While others wait for higher bandwidth across the Internet, I look to Flash as a source of high quality interactive presentations that can be used as information tools. Too often designers stop with Flash's ability to animate and provide buttons. Flash has the ability to inform, instruct and entertain, I look for ways to use all three. Below you will find a list of Flash projects, along with their creation date and version (Flash 3 or 4). Take a look at where Flash can take your information and your customer.

Flash Projects:

Mindcandy Typoviewer

Mindcandy, a type foundry in Austin Texas which sells some of my typefaces, asked for a Flash based tool displaying over 400 of their typefaces. the tool needed to load quickly and be easily updated. In addition to allowing users to view any of the 400+ typefaces, the typoviewer also lets the user edit the text displayed and print samples.
Created: November thru January 2001 - 90 Hours.
Flash 5 Plug-in required - modules range in size from 50k

SmithBits Product Catalog CD

Smith Bits needed a product catalog that would showcase over 2000 of their products in an easy to use, cost effective manner. Previous versions of the CD required too much updating work, so the new version needed to use XML. To increase usability a number of navigation paths were offered to the products allowing users unfamiliar with the product lines to locate the information they needed quickly and easily.
Created: October thru December 2000 - 300 Hours.
Flash 4 Plug-in required - modules range in size from 156 to 900k

Adopt-a-Bear Kiosk

The goal of the project was to provide an information gathering step in the purchasing process for the Adopt-a-Bear stores. Specal attention to usability brought forth a number of features to make the kiosk easy to use for both children and adults. The application provides users the ability to register bears purchased at Adopt-A-Bear. Upon completion of the process an adoption certificate is printed and awaits customers at the point of sale. The information collected also supports the client's marketing efforts. I worked with eTime Solutions on this project.
Created: August thru November 2000 - 200 Hours.
Flash not available online.

SmithBits Tradeshow Commercials

This series of 8 fifteen second long Flash commercials was created for a Houston based drilling company. Each of the 8 Flash files was created from artwork and information from the company's brochures. The goal of the commercials was to take the 8 different brochures and tie them together with the same style of design. These commercials will be shown on a plasma screen monitor at the SPE 2000 trade show.
Created: September 2000 - 51 Hours.
Flash 4 Plug-in required - modules range in size from 60 to 144k

Compaq Netpliance Training Tools #1 & #2

Compaq Computers was looking for a Flash based training tool for their new line of Netpliance computers. The requirements for the training tools was to help new computer owners become familiar with the different keys on their computer and what those keys were used for. The client wanted a series of drag and drop buttons that the user would have to use to build the keyboard.
Created: July & September 2000 - #1 - 24 hours | #2 - 14 hours.
Flash 4 Plug-in required - #1 - 98k | #2 - 152k

Halloween Invite Game Card

This is a game card that I developed on spec for an online greeting card company. The basics of the game are pretty simple, but the ActionScripting on the back end is fairly complex. I was very happy with the sound loop that I found on a $2.00 Sounds CD from CompUSA. I have to thank my wife Arlene for some of the verbal digs. I didn't realize she had it in her. I recorded the voice work in my home office using my Mac. I was able to clean it up a bit, and add some reverb and effect to the voices. Requirements for the card did not include a pre-loader, so... wait for the entire card to load.
Created: August 2000 - 32 Hours.
Flash 4 Plug-in required - 176k

Reconstructors Episode 3

This is part three of an ongoing 'episodic' Flash training series sponsored by the NSF and Rice University. My involvement was to produce the end Flash file and program all the games and interactivity. The artwork, design and source code for one section was provided. I think the checking of each test was one of the more challenging parts of the project. Some of the tests had more than one possible answer. I am also very happy with the interactivity of the virtual vault section.
Created: July 2000 - 75 Hours (initial design - tweaks to the system were made in an additional 25 hours).
Flash 4 Plug-in required - 830k

ARC Kisok Presentation

This presentation is designed to run from a kiosk at trade shows. It is essentially a straight presentation with some hidden goodies in it. In the main part of the presentation there is a 'mouse' sensor that moves the presentation on when the mouse is idle for fifteen seconds. There is also a bit of fun in the people illustrations. A bit of random programming in the movie clip for the people behind their desks allows them 'free will' to wave when they want to.
Created: May 2000 - 160 Hours.
Flash 4 Plug-in required - 442k

Introduction to Sailing

This is my entry in FlashKit's Sydney to Hobart game contest. It is an introduction to the basics of sailing and a sailboat racing simulator all rolled into one. I wanted to make a game that accurately reflected the physics of sailing, how the boat would react to the wind. Turning the dynamics of boat, sail and wind forces into a sailing engine in Flash was some of the most complex programming that I have done. The courses are highly playable, and I have received about 40 e-mail from around the world with people leting me know what their best time is!
Created: December, 1999 - 120 Hours.
Flash 4 Plug-in required - 144k

Reservoir Description Tool

This presentation was used as a self-running demo and web-enabled presentation designed to inform potential customers about the RDT. One of the main features of this product is the ability to configure the different modules to form task specific tools. Demonstrating this feature was effectivly conveyed by creating a 'game' in the presentation allowing the user to drag and drop the modules into the right configuration.
Created: September, 1999 - 90 Hours.
Flash 4 Plug-in required - 253k

Real Time Reservoir Solutions

This flash presentation was designed for a CD-Card (business card sized CD-ROM) as an introduction to the RTRS brand from Halliburton. This version, slimmed down for the web, does not include the 90 second spoken intro and animation found on the CD-Card. The CD-Card was used to deliver a custom screen saver for Mac and PC.
Created: August, 1999 - 60 Hours.
Flash 4 Plug-in required - 237k

Dart Game

A number of new Flash scripting techniques were all brought together for this game, the classic '301 Down' dart game. The velocity engine is used to throw the dice, while angle computation and the distance formula work to place the darts on the dart board. Very complex scripting was also made easier by using the 'Call' command. Give the game a try!
Created: November, 1999 - 16 Hours.
Flash 4 Plug-in required - 30k

IQ Test

This is a proof-of-concept piece to show how testing, timing and snap-to can work together. The object is to drag and drop the shapes into the desired hole on the peg board. The design is purly functional, again it is a proof-of-concept piece.
Created: November, 1999 - 4 Hours.
Flash 4 Plug-in required - 21k

Gravity Tutorial

A tutorial I created showing how to do the above effect, but very simplified. This tutorial appears on the Flash developers site Virtual-FX.Net.
Created: November, 1999 - 8 Hours.
Flash 4 Plug-in required - 12k

Illustration Scope

This is a future portion of my portfolio site, a scope to view various vector based illustrations I have created over the past seven years. The buttons are mouse-over powered, allowing instant feedback on the four drawings.
Created: September, 1999 - 10 Hours.
Flash 4 Plug-in required - 69k

Halliburton OTC '99 Sub-Site
www.halliburton.com/OTC/

A simple Flash intro to a convention support site. Used to envoke a feeling of high security around the public data encorporated to the site.
Created: May, 1999 - 12 Hours.
Flash 3 Plug-in or above required - 57k

Halliburton Virtual SPE '98 Sub-Site
www.halliburton.com/SPE98/SPEintro.htm

In 1998 the Society of Petroleum Engineers Conference in New Orleans was canceled due to hurricane damage to the city. Halliburton asked that a sub-site be created that would provide a visitor the information from the event, with a touch of humor. With less than a week of lead time the SPE sub-site was conceived and designed by the Web Team including James Abel, Gerald De Leon and myself being responsible for the Flash intro.
Created: November, 1998 - 8 Hours.
Flash 3 Plug-in or above required - 57k

Bell Geospace Inc.
www.bellgeo.com

In 1997 I was asked to provide a Flash based map of geophysical information from the Gulf of Mexico for both the web and a touch screen kiosk. Using Flash 2 and JavaScript I provided the interactivity and information requested by the client. This site is now maintained elsewhere, and it seems that the interactive features of the map are no longer functional.
Created: April, 1997 - 25 Hours.
Flash 2 Plug-in or above required - 100k