RE: FLASH: Fireworks to Flash (SOME THOUGHTS)

[John Dowdell]

My apologies for the nested quotes, folks... the problem is words being

taken out of context here.


Daniel Brown wrote:

>John Dowdell wrote:

>>At 6:42 PM 3/21/0, Daniel Brown, Adobe Corporate Evangelist, wrote:

>>> Thanks Lynn. We are trying to help people create some of what

>>> they're already doing in Fireworks AND have the ability to

>>> output vector-based files to .SWF in one application.

>>

>>Hmm. From this it almost sounds like you're not aware that Fireworks

>>already exports SWF animations, as either vectors or pixels.  But I'd find

>>it difficult to believe you're not aware of this, particularly since we've

>>already discussed this in the thread you're replying to.

>

>(puzzled look) Oh no, I HAVE a copy of Fireworks. What I was clarifying was

>that LiveMotion can do in one place some of the raster effects that people

>normally jump to Photoshop and Fireworks to do (apply Photoshop filters

>nondestructively, drop shadows, bevels, embosses, etc.) Sorry if that's

>confusing.


Your third paragraph contradicts your first, which you conveniently snipped

out of your reply.





>>> Part of the problem here is that, since the native Illustrator format

>>> is our own, it would be tricky for them to anticipate changes we

>>> might make to the file format. Here, you're right, we have a bit of

>>> an edge with LiveMotion (it can read native, layered, Photoshop and

>>> Illustrator files and then animate the layers, and maintain

>>> editability - "Round-tripping" the files, so to speak.)

>>

>>[sigh]  If you believed that Adobe writing new .AI formats was such a

>>barrier, by the same logic you wouldn't even have added SWF export to

>>ImageStyler 2.0, much less had the leak campaign to bill it as "more than a

>>Flash-killer". There's no logic there.

>

>ImageStyler 2.0? There is no ImageStyler 2.0. ImageStyler was discontinued

>in January. BUT, by your argument, if we can author .SWF, you can read

>Illustrator files. We, on the other hand, aren't exactly sent gift-wrapped

>copies of the specs for Flash 5. It all balances out.


Again, your third paragraph apparently differs from your first, which you

conveniently omitted from your quotings. (I say "apparently", because I'm

not sure I could say what point you were trying to make.)


When the FinePoint folks were shopping their team around they already had

animation on the horizon. Macromedia passed on it because Fireworks was

already going along cooler paths. Adobe later purchased FinePoint to try a

catch-up with ImageStyler 1.0. That product didn't work out, so the

animation timeline and long-overdue SWF export are renamed as LiveMotion

1.0. It's still the ImageStyler team, ImageStyler interface differences

from other Adobe apps... even the beta documentation includes ImageStyler

screenshots (see "Using the Toolbox"). LiveMotion *is* ImageStyler... it

didn't succeed in going up against Fireworks, so the 2.0 version has been

repackaged as "more than a Flash killer":

http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/main_news_search.cfm?NewsID=946


(What you describe with the trademark term "RoundTrip Graphics" is actually

edit-in-place. You'd need to add the sourcefile location, resizing

parameters, behavior exchange and the rest to catch up to Fireworks 2

there. Edit-in-place has been around for awhile.)




>> No matter how many ways I try to look at some of these posts, it's still

>> hard to find ways to make sense of them.... [snip]

>

> Well, let's face it, my mere PRESENCE here must be a little distracting.


No, facing it, it's trying to make sense of your posts that I find

difficult. Online I'm more used to people who speak to the point and who

don't contradict themselves. Your mileage may vary, though.


jd










.




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