UrbanWire checks out Macromedia’s Studio 8, the company’s latest software suite release.

For all you wannabe web-designers and flash designers, salvation has arrived in the form of Macromedia’s Studio 8.

“The new features sound interesting and beneficial to budding web designers like us”, said Brandon Teoh, 19, a Ngee Ann Polytechnic student.

To commemorate their latest achievements, Macromedia held a media launch event at The Arts House along Old Parliament Lane . Classy was the word to describe the overall feel within the quaint building. Several reporters mostly from tech magazines were already mingling while waiting for the introductory speeches to begin. It was unusual to see a pool table at the far end of the showroom until it struck us that it was to symbolise Studio 8, neat. There were also several notebooks at various corners of the showroom showcasing the various aspects of Studio 8 .

“Studio 8 is the essential software for designing, developing and maintaining great online experiences” said Jim Guerard, Vice-President of Product Management and Product Marketing. His opinion was echoed by his other 2 colleagues, Mike Downey and Jennifer Taylor, Product Managers for Flash and Dreamweaver.

There were a lot of technical terms explained at the event. Fortunately, the detailed graphic slides helped in our comprehension of what was going on. Comprising of Dreamweaver 8, Flash 8, Fireworks 8 and 2 new additions, namely, Contribute and FlashPaper , Studio 8 is the result of listening to intensive customer feedback as most of the tweaking and features were to make the software even more user-friendly, if that were even possible for such a fine product.

Using Dreamweaver 8 as an example, Jennifer Taylor explains that “in order to encourage more users to create their own websites, Dreamweaver 8 comes with a host of website templates”. We got a look at several of these and they make even the pros look good.

On the Flash end, Mike stated that there will be a professional and basic version of Flash 8 for users. The key difference besides pricing, $699 vs $299 is that the basic version will not contain as many of the new features like new Filters, Mobile Authoring components and advanced video options that its professional counterpart has. As the title suggests, it’s for the average user to create simple and basic Flash animation and movies.

To be honest, this release of Flash is meant to bring in new users while retaining the loyal users with the addition of these features. Another interesting point to note is the release of the Flash Player 8. Unlike the previous versions, Flash Player 8 will not require you to entertain those annoying ActiveX pop-ups. Your current Flash Player will automatically update itself to Flash Player 8 when you visit a website that requires it. While others like Dreamweaver and Flash Professional require you to fork out the cash, Flash Player 8 is a stand-alone product that’s free of charge. However, not many websites are using Flash Player 8 since only the beta stage of Flash Player 8 has been released to the public for downloading.

An article about Macromedia’s Studio 8 on Macworld.com has noted that the latest iteration of the suite does not come with Freehand, a software that’s very popular among designers. Studio 8 is also promising more options in developing mobile content for mobile phone users under Flash Professional.

Here’s a bit more on the relatively new additions to the Macromedia family, Contribute 3 acts as an administrative application to assist webmasters by distributing, maintaining and controlling web content thus allowing them to keep their content fresh and updated. FlashPaper 2 according to the official website “allows anyone to convert printable files into Macromedia Flash documents or PDF files with one click”.

In short, the Macromedia Studio 8 is the software bundle that should warrant your serious attention if you’re considering a career or hobby in web/flash designing. After all, with the company serving “222 million users and [seeing] 1.4 million downloads daily” according to NPD Research, can you afford to be without it?