Rapid Flash content development tool...

There is a new tool to create sophisticated Flash animations quickly and efficiently. It's called Xtivity from a company called Tivity Software. It looks like quite a powerfull tool and I would probably place it between Swishmax and full bore Flash MX in respect to complexity and sophistication. It uses a different metaphor than the usual Flash tools I have used and seen in the past. I still rely on Swish for quick animations and I use good old Flash MX when the job requires it.

I can see how someone could buy into the Xtivity metaphor and create very compelling content. From what I could glean from my recent test drive, Xtivity uses a more "event driven" metophor which may be quite disconcerting to anyone used to a timeline based product like Flash or Director. On the other hand, I didn't go into too much depth so there may be some timeline based elements in the product that I did not see. Anyone familiar with Toolbooks will probably pick up the interface quite quickly.

It's interesting to see there are more and more products that simplify the whole Flash content production work as the Macromedia continues to push Flash as a platform to deliver interactive multimedia content.