Flash in the Peg

oin Flash in the Peg on Thursday, December 11, as long-time FitP member and PaperVision guru Clayton Wilchowy introduces us to PaperVision 3D (PV3D). Clayton is the Senior Interactive Technology Specialist at DMT Development Systems Group Inc. He’s been working in Flash long enough to get excited when they introduced transparency as a feature back in Flash 3, and has been a dedicated professional with the software ever since. Little known fact – the advent of PV3D completes the circle for Clayton - who first set out to be a 3D animator after finishing school, but was sucked in by the employment offerings of the ever expanding World Wide Web - so you know this meeting is going to be a great one. His presentation should include as much of the following as can be squished into our meeting time:

• What is PV3D?
  • What it does
  • History
  • Who’s doing it? (dev shops)
  • Who’s using it? (corporate)
  • Examples
• What you need to know to get started
  • ActionScript Classes & Class Libraries
  • How to write “fake” 3D
  • How “real” 3D is an extension (the secret of render engines)
  • Combined technologies
• The Papervision3D Metaphor
  • Scenes
  • Cameras
  • Objects
  • Materials
• Realtime demonstration
  • Pointing to PV3D library in Flash Settings
  • Testing Demo File
  • Creating Scene
  • Creating Objects
  • Assigning Interactivity
  • Assigning Textures
  • Importing Collada model
• Papervision and Paperwork – a developer’s perspective on how it incorporates into regular Flash demands, and keeping the boss happy.

Instead of our usual 7:00 start time, we’re going to kick off this meeting at 6:30 p.m. so that we can talk about some of the highlights to have come out of Adobe MAX last week in San Francisco. In case you missed it, there were lots of exciting announcements last week, and to give you a bit of a primer I’ll be sending out an email within the next couple of days about the conference. Time and technology permitting, I might even be able to give you a brief demo of Adobe Flash Catalyst (previously known as Thermo), an exciting new tool to speed RIA development.

But wait, there’s more! As this is our last meeting of 2008, it’s also time for our software raffle! If you’ve been attending meetings, writing book reviews, or otherwise earning raffle tickets over the second half of this year, you have a chance to win the Adobe software of your choice, up to a value of $2100 US! But remember, to must be in attendance to win!

So join us at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, December 11, in room W411 of Red River College, Princess Street Campus. If you’re planning to attend, please RSVP to me.