Sti Media: The Source

Docs... hate 'em but need 'em.. here comes Captivate to the rescue maybe?

I'd have to say honestly that I dread doing docs for the work we do. Help docs, demo docs, tutorials aren't so bad really.. but when I hear the word docs I get this uncontrollable feeling inside to ... sleep, or go surf the net or something else other than create them.

We recently had a project to build a slightly complex component with FMX2004 and the client required documents for it. Usage, overview etc.. I didn't have the job of writing them from scratch (thank god) but I did have to translate them over to Japanese and then get them into the Flash help panel. Even though it's not really the meat of the job it's most definitely one of the most uninteresting and seems to take the longest.. not sure why.. it's all relative I guess.

Another project that we have going is a support application that runs off of FCS and it required an up-to-dating of the demos.. damn.. that's my job now.. so here goes I say. I'll finish it up all today.. (uh.. yeah.. right) - capture screen.. type some stuff, crop, put in shadow etc.. *sigh* ::start surfing engadget or something::

Lucky for me though I've got MM's new Captivate on my side and I decide to have a go at it even though I've got such a short time frame to work in. Funny thing about this.., here I was thinking that it would take me longer to get things together but in reality it took.. hmm.. I would say about 1/10th of the amount of time if I had gone to build them from scratch. I showed them around a bit and people were like "whoa dude.. you finished those in how much time??" Which is a bit of a cool feeling I guess :D

If you are curious as to how they turned out, here they are here:
View the administrator application here, and the representative application here. I'm pretty happy with them so far. Though do plan on changing up a few things to make them a bit more attractive to the eye.. template etc..

I don't have the hang of it all just yet, still learning but it's not hard and it's just a matter of practice and playing. I managed to get a bit of good advice from the Captivate product manager, Silke, which kinda made me look at things in a bit of a different light. So here's hoping that I'll continue to improve and I'll see about getting some more tutes up here with it. Not sure if I'll be as energetic as Jesse :D but let's see how it goes.

All I know now is that I didn't surf once while making those. If you haven't messed with Captivate yet, give it a shot. Suddenly making docs and e-learning material isn't so bad. (or that's what I think..)

Foma 901i with Flash Lite 1.1

NTT DoCoMo has announced the release of the 901i series of phones for their 3G FOMA service. The focus this time around seems to be on "3D" graphics and sound, but what I am most interetested in is the support for Flash Lite 1.1 (Which they are referring to as "Power-up Flash"..hehe). However, I will curb my enthusiasm until I find out if DoCoMo has managed to strip 1.1 of any of its useful features during their "port" of the player.

DoCoMo staggers the release of models in a series. The first is to hit the market here in Japan on December 1st.

Official 901i site (Japanese only)

English Press release

DVD to CD-ROM：FLV to the rescue!

Warning: This is a long post...so you might want to take the time to grab the beverage of your choice...

Overview

Last week I was working with a client who wanted to have a promotional DVD, which was created by another company, “converted” for distribution on CD-ROM. The DVD contained 5 promotional videos (chapters), plus short intro and exit titles, that formed a short story about the company’s B2B mobile services. They were to be distributed during events and the client wished to have a version for users who did not have a DVD drive. Each video was 3-5 minutes long, with the combined time being approx. 27 minutes.

NASA, we have a problem…

The initial project request was to convert the DVD menu to Flash and simply link it to QuickTime movies, one for each chapter. I really did not like this approach, as it seemed rather unsophisticated (I hate requiring the user to open up an external player for vid…). However, the timeframe for the project was pretty short and the budget was tight, so they shot down the all Flash idea when I brought it up, as I mentioned it could require additional time. The project had lost some of its appeal at this point, however it sounded simple enough, but a few issues came up after the client delivered the materials.

1. The first was that the DVD had a “loop” feature, which allowed the viewer to click a button and watch all 5 chapters in order. The only way this was going to happen with using external QuickTime files was to make one long video containing all the clips in order. When I brought this up they simply said the feature could be omitted from the CD. Easy enough solution…but I hate admitting defeat…after all, Flash can do anything….right?
2. The movie files were delivered on a DVD in QuickTime format (DV25 codec) and were 720x480 non square pixels. Each clip ranged from 600mb to 2 gigs. I didn’t consider this a problem, as it would just require some conversion; however the client specified that they desired videos to be 640x480 and still have a pretty clear picture and audio… After doing some conversion tests with multiple compression methods in Premiere, I quickly realized that this simply was not going to be feasible. I reduced the file dimensions a little, but he best result I would be able to get, while maintaining clear sound and a decent picture, was still going to be almost 2gig. Obviously not ideal for a 700mb cd-rom….. This combined with the fact that the client wanted to include the QuickTime installers for both Mac and PC was spelling disaster.

The Menu

If you do video conversion, you know it is not exactly a speedy process. From Premiere, one video was averaging 40min to an hour for full conversion. While I was doing the above mentioned compression tests, I went ahead and recreated the Chapter menu in Flash, using supplied PSD files. The original DVD menu was pretty boring. No animation to speak of, not even button rollovers. So, I setup the menu so that the title screen first played, displaying the name of the disk, and added some subtle rollover effects to the buttons. I also included an exit button that played the closing title sequence before quitting the presentation.

A solution and the pitch…

Once I had confirmed that the QuickTime approach was not going to work with the required specifications, I went ahead and did a test converting the shortest video to FLV, using Sorenson Squeeze 4. Up until this point, I had only really used FLV for online solutions, so I was not sure of the results I would get when converting for CD quality. Happily, the resulting file, at 640x480, was well under half the size of the same MOV (Only 30mb), and the picture and sound were still good, even when viewed fullscreen. The best part was the conversion process took far less time. 20-30min.

Armed with this information, I contacted the client to show them the menu and discuss an alternative method for video delivery. I once again suggested an all Flash solution in which the movies played within an FLV video player. But, this time around I had an example to show them. The “winning” points in swaying the clients decision were the following:

1. The end user did not need an external player application. This created less possible support issues, improved usability and increased chances the client would view the entire presentation.
2. The save in file size and not requiring the installers allowed the video and sound to be compressed at higher quality.
3. It was going to take less time to convert to FLV than it was QuickTime, which made-up for the extra development time in Flash.
4. The loop feature could be reinstated if using Flash.

With both sides happy, I went back and planned what changes needed to be made to the interface. I integrated the FLV player, added a “back” button to return to the menu and added the loop button to the menu, with t he necessary scripting (Detect what video was playing, if it was finished and which to load next).

Conversion to FLV and Sorenson Squeeze 4…Not totally smooth…

I would like to say converting everything to FLV was simple, but…..
We had previously documented the issue with Meta data. Below are some problems I experienced with Squeeze during the project.

1. Squeeze 4 is NOT Multilingual friendly. (Read: If you are not on an English OS, or one that only uses the roman alphabet, you could have problems).

   I had previously found that Squeeze would not successfully export if the path for the destination folder had any directories using 2byte characters (Japanese in this case) in the name. This time around I found that it will also not successfully import files from those directories as well. To make things worse, the error message you receive states that it failed because the file format was unsupported… You can imagine my frustration when this happened while attempting to import an MOV file that had been compressed using the Sorenson codec….

2. Initially my FLV files would not play at all. I was not a happy camper. With some more experimenting, I found that the problem went away if the Audio codec was changed from Fraunhofer MP3 to Uncompressed. Not a big issue for this project, as file size was a concern, but only if it REALLY bloated. I did manage to reduce the file size drastically by changing the Audio Channels to Mono instead of Stereo.

Once those two issues were worked out, it was smooth sailing. The batch conversion features of SS4 made the job a lot easier and, as I mentioned, it cut through the compression process in great time.

The Wrap up

You probably need a refill of your drink by now. Thanks to those of you who made it to this point.

After it was all said and done, the CD, with 5 FLV videos and projectors for both PC and MAC, the total file size came in at under 500mb, well short of the 700mb mark. I could have increased the video quality even more, but the clock was ticking and it was time to deliver. The client was extremely pleased with the final product. In fact, they preferred the menu and delivery of the CD version BETTER than the DVD, although the DVD still obviously had better video quality. All in all, the project was a great experience and solidly shows that, when file size is a concern, FLV is a great technology for offline video solutions as well.

An OT post about half life 2

Since everybody else seems to be posting about it I thought I'd post too :)

This game is absolutely insane. I have doom3 as well but it doesn't even compare to half life 2 in graphics or story. The one thing that irks me about doom is that everything is extremely dark and all you really have to do is make sure to shoot enough and you are through everything. I've found that in half life you actually have to think a bit on how to get around things or on to a new area. That part I really liked. Also the physics engine they put in it is amazing... but does get a bit weird when you're carrying around a big crate or something and it gets all wiggy on ya when something else is in the way.. at least it makes you drop it though.. I guess.

The sound is absolutely amazing too. I have 7.1 surround sound hooked up to my pc and all the sounds come from exactly where they should come from. Especially when people are talking and you turn around and stuff... Really makes me realize how important sound is to a game or application.

But the one thing that I need some help with is the motion sickness. I've seen some posters saying that they have played it to the end and I'm still getting through the canal!! I can't play the game for more than 2 hours a day, and sometimes the motion sickness carries on till the next day.. I don't generally get motion sickness at all really. On planes or trains or automobiles. Is it because the screen is big? 19" or graphics are set too big? 800x600. What causes it? and how can I stop it so I can actually play more?

Funny thing, and a quick note, I have found that playing games improves my application des/dev abilities. I'm sure others have already mentioned or thought this too but I definitely see quite a few areas in a game, mainly ideas or concepts, that I can carry into my apps. Study and have fun all in one :D

That's it, MAX Taiwan is over and it was great!

I'd like to quickly point out that MAX2004 China is not only the first for China, but it was organized by only 3 female macromedians who literally spent the last 2 weeks barely sleeping and to put it plainly, worked their asses off on this. I'd like to personally thank them on my blog for the great event that it was. Aida, Carol and Helen, you guys were excellent! I had a great time here, and it was truly a phenomenal experience that I won't forget.

I also met a lot of really cool people that I really look forward to keeping in touch with, and a lot of other macromedians that I had only heard of, or had talked in emails, and it was great to finally put a face to them. We managed to get out all together last night and tonight for chinese food which was a bit dodgy at times, but overall really great.

All in all my own 3 sessions went really well, especially my 2nd session that was packed. I really think that FCS will start to take off a bit more (than it already is) in Taiwan here now that it's been made a bit more aware of, and of what can be done with it. I found that everybody responded best when I started showing examples, and out of all of them the fridge magnet app built by Stefan got the most laughs. It was great :D

I'll try to stick some pics and video up when I get a free moment, as I've got some shifty video of a few of us doing some weird smoking in a bar/restaurant we went to ;)

I definitely had a lot of fun, and just want to say again, thanks to all that were involved.

ps. I'm posting this from the airport, they seem to have free wireless internet here, how incredibly convenient :D happy happy

2 sessions down and one to go

I've just finished up my second session on FCS here at MAX China and I have to say I am so glad it went so well. The audience was great, the environment was great, the helpers are extremely helpful and there were no problems at all. After all my worrying on whether the timing of my presentations would be right or too long or too short, both of them finished up exactly on time without me even looking at a clock. I found that there are a lot of people who don't know much about FCS here but there are a lot of interested people because my beginners session was full. There were a few people even standing, it was great. The other more advanced session had a bit less of a turnout which was a bit dissappointing but it's pretty understandable seeing how many actually turned out for the other one.

I'm sitting in Colin Moock's presentation right now and he's running his presentation (about multiuser apps) from his computer, but anybody can see it if they have a laptop and wireless connection. Which is really cool and I wish I thought of it because for the people who are sitting at the back. The screen isn't that big and it's a bit tough to read what's up there. A good idea to show the technology while explaining it.

The keynote was really cool, I'm assuming the presentation on Flash was the same thing they showed at the Tokyo MAX, so it was really neat to see the preview of the next version of Flash in person. It's a lot more interesting to see in person than watching Colin's video (even though it was a good vid).

Earthquake in Taiwan.. just in time for MAX2004 China

Like I don't experience enough earthquakes in Japan, I come to Taiwan for MAX China and we get a huge earthquake here... Sitting up on the 6th floor of the Westin in my hotel room and suddenly the whole room starts swaying back and forth. I can hear the creaking of the wood and walls all over the place and the water in the bathtub is sloshing back and forth so bad it's almost spilling out. Yes, we just had a huge earthquake and it went on for what seemed like forever.

But all seems fine and there aren't any casulties reported even though the earthquake was centered about 200km from here with a magnitude of 6.0 to 6.5.

Just to note, that size of earthquake in Japan a few weeks ago put thousands of people out of their homes and destroyed a fair amount of older buildings in the area that it was situated. That earthquake was scary enough but I live on the 2nd floor of the apartment building and it's not so bad. 6th floor is insane... I could've sworn that things were going to start crashing down, including the hotel.

Shoulda got some vid of it.. but that just wasn't on my mind. All seems good still for MAX tomorrow, and I can't wait :D I'll try to blog a bit on how things go here tomorrow and the next day.