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Expression 4 Launch

Jason — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 18:42:08 +0000

Today Expression Studio 4 launched at Internet week!

*IMPORTANT*
If you are developing in Silverlight for Windows Phone 7 and need/want to use Blend for this, do not install the released version of Expression Studio 4. You must continue to use the Blend 4 Beta and Add-in Preview for Windows Phone. This Beta will be refreshed with each Phone SDK pre-release and will be unified with released Blend 4 in a service pack which will release when the Windows Phone SDK releases.

Here are some key thoughts about this exciting new release…

The lines of development and design are becoming increasingly blurred, demanding a toolset that effectively blends the two disciplines into one seamless workflow.

Great design takes passion, skill and inspiration. It also takes tools enable you to transform your ideas into that perfect vision.

Microsoft Expression Studio is a suite of professional design tools that enable designers and developers to create and deliver amazing user experiences for the desktop, mobile devices and Web.

Microsoft Expression Web 4 gives you the tools you need to produce high-quality, standards-based Web sites, with built-in support for today’s Web standards, sophisticated CSS design capabilities, and visual diagnostic tools.
SketchFlow allows you to rapidly illustrate ideas, user interface flows, screen layouts, and application functionality to your clients with an effective prototype.

With Microsoft Expression Encoder, you can import and encode video files, produce live webcasts, enhance media with watermarks and advertising, and publish with Microsoft Silverlight.

The new features in Expression Studio 4 enable better customer engagement, greater flexibility, and faster time-to-market.

Create interactivity without programming, translating complex interaction models and ideas into easy-to-use production-ready behaviors without writing code.

Convey ideas through informal drawings, and carry your prototype design from inception to production.

Debug pages on the same machine you use for development, encode a wide array of file formats, and make your Web site more relevant and search-engine friendly

Customers such as Cynergy, Anvil Digital and Copia are turning to Expression to increase business opportunities and create innovative applications.

Three years ago, Cynergy, an Adobe shop, started a Microsoft practice with two people. Today, there are 25 people on Microsoft technology at Cynergy and more than 50% of its business comes from Silverlight.

By using SketchFlow to pitch new customers, Anvil Digital has increased its business win rate from 30% to 90%, cut development time by 40%, and has more than doubled in size in the last year.

Expression Studio 4 allows Copia users to consume content and share information seamlessly via rich multi-touch experiences that span the PC, eReaders, tablets and mobile devices.

Expression Studio 4 is available today (June 7) via trial at www.microsoft.com/expression
Owners of v3 Expression Studio or Expression Web can upgrade at no additional cost to their corresponding v4 counterparts: Expression Studio 4 Ultimate and Expression Studio 4 Web Professional.

Expression Blend 4 New Features include:

VS2010 compatibility
Windows Phone support
Deeper Adobe Photoshop import (layer effects)
New behaviors & conditional behaviors
Enhanced sample data support
Listbox path layout for designing with data
Pixel Shader effects (including animations)
Easier styling and customization
Model View View-Model support
Mockup controls for SketchFlow
Expression Web 4 New Features include

SEO Reporting from inside of the application
New extensibility model enables creating add-ins with HTML, JS, and CSS
New SuperPreview online service beta for browser compatibility testing now supports Macintosh Safari
Expression Encoder 4 Pro New features include

Live Smooth Streaming (VC-1 & H.264)
New H.264 encoder from MainConcept
Enhanced Screen Capture
DRM (PlayReady) for Live Content
This is an awesome release for XAML, web and media developers creating interactive solutions.

Storyboard Interactions

Jason — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:49:38 +0000

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks and it has left me with some catching up to do on the videos. Hopefully this look at Storyboard Interactions in Blend will help get the ball rolling. This is really more method than anything else and really it’s for scenarios that could be limitless regarding animation in your interfaces, let me know what you think and as always love to get feedback of any nature.

Oh and if you happen to be in the LA area check out http://www.laslug.com, a brand new Silverlight User Group that just launched here, the first meeting is the 28th so be sure to come out if you are in town.

Thanks,
J.

Click Here To Watch Storyboard Interactions.

The Border Control

Jason — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 08:28:21 +0000

This week I am beginning a look at the controls in Blend with a glance at the Border Control. I wasn’t quite sure why there might be a reason for the border control but after examining it a bit I see that there is a good deal of potential for this control in UI design. Some real flexibility built into it.

I hope to take a similar look at all the controls within Blend in the future so please keep coming back to see.

There are a couple of series of videos that I plan to start rolling out as well as this one so hopefully you will see the results of those efforts very soon.

As always feedback is appreciated, if there is something you would like me to explore in a video, or what have you please feel free to comment here. I want to make sure that I am sharing useful information here for you all to see how easy it can be to create some great Silverlight experiences in Blend.

Thanks,

Click Here To Watch The Border Control.

Resource Dictionaries

Jason — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 09:06:57 +0000

In this video we take a quick look at a simple but powerful feature of Expression Blend the Resource Dictionary. They allow you to organize and reuse the styles you create for your application. We also take another look at positioning a label in a button, a bit of an improvement from the custom button video a few weeks back. As always feedback is appreciated.

Best,
J.

Click Here To Watch Intro to Photoshop Import.

Intro to Photoshop Import

Jason — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 06:35:24 +0000

In this video I show you the process in importing a Photoshop file into Blend. I go over the supported and non-supported features and I demonstrate how easy it is to bind data directly to a text box that you created in Photoshop.

This is a really great addition to Blend and I hope you are excited about the possibilities of combining layered Photoshop UI with the power of Blend.

As always please let me know if you have any feedback.

Thanks,
J.

Click Here To Watch Intro to Photoshop Import.

Intro to Sample Data

Jason — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 00:29:29 +0000

This week we take a quick intro look at sample data and data binding. We quickly create an application for looking at our data with zero code.
Sample data in Blend 3 allows you to start working on a data driven application quickly even if you database is not built or your data not populated.

As always please let me know if you have any feedback.

Thanks,
J.

Click Here To Watch Intro to Sample Data.

Intro to animation easing

Jason — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 00:34:08 +0000

For this video I wanted to take a look a quick intro look at the easing functions in states within Blend. The icon view of the multiple presets in the in, out, and in&out may not be at first glance intuitive, hopefully after this video you might be able to anticipate the results from you choice a little bit better.

As always please let me know if you have any feedback.

Thanks,
J.

Click Here To Watch Intro to Animation Easing.

Creating a Custom Button

Jason — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 02:27:51 +0000

For this video I wanted to take a look at creating a custom button control for your application and share with you a tip that I picked up talking with Victor Gaudioso. I recently picked up Victor’s Foundation Expression Blend 3 book and was working through it and ran into this issue which he was kind enough to share some insight into and that is creating a custom content presenter. Victor’s book was actually neck and neck with the product release so there are some differences between what has been released to the public and what he has in his book so he has been really great clearing up some of those differences.

Hopefully this tutorial is a help to you understanding some the techniques in creating a custom button control and take it from me understanding how to make a custom content presenter will be very handy in the future.

I recommend you check out both Victor’s book and his blog at http://victorgaudioso.wordpress.com for some great info on Expression Blend 3.

As always please let me know what you think, and if there are any aspects of Expression Blend you would like me to investigate to share as a video I would love to know what you would like to see.

Thanks!
J.

Click Here To Watch Creating a Custom Button

SketchFlow Overview

Jason — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 09:53:54 +0000

Well I said I would do it, and here we go, our second video for the site. It’s been a while coming but it’s here and it’s the start of a new series of weekly videos on Expression. In this video rather than doing a start to finish tutorial I spend some time looking at one of the coolest new features in Expression Blend 3, SketchFlow an experience prototyping tool built into Blend.

I walk you through the interface as I mock up a quick and dirty prototype of an application and demonstrate the feedback cycle using the cross browser, cross platform, SketchFlow Player as well as the incredible export to Word feature. Take a look and please, if you have any feedback at all please don’t hesitate to drop me a line here.

*I am still working out some kinks with getting the video up to the streaming server so this is a locally served copy and will take a sec (Okay, it takes a wicked long time, working on it) to get rolling.*

Issues resolved

Without further ado.

SketchFlow Overview Video.

Free 60 day trial of Expression Studio 3

Expression 3 available for pre-order and trial download.

Jason — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 01:07:04 +0000

Today Expression 3 became available for pre-order and trial download. Hurry over and download it now!