When back in early June, during a one-on-one briefing, I asked Kevin Lynch, Macromedia's chief software architect, what made Flash Professional 8 so completely different from any other version that had come before it, he answered that with 8, Macromedia had "turned our animation tool into a complete Web application tool." He also noted that it would blow away everyone who saw it the moment it was released, because thanks to Flash Player 8 we would all soon be able "to take video on the web to the next level" by bringing 8-bit alpha channel video, a powerful new video codec, and advanced video encoding options.

Kevin was kind enough to demo for me there and then the revolutionary new alpha channel support with its unique ability to overlay video composited with a transparent alpha channel over any other Flash content. Sure enough, it was mind-blowing. I had never seen anything comparable, in terms of ease of use or visual originality.

What he said about Flash Professional 8 applies many times over to Studio 8 as a whole - which in this Special Issue MXDJ's team of dedicated editors, together with the key Macromedia executives behind the release, has pleasure in presenting to you in all its multiple, interlocking, highly integrated facets.

Many Macromedia developers have already found themselves no longer exclusively working with Flash, but also with for example Flex and Flash Lite, and have accordingly already begun experiencing a new view of what Macromedia now calls the Flash Platform. With Studio 8 that process will be spread from "many" to "all" - because there is truly no excuse now not to start using this expressive new toolset to create the kind of truly sophisticated interactive content that simply hasn't - until now - been possible.

From the feature-rich Flash Player 8 through to the Flash 8 and Flash Professional 8 authoring tool itself, from the "hugely updated" Dreamweaver 8 and Fireworks 8 to FlashPaper 2 and Contribute 3, what Macromedia has done is to marry powerful new productivity tools (to address the need to streamline web content management and maintenance) with its expanded, updated software suite - with its many powerful and useful new features, capabilities, and performance optimizations.

Macromedia is really excited to put this product into the hands of you, its users, and see what you will do with it. This issue is dedicated to helping with that process by giving you a one-stop reference guide, here and now, to every aspect of Studio 8.

The editorial board of MXDJ has no doubt that Studio 8 will be able to help web designers and developers to explore new ground and push their creative limits. Best of all, we see that Studio 8 is as much aimed at helping those involved in design, development, and production to address today's problems as it is at offering them new functionality to help them build skills for tomorrow so they can do things they've never done before. It's a double whammy, and a mighty attractive one!

As MXDJ's own Charles Brown says in his introductory article giving an overview of Studio 8: "I am not easily 'wowed'... but this package did it. If you thought the jump from MX to MX 2004 was a major leap, Studio 8 multiplies that by 10."

Read on then, and see if you agree with Charles. Certainly, after reading this issue, Studio 8 will belong to you all the more easily - quite literally, in fact, if you choose to participate in our "Studio Hall of Fame" vote and happen to be one of the winners in our drawing. For details of that, see pages 53-55.

Enjoy!