Flash | Retrospective

I haven’t been very diligent with my blog posts over the last few months.  I’ve switched jobs, been busy, and a bit lazy as well.   So here is the quick catch-up. 

I had been working at MGM MIRAGE in their graphic arts department as a senior Flash designer working on their electronic marketing.  The work was not very motivating, but my co-workers were a blast and I was still doing Flash sidework where I was able to stretch my Flash/ActionScript wings and do things that were more challenging.   A few months ago, I was presented an opportunity to work as a UI Designer for Aristocrat Gaming working on the UI for their casino management applications.  It was an opportunity I didn’t want to pass up. So, as of October, I have been working at Aristocrat.  There have been some challenges since I started. The biggest challenge has been incorporating UI design into the current process.  It really didn’t exist before.  There have been some growing pains, which is to be expected. Anyhow, two months in and we are moving forward.  Its been bumpy at times, but there is a lot of support for it and it will be successful.  BTW - Fireworks rocks for rapid prototyping of interfaces.  I’ve always used it for my Flash development for it has been a super super tool for me in the last two months doing mockups.

My current hurdle is getting a grip on MS Expression Blend .  If you haven’t heard of it before, it might be because it has changed names twice already.  Blend used to be Sparkle, which became Interactive Designer, and is now Blend.   Blend is a lot like Flex Builder for Flash. Its a WYSIWYG tool for designers and it creates the code in the background (XAML and C#).  Where Flash/Flex is for web development, Blend is more targeted for desktop application development. I’ve spent a large amount time with Flash (and even Flex), so Blend isn’t too hard to grasp how to lay out controls etc.  Right now, I’m just trying to adapt all my Flash/ActionScript knowledge and find where it fits into the Blend/XAML/C# world.   Lee Brimelow has done quite a bit with WPF on his blog and has plenty of examples.  Hopefully we’ll see more examples from Lee and others targeted directly at “Flash people” so we can make a good transition.  

Maybe we can even convince Lee to write a Flash/Flex to Blend & WPF book for Lynda.com  :)  Hopefully, once I have more seat-time with Blend, I’ll be able to post up my findings.