Adobe Flash Catalyst
Catalyst is middleware. Start in Illustrator or Photoshop, then pull in project using Catalyst. Convert to Flex project, then go to Flash. Catalyst does have very basic drawing tools and could be used for wireframe or a very basic prototype. Biggest challenge will be training designers to create things in Illustrator or Photoshop that will work well in Catalyst. Fireworks has the ability export as .fxg file which can be imported into Catalyst. It’s important to remember, Catalyst is a 1.0 application. It’s stable, but there are obvious capabilities that are missing.
Complete round tripping with Illustrator and Catalyst. A plug-in is needed for Photoshop and Catalyst and it’s not as seamless. Catalyst is creating code, Flex projects are written in ActionScript and MXML.
Best Practices for Designers
- The web is not print, as different from print as video is from print.
- Design for interactivity.
- Don’t overuse interactivity. Realize when you’re enhancing and when you’re making something obnoxious.
- Stay organized. Become obsessed with meaningful layer names. Rename layers, group them logically.
- Plan your layer structure.
- Use a naming convention. Figure out logical naming convention and stick to it.
- Do not link to external files.
- Design assets to be duplicated. Come up with a way in your naming convention to notate these.
- Create outlines for text with filters and effects and text with uncommon fonts.
- Do the right things in the right order in Catalyst.
- Use components in Catalyst, everything in Catalyst becomes a component.
- You don’t have to be a Flex developer, but understand Flex.
Other thoughts on Flash Catalyst best practices
Adobe Flash Catalyst CS5 best practices
Tags: d2wc
One Response to “Adobe Flash Catalyst and Flex for Designers with Rob Huddleston”