As another week draws to a close we’ve assembled all the Flash files uploaded to FlashDen this week, and as always, it’s all killer with no filler! So if you’ve been out of town all week and have missed all the great files uploaded to FlashDen in the past 7 days, here’s a quick roundup of all our favorites. Congratulations to all the authors of the files listed below, great job everyone!
Romanian development team Oxylus finally made it to the coveted number one spot in the Popular Authors chart for July, knocking digitalscience off the top spot for the first time in eons! And now, as we move into September, we see that Oxylus have maintained their number one position with the highest number of total sales for August!
With over 100 files now in their portfolio, Oxylus continue to raise their game with an attraction of gorgeously designed Flash files, including their recent smash hit, the Slick Full Website Template with CMS and 2 Skins. The diversity of the Oxylus portfolio is impeccable, covering preloaders, navigation menus, 3D carousel viewers, image galleries, audio players and now full site templates. Whenever you see a new Flash file posted by Oxylus you know you are in for a visual treat with exceptional customization options. For these reasons, Oxylus is a FlashDen legend! But despite the huge library of files Oxylus has available on FlashDen, we know very little behind the mastermind and the team that makes these files. Let’s change that right now as we interview Oxylus!
Greetings, my name is Octavian Chelaru and I am the co-owner and creative director of Oxylus Development. We are a small but growing software company based in Romania. Our main focus is complex online applications and custom websites, however we like to see ourselves as a full service creative company so we do offer services that cover all the needs our clients can have, including corporate id, print or outdoor banner design. We are fairly “old” by industry standards having been in business for almost 10 years now. I would also like to credit our amazing Flash developers who work on our stock flash releases : Adrian, Razvan, Laurentiu and Radu. Emanuel, my associate, is the one responsible for any of the PHP work bundled with our files, like the amazing admin panels.
Our creations are typically a team effort and as far as Flash goes we have some very talented developers in our team and all have varying amounts of experience.
We started selling stock flash about one and a half years ago, as a sort of experiment at first but then we started getting a taste of this niche and began doing things more seriously. We were first introduced to the phenomenon when we had to create a stock flash marketplace website and had to do a bit of industry research. At that point we discovered the potential of this fast-growing micro-stock industry so we decided to give it a try. So far it seams it was a good call. FlashDen is the top site in this industry by far so if you’re serious about stock Flash, like we are, presence on FD is mandatory, not optional.
We typically make all our files from scratch, with a specific target in mind. We have found that clients that hire us to create work for them, typically do so because it’s highly customized and specific work, thus usually it would not be of general interest, at least not in the same formula it was created. We do occasionally re-use certain classes or small parts we originally developed for clients, but this is a very rare occurrence. In our experience, it is more efficient to work more and provide the stock buyers with what they’re looking for rather then save up on work time and release something they would not be interested in.
Well, this has to do with our long term strategy, which is to build up a large portfolio of items that would cover all bases, from simple to highly complex files. Our ultimate goal is for buyers to find any kind of file they would need in our portfolio and on top of that find some very cool original files they would have a hard time finding anywhere else. High ambitions, I know, but slowly and steadily we’re progressing towards this goal. What all this means is that we try to combine originality with already market proven ideas in a ratio that is within our strategy. In short, sometimes we create items that are of types that already sell well (like banner rotators, carousels, menus, galleries) but we try to make them better and more appealing to the customers, while other items are completely original or inspired by the current creative trends around the web. Short-term, we plan on making more popular interest files while on the long run we’ll add increasingly more specific and rare files that can’t be found in other authors’ portfolios. To end this answer more to the point, my main sources of inspiration are competing files in the same category as the new file we’re making, current trends in Flash (mainly awards sites like thefwa), art/designer showcase sites (like deviantart) and of course personal visual culture which is built in time and includes very diverse influences.
Well, I think our work flow is a bit different than most, given the fact that we break up stages of each new file between members of our team instead of one person doing the whole process. Typically, when starting on a new file, we identify the type of the new file we want to create by considering what we’re missing from our portfolio and what would sell well. As I mentioned earlier our strategy is to slowly get to a portfolio that covers most of the file types on sale today. After identifying the type of file, let’s say a menu, we look at the files it would compete with and try to see how we could make our file better or more appealing to the customers, be it with design, features or flexibility. The design is then created in Photoshop or Illustrator, including screens for all stages of the file, even transitions. After this is done, a complete specs sheet with the features, xml options and transition details of the new file is done. At this point, the creative stage is considered complete and the design and specs sheet is passed on to the assigned ActionScript developer. We usually create specific files for each developer on our team, taking into account their skill set, experience and previously completed files.
We do many things, on many levels, but definitely not enough. As far as branding goes at one point or another we will completely revamp all our identity materials, from thumbnails and file previews to help files, streamline all our file descriptions as well as quite other small things. At this point however the time available for stock flash is very limited and better spent in other areas. Right now we only brand some of our previews very discretely and our help files. Marketing-wise, given the fact that we’re a non-exclusive authors, our tactics would probably not be helpful to fellow FD authors.
All that comes to mind has already been said before, but in a nutshell I would advise them to work as hard as they can, release as many files as they can and never skimp on visual appearance or their work might not have the return they hoped for. In my opinion FD has become a very competitive place in the last year or so and if new authors don’t work really hard and allocate a lot of time to this they will not succeed. As with anything else, it all comes down to hard work and dedication. Good support and help files is also an important issues, don’t skimp on this. This is something we plan on improving as well so I can’t stress the importance of a good help base out of the box, that will save you tons of time doing support. We plan on slowly adding video tutorials for all our files and some general FAQs as well, I would advise other authors to consider this.
Hmm, tough question, I personally love the work of many top authors on FD, I think the talent level is very high and up to par to top international agencies. Having to pick just one, I’d have to say DigitalScience. The combination of his skills, creativity, dedication and longevity in this game is an inspiration, especially since he does all his stuff himself from start to finish and is a fulltime Denner. We also love the work of the other companies here on FD and hope that soon we’ll be able to allocate sufficient time to stock Flash in order to release more complex files like they do.
Another tough question, “the best” can be interpreted in so many ways. I think that our first full Flash template with a PHP administration panel called Slick Full Website Template with CMS and 2 Skins comes closest to an overall best. It is very complex, sells well and is highly acclaimed. Our Ultimate 3D Carousel comes pretty close as well though.
Higher percentages for non-exclusive authors or at least a progressive percentage depending on sales 
Joking aside, there are many improvements I could think of, especially since we’re very familiar with the industry and have developed a few similar systems, but I’m sure many of these are on the to-do list of the people in charge. What I think would be crucial though would be the ability to edit your submission while it’s in the queue, and use the soft-reject feature site-wide (except for the items that are rejected for good).
Since we’re a team, we each have our own passions and hobbies, so I can only speak for myself in this matter. I love anything with an engine in it, so riding motorcycles or driving cars on or off road always bumps my spirits up. Music and modern art is also a big thing for me and so is the occasional heavy partying with my friends. I consider myself somewhat of an diverse person who finds joy in any activity or thing. I like to explore anything that’s new to me and usually enjoy all the good parts of it. I find that gives you a very open perspective on life, people and how everything ties and works together.
Well, let me share a little secret. Given the way we build files and the fact that we’re seriously limited as far as time allocated to stock flash development goes, we actually have a ton of files in the works. While we released about 117 files so far but believe it or not we have graphics and specs done for almost 100 more, including 7 templates. Unfortunately though we are very busy with our custom development for our clients so to be honest I don’t think that (at least for now) we’re able to allocate much more time to this than a single hard working full-time developer could. As a sneak peak I’ve chosen one of the files we hope to release in the near future, a nice mp3 player with playlist.
goTo! is relatively new to FlashDen but is already a big hit, with 5 amazing files we cant help but think that the best is yet to come. Check out goTo’s portfolio for some AS3 mastery.
By the way, goTo also drew my avatar.
Here are some highlights from goTo’s portfolio:
Click here for more featured files and authors.
Each week we pick the highlights out of all files uploaded to FlashDen over the previous 7 days. This week’s selection includes some seemingly small yet very useful tools such as a clean and tidy news rotator, a customizable content scroller that resizes on browser resize, a content scroller containing multiple columns of text, and a very impressive and feature-rich interactive mapping tool. For more details on all our selections this week, click on the thumbnails below to see each preview. Let’s give some love to the creators of these files in the blog comments! Congratulations to all the authors whose work below made our Files of the Week roundup!
Flash affords designers and developers the perfect opportunity to create memorable, interactive experiences that touch our senses from both a visual and aural perspective. Images are powerful alone, yet when they are combined with audio, messages often resonate even more. A recent Flash Web site that caught my eye as far as achieving a compelling interactive experience is WATERLIFE, a Web site created to promote a documentary about the beauty and environmental challenges of the Great Lakes, produced in conjunction with the National Film Board of Canada.
From the minute the preloader kicks in when you first visit WATERLIFE, the theme of water is, figuratively speaking, gently splashed across the face of the user. The preloader flows across the screen mimicking an ocean wave. This same visual element then gets used in the navigation of the site. Having multiple but similar and often subtle ways that tie into your main message or branding is a great way to make your Flash Web site feel cohesive. It also makes the experience consistent and on-topic for the end user.
My favorite part about the site navigation is simply how it employs the main theme of water that runs throughout the site design. When the user rolls over the horizontal navigation at the bottom of the screen, the main screen area fades back so the navigation takes visual prominence and draws the user in to the wave-like motion that follows the cursor of the mouse as the user meanders across each navigation element. This is simple yet imaginative navigation, and best of all, it’s usable and understandable.
As each section is selected from the main navigation, 3D shapes animate together to form objects such as animals, water bottles and boats. Each shape is entirely constructed from hundreds of tiny, individual photographs, almost signifying how each subject is so deep and complex with multiple opinions, viewpoints and stories. Using cutting-edge technologies (presumably Papevision3D in this case) in a relevant and creative way cleverly ties subject matter together and makes the user think about important messages. As the shapes shatter into the distance, three dimensional text appears to introduce the user to the new topic.
It’s always those little touches that make something feel professional. It’s as if site creators are giving something extra to the user. In the above example for instance, paperclips move away from the cursor as the user tries to touch them with the mouse cursor. It may sound trivial, but these little touches and attention to detail add a unique polish to the user experience.
Beautiful, ambient music by recording artists such as Brian Eno, Philip Glass and Sigur Ros accompany the visuals, underlining each message presented on screen. Audio narration accompanies most sections which works surprisingly well with the music simultaneously playing in the background. The user can turn down the volume of the background music to focus more on what the narrator is saying, and a special touch I liked most of all was the way the volume of the narration automatically fades out when you return to the navigation menu to choose another option. The combination of audio and images is extremely powerful, and this is one of the greatest strengths a Flash presentation can offer.
It’s important with any Web site not to bombard users or totally overload them with images, sound or content. WATERLIFE is a huge success as far as disseminating information is concerned because the audio and visuals are subtle yet effective. And the main textual content is superbly laid out. Important information appears in large, bold type and is purposely kept brief so the most important information and facts stand out and are easily digested by the user.
The WATERLIFE Flash Web site is a huge success as far as engaging the user is concerned. The Web site manages to achieve the perfect combination of great visuals and beautifully appropriate audio, while telling a story and educating at the same time. If you can be entertained and enlightened at the same time as finding yourself totally immersed in an online, interactive experience, then success is inevitable.
The documentary WATERLIFE is being screened in Canada right now and will continue to be shown throughout the rest of this year. For more information and to see this beautiful Web site for yourself, visit WATERLIFE.
Being a popular member on FlashDen is a lot more than having a great portfolio of files. It’s also about community interaction in the forums, on the blog, and encouraging other authors in file threads. FlashDen member sike excels in all of these areas which is why we wanted to give a long overdue salute to him!
Sike has been around on FlashDen for pretty much the entire ride, having signed-up in 2006 when FlashDen was in its infancy. As an author, sike has been extremely active in the past 12 months where he has consistently been churning out new items that are unique, creative, simple and useful.
It would also seem that sike likes a challenge! Last month on the FD blog, we wrote an article about a new Flash framework called coordy. Sike was the first person to comment on the blog post and casually mentioned he would try it out. Within a week or so, sike created and uploaded the XML Dynamic Layout Gallery, the first file on FlashDen that we know of based on coordy. The way sike researched a new framework and applied it to a FlashDen file so quickly is very inspirational!
What we really enjoy most of all about sike’s portfolio is the way he employs and utilizes 3D effects throughout his files. Take the XML Cube Video Gallery for instance, which literally gives a new spin on the video gallery concept. Likewise, the Flip Tab Image Rotator successfully manages to combine a banner rotator with 3D flip effects to engage the user.
We encourage you to check out sike’s portfolio to see the many creative files and wide-ranging types of files he has assembled. Here are just a small selection of the impressive files sike has uploaded to FlashDen:
For all that you’ve brought to FlashDen and the FD community, sike, FlashDen salutes you!
With a growing portfolio of files ranging from fonts to fireflies, and an extremely unique design style to boot, RJFlash is a really hot author!
Here are some highlights from RJFlash’s portfolio:
Click here for more featured files and authors.
It’s been crazy-hectic this week around envato due to all the Birthday celebrations, we hope you’ve enjoyed it. What better way to round-off a wonderful week than with a look back at all our favorite files submitted to FlashDen this week. Congratulations to all the authors below for a splendid array of high quality design and functionality. Keep-up the awesome work!
Almost a year, and he’s certainly been making his mark – Mr. Reaper is in the hot seat now. Being one of the den’s young guns, we’re sure we’ll be seeing a lot more outstanding work from him in the Future, but you should check him out today!
Here are some highlights from Reaper’s portfolio:
Click here for more featured files and authors.
Calm down, calm down, we know you’re all very excited about the Birthday Bash excitement next week. We are too. But before we start eating birthday cake, let’s use some of that excitement and energy to applaud the authors of this week’s collection of stand-out files. Let’s give a big, loud round of applause to the 20+ files that caught our eyes this week. Congratulations to everyone who produced the following files!
Down the Foxhole is the community blog of ActiveDen, an Envato marketplace. At ActiveDen you can buy or sell Adobe Flash and Flex files like preloaders, galleries, site templates and utilities. Files are created and sold by a huge community of authors from all over the world, helping to make it the biggest Flash library online!
You can also find ActiveDen
on Twitter and Facebook.
copyright © 2009 envato | TERMS OF USAGE | Support/help | Icons by tango + Wefunction
Adobe®, Flash®, Flex®, Fireworks®, Photoshop®, Illustrator®, InDesign® and After Effects® are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated.
