REVIEW
FITC 2008
By Jess Kroez - May 11th, 2008
April 19th to April 21st I attended Flash In The Can, The Design & Technology Festival held at the Hilton in downtown Toronto. This is an annual event where Flash developers and designers get together to listen to speakers, panels, and demonstrations on everything Flash and Flash-related.
From ActionScript to design to business strategies - it was three days of Flash, Flash and more Flash! Being a designer, I stayed away from the more technical speakers but avidly listened to the design and business presentations. While I overall enjoyed the conference, there were some presentations that were ill-prepared or just didn’t live up to what I expected.
The lobby of the Hilton set the tone for the conference as there were life-size cut outs of the FITC mascots - cartoon masked Mexican wrestlers (à la Nacho Libre) all around the registration desk. Upon seeing them I knew the conference would be fun. A Wii remote was set up inside a toy machine-gun. You could shoot vector drawings (created by speakers at the conference) by firing the gun at a huge projector screen. It made for some very cool graffiti-like art and was an interesting use of the Wii remote. They also had an Xbox 360 set up with Rock Band. On day one I thought it was really cool but by day three I was tired of hearing people butcher “Say It Ain’t So.”
While planning my FITC schedule I researched each presenter and looked at their websites so I could maximize my time. This meant I’d seen the majority of their work. I wanted to know what inspired them and hear insights into their design process. Unfortunately I was disappointed on this front and I sat through many a slide show of work I’d already seen or presentations that only filled up twenty minutes of an hour-long time-slot.
However, one designer did not disappoint. Scott Hansen of ISO50 had an incredible presentation called “Blending Analogue & Digital.” The first half was a slide show of his work as well as 60s and 70s era designs that are his inspiration. He told interesting anecdotes about his posters and album covers and explained how and why they were created. He showed examples that ranged from works in progress to completed pieces. For the second half, he opened a Photoshop file and piece by piece, layer by layer, explained how he created a poster. It was everything I wanted all the presentations at FITC to be: a combination showcase and tutorial.
Another highlight of the conference was the Adobe Keynote. Adobe demoed the features being added to Flash CS4 (code named “Diesel”). One of the exciting new features in Flash CS4 is the development of the “tween engine.” It simplifies tweening so that it no longer uses keyframes but is path-based instead. This means that tweens can be transformed, moved and rotated without breaking the animation. Simple 3D capability will also be available in CS4. And if you’re a cartoon animator, the Puppet Tool will make animating characters a lot easier.
Here are some YouTube videos that show these new features in action: Tween engine, 3D, and the Puppet Tool. These three featured elicited much applause from the audience.
For me, FITC was a great event. I got to see some of my design heroes speak about their work and demonstrate their techniques. It was also nice to be in a room full of people who were excited about new ways to tween. I hope that I’ll be able to attend next year’s conference because most of what I saw was very inspirational. I left the conference ready to design my heart out.
Other inspirational designers and agencies whose work was showcased at FITC:
- Si Scott: http://www.siscottstudio.com/
- Lifelong Friendship Society: http://lifelongfriendshipsociety.com/
- Joshua Davis: http://www.joshuadavis.com/
- BUCK: http://www.buck.tv/
