Articles by Tom Green

Mixing Flash and After Effects

Sat, 02 Jun 2007 17:45:00 EDT

We are going to introduce you to an effect that's a lot of fun to use. Items on the Flash stage are rarely static. Things move around, menus pull down, and so on. The line between what is Flash and what is video on the Flash stage has, for all intents and purposes, been erased. It makes sense, therefore, that when planning a Flash/After Effects project, that the stuff that moves, in either app, should be indistinguishable as to its source.

Captured by Captivate

Wed, 02 Nov 2005 13:00:00 EST

As an educator with a post-secondary institution I have had something of a ringside seat watching the evolution of e-Learning. My biggest complaint was that, in general, most institutions getting into the game just 'didn't get it.' Their approach to the process was to create what I called 'digital in-baskets' where the student completed the work and sent it in as an e-mail attachment. How they could regard this process as 'distance learning' or the 'digital classroom' was a mystery to me. One institution proudly walked me through their 'digital in-basket' and was quite upset when I suggested they could save themselves some serious infrastructure dollars by replacing the program with something more efficient: envelopes and stamps.

MAX 2005 – Macromedia Flash Video For The Masses

Tue, 18 Oct 2005 11:45:00 EDT

When I first published my observation that 'QuickTime is dead' in this publication, I never expected the response that article would garner. It ranged from, 'Dude, you are sooo wrong!' to 'Finally, we are free.' Earlier this year, Macromedia, as is so typical of the company, quietly dropped the 'Macromedia Video Kit' on the developer community and suddenly, video was available to practically everybody who designed Web sites.

Flash 8 Professional

Fri, 19 Aug 2005 15:00:00 EDT

About a year ago, I had a long chat with Mike Downey, the Flash Product Manager, regarding the launch of Flash MX Professional 2004. Mike was still stinging from much of the criticism related to the that launch, and the gist of the conversation was 'never again.' He was adamant that if Flash gets shipped, it will ship when it is ready and only then.

Captivate Primer

Wed, 15 Jun 2005 11:00:00 EDT

Now that Captivate has been on the street for a few months and I have been out there 'yacking it up,' the product has moved from novelty to production tool in rather short order. Once that happens, there are the subsequent, 'How do I...?' questions that inevitably crop up. This article deals with a five of the more common ones that I have encountered and shows you how to deal with them.

Captured by Captivate

Thu, 18 Nov 2004 00:00:00 EST

Fireworks Flash Buttons in a Flash

Wed, 08 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EDT

It ever ceases to amaze me, whenever I am speaking at a conference or hanging out with the 'Flashies' at various user groups, to hear them tell me how they create their really 'cool' buttons in that behemoth from a company named after a building material. When I ask them if they have the Studio, the answer is an inevitable: 'Well 'duh,' of course I do!'

Freaks & Geeks

Thu, 17 Jun 2004 00:00:00 EDT

The great thing about being a 'Freak' and working with a 'Geek' is not having to concern yourself with the nitty-gritty details of coding a dynamic site. The bad thing is that you will get involved with the nitty gritty details whether you like it or not.

Freaks and Geeks Unite Part 1

Wed, 07 Apr 2004 00:00:00 EDT

This past summer I decided that my courseware site needed a complete overhaul. It was, in fact, a bit of an embarrassment. As a teacher, writer, and lecturer I had been sticking my courseware and lectures notes up on a site that was designed more for convenience than anything else.

Web Typography

Mon, 02 Feb 2004 00:00:00 EST

I love oxymorons - phrases whose words, when placed beside each other, don't make much sense because they contradict each other. One classic, 'military intelligence' got a lot of play in M*A*S*H and Catch 22. My all-time Web development favorite is 'Web Typography.' Typography simply does not exist on the Web. Type? Yes. Typography? No.

Streaming Rich Media with MX

Mon, 05 Jan 2004 00:00:00 EST

Could it be that we're about to see the disappearance of QuickTime, Windows Media Player, and RealOne as viable Web players for streaming video and audio? Now that I have your attention, this question is not as radical as it appears at first glance.

Vector Vortex

Mon, 17 Nov 2003 00:00:00 EST

Macromedia Studio MX includes a number of relatively unheralded gems. Perhaps it's because Macromedia hasn't hyped these features enough, or maybe users spend so much time focusing on a particular tool that they have simply overlooked or ignored how the other pieces of Studio MX actually work with each other. A great example of this is the stepchild of Studio MX: FreeHand MX.