Link: http://gregorywilson.wordpress.com/2008/05/28/to-air-or-not-to-air-pizza-hut/

Excited about AIR? Don’t rush into it without considering whether it is suitable for your project or client. Similar to previous article about Papervison3D’s limitation, this article is a continuous effort to alert designers and developers that do not get carried away by new technologies and trends. The right work flow should always be idea first then seek for suitable technologies to execute.

“There’s nothing wrong with any technology. It’s the user.”

Shang :: May.30.2008 :: AIR, good-to-know, link :: No Comments »

1. The most popular screen resolution is 1024×768
2. Most people use PC
3. IE is the most popular browser
4. Preferred color model for online is RGB not CMYK
5. Preferred file formats for images are JPG, PNG and GIF not TIFF
6. Rule of the thumb: images should just be 72 dpi rather than 300 dpi
7. File size for images should not exceed 1 MB
8. Fonts supported in HTML are: Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman, Courier, Georgia, Verdana, Geneva
9. HTML text cannot be kerned. Flash dynamic text cannot be kerned either
10. Always always always test your layout in different monitors and browsers before going live

Shang :: May.07.2008 :: beginner, best practice, good-to-know :: No Comments »

Granted that this isn’t related to Flash at all, but I do think it’s pretty useful for anyone who had to deal with these minor, but annoying glitches. Will from Evoart shares with us a couple of useful reusable snippets of CSS and some best practices that he recommends.

Here’s a quick snatch from the article.

Firefox Image Outline Fix

This little beauty does exactly what it says it does. If you weren’t aware, Firefox has a nasty little habit of adding ‘outlines’ to images that are links. This really bugs me on items in the main navigation of a website, but thanks to this handy piece of code you can say goodbye to these outlines forever!

A:focus, A:hover, A:active /* Firefox image outline fix */
{
outline: none}

Banish your bane of the horrible IE 6 background flicker and other dooms right here.

hellovalerie :: Apr.04.2008 :: good-to-know :: No Comments »

For those of you who don’t know this yet, if you’re migrating from AS2.0 to AS3.0 or if you’re constantly using AS3.0 to develop your projects, this is a very handy ActionScript 3.0 Migration PDF reference. It clearly shows the difference between AS2.0 and AS3.0 and tells you what to import when using certain objects, it also tells you what objects has been removed in AS3.0. Certainly good to have it with you when developing AS3.0 projects or if you’re starting to learn AS3.0. There are also other cheatsheets for other platforms like AIR and Papervision which can be found here.

benhomie :: Mar.25.2008 :: actionscript 3, good-to-know, intermediate :: No Comments »

There are some security restrictions. The full article can be found in Adobe’s website. Two restrictions are very important:

1. “Users cannot enter text in text input fields while in full-screen mode. All keyboard input and key-related ActionScript is disabled while in full-screen mode, with the exception of the keyboard shortcuts that take the viewer out of full-screen mode. ”

   This restriction keeps most website/application away from fullscreen mode. Almost all websites and applications need keyboard interaction. Bringing the user out of fullscreen mode to fill up a form is not user-friendly.

   It was stated in Square Factor’s blog that the reason for disabling input is to avoid phishing activities. “…attacker could mimic the look of the operating system / browser to force user to enter sensitive data, such as passwords or serial numbers.”

2. “The ActionScript that initiates full-screen mode can be called only in response to a mouse click or keypress. If it is called in other situations, it will be ignored (in ActionScript 2.0) or throw an exception (in ActionScript 3.0).”

Shang :: Mar.23.2008 :: actionscript 3, beginner, good-to-know :: 1 Comment »

The success of a website is evaluated by its traffic. Important data like pageviews and visitors are collected using web tracking technologies. The simplest form would be the old school visitor counter. There are many commercial web tracking services for big websites and there are also free services such as “Google Analytics(GA)“. It’s simple yet extremely powerful.

GA is a javascript based solution. Using GA in HTML is very simple. Paste in the scripts and the site is tracked instantly. To track a Flash based website is not hard either.
Continue Reading »

Shang :: Mar.19.2008 :: good-to-know, intermediate :: 5 Comments »

Papervision3D brought 2D Flash into a 3D world. It’s exciting and there are lots of cool websites and applications developed with PV3D. But nothing is perfect in the world. It also has some limitations:

Continue Reading »

Shang :: Mar.17.2008 :: advanced, good-to-know, papvervision :: 1 Comment »

This may not be new news per say. But in my opinion should be quite useful. There is this new flash framework known as Gaia that seems to be useful in speeding up the flash production process. By using the framework, you can get a simple flash project up in a flash. If you find it troublesome to change your workflow, the least you can do with it is to create a prototype in a very short time to present to your client. In conlcusion, this framework is worth a try.

http://www.gaiaflashframework.com/

kinsung :: Mar.11.2008 :: good-to-know :: No Comments »

Regardless of whether you are a seasoned developer or a designer or a complete newbie, (re)familiarizing yourself with the software and basic terminology is a good place to start. Here is a list of tips all Flash users should know.

1. Frame rate -> 12fps for mobile phones, 18fps to 30fps for general usage
2. Scene -> Please do not use scenes, it is outdated and unstable
3. Time line -> Onion skin is good for working with multiple frames
4. Library -> Ctrl + L
5. Button -> Try not to use it because it is very inflexible as compared to the movie clip (more another time)
6. Graphics -> Great for animation as it has live preview from the timeline
7. Bitmap text/Pixel font ->Round up all X, Y axes to whole numbers or risk getting blurry text
8. Align panel -> Ctrl+K

Shang :: Mar.09.2008 :: beginner, good-to-know :: No Comments »