Blend 3 and Silverlight 3 has been released as a beta for all the designers and developers to get an early look into how it works and be ready for its release and it's worth having a look into.
You can grab the new tools here: http://silverlight.net/getstarted/silverlight3/default.aspx
Some of the features that will really be helpful to the design crew are Pixel Shaders, Intellisense for XAML, GPU Acceleration, Out of browser capabilities and the ability to edit the Code-Behind files directly in Blend.
Pixel Shaders
This one is probably my favourite feature of Silverlight 3. Now you can add drop shadow effects and blur effects to any object in your application. This includes images and videos (although you might notice a little bit of lag). Also a few guys have converted the WPF pixel shader library for use in Silverlight Applications, which has heaps of awesome effects from motion blur to burn effects. You can find them here: http://wpffx.codeplex.com/. Add this to your project as a reference library and you should be good to go.
How to add an effect?
In the new Blend 3 beta, you can find an effects section under miscellaneous in your Object Properties tab.
Intellisense
Intellisense is just a great way to speed up the process when you have to code your XAML by hand, flying out from where you are typing giving you suggestions on what code options are available.
GPU Acceleration
GPU acceleration is a great new feature that really helps out with those animation/media/pixel shader heavy applications. And its very easy to set up.
By simply adding <param name="EnableGPUAcceleration" value="true" /> to your html output file, your application is ready to go.
Out of Browser
Silverlight 3 gives the user an option to save your application to their desktop for easy use. The Silverlight 3 engine comes with a desktop launcher "sllauncher.exe" that loads your Silverlight application into a desktop application.
Now your application isn't automatically set up to do this, but a few simple edits to your AppManifest.xml file and its ready to go (this can be found under the Properties folder in your project files).
Place this code between your <deployment> </deployment> tags
<Deployment.ApplicationIdentity>
<ApplicationIdentity ShortName="My OoB App"
Title="My Out of Browser Application">
<ApplicationIdentity.Blurb>
Check out my silverlight application running outside a browser
</ApplicationIdentity.Blurb>
</ApplicationIdentity>
</Deployment.ApplicationIdentity>
Change the ShortName to what you want it to me called when its installed, the title is the full name of the application and shown in the header of window when its running and the Blurb can be found when viewing the properties of the application.
Now your use should be able to right click to install the application, and right click again to delete it.
The Code-Behind
The ability to edit the code behind file with little bits and pieces is fantastic, seeing as we spend most of our time nutting out the graphics, it seems a bit over the top to have to load Visual Studio just to start an animation.
Now with Blend 3 you can edit all your project files from your XAML to Code behind to your HTML output. Having this much control over your project makes it so much easier for designers to work without having to bash around in Visual Studios at all, it's great!
Projection
The last feature I wanted to talk about is Projection, it's just another parameter you can apply to your objects which gives the viewer a 3d perspective of the object. Editing the X or Y flips the object over to give us the ability to imitate 3d objects. This parameter is editable through story boards as well to make great looking 3d animations, and combine this feature with a blur effect and scale transforms and you can create some really great looking 3d applications.
Well this was a pretty whirl wind tour of some of my favourite features.
If you want to have a go of the new tools and engine, you should be able to find everything you need here: http://silverlight.net/getstarted/silverlight3/default.aspx
Get to it!
Thanks
About the Author
Alex Knight
Alex is a Silverlight MVP with a strong focus on the graphics and user interface side of things. He runs Xamling with Jordan Knight (@jakkaj) which specialises in creating awesome experiences for Silverlight and WPF. So it doesn't matter what platform, if its xaml he digs it. If you want to find more out about Alex, check out:AGKDesign.twitter | xamling.net
