Downsizing: Adobe Flash Style
Twitter feeds have been blowing up in the past 24 hours ever since Adobe announced they are no longer going to support the Flash Player mobile browser plugin. Social feeds quickly embellished this news as “Adobe kills Flash”, and “Flash is dead” with predictions that the desktop version is next or at least should be. This behavior reminds me of a childhood game called “Telephone” where you whisper a short phrase in your friend’s ear, they repeat it to someone else and your story goes around the room until it gets whispered back in your own ear as something completely different. The only difference is that with today’s rapid-fire social mindset, the game only requires two people, in this case Adobe and anyone with a Twitter account.
For those of you who love to use Flash for animation and are hearing tweets and blogs announcing the death of Flash, don’t worry, Flash is far from dead. There is a lot more to Flash than a mobile browser plugin for Android devices. Check out what Thibault Imbert (Flash Player Product Manager) and Lee Brimelow (Adobe Evangelist) have to say, they may ease your mind as to the future of Flash. Adobe understands that very few people are developing for the mobile Flash player and the best way to deploy mobile content is in the form of native apps.
But there is validity to thinking that perhaps, this is the beginning of the end for Flash as a platform. We can only wait and see. Yes, I still use Adobe Flash on a daily basis and yes I am learning Adobe Edge at the same time because it’s new and probably the best chance for designers and animators to easily author content for HTML5. Better to get in on the next big technological platform while it’s learning how to walk.
As a modern day designer and animator, it’s important to me to understand the direction the industry is heading and how I can evolve my skill set to stay afloat. It would be negligent of me to ignore the tangible technological shift to HTML5 but it would also be silly to completely abandon Flash as an animation tool. I have faith in Adobe to develop Flash in away that allows me to keep up with current industry trends. But the bottom line is, there will be, for the foreseeable future, an internet, mobile devices, games, motion graphics and interactivity – all needing design and animation of one kind or another. The thought that the authoring software used to develop for these platforms may not be Flash is probably me just being a little bit sentimental. After all, it’s been over eleven years of using Flash almost everyday. That’s a long time spent with a software program. It has almost become an extension of myself. Losing it will be the worst break-up of my life. I’ll have to get all my CDs back and that favorite black T-shirt I used to wear for days on end.
The loss of the mobile Flash player is nothing compared to the loss of 750 Adobe jobs. That’s 750 family’s directly affected by this decision and many of those who now find themselves unemployed are friends of mine. I’m realizing now I may never get the chance to see them again. Conferences, on a social level, may never be the same. The news of the layoffs hurts a lot more than the killing off of a mobile browser plugin. Software is just software, there will always be another program for me to adopt. But friends are irreplaceable and the thought of no longer working with them and raising our glasses year after year at Adobe MAX will sting for a long time to come. My best wishes to all of you. Now get out there and create some cool start-ups!
Read MoreAdobe Flash “Speed” Feature
Here’s a quick tutorial on how to use the “Speed” feature in Adobe Flash. If you use the Bone tool (Inverse Kinematics) you may find this hidden gem useful.
Adobe Flash Professional CS5.5
Multimedia designer, interactive multimedia | Adobe Flash Professional CS5.5.
Adobe has just announced the release of a major update to CS5. Check out the link to see what’s new for Flash. I will try and post my own articles here before the actual release 
The Edge of Flash
“The reality is that Flash is stronger than ever as the weapon of choice to create the most memorable, exciting, and interactive experiences online.”
-Rob Ford, The FWA Network
Read the full story here.
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