As I’ve mentioned before, I didn’t come from the Flash world. I got hooked on the Macromedia juice via ColdFusion and Flex. I was always jealous of the Flash guys/gals because they could create some really cool stuff. So I was happy when Flex came out and we started seeing some “developer Flash” instead of all “designer Flash”. And then AS3 came along, which I loved, because programming Flex 1.5 was a headache and AS3 made a big difference to me as a developer. So I plunged headfirst into the world of AS3. But stuff didn’t look or feel as cool as all the Flash stuff out there I admired, so I started thinking heavy thoughts about the designer/developer workflow and getting more design into my development. That’s one of the reasons I am really excited about Thermo – it helps bridge the gap and allows me to add some really nice design elements to a Flex application.

But I was reading a Guardian article about 4chan that came a couple of days after reading Colin Mook’s treatise on AS3 versus AS2 and I started looking around 4chan (do so at your own risk). There’s an entire section dedicated to Flash. Right there next to Rules, the FAQ, and the Blog, they have a “Flash” tab which contains an archive of Flash stuff. They’ve also got an entire Flash section (oddly under Japanese Culture) which contains some of the most bizarre, gross, and morbid Flash content I’ve ever seen. (Warning: 4chan is basically the end of the internet and the links and content are definitely NSFW – the first 4chan Flash link is mostly okay, but the Japanese one and the rest of the site will probably offend just about anyone). Regardless of how completely messed up you can get with Flash, it’s a very, very creative medium, and people flock to that. The fact that it has an entire section on 4chan is a) disturbing, and b) indicative of how much people love using our platform to show off their….work. Better examples are sites like Orisinal or Animator vs. Animation- on the design side Flash is everything from games to big-time TV shows and it’s reason number one that Flash became so successful.

As a developer, I really want to see Flash evolve into a great application platform, and I think we’re getting there. But more and more I realize that we can’t stray too far from the design roots in the process. I think adding things like 3D effects and inverse kinematics to Flash Player 10 and Flash CS4 help with that, but I hope our core customers, our showcases, aren’t feeling ignored. One of the compelling things about Flash was that it made animation relatively easy so anyone could start expressing their creative side and we shouldn’t lose that. I know Lee thinks a lot about this, so if you have any thoughts, spend some time reading and commenting on his blog. Tell us everything from how you want to see the tools evolving, to how scripting fits into your workflow. The louder you are the better, and if we’re doing a good job, be loud about that too. Don’t be the silent majority.