Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

ff2003: interaction less ordinary

current session: “Interaction Less Ordinary,” presented by Erik Natzke, of Natzke.com.

Creating engaging experiences is not solely a burden for design or technology, but rather the ways in which the two are combined. Exploring how these fields can be more aptly brought together in the spirit of inventiveness is how we are able to shift from the conventions of predictable execution to one that leaves a lasting impression. This session has been designed to inform as well deconstruct a number of projects that have tried to push these boundaries of both design and technology. Topics covered will include programmatic animation, working with dynamic content, and controlling the draw api

Note: This entry is being posted after the fact. I took notes during the session, but didn’t have a chance to write it up in narrative format until Monday, March 31.

Because the description blurb for Natzke’s presentation didn’t sound particularly practical or exciting, I’d originally planned to go to a session about building extensions for Flash MX. In retrospect, I’m actually glad the presenter for that session didn’t show up.

Like Yugo Nakamura’s presentation at the end of Flash Forward 2000 NY, Natzke’s session was more of a portfolio show-and-tell, demonstrating the progression of his creative and technical Flash skills through experimental and professional projects.

Probably the most high-profile project he showed was a promotional piece for Hewlett-Packard. He also explained how he achieved the “page-turning” effect in Flash for the Dreamworks section. (The secret: Masks. I probably wouldn’t be able to replicate it, but his walkthrough made sense.)

To be honest, most of the portfolio materials that Natzke showed didn’t seem particularly practical for mainstream commercial use. But that didn’t make them any less cool or inspiring to see.