All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.
Skateboarding legend Tony Hawk zooms up the ramp and you watch him make 2-1/2 turns in midair, a trick only he can do.
Click on the stop button, and he freezes in mid-air. Then use another control function to see him from various camera angles in a 180-degree arc.
"It's the same effects you saw in The Matrix, but you're able to control the camera," said Loren Schwartz, executive producer of EXPN.com.
The multi-angled exploit by Hawk – shown in an X Games – video on EXPN.com – is just one of many interactive tricks possible with Macromedia's Flash MX.
The software, which was released in March, is the first version of Flash to support short video clips. Flash MX and its player, Flash Player 6, include a codec called Sorenson Spark.
In previous versions of Flash – software best known for creating highly interactive animation – designers needed to either use third-party players like QuickTime and RealPlayer for video, or resort to simulating video by using a sequence of still images in Flash.
Neither option let them do the kind of programming with video clips they can do in Flash MX.
Using Flash's object-oriented scripting language, ActionScript, designers and developers can program short video clips to behave in all sorts of ways. No longer are they limited to the VCR-like controls of players like QuickTime.
With ActionScript, "you can set the x/y position, set visibility on and off, you can apply a mask to it –- you can do a lot of cool interactive things to it," said Danny Mavromatis, a software engineer at ESPN. "You can apply mouse events to the video window. Without ActionScripting, none of this would be possible."
He created the Matrix-like effect in the Tony Hawk video by using 19 video clips filmed using multi-camera technology from Kewazinga. With ActionScript, he programmed one video clip to become visible at a time, as the user moves a slider to control the view.
The technique gives "a better view than you'd get if you were actually there," Mavromatis said. "If you were in the stands, you'd get one angle. You couldn't be in 19 angles, in real life."
Other Web developers and designers have also used the power of ActionScript to invent new user experiences with video on the Web.
Web design company Monde Online programmed videos in a Flash MX Jaguar Australia site to glide gracefully around the Web page, following the user's cursor. Hillman Curtis programmed the video clips in a book promotion to load randomly, creating an ever-changing narrative.
"I'm so excited about this combination of video and ActionScript, because the sky's the limit," Curtis said. However, not all of his clients are as adventurous as he.
"The thing that's scaring a lot of bigger companies, they're not ready to jump into Flash (Player) 6 because not enough people have the plug-in," he said. "It's still early in the game. Six months from now, it will be easier for developers to pitch this stuff."
Working with video using Flash MX and its player has other limitations, too. Third-party video players such as QuickTime, RealPlayer and Windows Media Player are still the best options for long video clips, because Flash MX only supports video clips up to about 10 minutes in length. Longer video can be cut into short clips programmed to load sequentially, but it's a cumbersome process, Mavromatis said.
Another limitation is that the Sorenson Spark codec in Flash MX is just a basic version. Designers who want better image quality and smaller file sizes need to buy a stand-alone video compression application called Sorenson Squeeze, which includes Sorenson Spark Pro.
However, for Web designers who want to create cutting-edge, interactive short video segments, Flash MX's strengths can far outweigh its drawbacks.
The software "takes video from something clunky to something that's fluid and dynamic," said Justin Flynn, CEO of Monde Online. "As a developer, I wouldn't touch anything else."
After using the Matrix-like technique in last summer and winter's X Games, EXPN.com again turned to Flash MX to create a new type of interactive video presentation in this summer's X Games, Mavromatis said. The X Games VIII are currently taking place in Philadelphia.
In Flash-based interactive maps of the skateboard and Moto X/inline skate courses, users will soon find videos of athletes doing tricks on each part of the course. Videos will be added as the games progress.
"Typically you see a lot of stuff that's text and photo-based – but having a course map where you can read about it and see video, it adds another dimension," Mavromatis said. "It will help make the user feel like they're actually there and part of the event."
