FlashGuru Blog

SWFNews is back in full swing and a complete re-design and a new content management system.

WTF?

Sounds like one of the MM Beta testers has been leaking info;) Thanks for the tip, Mr Anonymous.

In my opinion, the apparently new Virtual-fx has taken yet another dive, it seems they have recently re-designed the site and it now kind of looks empty! Although the site is still worth visiting, for the tutorials and the few open source files that exist. I am very dissapointed how this site has gone down hill so much since it was sold. This was once a GREAT resource Sack the web designer!!

Were-Here was, and hopefully will still continue to, remain one of the best online flash forums. There was so much useful conversation, code snippets and technically minded people over there, plus the more professional developers amongst the community were regular visitors, giving everybody a reason to check back often. WTF is happening?! it was being re-designed, then it went down, then it came back up again, and now its totally gone! I want Were-Here back. [update] It will be back soon, Actionscript.com has the story, more info here[/update]

Buraks have today, released Actionscript Viewer 3.1 with a few new funky features. ASV can now extract outlines of graphic symbols as Flash MX actionscript or an SVG file. (Peter Hall supplies the data format and a drawing class, available here). ASV can now extract fonts as Flash MX actionscript. Also fonts can be exported in a SWF file with an export id, which can be imported later. With the run menu you can easily define and run external applications and there is a new outline mode for preview. It is now possible to extend the functionality of ASV in the form of external plugin applications. The first of which will be released by Buraks, shortly!

Valyard wanted me to let everybody know that his site has been blocked temporarily by the webhosts because of serious security breaches yesterday evening, he his currently trying to get in contact with the administrator but he isnt getting any replies. Watch this space!

Macromedia have released a free update to Flash MX, that allows it to read in, parse and display Freehand version 8,9, 10 and MX files (.fh) named the Flash MX Reader, download it for free here. [Via Mesh On MX]

Trevor McCauley has kindly published two tutorials that explain setInterval and ASBroadcaster for those who are having problems with the two subjects! Give them a read.
[Via FlashMXPro]

Turbine Video Encoder is a complete environment for the creation of optimized streaming Flash video. Turbine Video Encoder uses state of the art inter-frame compression techniques, allowing you to encode standard video files into low bit rate Flash movies, ready to be streamed across today's Internet connections. To learn more about Turbine Video Encoder, please take a look at the featured Samples and download your Free Edition Turbine Video Encoder.

Showkit 1.1 lets you easily create totally customizable Flash web-sites and corporate presentations based on Flash technology. The interface provides an easy to use project tree that allows you to edit and customize the individual components. Check out the list of features here. At $59 its a treat for anybody that needs to knock up a flash website in lightning speed, but i wouldnt recommend any tool of this nature as it lacks the creativity, which is the best part of having your own flash website, your own personal flavour!
[Via Simon Barber]

Mr. Moock has written a sweet technote that explains how to load xml across domains, worth a read!

Colin Moock author of the notorious Actionscript: The Definitive Guide and the follow up, Actionscript For Flash MX: The Definitive Guide, has made a few changes to the Flash section on his website it now features a main page which oragnises alot of the content from around the site into a quick overview, most of the flash stuff has been moved into the technotes area. Check out his invaluable personal resource.

Does anybody know of any web based client side, microphone recording and playback tools, namely written in director, java or activex? Ive done it using Flash Communication Server MX and the Flash Player, but we also need to present one or two client side only options. Please post links in the comments or email me, thanks.

I recieved one of the free trials being offered by FlashComStudio yesterday, so [corrected]'muchas gratias'[/corrected] to them If you need hosting for your Flash Communication Server experiments etc.. then check them out! There are quite a few FlashComm tutorials and resources over there aswell.

Need some inspiration? then the return of Valyard has to be good news for you! Tonnes of inspiring sites updated daily.

Buraks have released a minor upgraded version of the URL Action Editor tool, a little application that allows you to directly modify the url's within a .swf file.

JavaSWF2 is a set of Java packages that enable the parsing, manipulation and generation of swf files. If your a java programmer then download the sourcecode, you never know it may come in handy one day!

SWFFork is yet another free jpeg->swf batch conversion utility but this one was made for OSX so it may come in handy for those Mac users amongst us. Its a shame Macs dont have anywhere near as many flash related applications available to them.