TweenMax is an excellent utility for animation in Actionscript. You have the choice between “TweenLite” & “TweenMax”, depending on what kind of features your project requires… The former option is for those projects that require the bare minimum functionality of a tweening platform, while the latter is loaded with a ridiculous amount of tools that give you the power to take over the world (or at least the internet) with jaw dropping effects. (more…)

I’ve recently decided to embark on the challenge of connecting Flash applications to a database. The initial obstacle: I hate dealing with databases and I do not speak mysql. (more…)

I received an interesting email last night about a web based CMS for XML driven Flash websites, I thought I’d share it with our dear readers!

James McNess recently released a lite Flash CMS called Rainbow Live, and was hoping it’s relevant to readers of our blog. James says he would love the chance to get the word out as he thinks Rainbow is a really great way to quickly and easily add CMS functionality to Flash files that use external XML, it fills the niche between heavy database driven CMS and XML editor. So if you are interested, read more about Rainbow.

We have developed countlessed Content Management Systems (CMS) for Flash driven websites, using XML technologies. And the funny part of the story is that a few hours before I received the email, I was talking with Richard about a somewhat similar idea – the possibility of creating a full blown CMS on the fly, simply based on XML files.

Here at Noam Design our flash developers typically use Actionscript animation over timeline tweens. The advantage to that is significantly smaller file sizes and smoother, more stable movements. For most developers, it is much easier to deal with your motion in terms of time rather than in frame. Also, when a client requests a change, editing a small snippet of code is far quicker than attempting to adjust the objects on your timeline (especially when you’re dealing with many objects on the stage). (more…)