There has been such a great deal of debate about Flash versus HTML5.  While the pros and cons of each is typically black and white, when it comes to video playback on the web leveraging the two provides a more robust user experience.

Whether  you want Flash for a uniform desktop experience but need to support the iPad? No problem. Standards junkie and only want HTML5? That’s cool too.

We’ve gathered a list of the top free and premium HTML5/Flash video players that provide an all in one solution to video playback on the web regardless of the device.

Enjoy and Happy New Year!

Exporting Sprite Sheets From Flash

The concept/use of sprite sheets in the gaming industry is such a common technique.  It is a technique that cannot be left out of your nifty toolbox.  At the most recent  Flash on the Beach, Adobe demoed an exciting new feature that allows you to export sprite sheets from your library MovieClips. This will be extremely useful for game developers and for anyone doing mobile development.

Check out this sneak peek video create by Lee Brimelow on export sprite sheets from a future release of Flash.

Stage3D Cover Flow

The magic of Stage3D appears to be an ongoing affair throughout the Flash community.  The most recent sighting is a cover flow created using Alternativa3D and Stage3D.  The performance on this guy is awesome!

Check it out for yourself.

Adobe Flash “Speed” Feature

Here’s a quick tutorial on how to use the “Speed” feature in Adobe Flash. If you use the Bone tool (Inverse Kinematics) you may find this hidden gem useful.  Enjoy!

Reach the Final Frontier with Circ and Flash Builder

Circ, available for Android, BlackBerry Tablet OS and iOS, is so simple in its gameplay but challenging at the same time—players navigate their spaceships collecting stars and points, while escaping from planets and stars trying to pull the ship away from its course.

It’s the kind of game that’s perfect for passing the time between train stops or even just for a quiet few minutes at home. Learn more!

Check out the official trailer!

Let your creativity run wild with Adobe’s new line of touch apps! 
Check out this commercial-esque video showcasing Adobe’s line of touch apps and its integration with the new Adobe Creative Cloud.

Further Readings

• Adobe: We’ve got the Touch for tablets
• Adobe reveals Creative Cloud, links Touch Apps to Creative Suite with 20GB storage
• Adobe announces six Touch tablet apps

It is always great to nice to witness a small idea turn into something so much bigger.  Check out this video by the Flash Player team on how MoleHill (Stage3D) came about. Enjoy!

What is “Molehill”?

“Molehill” is the codename for a new set of low-level, GPU-accelerated 3D APIs, Stage3D APIs, that will provide the power needed for delivering advanced 3D experiences across screens using Flash Player and AIR. These new low-level APIs are targeted to experienced 2D and 3D engine developers, delivering a flexible API that leverages GPU hardware acceleration for significant performance gains.

The day that many Flash Developers/Designers have been waiting for is finally approaching.  Well…not quite exactly.  Earlier this week at Adobe Max 2009, Adobe provided a sneek-peek to some of the new features that Flash CS5 will be shipping with.  The one feature that is getting many excited(and for good reason) is the ability to export your Flash applications into Apple iPhone applications.

Export to iPhone

Flash Professional CS5 will allow you to set your publish settings to “iPhone”. This will compile your movie as a native iPhone application that can be submitted to the Apple AppStore.

A New Door Has Opened

This opens a whole new door for Flash Developers/Designers. The ability to get your content displayed to an already trendmously large iPhone user base.  Hey, if this is the compromise of not having a Flash Player based within Safari on the iPhone, then I can definitely live with that.  Quite honestly, this might turn out to be even a better solution.

Additonal New Features Shipping With Flash CS5

Along with being able to create iPhone applications, Flash CS5 provides some other sorely needed features like:

• Improved ActionScript editor
• Code Snippets panel
• Flash Builder integration
• XML based FLA files

Resources:

Article: Developing for the Apple iPhone using Flash

Aditya Bansodof of Adobe breaks down how this all came about.  He gives a breakdown on the technology behind this conversion and how to go about creating/submitting a Flash generated iPhone application.

Video: Building Applications For iPhone With Flash Professional CS5

Learn how Adobe is working to bring Adobe technologies out of the desktop and onto a the iPhone. Learn how Flash Professional and the Flash platform will add capabilities to help developers iPhone enable, test, and publish their content.

Current Flash Apps Already Available via the Apple App Store

Loving the hype!  You can already check out a handful of Flash generated iPhone applications via the Apple App Store.  The list of Applications include Chroma Circuit, Trading Stuff, Fickleblox, Just Letters, South Park, That Roach Game, and Red Hood. Enjoy!

For more additional resources and an update on release of Flash CS5, check out Flash CS5 on Adobe Labs.  Also, Flash CS5 beta is expected to be released prior to year’s end so be sure to sign up to get notified when that does happen.

Adobe TV gets a long awaited redesign that I am sure all users will come to love and appreciate.  While the original Adobe TV got the job done, it simply was not up to par in comparison to other popular video sharing sites.  I personally feel these new features add so much more value to Adobe TV.  It now feels more natural of an experience.

New Features Added to Adobe TV are:

• Loading speeds vastly improved
• Easier/faster search capabilities
• Customizable home pages
• Save your favorite videos to a personal library
• Post videos directly to your favorite social network

Video: Adobe TV Wasn’t Built in a Day

Check out this video and let the Adobe ones break down these new feature upgrades.  Also, don’t forget to visit Adobe TV to experience these new features yourself.

With Adobe Max 2009 slowly approaching, there is nothing like a little promotional humor.  With all the personalities in the industry, it is always nice to catch them in a moment of humor.  Check out this promotional Adobe Max video starring Lee Brimelow, Phillip Kerman and the PR guy.  Funny!

“FluidHtml is a text-based markup language (like HTML) that lets you dynamically generate Flash  content. This is an extraordinarily powerful idea.  It means that anyone can build highly animated websites, ads, media players and 3D animations quickly and easily.”

FluidHTML looks to be an innovative concept and may address current issues related to Flash content on the web.  However, I believe web designers/developers who currently use HTML/CSS might find this much more attractive than Flash designers/developers.

I really like the concept of offering an extensible API and opening it up to developers, but is this going to be a viable markup language 5 years from now or is it just a phase.  As ActionScript libraries that support browser-like functionality improve and as Google and Yahoo’s search engine’s begin to recognize the text within Flash files, does FluidHTML really fix anything that isn’t already steadily improving.

I believe FluidHTML does have potential however, I am not sure if Flash designers/developers will buy into the concept.  Check out the introductory video below on FluidHTML.  I’d love to hear how you guys feel about FluidHTML after viewing the video.  Would you consider using it?

Struggling to get our foot off the ground with getting more intimate with ActionScript 3.0?

Doug Winnie has kicked off a series, ActionScript 1:1, which is designed for animators and designers using Flash CS4 who want to take their work to the next level but need some guidance adding custom interactivity using ActionScript 3.0.

These videos are aimed at Flash Designers looking to strengthen their knowledge of ActionScript 3.0.  We all have to start somewhere when learning to use ActionScript 3.0 and this series is great way to get that train moving along.

Below are all the episodes in the series.  You can also find Doug’s videos as a channel on Adobe TV and iTunes.  Enjoy!

Welcome to ActionScript 3

Doug Winnie gives an overview of his new series in which you will learn the fundamentals of ActionScript 3.0. Get up and running in Flash Professional using ActionScript 3.0.

Working with the Actions Panel

Understand how to use the Actions panel and use the trace statement. Doug Winnie walks you through the code to control objects created in Flash.

Accessing Object Parameters

Doug Winnie demonstrates how to access properties of an object such as size and location by using instance properties with ActionScript, sending messages to the output console.

Changing Object Parameters

In order to manipulate objects, Doug Winnie uses the assignment operator in ActionScript 3.0 to instantaneously overwrite values initially assigned in Flash.

Exploring Named Library Assets

Dive deeper with the Library panel and learn more about how to name instances on the stage, and how to use the Linkage panel to name objects in the Library panel.

Adding Named Objects to the Stage

In this video, Doug Winnie teaches you how to use ActionScript to dynamically add objects to the stage using code and the DisplayStack.

Working with Comments

You can use comments to document your ActionScript code for other Developers to use. Doug’s tutorial sums up the benefit of building up good coding practices.

Fundamentals of Functions

Doug Winnie provides an introduction to functions and explains how to efficiently use them in ActionScript by grouping commonly used tasks together as a named function.

Accepting Values in Functions

Doug continues his tutorial on how to efficiently use functions with ActionScript. With functions you can customize their functionality by assigning parameters and values.

Returning Values from Functions

Doug Winnie wraps up his lesson on functions by explaining how to retrieve results for the output panel with the return statement.

Mathematical Operators

Doug Winnie teaches the basics of calculating mathematical operations in ActionScript code, including commonly used shortcuts to save coding time.

Order of Mathematical Operations

In this video, Doug Winnie reviews how Flash calculates math based on a specific order of operations.

Events and MouseEvent Handlers

Discover the power of events and how you can quickly and easily build event handlers. In this episode, Doug covers how to use events to build interactivity with the mouse.

Create a Timer

Using your advanced knowledge of ActionScript, Doug Winnie walks you through on how to combine time events with event listeners to create and control time-based events.

Create a Clock

See Doug build a clock in Flash using ActionScript to manipulate objects’ properties and add mouse and timer events. Everything you’ve learned from his tutorials is combined into one project.

Over the years, the Flash Player has received such a bad rep for hogging computer system resources even while displaying static content. There were many times in which I would wonder “What the heck is Flash processing?”. As for Flash Developers/Designers, there was only so much we can do to optimize the SWF via runtime. That was then, this is now! In Lee’s latest video tutorial, he demonstrates how you can dynamically change your movie’s framerate to use only the resources it needs.

With its introduction in AS3, you can dynamically change the framerate of your SWF movie. In an earlier tutorial, I demonstrated how you can change the framerate of your SWF and how it will effect a frame by frame animation.

By leveraging the ability to dynamically change the framerate of your SWF, it will allow you to take advantage of idle moments in your Flash applications by changing the the framerate based on the content being displayed. It’s a simple, yet great concept.

Check out Lee’s video, SWF Framerate Optimization, to learn more on how to implement such a concept. Enjoy!