documentation within Flash is a bit thin so most users have to resort to scouring the internet for tutorials and tips.

This is where Flash 8 Essentials comes to the rescue. The book provides documentation of all the new features in Flash 8 (and only Flash 8). This is not a Flash for Beginners book. It is targeted squarely at experienced Flash artists and programmers who want to tap the power of the new features. A better title for the book would have been "What's New In Flash 8".

Each chapter focuses on a particular feature, and there is little overlap, so you can jump around to the parts that are most pertinent to you. Chapters are organized with the less technical information at the start, and more complicated bits, including the ActionScript, at the end. In this way, the book can be useful to both artists and developers, and it's easy to figure out where to go for the information you need.

I was a bit leery at first, when I saw there were 6 authors attached to the book. Fortunately, the editors at FriendsOfEd successfully pulled the content together, and made it feel consistent. I also tend to avoid computer books like this one with lots of pretty color pictures. However, in this case, I feel the color is a necessary component of the book because pictures are the best way to demonstrate different filters and blending modes. And I have to admit it's definitely a nice-looking book.

If there's one part that feels thin, it's the chapter on Video. I still don't have a solid understanding of the "new ON2 VP6 codec", (though the authors dropped this buzzword many times). Granted, Flash Video probably deserves a book of its own...

In short, Flash 8 Essentials serves as a manual for veteran Flash developers who want to get up do speed on the new version. It's too bad the software makers no longer ship adequate documentation with their products, but I suppose we should be glad that companies like FriendsOfEd are around to fill the void. Adobe would do well to include a copy of this book with every upgrade version of Flash they sold.

Disclaimer: I was given a free copy of this book for review.