Fooling around with the FXG capabilities to embed optimized graphics that can be scaled I found a few issues, not sure if they're bugs but here's my findings. I'm using Fireworks CS4 and Flash Builder 4.

I basically created a rectangle with a border and gradient fill then placed large text with border as well. Not really sure what the FXG limitations are but this didn't work. Without any other changes I exported to FXG.

First of all, no matter what I do, if the FXG export includes any images that has to be embeded I get an error right away saying: com.adobe.fxg.FXGException: Error 'Error reading image' occurred while embedding image: '/test.assets/Image_0.png'. Then I have to open the FXG file and delete the foward slash before the path to test.assets. There's a fix I'm sure but I'm just posting this quick fix for now.

Secondly, the gradient is broken like a .gif does to .jpg images. Not sure what to do about that for now but I have to flatten the gradient pieces, making the FXG vector scaling useless.

Third, the text is improperly placed. Originally I had the text centered but Flash Builder placed it lower right of the rectangle. Finally I had to flatten the text in FW to get it right. I think the text placement is correct but the scale throws it off.

*Eventually I had to convert the text into paths, duh vectorized, and it worked. This seems to also fix the gradient issue. Doing this however makes editing the text combersome, having to delete it and replace it then export it again. I am however impressed with the file size, an 84k png exported to FXG is less than 3k. Cheers.

I was stuck on this one issue for a while looking for a solution or answer on Google. I never found an answer but I finally figured it out myself. If you have any more information to clear this up please share.

I'm working on a Flex application that requires image assets for the layout such as the logo, a nice title image, buttons, borders, and so on. I created the assets in Fireworks and saved them as PNG's (PNG32), ready to be imported into the Flash CS3 library.

What I'm doing is creating an image assets SWC file I can add to my Flex build library path. In case your new to doing this, it is a way to embed image assets into your Flex project and use them as components. As opposed to using the Embed metatag. Maybe I'll blog about that too, but back to my issue.

So after saving my PNG's in Fireworks, I import them to the Flash library, ready to configure for Flex using the Convert Symbol to Flex Component command. However I notice that the images, if you place it on the stage or look at them in the Flex output, are much smaller than my originals back in Fireworks. I couldn't figure out why Flash was resizing or shrinking my images when I imported them. I tried it on jpg's also but they turned out fine, it was just PNG's.

For some reason I thought about the image resolution in Fireworks and played around with it. I'm not a designer or a graphics person so sue me for not knowing. What I found was that the resolution I was using, 98, was the problem and resetting it to different sizes had different results. I really does matter to Flash what resolution PNG's are saved in. And what works 100% of the time is to use a resolution of 72.

Also, if you use the correct resolution of 72 on your PNG's you'll not need to use the Allow Smoothing option on the bitmap properties.

Rule #178: Always use an image resolution of 72 when creating PNG images in Fireworks for Flash authoring.

Call it whatever you want but I like Desktop Glider. Building my own mini paper planes I've started my own mini paper airplane airport, Desktop Air.

I have a total of 4 planes. One macro glider and three mini gliders. Our last mini glider was fully customized with a professional paint job.

Take a look and print out the last slide on regular copy paper, cut it out, and build it:

Seriously though, they do fly suprisingly and extremely well, I wish I had a video. Grab the nose and push off with normal force and watch it fly smooth for a good distance. Mine goes straight as an arrow and comes to a smooth landing, probably a good 30 ft away. Be sure to fold the nose with about 3 small pieces of tape for weight. I have several variations and the last one I built seems to work best so far.

I've kind of learned that the secret to these paper planes is a good stablized tail section far from the wings with a fuselage in between. Its more important that the wings have a long span than a large area. If the wings are too large of an area, it will get bogged down in wind resistance and crash. Too wide a span and the wings will fold in mid flight and crash. I find that a good weight distribution pivot point to be just behind the wings. A V-shaped vertical stabilzer (tail) adds extra yaw (sideways) control.

Add ailerons if you need to correct roll but be sure to cut them very small and towards the ends. Or just give the wing a slight twist instead. Add flaps and slats if your feeling risky.

For my next paper plane project I would like to do something with a thicker stronger posterboard and create a nice large outdoor paper glidder.

It's not a professional mastery work of art just my first full model, rig, and animation. Created following documentation tutorial, took about an hour. I could probably recreate it again in about 30mins. Any ways, it's just a 1.5sec loop of a model Ginger Bread man running in place. Done completely in Blender and render smaller to save file size, .mov 1.6mb (see attachment). You can really learn a lot following the documentation and I plan to do everything front to back. We'll see just what I can do at the end. I'll post other things as I progress if there's more to show.

A few years ago I ran into Blender in search for 3D programs I would enjoy and in that search I found such titans as Maya, 3D Max, and Light Wave as well as Blender. Maya stuck with me as the program of choice simply because it is the most powerful and widely used of them all. Even with Light Wave's superior rendering Maya is still the easiest to use. Or so I thought. Recently I picked Blender back up and downloaded the latest version, 2.40. Yes, it is free and yes it is worth thousands!

Although at first the interface is daunting, to say the least, if you go through the generous guides and tutorials you'll find yourself racing around the 3D space like a pro. Grabbing, scaling, twisting, and moving your objects and invironment like your walking around in there and holding the objects by hand. The shortcut keys are easy to learn and are the most intuitive I've seen yet. Go into edit mode with TAB, use B and MMB to select/deselect vertices, edges, and faces, use E to choose extrude and drag to position, done. The entire interface is highly customizable to fit anyone's work style with the ability to have multi-windows, dragable panels, and your own theme. Take a look at the attachment image at the default interface.

Modeling takes on a whole new feel with mesh subdivisions to create organic models as easily as Rhino 3D or that other high polygon 3D program I can't think of the name for. In any case you'll feel like you've been doing this for years as shapes and forms appear like magic just like you amagined. I myself have only created models from the tutorials but to go back and do them again without the book is simple. And for the extraordinary 3D developer you can create your own tools and customizations with the scripting interface using Python.

The fact that the program is free and open source is only helpful as you can get everything you need to become a professional. Forums, guides, tutorials, add ons, and a huge users documentation explaining everything. Go through this and you will truely be a professional. Best of all for beginners this will cut down the learning curve for Maya and Light Wave. Once you've adapt to Blender and all it has to offer, the others are only weeks away from mastering.

This is not meant to be an exhaustive review of each and every feature as anyone could write an entire novel on. But rather a free invitation into the world of powerful high-end 3D development. Get your free 3D software today at Blender.org. Wether you want to model, texture, light, animate, or create special effects, the cloth, hair, and fluids are there for you. Want to create a world class PC game? It has this too with an amazing engine to handle graphics and dynamics like you never thought possible. Total control down to the models.