Great on the public SVN. I think that it is fine to release when you feel ready to, contributions are always a good thing as differentiation can help make the best features and performers rise to the top or influence other kits. I agree Adobe is adding lots of plans in animation and plans for Flash 10 and their set of products, I see the open source tools as influencing these decisions heavily (many times in fact they are superior in performance and usability). I think if you do decide to release it will be up to you and not anyone else but I am sure there would be benefits beyond just another kit.

I will certainly make Go into a normal live SVN public project very shortly but that requires that I spend the time to get the code where I want it for a public release, time I haven’t had. Actually that’s another side of why I haven’t put out Fuse 3, I know it would greatly benefit the Fuse user base but it also requires a huge amount of work, not just in writing the code but in supporting the project actively, creating documentation and so forth. I learned that the hard way on Fuse2 and so far I’ve been a little bit timid when it comes to committing to something that huge again.

Also, I can’t stress enough that if I put Fuse 3 out now, I’m just adding clutter to an already cluttered world. My big push right now is to get people to take a step back from their own narrow view of the products they use and look at the larger picture: Adobe has Flash, Flex +Thermo, and After Effects and several other secondary products in their suite that rely on animation systems, and thus far nothing unifies these systems. Putting out one more top-to-bottom tween engine would be fun (for example everyone could bash it for being more than 2k or whatever), but in the end it is contributing to what I see as a growing problem. Then again if Adobe decides to continue their current course, there won’t be much we can do about it so eventually I will probably end up releasing something.

I seriously dragged my feet going to AS3 knowing I’d have to do it without Fuse, but ever sense I made the switch, I haven’t regretted it. AS3 is more powerful, and having the Flex debugger makes a huge difference in development of AS projects.

A fantastically thought-out solution does me no good if I can’t download it and look at it. Sorry if that sounds harsh, I am a huge Fuse fan, but bottom line is we all have projects going on right now and need a solution today.

It is good to finally see you coming out from your bat cave of evil masterplans hehe.

I welcome the Go take and standardizing the components and simple elements that all kits might share (smaller functional components to help build complex systems is what architecture is all about). I am looking forward to it and my only recommendation would be, don’t wait, get it out there in the public now, I think there are many people clamoring to get together on this.

I think a similar thing is happening in 3d for flash and physics the same thing might happen. What is great about AS3 is it is inspiring entire new platforms to build on and the fact that so many people are developing kits is a testament to a good, fun, cool and especially usable platform.

You literally swooshed onto the scene just as performance for animation kits was getting to the point and I think this will allow the best, simple kits to advance in the market. The flash developer base is an interesting one for sure and any structure to help build even bigger platforms is always a good thing.

>>Maybe it seems late in the game to you but many agencies have yet to even touch AS3.

The moist middle are the only agencies not touching AS3 yet. They are the ones that only bend when the others push them or when everyone else has done it. Right now with flash9 at 93% by January the moist middle will be behind. AS3 platforms are being built and are already quite robust, the quicker you get in the more you can influence that. WIth the dog performance of AS2 to AS3 and with that news finally getting out and making waves it will make AS2 a very bad choice from here on out (actually a few months back). AS1 to AS2 was not that much of a performance jump more in capability (Bitmap, ByteArray etc) but the AS3 jump is one that is really kicking up the flash market and it needs to get out there quick to compete with Silverlight 1.1. I have to question the value of anyone still using AS2 for new projects that are meant to perform, over AS3 that runs 6-10 times as fast. AS3 is much more attractive for developers as well being based on ECMA4 or the Javascript2 spec (while AS2 was a toy). Just look at the clarification and removal of old hacks that have taken place in the new AVM2: http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/2/langref/migration.html

Maybe you will build Fuse 3 with Go?

Yes, Go is a tool for creating more tweening packages, it’s true. It intends to make it very easy for any AS3 coder to write their own animation code. Complete Kits can also be built on Go, or converted to use Go, which would only make them more compatible with each other & much easier to modify or expand by their users.

I agree that there is a critical mass starting to happen, and it is in fact one reason I’ve held off on putting out a Fuse 3 yet. But, let me be very clear that Go is NOT another tween package adding to the mess, it is the exact opposite of that. This project is not about self-promotion, and in fact will probably be eventually released into public domain without my name on it. Go offers an alternative approach to the one being taken by animation system developers (Adobe included) at this time, who are going self-contained, top-to-bottom, lots of redundant code & mechanics, and no common thread.

I guess after watching me try to take over the world with Fuse 2, your skepticism is understandable. But I disagree that there is a dark side to the Go initiative. There is nothing mandatory or top-down being proposed here. I’m inviting the whole community to help build a system that does not exist today: a thin, flexible set of base classes that can be used to create any animation system. Developers can then do what they want with it. Maybe it seems late in the game to you but many agencies have yet to even touch AS3.

Also, it’s healthy, not a bad thing, to have a lot of syntaxes and kits out there! They cater to different niches, filling needs of all stripes of Flash and Flex developer. The problem as I see it is not the branches and leaves, but that each has its own trunk & root system. Look at all the different but similar ways each tween package handles the common “motion complete” event. Now, try working with a few packages at once or in series, and keeping track of the minute differences for stuff like that. Things like this could stand to be standardized a little, whereas formats like Flash’s new MotionXML, Flex Effects MXML, Uhlmann’s object-oriented libs and Fuse/Tweener/TweenLite’s “object sytnax” are all totally valid, distinct “branches” that address different audiences and challenges.

Please take the time to read up a bit more on Go at my blog, I invite all of you to get involved in helping create a truly useful and valuable standard! http://blog.mosessupposes.com/

Yeh there is starting to be a crtical mass. I think that Go has the right idea creating common underlying components that are fast but giving the syntax freedom might be the wrong way to go. To be honest I think similar syntax is the key to making jumping from one kit to another no problem at all. The goal to get this into teh flash libraries is a good idea in theory but check the speeds of the fl.transitions.Tween class that comes with CS3 and Animation class from Flex… Both dogs. I think that the best ones will emerge as they are, but there is still freedom to do as you want. Although animation kits are a bit like linux distro, everyone wants to build their own.

There’s already almost TOO many tweening packages

They’re all essentially the same and based off of the Penner easing equations.

I don’t know, to me GO seems like a tool for creating even MORE tweening packages, with all kinds of varying syntax. I don’t know if it’s something beneficial to anyone by this point in the Animation Kit game.