ActionScript is awesome, but developing with it can be tedious. I have compiled a list of 10 resources that I use on a daily basis to help speed up development. I have purposely not included any animation, 3D or physics frameworks because there are far too many to include in a top ten list. If you have any that I didn’t include, feel free to post them. So here we go, listed in no specific order.

Monster Debugger
I’m loving this new debugger. It’s very easy to include in your code and it even has live editing! Moving that sprite over a couple pixels has never been easier.

Degrafa
I’ve been using this a lot lately. If you are doing any skinning in Flex you’re crazy if you aren’t using Degrafa.

Actionscript 3.0 TextMate Bundle
Here at BKWLD we LOVE TextMate. Although I still use Flex while developing with the Flex framework, I use TextMate for all of my Flash projects. The AS3 bundle makes Flash Development a breeze. Imagine being able to create a class file with the constructor, package declaration and custom class comments already there. At BKWLD we have taken it a step further by creating a huge list of custom snippets and templates that work with our AS3 library.

Pure MVC
While there are many great AS3 frameworks out there, this one is my choice. There are better solutions out there as far as frameworks for Flex development go, but the beauty about Pure MVC is that it is compatible with both Flash and Flex.

Flash Tracer
I use this thing all the time! It’s a Firefox add on that enables you to see all the output generated by any running flash swf, even the ones in your browser. It works great for debugging live content. Also, you get to see all the curse words that other developers have “accidentally” left in their trace calls.

Firefox Web Developer Toolbar
Every web developer who uses Firefox should have this. I mainly use it to test various screen sizes with liquid flash layouts.

Flash Player 10 Debugger
An absolute must have for any flash developer. Make sure you have the debugger version and not just the regular flash player.

Tour de Flex
This is really nice Flex component inspector that also allows you to quickly view the documentation of any component you are looking at.

Losum Ipsum Widget
Quick, randomly generated lines of lorum ispum text.

SQLite Admin
A quick and simple tool that allows you to view the structure of any SQLite database and execute queries. This is a great tool for anyone who is developing for AIR.

I love Photoshop. Okay, now that’s out of the way I can tell you about why I think every other web designer should consider checking out Adobe Fireworks for their next project. I realize this may be a touchy subject and that everyone is quite comfortable at the point using Photoshop and sometimes even Illustrator for web layouts. However, Fireworks is truly made for just this.

The first thing you’ll notice about Fireworks vs Photoshop is it’s ability to work with vector objects much better than Photoshop. I find this to be one of the biggest and best differences for me. This is extremely helpful when rapid prototyping projects and putting together wireframes.

I also love how Fireworks handles gradients over Photoshop. Giving you a simple handle to modify the direction and length of your gradients over the Photoshop guess and check method.

Another big deal for me is the Pages and States panels. When working on a large site it’s easy to get lost in Layers and constantly turning things on and off. With Pages you can easily setup a global layer that handles consistent elements like a primary nav, and then have a clean set of layers for each section of the site. I also find this functionality extremely helpful when brainstorming concepts and saving constant iterations through out the design process.

Another one of Fireworks big strengths is that it works very seamless into the Flash production workflow. You can copy a vector object from Fireworks and paste into Flash while retaining the vector object without having to create a bitmap, one of the first thing to wow our developers when introducing them to Fireworks for the first time.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be posting some of the features in Fireworks that I use on a regular basis that improve my workflow and hopefully inspire some people to at least open it up and check it out. I think once you get used to it you’ll find it’s an amazing tool and hopefully integrate it as part of your web production process.

As of lately I’ve really been meaning to explore Photoshop CS4’s 3D tools. After researching the programs new native 3D tools, they seem to be much more powerful than I had initially imagined. I also was really impressed with Adobe’s latest promotional site “Meet Dweezlbug” where artists Genevieve Gauckler and Erick Natzke created a beautiful creature using the suites new tools. The site features a brief breakdown on all the tools and techinques used such as the new native 3D tools, adjustments, 3D layers and also a bunch of new flash tools and techinques.

I love it all!

Enjoy!

Over the years, I’ve tried cataloging some of the inspirational things I find on the web. It’s been a bit of a labor of love since it’s not the most seamless process and takes forever. However, now that’s all changed. I installed Realmac Software’s web page capture software Little Snapper, and with a few key commands I can quickly save entire web pages or just a selection. Once inside the app I have the ability to quickly tag and categorize each snap.  Not only is the process of cataloging inspiration easier, Little Snapper looks amazing and is polished beyond belief. They just released an iPhone version of Little Snapper I have yet to check out but it looks very interesting and has the ability to post your snaps to Twitter.