Cody Tolmasoff – Flash Engineer

I’ve recently started a new full time position with Context Optional Inc. building flash pieces for Facebook apps in Downtown San Francisco.

A phone or in person interview can be a really tough way to find out how a person works or fits in to an organization. I know from my experience leading a team that I always found better talent in a contract to hire situation rather than just a simple interview to hire type scenario. Sometimes it is just really hard to put into words how you handle Flash security sandbox issues, or how you debug your projects.

I personally like the contract to hire way of doing things because its a win-win situation for both sides. The employer can actually see how you work and do things, and if you integrate well with an existing team. And from the potential employee side of things you can see how the company actually functions, what the working environment is likes, and how the average day works to see if it fits their expectations.

I’m available for contracting (if this suits your needs). I can work on new or existing projects, and quickly find my way around any existing project you may have. One of the benefits of working with Flash and ActionScript for so long is that I’ve been exposed to many different working styles, and can adapt to them quickly. I can be available on-site or work remotely as necessary.

As many perspective employers want to see source code for recent projects to ensure I know what I’m doing, I’ve added a new section called View Source to the site. Starting today I’m going to be adding some quick fun little projects to this section to share.

Many of my more recent projects come from a huge code repository which is not mine to share (even if I contributed to is significantly). This is the type of thing I can open up in person during an interview, however its not the type of thing I can easily share as an example of my code.

The projects contained in this section are not meant to be huge long term projects, but fun things I knock out in an afternoon or two in order to show that I can work in ActionScript 3 and Flex (or Flash Builder), or whatever tools I choose to create them. Then by offering the source I can also show how I work, my coding style, and my conventions.

I’ll be adding projects as time allows. Go have a look and enjoy!

I’m still in the process of  looking for a new position.

With the job market and the economy the way it currently is,  I’m using this time between positions as more of a sabbatical, updating my skill set and learning some new things.

With the release of Flash Builder and Flash Catalyst I’m finally getting into what was Flex development. I’ve been working with ActionScript 3 more and I’ve subscribed to Oreilly’s online media library where I’m reading a number of technical books right now (mostly about Flex and ActionScript 3).

I’ve also had the chance to go out and attend events like Flash Camp and Pixelsessions which were very engaging and inspiring, I learned a lot.

Flash Camp is a free event put on by Adobe at various locations. I had the pleasure of attending at the San Francisco headquarters to see whats new with Flash, and where things are headed.

Well one of the biggest pieces of news that came up was the name change of Flex Builder to  Flash Builder. The name change leaves me with mixed feelings. On one hand its way more descriptive of what this tool actually does, on the other hand  this is an easy way to confuse the vast number of people who dont’ deal with this tool directly. However I welcome the name change and look forward to using the new tools Flash Builder and its companion Flash Calalyst.

Flash Builder has a good deal of improvements, however the biggest improvement is the comanion tool Flash Catalyst which makes the foundation of the trasnition between a design comp from Illustrator or Photoshop to a Flash Builder (Flex) projecet.

Flash Catalyst makes the connection and transition between Designers (and their Design Comps) and Developers (making functional prototypes) easy to manage. Instead of exporting peices of a comp as a bunch of seperate graphics which get implemented with some code, you can import an Illustrator or Photoshop document into Catalyst and apply functionality to it. Imaging taking a scroll bar comp, selecting all of the scroll bar elements, and through a dropdown applying scroll bar functionality to it, then identifying the individual assets (i.e. the scroll track, the thumb, scroll arrows, etc…). Thats all you have to do to have not only a functional scroll bar, but one also completly styled by the designer withough having to create some kind of contrived skin, or the developer poorly recreating the elements as vectors so they are easier to deal with.

The other huge benifit to Flash Catalyst is that early in the design process you can quicly create a mockup that has basic functionality which helps in so many ways. It’s so easy for a designer to throw together a mockup or comp that looks nice but has fundamental interactive issues, or a bad user experience. A designer can easilly apply functionality to most any part of a comp and test it out, the client could even play with it to reduce misunderstandings that offen occur when looking at static images of a proposed project.

So Flash Catalyst has me really excited, and it creates many if not all of the basic elements you need for your  Flash Builder (Flex) project so all that should be left is to apply logic and data. The integration between Flash Builder and Flash Catalyst I would expect to literally save days of development time in my future, and also output a nicer user experience as well.

I’m currently working with the trial versions of Flash Builder and Flash Catalyst and I’m really pleased. Thanks Adobe!

I’ll be attending Flashcamp at the Adobe headquarters this evening. I’m really looking forward to seeing the newly named Flash Builder (previously flex buildier) code named Gumbo, along with some updates on Adobe AIR. I’ll post a summary here after the event.

I just got back from a very motivational night attending Pixel Sessions in San Francisco at the Mighty in the SOMA. I got to see Jared Ficklin talk about some crazy thrashing of ideas he seems to go through on a regular basis, Jenny Hansen talk about where she gets her motivation from, Michael Ernst talk about the crazy things he gets to do for Yelp.com, and finally Josh Ulm talk about what motivates him and what he does for the Adobe XD team. 

I really enjoyed the event, drew a lot of motivation from it, got to meet a lot of really cool people, and I’m looking forward to the next event. You should join me there next time…

I am currently no longer working for my previous company Mixercast and I’m immediatly available for employment. Feel free to contact me with your open position.