How to leverage frameworks and third party libraries to speed up & enhance your development process

• Gaia framework
  • How to install
  • Set up your project
  • Importing assets
  • Importig data
  • Look at Ikayzo.com example
• Greenshock Libraries
  • Tweening
  • Easing
  • Plugin FX
  • Timeline animations
  • Simpsons Movie example

Part Two

Using Flash video to create engaging interactive experiences & visual landscapes

• Flash Video
  • Optimizing video for use in flash with After FX
  • Alpha channels
  • Video Mask example from
  • Full Screen Video with aspect ratio constraints
  • Ikayzo.com example

UPDATE

Thanks to all the students who attended my workshop. As promised, here are the class files for you to enjoy. Here are some of the URL that I mentioned during class that also prove helpful with your Flash projects. If you have any other questions or comments feel free to email me at gus@originalwonders.com

http://www.greensock.com/

http://www.gaiaflashframework.com/

http://videocopilot.net/

http://www.techhui.com

This past Memorial Day weekend was appropriately one of the most memorable I’ve had in Hawaii since I’ve been here. Creating unique experiences that are cherished forever is one of the most amazing things life can give us and I feel blessed to be living in such a beautiful place where that comes easy. This weekend had everything from lazying around on the beach, getting together with friends for beers, dressing up for a  party and celebrating the lives of long lost loved ones…here’s to living in the moment.

To see more photos of the lantern festival click here

Aside from participating in several meetings at MIC, last week I went to the first Civil Beat “BeatUp”. Civil beat has been of particular interest to me because it’s a new startup company headed up by the ex-founder of Ebay Pierre Omidyar. I was curious to see what kind of company Pierre was building and at the BeatUp I go to meet the Civil Beat crew and even give them my own first impression about their site. I don’t know what other startup would allow someone off the street to walk into their office and give their CEO advice So far, Civil Beat has great intentions but I feel it’s got a long way to go. We’ll see, I’m currently trying to get the CivilBeat crew to come up to Manoa for a BeatUp lunch.

Today I attend another event at Leeward Community College called the Pacific Region Learning Summit. It was invited to this event by an LCC teacher named Leanne Chun whom I helped out a few months ago by doing a webinar on web design for one of her classes. I had fun interacting with her students so when she asked me to participate in this special event I was delighted to accept. The focus of this summit was preparing students for the “real world,” something I wish I would have gotten when I first started out. I taked to two teachers, one from the Bay Area and one from here in Hawaii. They wanted to know how Ikayzo approached projects and how our development process could be recreated in a course. I thought it was pretty interesting and I hope I was of help. I also got to meet several other attendees of the event in a sort of “speed dating” scenario where every 15 mins I would meet a new person. All in all, a very good experience plus I got free lunch. =)

Lastly, this Friday I will be speaking at two more events. One of the first projects I got to work on at Ikayzo was the website for the Nā Hōkū O Hawai`i Music Festival which kicks off tomorrow with a pre-opening party and kicks into high gear Fri-Sat with a series of workshops and concerts throughout Waikiki until the big finish with the Awards Show on Sunday. I will have the honor and pleasure of participating in the two workshops during the festival. Both will be this Friday. The information is below and there are more details here.

10:30AM-11:20AM

New Media: Social Media Panel Ikayzo, Roxanne Darling and Mike Pooley of Mountain Apple
The panel discussion will focus on social media topics relevant to the music industry. This is the first in a series of workshops focusing on the many productive applications of social media alternatives. Joining the panel will be Roxanne Darling of Barefeet Studios and Dan Leuck of Ikayzo.

11:30AM-12:20AM

Creating a Compelling Web Presence & Promoting Your Music via Social Media In this workshop we will explore the use of free and inexpensive tools that allow you to create a web presence and promote it via social media. We will discuss simple visual tools that allow you to create a website without requiring deep technical skills and cover effective use of blogging, tweeting, Facebook and MySpace. Special attention will be given to features of use to musicians.

Well that’s it for now. I’ll be posting a recap on my workshops and follow me on twitter to get real time updates and photos while I’m there.

NECESITO del mar porque me enseña:
no sé si aprendo música o conciencia:
no sé si es ola sola o ser profundo
o sólo ronca voz o deslumbrante
suposición de peces y navios.
El hecho es que hasta cuando estoy dormido
de algún modo magnético circulo
en la universidad del oleaje.
No son sólo las conchas trituradas
como si algún planeta tembloroso
participara paulatina muerte,
no, del fragmento reconstruyo el día,
de una racha de sal la estalactita
y de una cucharada el dios inmenso.

Lo que antes me enseñó lo guardo! Es aire,
incesante viento, agua y arena.

Parece poco para el hombre joven
que aquí llegó a vivir con sus incendios,
y sin embargo el pulso que subía
y bajaba a su abismo,
el frío del azul que crepitaba,
el desmoronamiento de la estrella,
el tierno desplegarse de la ola
despilfarrando nieve con la espuma,
el poder quieto, allí, determinado
como un trono de piedra en lo profundo,
substituyó el recinto en que crecían
tristeza terca, amontonando olvido,
y cambió bruscamente mi existencia:
di mi adhesión al puro movimiento.

Paddle boarding is the perfect water activity for me. I’ve been paddle boarding for a good consecutive three weeks now and I absolutely love it. I love just being able to cruise around on my board while absorbing the full views of Diamond head and Waikiki. The oceans regenerative power is both a soothing escape and a careful reminder of the power of nature. A good feeling for a man who spends 12 hours a day on the computer.

I took my camera with me this time to see what kind of pictures and video I could capture. Wasn’t too bad although I need to get used to using the camera on the board. My favorite video is  one of the view of my board while underwater. I think next time I go out I will take my MinoHD out and take a longer video.

Cruise on over to my Flickr page to see the photos and videos. Check out the full set here.

This past week was pretty crazy for us at Ikayzo with our initiative to round up support to bring Google High speed internet to Hawaii. Our TechHui site was updated with links to join our Facebook group and PetitionSpot for people to show their support and we cranked up the marketing machine as the deadline to submit the proposal to Google was only days away. The media blitz started off when Dan made it on HawaiiNewsNow where I made a small appearance in the background of a shot. We were later then featured on KITV where I had a full interview and was made to look like a hardcore gamer/internet geek which isn’t a far stretch from reality really. These stories followed a front page story in the Star Bulletin and also an article in the Washington Post. I feel very fortunate to be part of a company that dedicates so much time to community efforts. Hopefully, all the work will pay off and Google will bite and give us super speed internet so I can watch streaming HD Netflix movies!