Happy Birthday Travis!

Today is our developer Travis's 26th birthday!

Be sure to drop him a note, or embarrass him as necessary.

Flash and 3D online Environments

A colleague recently asked on LinkedIn :
Is SecondLife going to grow -- or will a newer, improved environment take center stage?A number of answers surrounded the use of Second Life and Google's product Lively.

As an interactive house, we fully support use of these technologies in the business environment (obviously).

However, I responded with the following, that takes online Flash and 3D environment gaming to a whole new level. We've developed interactive architectural and engineereed product environments for clients, and believe that online Flash 3D has a LOT to offer (particularly in a B2B marketing environment) in the very near future. Just wait till we hook it up to a Wii controller!

A completely different alternative is one that is a custom-built 3D environment using Flash-based engines, such as the open-source Away 3D... see more (PaperVision, as well) and the *really* interesting Alternativa (honestly, check out the demo).

Both elevate the online Flash environment to the level of 3D gaming, which is an incredible leap forward possible through Actionscript 3. We're exploring the real-world applications of these for some clients, which are similar to just what you suggest. It does mandate more detailed attention to actually building the environments, but then, you do have full control over access, function and design.

I think we can see online gaming using Flash coming...and it might be interesting to use SL as a pre-viz tool for a more customized game experience.

_bill

Hug a Developer

Today is the day to truly appreciate the web developers.

Have you Hugged a Developer today?

To our web developers--Travis and Tim--thank you for what you do every day!


-Tiff P.
Media Project Manager

Interactive Technology Futures: 08 Creative Transitions Conference

In mid-August, I had the privilege of representing Finn Digital by moderating the keynote panel discussion for C2 Graphics Productivity's 2008 Creative Transitions Conference. Some pretty heavy hitters on the panel:

• Michael Kanfer, Digital Production Evangleist from Adobe, who won an Academy Award for his work on the movie Titanic (yes, that Titanic)
• Chris Ippolite, a well-respected software app developer from LA
• Brett Derricott, president of AgencyFusion, a great development house with a wickedly on-target sense of humor

We talked about the future of technology for Adobe creative applications (SoundBooth in particular), Flash for mobile devices and the iPhone, Adobe Air apps, and the future of content delivery.  REALLY interesting panel, and the podcast is here for your edification - enjoy! Finn Digital thanks C2 for the opportunity to help the Milwaukee interactive, Flash and design community!

Get the podcast here.

BMA-Milwaukee Website Launches!

Today, the Business Marketing Association of Milwaukee re-launched its website, bma-milwaukee.org!

Tim Grove, Chair of the BMA website committee and developer here in the Finn Digital offices, spearheaded the design, technical specifications and information management required to complete this significant achievement.

Congratulations Tim, on the hard work you and the committee have devoted to this initiative!

Needless to say, Finn Digital believes in the professional education opportunities BMA-Milwaukee offers, and we encourage all our colleagues to join as members! Our participation over the last 8 years has been extraordinarily valuable from several perspectives.