Over the last year I have been spending a lot of time learning how to use ActionScript to build database-driven Flash applications. I have not yet built a Flash application for this site, but I have been involved in building them on other sites.

For Last Minute Villas, I built a Flash front end to browse vacation homes in Florida based on the site's pre-existing database and images. For this project I used Flex to build the application. Notice the background video of the sparkling ocean, moving clouds and slightly swaying tree: I modeled and animated it in 3D Studio Max 2009.

Also released recently was a project I did with Andrew Penry for Bullet Jones. On this project, Andrew did the Flash/Flex work while I focused on the graphical design and user interface. Notice the animated toggle switch at the top of the page that turns music on and off. This is another example of an animation I designed in 3D Studio Max 2009.

Part of the direction in my recent work has been to focus more on visual components. A challenge has been to make visually interactive sites that run quickly/smoothly. Learning optimization techniques for Flash applications has, ironically, led me to learn some new HTML optimization techniques that have even led to quicker load times on this HTML-based website.