1 student + a camera + After Effects + 3DS Max = Hollywood interest

Posted by on Apr 9, 2009 in Cool stuff, Video | 20 comments

This morning, I was watching the latest YouTube hit “What’s In The Box” and was absolutely amazed by the quality of this “test movie”.

Tim Smit is a Dutch student who did most of this work on his own… He recorded the footage in his hometown and edited it in his bedroom… He used After Effects and 3DS MAX for the special effects. Total budget spent: €150.

He puts the video on YouTube. When the video hit 500k views (already over 1 million views now), he starts getting calls from all the big Hollywood studios. They are baffled when he tells them how it’s made and how “big” the budget was… So far none of the Hollywood studios have made him an offer but he is now talking to a couple of them about actually producing his movie.

Make sure you watch it in high quality! Amazing work!

mTwit sneak peak: Flash Lite Twitter client

Posted by on Apr 6, 2009 in devices, Flash, mobile, projects | 2 comments

UPDATE: I’m making good progress but it’s far from done… Check out the follow up article for a progress update and sneak peak video.

mtwitsneak.jpgEating our own dog food is a big part of being an evangelist. I also like to challenge myself every now and then and so I started building a Flash Lite Twitter client that can run on most Flash Lite enabled phones.

This is just a quick sneak peak and it’s far from ready but I’ll update you on the progress through my blog. I don’t really have a deadline. However, the sneak peak you see here is the result of just 2 days of work so I should be able to finish it soon.

I hope Jonnie from DestroyToday doesn’t mind me using the DestroyTwitter color scheme. I really love how clean that design is and I’m trying to bring some of that to my mobile client.

Stay tuned!

Weekly blend – April 4, 2009

Posted by on Apr 4, 2009 in Weekly blend | Comments Off

Are you a developer? Recently unemployed? Get Flex Builder 3 for free

Posted by on Apr 3, 2009 in Flex, News | 3 comments

adobe_flex_builder_s.jpgA few weeks ago, most of us on the Platform Evangelism team reached out to the developer community, offering free Adobe Flex Builder 3 licenses to unemployed developers so they can learn a new skill and raise their profile. Needless to say that we were swamped with email requests. Today, this is now a more formal offering, with information and access to the program available at https://freeriatools.adobe.com/learnflex/

To get you up and running with Flex in no time, Safari Books Online is offering a free 60-day subscription to a collection of books on Flex 3 and related RIA development technologies.

More information on https://freeriatools.adobe.com/learnflex/

Multi-screen excellence: Atlantic Records’ Fanbase

Posted by on Apr 3, 2009 in AIR, devices, Flash Player, mobile | 3 comments

Fanbase.jpgI’m sure you are well aware of the fact that the music industry has changed quite a lot over the recent years. The industry had to adapt to the rise of the Internet as music fans flocked together on social network sites and started posting video, photos and information on their blogs and MySpace/Facebook/YouTube accounts.

Atlantic Records now takes full advantage of all that content in their Fanbase application. This free application puts the latest information from artists/muscicians on to the fans’ desktops. The app features an audio player (powered by imeem), chat room (powered by Meebo) and a continuous feed of all the official and ‘unofficial’ news, photos and videos aggregated from all over the web. With one download, music fans now have access to all available information from one application. The application is built on top of AIR and thus runs on Mac, Windows and Linux.

Just this week, Atlantic Records launched a mobile version of the application. While some of you may already be reaching for your iPhones, Atlantic Records chose to built the app for the widest possible reach by picking Flash Lite as the platform. The mobile version has the exact same feature set as the desktop version. I recorded a quick demo of the mobile application this morning. I also included the install process so you can see that it’s not that hard to install the app on your Flash Lite enabled phone.

The Adobe TV team recently recorded a video with the people behind the Fanbase application.
Give Fanbase a go and get it on http://www.getfanbase.com/

Please note that Flash Lite 3.1 is currently available on these devices: Nokia N78, Nokia E65, Nokia N95 8GB, Nokia N95, Nokia N73, Nokia N81, Nokia 6120 Classic, Nokia E51, Nokia N81 8GB, Nokia E71, Nokia N96, Nokia N82, Motorola Q Norman(9h GSM), Motorola Q, Motorola Q9m, Samsung SGH-i607(BlackJack) I, Samsung SGH-i617(BlackJack) II, Samsung SGH-i780, HTC Touch, Diamond P3700, HTC-Pro S621(Same as T-Mobile dash), Palm Treo 700wx, Palm Treo Pro, Palm Treo 750. For more information on device compatibility, please visit Adobe Labs.