This week, Lee Brimelow posted that Adobe will announce Creative Suite 4 on September 23. That means you’ll see new versions of Flash, After Effects, Photoshop. Dreamweaver, etc. really soon. Awesome!
Being a Flash guy, I’m naturally most interested in Flash. From what’s leaked so far on the web, Flash CS4 is going to be pants-wettingly amazing. So amazing, in fact, that I’m beginning to change my mind about how I think about the application. Move on past the break to see footage of some of the new features in action.
Flash CS4 is going to rock the pants off all fans of animation and programming alike. Let’s look at some of the leaked features. First, motion tweens have been completely overhauled. They are now a lot more like animations in other Adobe applications like After Effects, and allow amazing control and customization. This movie demos the feature pretty well:
On top of that, there will be bone systems in Flash CS4. Bones enable you to connect objects to each other to animate movement and rotation based on that of the linked objects. Lots of behind-the-scenes science (and by “science” I mean math) to make everything work.
As if those animation features weren’t enough, Adobe has also included After Effects-ish 3D effects. That means you can create cool perspectives and rotate movie clips in 3D space.
This app is going to be amazing! For all you folks who haven’t been fans of Flash, or who have feared its weirdness, now (and by “now” I mean whenever the software is released) is the time to pick it up!
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Chad and Todd,
My first posting here. I recently upgraded some of my software and ended up with Dw CS3 and Flash CS3 and Fw. Gotten quite familiar with Fw but wondered if you had advice on some of the better sites, programs or books out there to get to grips with Flash CS fairly quickly. I am quite competent in Ps, Ai and InD. I did get Total training essentials for Flash but it is still in the box.
Thanks,
Gary.
Have you looked at lynda.com? Most of my Flash training is done through their website, and I’ve recorded somewhere around 40 hours of video training for Flash CS3 alone for the site. I recommend starting with my training Flash CS3 Fundamentals- here. Hope that helps!
Todd,
I had not realized you were at Lynda yet. I learned my Fw from there and will certainly look at yours soon. I take out periodic monthly time slots (due to other commitments). I actually test beer for a living - not a designer -and procrastinate too much from that on Creative Suite and training.
But good to know you have some stuff at Lynda.
Gary.j
woh woh wee woh, Flash CS4 is looking very niiice. I can’t wait to get my hands on some of these new programs, the technology we have with design now is out of this world cool. Thanks for showing me these videos, they got me all pumped up. =)
These all look like good features.
I don’t know if I like the complete object based stuff, like puting the motion tween on the object instead of the timeline. I do like the auto-keyframing, but from this video it doesn’t look like it shows those keyframes on the time line. It’s unclear to me how this works right now. What I *love* is that it automatically gives you a motion path for the motion tween. Thank You!
The bone stuff is a must have. I looks like it could be a little tricky to work with but I’m sure it will work much better than the IK’Motion extension.
The 3D stuff, as they say. Is very simple, and looks like its just a skew effect. The fun of 3D in AE for example is having a camera you can control, not being able to tilt something. The thing I most hope they bring over from AE isn’t 3D but *motion blur*. I’m sure that probably would slow things down too much for the web, but if you’re like me and your stuff mainly goes to video it would be a killer feature.
Todd, your Lynda.com training stuff is absolutely superb. Just found it today and I’ve been listening for several hours. Thanks so much!
Those tween functions are really really really cool! That bone business is neat too, but I think it’ll be a hindrance to tv animation production.
What would be REALLY great in flash (and photoshop!) would be the ability to digitally rotate the stage/canvas, as if you were drawing on a piece of paper. Hold down a key combo, then click and drag to rotate. It would be PERFECT for traditional animation in flash! It’s the only way to get a good drawing.
OH! Another thing I’d die for to have in flash would be opacity pressure sensitivity with the brush tool! It is SO hard to draw a good drawing in flash without being able to throw down some light construction lines, first.
I’m not sure about that automatically placing a keyframe when you move an object business. That’ll be super frustrating if you’re dealing with twently layers of things, and you accidentally move something.
I didn’t read all of the messages, but I saw a CS4 Photoshop demo that allowed the canvas to be rotated. This is a GReAT thing for illustrators and character animators like myself.
Is this ability in CS4 Flash???????
I sure hope so!