Archive for category Personal
Mitsubishi Live Drive
Oh yeah, get it while it’s hot and live. Mistubishi Live Drive: drive a real car over the internet using your keyboard. Pretty impressive project if you ask me. My part in it was pretty small but the team here at B-Reel did an amazing job. It might not look like it but there is a lot going on in the back, hardware wise and server wise. Anyway go see for yourself and be one of the first to drive a real car through the internet. http://drive.outlandersport.com
Now that this is done, what comes next? A real race where the real cars are controlled by users? An helicopter test flight? The possibilities are endless!
Visualizing the FWA
Going to the gym makes me want to write. Kinda weird, but kinda makes sense too; tire the body to let the mind flow. Anyway, I have been having this idea for a little while: The FWA has a great load of data but the only available visualization of it is in the profile section where you see the all time list of the agencies that won the most FWA. I mean there could be so many other interesting ways of displaying the data.
I came to think about this because, some of you might know, six months ago I started working at B-Reel NY. At the time that I was looking for a new job, my main benchmark was exactly this profile page; I wanted to work in one of the best agency (or production company) in the world. I think that at the time, B-Reel was 7th or something, just below 2Advanced Studios. Now you see I have nothing against 2Advanced Studios, I think they were amazing in their time and I remember being baffled by their hi-tech interfaces, but I don’t think they are still leaders in the rich experience website area. I mean they won an FWA in 2009 and the one before that is in 2007.
I know that the FWAs are not the end-all be-all metric to determine if an agency is good or not, but for me, as a developer, it sure was my main metric, and it is pretty accessible.
So, what I am proposing is that someone build a data visualization application that would enable the user to create different graphs based on the metrics that are currently being saved in the FWA databases.
These metrics are:
- Year
- Agency
- Town or country
- Client (not in the database but can be deduced)
- Front-end Technology (not in the database but can be deduced)
There is a lot of information that you can get out of these metrics; it would be interesting to see which agency was the best in 2009 or 2010, it would be interesting to know which country was the best at a certain year, it would be interesting to notice the rise of HTML5 in 2010, it could be really nice to know which client you can push more because they accepted crazy ideas before.
How to do this? Well the simplest way would be to pay an intern to recreate a database for you by going by hand and redoing the data entry of all the FWAs won. You could also do a script that will scrape the data from the current site, I mean there is an html page under the Flash site. Hell, you could ask Rob Ford himself, I am pretty sure he would willing to give more exposure to the FWA and would give you access to the data (well maybe, I mean, I never talked to the guy).
So, am I ever gonna do this? Nah, I have no time. Would I be happy if someone did it? Hell yeah! It would show the world that I currently work for the best rich web experience production company in the world (haha, yeah I am a bit biased in all this). So here you go, a good idea, go ahead and do it! Please…
I invented a new art form!
Ok maybe not, but I got this idea while traveling in the train in Europe. This has nothing to do with Flash, but still I thought it was a pretty cool idea and I wanted to put it out there. The idea came from two fairly new technologies and mixing them together. What it would result is some kind of sculpture/performance art form. It could look very similar to this ad from Apple ( keep the painting of 3D strokes in mind):
The first technology that would be needed would be motion capture. So nothing really new here; motion capture has been fairly well mastered. It would be used to record the movements of a performer be it a dancer or an acrobat. I was thinking of mostly recording the movements of each fingers, because the hand is what we humans have most controls over.
The second technology would be augmented reality. So you got this room in a museum or anywhere and when people get in it they receive the augmented reality glasses. What is added to the user’s vision is the 3D strokes that the performer would have recorded with the motion capture. So as the user moves around the room he can explore the 3D light sculpture ( because the computer knows the position and inclination of the user’s glasses he can display the right part of the 3D structure). Also the sculpture could be animated showing it as it is being created (since it was recorded it is just a matter of playing it). Now augmented reality is not that perfect yet, I am not sure that the glasses could send precise enough location of the user to have a seamless experience but I think that soon we could have something that is close enough.
So there you have it, this is basically painting in the air, in 3D. My idea of brush was exactly like what was in the Apple commercial, but you could have as many brushes has you want since it is basically the 3D program that creates them over the motion capture. I think a lot of artists would be really inspired by this as it removes the need for a tool (pen or brush) because you would use your body directly to express yourself.
Do you guys think this idea is worth anything?
An FWA and no posts
Yeah, things have been different lately. I haven’t been able to write as much as I wanted. Multiple reasons for that; I have been going back to Montreal some week-ends, I went to Lollapalooza (and it was awesome) and the work load is a bit bigger here. But it’s worth it. I mean the projects I get to work on are amazing.
Just as an example my first project Google Chrome Fastball was pretty cool, plus it won an FWA, a first for me and I am pretty happy about it. Now I just need to win one for a Flash project… Anyway, by the end of the month, I will be done with the current project, so I will have that to show, and after that I really want to focus more on this blog and get back on the one post a week horse.
More on my current project soon.
The finishing switch
Sometimes I get some ideas that are not that much tied to code, but are more about the process of developing website. I still think this is relevant to this blog so that is why I will post them here.
Context
Ad agency or a business where deadlines are tight and project are from 1 month to 2 months long
Problem
When a project is long enough and the pressure is high, the developer (the last worker at the end of the chain) can’t stand looking at his work anymore, gets tired and unmotivated. This is not good for the project and for the individual as he is not happy.
Possible solutions
Here his my idea: if you could start two projects of about the same timeline at the same time, then at some point in time during the projects (about at 75%), you switch the developers from one project to the other. You would probably loose some time because the new developer would need to get accustomed to the new project, but in return you would inject some new energy in the project. The new developer would probably think more about the project than the previous one who would be demotivated and not caring as much anymore.
Why do this on 2 projects at the same time? Because finishing a project is probably not the best part. If you do a switch, both developers would have started and finished a project so it would be fair for every one. Now, there might not always be 2 projects at the same time of about the same length, so one of my coworkers suggested that you could have this floating finisher developer, that for a little while only finishes projects and after that get puts back into the loop of starting projects. Another possibility would be to hire freelancers to help finish a project, in that case I wouldn’t let the freelancer alone, but it would still instill new energy.
For the 2 options where you are doing this in house, you pretty much need your developers to be very close, code in a similar manner and respect each other (coding knowing that someone else will use your code) so I don’t think this could happen everywhere, but I think the culture of your company should push towards a strong developer fraternity, anyway.
What do you guys think? Is this possible? Would you see this happening in your company? Is this how you would fix this problem?
I am Flash Developer
This isn’t the next article I wanted to write but it was on my list since Flash In The Can Toronto (2010). It comes from all the talks surrounding the refusal from Apple to let Flash on the iPad ( i guess we can just say iOs now). During that period a lot off people (including me) where uncertain about their future. I mean when someone as powerful as Steve Jobs tells you that your job shouldn’t exist, you think about it twice. Out of the turmoil that ensued, some voices touched me more than others. What they were saying is that they, as developers, weren’t tied to a technology and that if Flash was to disappear tomorrow, they would still have a job. That got me to think. A lot. The next thing that affected me was something I heard at FITC concerning designers. How they don’t call themselves ’Photoshop Designers’ or ‘Corel Draw Designer’ (I tried to think of another product than Adobe but just could come up with Corel Draw (who uses that anyway), but you get the idea). I think this follows a bit the same vibe as the comments from the Flash dudes.
All of this feed my reflexions, I mean I have tried a lot of technologies (all things in perspective, I am still at the start of my career, so I humbly say so). I have tried Java, PHP, MySQL, C, Flash, ActionScript 2 and 3, HTML/JavaScript/Css, Ajax, Asp, C#, Python. And you know what? There is nothing I like better than doing ActionScript 3. I mean the tools help a lot; FDT (yes I said it, I now like FDT) or FlashDevelop for code and Flash CS5 for visual assets. I like the workflow, I like making PSDs alive, I really like using TweenLite to make stuff move, I like figuring out how to build my applications so that they minimize load time and CPU usage (I also like maximizing CPU but don’t tell HTML5 fanatics, they know jack shit about pushing limits, yet, but they will know what I mean when they taste it, which will happen for sure). All of that I can’t get from any other technology to the extent that Flash does it right now.
It’s been 2 months that I am at B-Reel right now. I really love it, but the project that I am doing right now mostly doesn’t involve Flash ( I managed to stick a bit of Robotlegs in there) and is mainly Javascript/Html/Css. I really look forward to doing a Flash project. I really don’t want to do html ever again. I don’t have fun doing it (well I am just speaking about the technology, the project itself is amazing). Also, I feel the world of Flash is so deep and there is so much you can do to get better that if you learn all of the other technologies you can never get truly as good on the Flash Platform as one could be. For all of these reasons, that is why I am Flash Developer, that is my title and I am not ashamed or feel diminished by it. It really defines me.
With that being said, it gives me security. I think I am not alone in this situation. I think Flash gives a mean to express themselves to a lot of people and because of that, you can be sure that these people will produce tons of cool shit with it. And other people will want to see that cool shit. That gives a reason for Flash to be. Someday there will be Flash on the iOs. You can be sure of that (I mean Steve Jobs has an expiration date, right?)
Realisation from Flash and the City
First, I want to say that Flash and the City was a very well organized conference. Sure it isn’t as perfect as FITC (I know it does no justice to compare a 10 years old conference to a new one, but it’s the only other conference I have been to) but it was nonetheless amazing for a first year and we have Elad Elrom and his team to thank for that.
Flash and the City
What I think they can improve on next year is the venue; the 3 legged dog was too small to hold this kind of event. I would suggest changing for a new place. What I really liked: that the speakers where different from the speakers on the other conferences roasters (seems like it’s all the same people speaking from conferences to conferences) so I got to see people I had not seen yet.
The realisation
I consider myself a developer and FATC was really more aimed towards developers, so I should have been very happy there. The thing is, I wasn’t; it didn’t have the same impact as FITC did on me, which is weird. I don’t know, maybe it is because I follow a lot what is happening in the Flash community and I am well informed on the new possibilities the platform has technically. Because of that, the presentations didn’t marvel me as much as a creative presentations where everything is mostly new. Maybe I am not so much a developer after all.
Best of show
Anyway there was still some presentations that I found really amazing. The best one that I saw really was Gaia Flash Framework by Jesse Warden. He spoke about using Gaia and Robotlegs together. I mostly knew what he was speaking about but it still was awesome. I wish I could see it again in slow motion because there are so many words that come out of Jesse’s mouth. What is the major point of interest is Jesse’s views on the industry and the way he express them. If you get the chance to see him speak don’t miss it. Well, he started doing some video capsules, so you should go watch those. I used to make the new guys watch them when they had nothing to do (when is the next one coming out Mr Warden? I want more!). Aside from this Jesse, it was also good to see that Jesse Freeman is a very well spoken, nice , intelligent and professional dude. It clashes from his Twitter personality where all he does is wine about Adobe (well he seems to like Adobe now that he is working with Flash on Android). I really enjoy his articles on InsideRIA but sometimes I want to unfollow him on Twitter because all his bitchin is impacting on my moral. It was nice to see him in person, it gives me a new (good) perspective on the guy. Also another interesting thing I learned was that searching for Flash Bum (Jesse’s username on Twitter is theflashbum) on Google images yields unexpected results.
All in all it was a great week-end, I wish good luck to the Flash and the City team for next year.
FITC Toronto 2010 Recap
Ya what happens when I drink coffee at 3 in the afternoon? Well yeah, I can’t sleep; so at least I will do something positive with my time. FITC Toronto 2010 ended last week and I was pretty busy there as I was covering the conference for Applied Arts. I wrote 3 summaries for them (1, 2, 3) but these were mostly just recaps. What I want to do here is to write what I got out of this year festival.
Flash In The Can
Storytelling and the attention to details
One thing that stood out was the importance of storytelling. From North Kingdom putting stories even in their preloaders to Alex McDowell that writes an entire biography for a house in Fight Club, storytelling should be at the hearth of everything we do. Which bring me to the other point: attention to details. No elements in a production should be there for nothing, everything should have a purpose, a story. At no point in a project should you start rounding corners, if you do, it will show up in the finished product. It is hard when you are working on it, but you should keep this in mind, stay focused.
Making your tools
There was supposed to be a presentation by the president of firstborn Dan LaCivita, but unfortunately he couldn’t make it to the conference. So instead we got Mathieu Badimon (creator of FIVe3D) and Eric Decker showing how, when they encountered repetitive tasks in projects, they would build tools to help them. That advantages for doing this are pretty obvious; if the client wants to change something, you just make the change in the tool and reexport the data, plus you learn a ton while building the tool. These tools ranged from handwriting animation font creators to character path tools. Those tools where amazing and we saw that they reused some parts from tool to tool (like path drawing). This was a common thing through out the conference. People were making tools that would export them usable assets for the Flash projects. So I thought this isn’t a bad idea, the next time I encounter a problem that has repetitive task to it, instead of solving it by brute force, I am going to build a tool for it.
Best of show
I couldn’t do a recap without speaking about the best presentations I have seen. Jason Theodor and is talk about Creativity and Chaos was really inspiring and was the best I have seen this year. He generously gives his slides on slideshare, so I suggest you see them, it won’t be as good as seeing him talk but it is still pretty good. Jared Ficklin also gave a great presentation; he is a great entertainer and his curiosity is contagious. Finally I really enjoyed the Brendan Dawes’ talk about the grammar of interaction design.
A little extra
Last year I stopped by the booth of the creative group and took a leaflet to be well surprised by the quality of it. The best part of it was that it was a salary guide and it covered most of the employes of a digital agency. So this year, I went to the booth wanting my updated salary guide for 2010 and it took the form of a calendar. While browsing through it, I saw that they went a step further this year by making an online tool (click salary calculator on the right) where you can enter your fonction and where you live and it will give you a salary range. I think this is pretty awesome and very useful. I just moved to New York from Montreal and had no idea a all what salary I should ask; I would have killed to have this tool like at that moment. So now you know, go check if you are paid enough.
It was the third year that I went to that conference and as the last years I came back from it fully motivated and with plenty of new ideas for blog post. Stay tuned for more
My article about FITC day one on Applied Arts
Hey, this is just to tell you that I will be doing recap of the Flash In The Can conference on Applied Arts. Here is my recap for day number one, there is going to be one for day 2 and 3 also; I’ll keep a general recap for my blog. Also, wish me luck for tomorrow for I am in nomination for Best Canadian Developer Website for this blog and I really want to win (well it would be awesome). Good night!
My FITC 2010 Schedule
Yeah a lot of good news lately. I started to work for B-Reel as of today, but because of that I was unsure I could go to FITC. Today, the nominations for the FITC Awards have been revealed and I am nominated in the category Best Canadian Developer Website!!! So I asked my new boss if it could be arranged that I go to the festival and he said yes, now I got two reasons to be super happy.
Anyway like I did for the last two years I am going to write down what I wanna go see:
Sunday April 25
- Set your Code on Fire
- The Importance of Whiskey While Working (and other work flow tips, too!)
- From Solo to CEO – Managing Growth – Panel
- Adobe Keynote
- North Kingdom: An Inside View (saw that one already)
Monday April 26
- Analog Designer in a Digital World
- Creativity and Chaos
- UnitZeroOne: Skunkworks (here I am divided but Ralph is so good)
- Whats New with Flash Professional
- Terraforming Narrative
- The Grammar of Interaction Design
Tuesday April 27
- Flex Data Binding Pitfalls 10 Common Misuse Mistakes ( I wanna see Elad Elrom)
- The Cool Shit Hour
- Quick as a Flash ( Grant Skinner FTW)
- Sixteen Colours ( I wanna see Peter speak too)
- Eyes Can Hear, 5 ways (missed his session last year)
- It Has To Be This
Well, I’m not saying I’ll stick to this, but this is what I’ll consider when I look again.
