Our Screen Shots Just Got Sexy

What's a branded video application without some branding? This weekend, among other things, we did a complete overhaul of the drawing API. It was tough going for a while, words were said, things were thrown, but It Got Done. Its a thing of beauty to watch those rectangles and elipses dance across the canvas, and Flavorvid is better for the tweaking.

In the darkest hours, we took some time off to clear our heads, and found this very nifty AIR app, called tiltShift. As you might guess, it applies a very beautiful, classy effect to your photos. We played around with it a bit, and gave a couple of our screen shots the treatment, and the results were surprisingly pretty. Its hard to say if this will all end up on the cutting room floor, but even if we never use them, they're worth a gander:

and the closeup...

If you'd like to grab the app for yourself, you can try it out on the web or download the AIR version right.... here

Evolution of a Logo, Part 1

Its interesting what can look attractive at 3:00 in the morning. Specifically, we're talking about logos. And when you've spent 10 hours writing code, you see everything through what we call script-goggles. Does it have colors? Does it include our company name? Great! What are you doing later?

But seriously, branding is no different from application development, in that it often takes several generations of optimization before its ready for everyday use. And our first logo (below), was a perfect example of an ugly, buggy beta. But we put it up anyway, for a couple of reasons. First, this blog is dedicated to documenting every step of Flavorvid's development, and that means taking note of as many tweaks and versions of its growth as we can. And while the official flavorvid blog is under development, we're taking advantage of the freedom to try out ideas as they happen, so that when our official site (and the app itself) launches, everything will have been road tested. There's nothing like the sandbox!

Its likely that we'll see a logo 2.1, 2.2, 3.0 etc...before we're happy, and that goes for many of our visual elements (as you'll notice from our daily screenshots). We hope you enjoy watching Flavorvid grow as much as we do, and will laugh along with us when one of our ideas looks like this:

While clearly, we never should have brought this home, we'll always remember those few hours when it seemed like this logo was 'the one'.

Tune in this weekend for some major updates to the interface, and our upcoming OptaPalooza (eer, we're spending the weekend doing code optimization). Trust us, its fun!

Congratulations! Its a toolbar!

So, how was your weekend? Fun? Well, while you were out enjoying the sun, we spent ours giving birth to our brand new baby toolbar. It was tough going for a while, but at around 3:00 a.m. Monday, she started selecting colors and scaling images, and we couldn't have been prouder.

But wait! There's more! Our cute bundle of icons and tasks even has a baby brother, who will help out with things like loading videos and images. He's still getting the slime cleaned off, but you can grab a peek of him in the screenshot of the day (below).

In the meantime, here's an rundown of features for our new bundle of joy, from top to bottom:

The Standards: No respectable toolbar would be complete without a colorpicker and scaling tool, and we've put these right at the top. Aren't they cute?

The Fancy Stuff: Next up are the family jewels: the video loader, image handler, and thumbnail/playlist tool. These are what we'd call proactive tools, because they automatically launch when an associated element is dropped on the canvas. For instance, when you drag a video icon to the canvas, the video tool will automatically light up and launch its menu. The same goes for thumbnails and images; you just drag a new thumb to the stage, and pop goes the menu. We think they do a great job of streamlining the upload process, and we can wait to see you put them in action.

Everyday Favorites: Last but not least, there are the old standby's: an alpha control tool, up/down level buttons (for pushing/pulling items to the background/foreground), and a simple but effective trash button, which, you guessed it, deletes items from the canvas.

Isn't she adorable?

Next up: the beta launch looms!

And for the collectors out there, here's your screenshot o' the day, starring our tidy new placeholders:

A Day in the Life...

Well, its been another long and exciting day at Flavorvid, and before we hit the sack, we thought we'd share a quick day-in-the-life of developing our app. After all, this is an application diary, and in 24 hours, a lot gets done (and redone), which is clearly evident if you've checked in from one day to the next. So here goes...

It starts with the morning review...look over last nights changes, grab a cup of coffee, and launch the app to make sure everything is working like it should. Then, its on to the TODO list. Yesterdays looked like this:

1. Fix video icon drag and drop placement

2. Get started on thumbnail icon behaviors.

3. Finish the alpha control.

3. Bounds box behaviors are still finicky. Need a centerpoint for adjusting the drag orientation.

4. Need some sort of branding for the blog and interface. People are starting to show up, and the house is a mess...Get a logo up, people! Also the main blog needs articles...promo text and interface guide...

5. The scrubber still needs seek functionality.

6. Guide widget is still not there...fix the x and y placement bug for the closepins. Also, need to make progress on the alignment/closeline tool.

7. Evaluate pros and cons of a vertically oriented tool menu, and the same for use of alphas to indicate available tools vs. visible/hidden.

8. Fix the clock reset bug...

9. Evaluate functions controls edit options.

10. Still not able to grab height and width properties for the canvas after launch. has something to do with the guides?

Whew. And that was what it looked like before we solved those problems. As you might guess, accomplishing one goal inevitably leads to new challenges, and today was no exception. Yesterday we solved at least 6 of these issues, but there's a whole new batch of them waiting for us tomorrow morning. Onward and upward!

And for those who are wondering, here's your screen-shot-o'-the-day:

And here's what she looks like with a blank canvas...

See you tomorrow!

Application Screenshots, and a New Name!

Well, things are definitely rolling over here as we get the FLVavorvid web app ready for launch. And yep, that's right, our soon to be favorite branded video web app has a new name...We thought that FLVavorvid (pronounced "FlavorVid") had a better ring than the 'Brand Box', and at any rate, really captures what our application does...namely, making players in whatever flavor you like, with tons of yummy, customized ingredients.

Next up, we're hot on the heels of a beta launch, where we'll release our app out into the wild, and let you see what she can do. Here's just a taste of what you'll see when the app launches in your browser:

on the right, you'll notice a bunch of little icons (see below) that represent controls, shapes, and images you can drag and drop on the 'canvas' at left. And below that, you'll see the image library, where you can store commonly used URLs so that you won't have to retype them every time you upload an image.

At the bottom of the canvas, you'll see a pop up menu that launches whenever you grab an element on the stage, which displays the different ways you can modify that particular item.

Here's a couple of more shots, with some additional eye candy:

Notice those two new blank menus on the top and left. Whatever could they be for? Stay tuned!

ICONS!

Well, we're currently knee-deep in development of the graphical interface that will be used to create those delicious branded video players, and we thought we'd toss out some visual tidbits to give you an idea of the look and feel. Namely, that means icons!

We love icons. And the development environment will be chock full of them, since there will be plenty of drag-and-drop functionality for creating player components, buttons, and visual layers.

For now, here's just a few...we'd love to hear your thoughts, and if you can name the functionality for each icon, we'll give you first dibs on beta testing when we're ready to launch!

Features List: Growing by the day!

If you're reading this, you probably already know that the BrandBox branded flash video app will let you quickly deploy branded video without the fuss and muss of touching source code, but we thought you might enjoy a more detailed description of what you'll be able to do with our platform. As we continue development in preparation for our launch, this list will undoubtedly grow, so make sure to check back often for updates.

In the meantime, here's a comprehensive snapshot of features, starting with the basics:

1. Control literally hundreds of visual aspects, including:

-background color (or image, or tiled images)

-a full range of player controls (and the ability to pick and choose which controls suit your player)

-use of playlists, and options to control your playlist layout (listbox, thumbnail grid, etc...)

-complete control over placement/size of your visual assets, all the way down to the font size of your clock display.

-Use any number of additional cosmetic layers to enhance the apperance, or to create live buttons to link audience members to other areas of your site.

2. View all your players in "gallery mode" so that you can compare/showcase your branded video projects to clients and the public.

3. Most importantly, and what sets us apart from other branded video platforms, we give you the ability to control how your layout actually functions. For instance:

-Switch to a 'slider' layout, which tucks your thumbnails behind the video screen, and lets your viewer pop them out with just a click.

-Use the control bar itself as a volume control (this one is really cool!)

-additional functionality options will give you even greater control over how your player behaves and interacts with your audience.

With all these features, we think The BrandBox: branded flash video platform will give you unprecedented control over the viewing experience for your audience.

Have any thoughts or questions? Let us know in the comments!