This started out as a demo for the depth-of-field sprite object, but quickly metamorphosed into something involving blendmodes, bitmap sessions, marbles…

With the tiled atoms in the background, strictly speaking the dof shouldn’t be apparent at all, but i do suffer from tweak obsession, so probably best to leave it. I may do another demo soon to illustrate the DofSprite2D object in more detail. For now, enjoy! Although please don’t stare at the background too long - might do irreversible psychological damage. As usual, sources can be accessed using the right-click menu or from here.

Here Mike Downey presented a ton of new web possibilities using the Adobe AIR runtime - hence the keynote strapline: “The long arm of the web”. Sounds like a mix between a Tim O’Reilly soundbite and a totallitarian government mantra…

Happily the content was less opressive and more inspired than the strapline suggests! A few interesting facts about the AIR runtime were noted:

• Uses Webkit - the HTML engine that drives Safari.
• Includes a Javascript - Flash bridge for easier integration between technologies.
• Includes SQL Lite for database communication.
• Inbuilt remote application updater - allowing seamless upgrading for new releases of created apps.
• Background runtime doesn’t require GUI - allowing AIR apps to be created for background processes.

There was a selection of example AIR apps showcased:

• Acrobat.com for file sharing - a new online filesharing platform that can be downloaded as an AIR implementation.
• E-Bay widget - can monitor bidding progress on an active item, notify participants when their bid is exceeded and allow new bids to be placed.
• Finetune - A music player combining local desktop music with online music from the Finetune database
• Google Analytics - offers more visualization options, and data exports for excel spreadsheets etc.

Finally a few options were shown for the creation of AIR applications. Currently two methods exist:

• Using the AIR export option in the Flash CS3 update
• Using the AIR project option in Flexbuider3 (including a new components folder containing Flex components created specifically for AIR)

There was also mention of a 3rd export option in Dreamweaver, allowing HTML to be published directly to AIR, although it wasn’t clear whether this was an available release or something coming soon.

Next week I’ll be landing in Sydney to give a presentation and a workshop session all about web 3d. The workshop on the 11th will be focussing on how the Flash player can be used as a 3d engine using Papervision and Away3d, while the session on the 13th takes a broader look at how 3d on the web has progressed since the inception of VRML in 1994. While some of the old applications verged on 3d abuse, the present possibilities in Flash offer a way of marrying rich media design with simple, effective 3d UI’s that could be considered a step forward in web evolution.

I’m not looking forward to the flights, but I am certainly looking forward to the event! See you at the barbie