The 3d engines in Flash and the power of AS3 virtual machine and programming language is inspiring all kinds of killer stuff on the web, winning awards, on lists and all over the web. It is going to get even more intense with the new Astro releases.

One amazing implementation using this latest tech is Paul Spitzer’s FPS Engine in Papervision3D. Wait til you see this…

Paul Spitzer’s FPS Engine

• Paradox
  
• ParadoxKitchen
  
  

This is by far the smoothest and best textured FPS like control for Flash I have seen yet.

Mouse click and move – look around
e – walk forward
d – backward
s – strafe left
f – strafe right

What is cool about this is it isn’t just for games, this can be used for all types of applications but Paul is giving us a glimpse of the possible gaming platform in 3d that Flash could become. It hasn’t been confirmed but Paul just might be some sort of Flash superhero. There have been other FPS like movement in pv3d and other3d flash kits or canvas but they just aren’t as smooth and well put together as this and my processor doesn’t melt on this one.

Another cool 3d room type app is Tim Knip’s Floor Planner Using Papervision3D

This looks like it can be a very cool way to implement useful apps with 3d flash not just games.

Also recently we highlighted a 3d editor and real-time texture lighting isometric 3d engine.

AS3 community and code has been moving very quickly since the beginning of the year. Animation kits are no different. So we are revising our list of best animation kits for AS3 due to the recent changes and the kits that have heavy usage in AS3 as compared to AS2.

Best Flash AS3 Animation Kits:

1. Tweener
   • Author: Zeh Fernando, Nate Chatellier
   • URL: http://code.google.com/p/tweener/
   • Download: [source]
   • Pros:
     • Small and quick, compact library
     • Functional syntax (functional coders will like this as well as OO due to its simplicity)
     • Very agile for things like bezier tweening and papervision3d early on.
     • Based on MCTween and Tweener As2
     • Takes only about 10kb of your swf compiled
     • Quick learning curve for levels of all scripting
     • Open Source, MIT License
     • Forgets about MovieClips and TextFields and simply allow any instance of any class to be tweened seamlessly
     • Much more extensible when it comes to using custom transitions
     • Much more extensible when it comes to using custom special properties, allowing ‘extensions’ to be built and added to Tweener when needed
     • Much easier to create complex tweenings due to additional, more powerful events
     • Much easier to “wrap around” methods and functions which Tweener doesn’t natively support
     • New features like setTimeScale(), .skipUpdates, and addCaller(), which are very specific to certain situations but can help wonders
     • Promotes reusing and standardization by allowing tweening ‘templates’ to be built and reused
     • Uses the same syntax between the AS2 and AS3 versions, but maintaining the standards of each version for values or property names
     • Produces code that’s much easier to read and understand
   • Cons:
     • Some special properties not yet implemented (brightness, hue etc – however easily added and extended)
     • Only EnterFrame based (although this is the best method)
     • Doesn’t feature native filter tweening for all filters yet
     • Has no Flash IDE code completion or code hinting available
     • The developer must remember the name of the tweening properties available, or have them at hand
     • Tweener hasn’t gone through many speed optimizations yet; while impossible to notice on most real-world scenarios (for example, when using less than half a thousand tweenings at the same time on AS2), MC Tween has better performance than Tweener
2. TweenLite, TweenFilterLite
   • Author: Jack Doyle
   • URL: http://blog.greensock.com/tweenliteas3
   • Download: [source]
   • Pros:
     • Open Source, BSD license
     • Mature, been around since AS2
     • Lots of extras for effects like brightness, filters, hue etc.
     • Very Tweener like syntax
     • Only 3kb compiled into swf
     • Filter kit allows brightness, contrast, filter, volume etc tweens of pretty much everything
     • Currently the performance champ for straight tweens per second
   • Cons:
     • Advanced stuff like bezier tweens not as simple as tweener
     • Has no Flash IDE code completion or code hinting available
3. Animation Package
   • Author: Alex Uhlmann (works for Adobe now)
   • URL: http://www.alex-uhlmann.de/flash/animationpackage/
   • Download: [source]
   • Pros:
     • Open Source, MPL License
     • Mature, been around since AS1 and quick to update to AS3
     • Lots of extras like shape, color, filter, effects tools
     • Things like Drawer and Animation with paths to arrays provide ‘drawing’ and playback capabilities or SVG playback
   • Cons:
     • Stuck in AS3 alpha, maybe Alex is busy at Adobe?
     • Rather large due to the extras
     • Takes around 40kb of your swf (worth it if using extra features)
4. Animation System v2.0
   • Author: Ryan Taylor
   • URL: http://www.boostworthy.com/blog/?p=170
   • Download: [source]
   • Pros:
     • Open Source, MIT License
     • Specify the use of ‘enter frame’ or ‘timer’ as your render method on a per-animation basis.
     • Easily complete many common animations using the animation manager with one line of code.
     • Create complex sequences of tweens and actions using the virtual timeline.
     • Easily animate any property of any filter.
     • Advanced color support that includes brightness, contrast, hue, and saturation.
     • Common interface used for garbage collecting throughout the entire package.
     • Create motion paths for display objects with the option to auto-orient to path.
     • Advanced animation support using paths as value maps.
     • Extremely extensible architecture.
     • Clearly defined API.
     • Full-blown documentation using ASDoc (same as Adobe livedocs).
     • Eleven example files ranging from basic to advanced usage and theory.
   • Cons:
     • New, AS3 only version
     • Rather large due to the extras
     • Takes around 20-30kb? of your swf (need to test this)

FuseKit is missing a huge opportunity by not updating to AS3 yet, it might be too late as some of these kits above are simply too good for the situations you may come across where you want to standardize on an animation kit.

Right now for most projects I am using Tweener for AS3, with a few projects using Animation Package. I still use FuseKit or Tweener AS2 when doing AS2 but this is only maintenance, new projects are all AS3 simply due to the speed of the new VM and to make code more valuable as it has a longer life.

But as time goes on things may change, usually the simplest and most agile systems keep up which this usually means the open source ones and the ones with simple syntax. Right now that one is Tweener. Tweener has been especially quick and easy for Papervision3d projects.

I have also tried and sampled Animation System 2.0 of which I have heard good things and used Animation Package quite a bit more in effects than Tweener. It depends on the job and what is required in the project for th ebest animation package decision, or make your own.

Am I missing any other good ones?