We’ll as the title would suggest, I have passed the flash CS3 ACE exam. So I thought I would glote a bit on my blog. =)
Archive for the 'Flash' Category
Here’s the image of a strange pop up I got today when publishing a swf using flashdevlop. the command I mistakenly made was “ctl+enter+shift” As you can see it’s a language chooser for blaze but it appears to be coming from flash CS3. What is this, why does it come up as Flash cs3?? very strange!
I thought it would be interesting to show you what video is like with and with out hardware support in the flash player. My need to look for the difference came after finding out that video is not always playing at it’s full potential if you use the StageDisplayState class with your FLVPlayback component as I discussed here.
What I found is that the hardware support helps the video by providing some anti aliasing that gives the video a nicer cleaner edge. Below I have examples that show this anti aliasing in action. The examples come from the video I have as a demo in the first part of this topic (”FLVPlayback bug pt1″) found here .
To see the difference in the video playback with and with out hardware support all you have to do is use the full screen button on the player to use hardware support or click on the stage it’s self to use the StageDisplayState class to play the video with out hardware support.
Flash video in full screen With Hardware support
flash video in full screen With out.
Here are two more examples with high res links
high res With
high res With Out
In the first part of this topic one of the commenting readers named Pietro provided two links to a possible solution to the bug found with the full screen mode and the flv playback component.
- http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/articles/flvplayback_fplayer9u3_print.html
- http://livedocs.adobe.com/flash/9.0_fr/ActionScriptLangRefV3/fl/video/FLVPlayback.html#skinScaleMaximum
But as posted in the article there is a catch 22:
The FLVPlayback component includes the skinScaleMaximum property, which enables you to limit the scaling of the FLVPlayback skin when hardware acceleration is used. You may choose to limit the scaling based on the specific content that is being scaled and your aesthetic tastes regarding the appearance of large skins. Limiting the scaling of the skin, however, requires a combination of hardware and software to scale the video. In some cases, limiting the scaling of the skin can adversely affect performance on videos with large dimensions that are encoded at a high bit rate. If the video is large (640 pixels wide or more, 480 pixels tall or more, for example), you should avoid setting skinScaleMaximum to a small value—because it could cause performance problems on large display monitors
This leaves me to wonder about custom made players and if they support hardware rendering and if so how they achieved it. Such players as JW FLV MEDIA PLAYER 3.15 leave me wondering if they too provide a hardware rending player.
To be continued…
I have been playing with my home site http://gfxcomplex.com a little this weekend. I have nothing huge yet, but I do have a full browser Kuler swatch viewer and a blog syndication up and working.
I hope to have a custom last fm cart of my music and my flickr album on my home page soon.
all bug reports are welcome. Thanks.
I believe I found a bug that only shows up in Firefox and only when using the using the FLVPlayer’s FullScreen button in the Flash. I would like to get confirmation before I submit a bug report.
heres a demo flvplayer: Demo
If you click on the fullscreen button you will get the bug as seen in this photo.
If you click any were on the stage it will look like it should.
This is an example of what it should look like
As you can see the player scales nicly to the bottom of the stage.
The other problem I found is that if you try to bypass this by useing DisplayState.FULL_SCREEN you may be also bypassing hardware acceleration support which is some thing you probably want to use.
I found this in the help files under the FLVPlayback.enterFullScreenDisplayState method which states
So I wonder is hardware acceleration all way omitted if you use DisplayState.FULL_SCREEN?
FYI: heres my browser info with the bug.
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.11) Gecko/20071127 Firefox/2.0.0.11
From what I can tell it’s only FireFox.
I have been wondering how my skills compare to other developers / designers out there and if I could call my self a true Flash pro yet. With the wide range of tasks Flash and Action Script can achieve it’s not so black and white to say your the best qualified person for that job title of Flash pro. So I am trying to outline what it takes to archive a title of skill level in flash Design and Development
Lets start with what makes a novice flash developer / designer.
To say your a Novice Flash skill level you should have a good understanding of the following.
- You know how to use the time line and stage.
- You know how to make display object instances (MovieClips, Buttons, Images, ect…)
- You know how to use the time line shape tweener and motions tweener.
- You know how to Nest objects and have a understanding of scope
- You know the basics of embedding in html
- You can identify every tool in the tool panel
Even a novice skill leveled flash worker can produce high quality animations and banners. From my experience people who work in flash as a designer / animator never really perspire to learn more skills then this.
When I think in terms of the wages that level of skill is qualified to make I think in the range of $15 - $30 per hour.
If your have a moderate skill level of Flash then you have a understanding of the following
- What action script is and the different types there are (AS1, AS2, AS3)
- You know how to use action script on the time line to interact with display objects, property’s, methods and vars.
- You have a basic understanding of var and how to use them
For the most part this is your average flash designer / developer. This level of skill is seen in flash sites that have a basic level of interactivity. Most of the time the type of web sites seen from users of this skill level are static a have some time of animation involved in it. When I think in terms of the wages that level of skill is qualified to make I think in the range of $15 - $40 per hour.
To be a advanced developer / designer you must understander the following
- You know how to write with strict Datatypes, Class, Naming conventions
- You know how to use and manage data from local and remote data sources (XML, flash var, remoting via AMF, ect..)
- You have a basic understanding of OOP and design styles of programing such as MVC
- You have little experience with frame works and have used one in a development project.
- You have about two years experience with programing with Action script and working in the Flash IDE
This is your average freelance developer / designer and makes any where from $20 - $60 per hour depending on their professional experience and portfolio. The types of projects you see in flash on common web sites are made with the help of an advanced flash developer / designer.
Do you think your a pro yet?
I could use some help with describing this level of skill as I have yet to make it pro, but from what I can tell this is your average Pro flash developer / designer.
A pro Flash Developer / Designer:
- Can write a complicated framework top to bottom
- works on a production team of other pro flash developers and or has a consultant or support group of other pro flash developers
- Can utilize complex APIs and data types such as the byteArray class.
- has had his or her work showcased as best of it’s type at least once.
You can tell what a flash pro’s work looks like. Have a look at http://thefwa.com Every great site that gets showcased there is made by a professional team of flash developers and designers. Though I better there are many pros not show there too. From what I understand many Flash professionals make on average any where from $60 - $150+ per hour.
I know there maybe a few areas that I have not included here in my list. Feel free to add your opinions and or share your level of skills and why you think you are qualified for your title.
I made a header that loads a custom font at runtime and uses it to display the main blog title.
I would like to know you experience with it. See any bugs, problems loading or maybe you just think it’s dumb.
Any way it is I would like some input please thanks.
- Josh Chernoff
