Flashforward Notebook
Note: various photos from the conference and night time pleasures can be seen on the photos page. The quality is mixed, and I wish I could have taken more of the event itself, but there are only so many interesting angles of a hotel conference room.
And so it ends - Flashforward 2002 in New York. This was my first Flashforward experience after numerous years of wanting to attend, but never having the time. This year, I took the plunge, and decided to head on up to see what all the hype was about.
Quite a few attendees told me that the conference was noticeably smaller than years past - a time when Adobe and Macromedia were throwing around bushels of money. Regardless, I was overall pretty pleased with the experience.
Ate dinner in NOHO with Jeffrey Zeldman, Chris Casciano, and Aaron Boodman, discussed industry news with Erik Natzke, picked the brain of Andries Odendaal, and shook hands with countless developers and authors over the course of three days. From top to bottom, everyone was just as friendly as I had hoped.
As for the content of the conference, Flash MX was center stage. Every seminar, regardless of subject matter, seemed to include some material on creating custom components, global variables, MX event handlers, the just released Flash Communication Server, and of course, creating Flash applications. Just about every presenter wanted a piece of the freshly baked pie, and attendees got an earful of it all.
The only trouble was a noticable lack of real world application. There were plenty of in-house demos, experiments, and examples of the new technology used in creative ways, but very few "success stories" to chew on. This is somewhat expected, considering the new nature of MX, but it left a gaping hole in the middle of an otherwise spirited conference. Lots of sizzle, but not a lot of steak to chew on.
Perhaps as the application matures and the MX player becomes more widespread we will see more. Perhaps.
The following is a quick list of my own "Best and Biggest" moments of Flashforward NY 2002.
Biggest Surprise » Macromedia Keynote
When Kevin Lynch of Macromedia asked for a show of hands of "how many people know who Douglas Engelbart is," I was one of about five people out of 400 who knew (we all must read slashdot.org). To put the video teleconferencing capabilities of Flash MX into historical perspective, Lynch played clips of Engelbart's famous 1968 presentation video, where Engelbart used a mouse, a keyboard, a monitor, and a server across town to manipulate / move data over a modem - all unheard of in that year. At one point, Engelbart demonstrated video workgroups, where webcams of fellow workers were projected onto the computer screen so that data could be manipulated in a collaborative setting. With that, Lynch launched a web based Flash interface, running Flash Communication Server in the back-end, containing a live webcam of himself and Engelbart - a little older, with a big smile on his face, hanging out in California. For fans of Engelbart, a relative unknown who contributed so much to the history of what we all know and use on a daily basis, it was a touching moment in what otherwise could have felt exploitive.
Best Presentation » "Flash, Lies and Videotape" by Pete Barr-Watson of Pixelfury
Of all the seminars offered at FFNW, Pixelfury's presentation was the most unique and informative. For one all-too short hour, Pete Barr-Watson explained how his company suddenly found itself responsible for exporting a massive amount of Flash animations, originally designed for web delivery, to broadcast video for use as a television series. Frame by frame animations aren't a big deal, but scripted animations proved impossible. Nobody knew how to do it, or if it could be done. Sweating a deadline, Pete dug in and figured it out. Through two unique workarounds, Pete demonstrated how Flash designers can create full frame, full motion scripted animations for DVDs, TV or film. Rumor has it Joshua Davis wet himself.
Most Mind-Boggling Presentation » "Strategies and Techniques for Building Flash Applications" by Branden Hall
Like a swift kick in the teeth, FFNY kicked off with a three hour presentation by coding guru Branden Hall. Trying his best to speak in plain English and clearly demonstrate the complex ActionScript behind a typical Flash application, Branden turned most attendees' brains to mush by the end. The level of complexity reached such extreme heights, that at one point people in my section started quietly laughing, put down their pens, closed their laptops, and sat back to watch Branden go go go.
Funniest Moment » Flashforward party at Spa
Thursday night was party night at Spa - a posh, mod, velvet rope style of nightclub at 13th and 4th. From the get-go it was quite obvious numerous Flashforward attendees had never been in a nightclub, or knew how to hold their liquor. Scruffy guys showed up in shorts and Tevas, stiff corporate types jerked and hopped around on the dance floor to the latest Nelly single, and one lightweight painted a urinal in the men's bathroom with a fresh coat of vomit. It's one thing to puke in public, but in a urinal of all places was just beyond foul.
Best Presenter » Robert Reinhardt
Relaxed, funny, and clear. Until you watch multiple people try to explain ActionScript to an audience, you can't truly appreciate what a talent it is to do it well. Reinhardt made the complex seem logical and easy without bogging down the flow or moving too quickly.
Best New Software Product » Optimaze!
Optimaze! is a standalone Flash application that imports swf files and compresses vector art by up to 70% with virtually no loss of visual quality. Rather than providing a blanket compression scheme, the app allows users to compress their movies frame by frame - the advantage being that frames with non-vital transitions or detail can be compressed more than others. Watching two Flash movies side by side, one half the size and download time of the other, you couldn't tell the two apart. The application interface is very well designed, intuitive, and easy to follow. Windows only right now, but an OS X version is promised.
Biggest Dissapointment » "Unconventional Game Development" by Thomas Wagner, Design Assembly
Thomas Wagner, one of the better public speakers at the event, demonstrated tips, tricks and techniques for creating standalone games, most of which were retro 80s kickbacks in style and mode of play, in Flash. Most of the games looked great - smooth, fast, and nice action. But then came the bizarre reveal - all the coding was in Flash 4. Yes, four. Why? Because according to Wagner, the slash-style of ActionScript used in version 4 is faster than 5, and even MX. To prove his point he switched out a single loop to 5 syntax, re-published, and tried to play the game. It was awful. You could feel the air sucking out of the room.
Biggest Dissapointment (Runnerup) » "Star Wars in Flash: Developing for Playstation 2" by Fred Sharples, Orange Design
With the economy the way it is, lots of new media developers are looking for alternate revenue streams. There are lots of ideas running around, including wireless devices, ITV and game consoles, but not a lot of real-world examples to go by. Fred Sharples demonstrated one success story, and a big one at that - a Flash designed GUI for a Star Wars game on Playstation 2. But then came the gotcha - unless you have George Lucas on your side, a bunch of money, or a very gifted business proposal writer, you won't get your hands on a developer version of the Playstation console to test your content with. Additionally, you have to hire a Playstation game programmer to provide the "hooks" between the console hardware and the ActionScript (most of which was called back and forth with getURL actions). If all that isn't enough, Macromedia doesn't even make a Flash player for the Playstation (that is handled by Secret Level). By the end it was clear that Flash on the Playstation was very far away, and really not even worth talking about.
Best Reason to Quit Using Flash » Adobe After Effects
At the final session of the conference, Nando Costa presented his motion graphics portfolio of corporate and experimental work while discussing the creative inspirations and concepts behind each piece. Midway through, Costa suddenly shifted away from Flash content and began displaying movies created by he and other motion graphics designers (including mk12, psyop and lobo) using After Effects. At one point Costa boldly suggested with an ironic laugh, "if you're doing motion graphics, I suggest using After Effects instead of Flash." He was right. Granted, Flash wasn't designed to be a video tool, but after three days of coding, applications and components, it was a treat to watch fluid, full frame motion on a jumbo screen without a bit of ActionScript. Adobe's ears were definitely burning at 5pm on Friday.
Best Reason to Move the Event » New Yorker Hotel
If you don't mind waking up a little earlier, stay in a different hotel than the New Yorker. The location sucked, staff was rude, doormen were crooks, and the upstairs hallways smelled like cat piss. Plus, the "Special Flashforward Rate" at the hotel was $129, when their nightly rate was actually $109 (I asked to make sure, and ended up with a lower charge). Nice and pretty on the first and second floors, but it's all a façade.
Comments
Yep, the New Yorker Hotel sucks big time. Soooooooo many hotels these days spend so much time making the lobby look good and then just completely neglect the rooms. Until the New Yorker Hotel experience, I'd never seen water come directly from the porcelain of a sink... no faucet! Unbelievable, and gross.
Another highlight of the conference I thought was the Flash Film Festival. Whenever I see work that good, I just want to quit doing Flash altogether. I haven't felt that inferior since kindergarten when I struck out in tee-ball.
Posted by: Mike Davidson at July 16, 2002 12:26 AM
t,
todd, your report makes me want to learn to use flash. i have no idea about that app man, but reading your tregga-in-depth notes makes me wanna start tinkering away and stuff.
your fotos are radical too. i'm ultra-impressed and glad to see that someone else likes to take the snaps w/o the flash. that floor and shoes snap is great! oh, and your wife is a looker. whew! :)
hope you have a great day man. i'm off to work now, but i'll likely spend the day reading your report more in-depth and exploring your links and library. hehe.
talk soon man,
mathew.
Posted by: mathew at July 16, 2002 7:19 AM
RE: The Sinks
I forgot to mention the sinks! I had never seen porcelain sinks without faucets. I thought about leaning over and looking at the underside to see if it was as gross as I imagined (I mean, do cleaning crews really scrub under there?) but couldn't bring myself to do it.
Posted by: Todd at July 16, 2002 9:03 AM
Good stuff, thanks Todd. The Flash 4/5/MX speed thing is a a big *disappointment*.
Posted by: Scott at July 16, 2002 10:24 AM
Ah, I regret not attending this year's event much less now. I went to FFNY in 2000 and it was outstanding and inspiring - although the economic downturn is reason enough, this year's event just sounds so bland. I stayed at the Chelsea Hotel, actually, and it was great. One big, friendly, unobtrusive cockroach - but otherwise clean rooms, large bathrooms and eccentric neighbors.
Posted by: gsh at July 16, 2002 10:52 AM
Hey, does any one have the link to the speaker notes page, I can't seem find it mine anywhere.
thx
Posted by: Ryan at July 16, 2002 12:13 PM
Todd, will you please please please share Pixelfury's secret?
Posted by: Phil at July 17, 2002 2:59 PM
Pixelfury's secret:
Bring your scripted animation into Director, make sure the sprite's duration is long enough for the entire animation, and then export to QuickTime Video.
Opposed to Flash's export, the code in every frame is executed as it exports.
----
Todd,
I missed the game session (too early in the morning). Do you have the two loops available? I'd like to seem them.
Cheers,
Posted by: Andreas at July 19, 2002 6:42 PM
hey Todd,
do you have any more photographs from FlashForward? My Polish friends from MaxWeber.com asked me to pick up the prize for them in case they win, and they won (so I did, as you probably saw), but I completely forgot to take any pictures. Had I only known you were there... oh well, what do I know?
(feel free to remove this comment if you want.)
Posted by: Witold at July 20, 2002 4:26 PM
RE: Andreas
If my memory is right, he switched out a "Call(1)" action for "GotoAndPlay(1)". The coding worked the same either way, but the frame rate choked horribly.
RE: Witold
Nope, no more photos. Sorry.
Posted by: Todd at July 22, 2002 7:09 AM
RE: Todd
You're saying instead of Call (1) he used GotoAndPlay(1)". Well - that's not Flash 5 or MX syntax, that's still Flash 4. And it does something entirely different:
Call is just like you call a function or method. Only the code executes that is placed in that frame.
GotoAndPLay exectues the code - but also moves the playhead. Now if between the current position of the playhead and frame one there were a lot of keyframes, all those instances in those keyframes would have to be moved. if there were new instances placed in the new frame, all the new instances would have to be created and drawn.
So if the entire foundation for the thesis that Flash 4 is faster than Flash MX is based on that - the proof is still missing.
I do know that for example Flash 4 substring is faster than Flash 5 String.substr - but at the same time it's beaten by Flash MX.
Posted by: Andreas at July 23, 2002 7:46 PM
