Andrew Rapo is senior Producer/Technical Architect of Disney’s new DXD Web product. He is the author of “Understanding Macromedia Flash 8: ActionScript 2” (Focal Press, www.rapo.org). Andrew was a member of the team that launched the original Disney.com in 1996 and has been working with Flash since it was called Splash. As Producer for Walt Disney Pictures Web sites, he developed innovative interactive content in the early days of film Web sites, for movies including The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mulan, Armageddon, The Parent Trap, A Bug’s Life, etc. He spent a couple of years at Lightspan, Inc. developing educational Web games in Flash, and then several years at Warner Bros. Online building a Flash game strategy for Looney Tunes, Harry Potter, Scooby Doo, etc. At Warner Bros. Online he also oversaw the development of a 3D first-person Patrol Simulator for the US Army using the Virtools game platform. This serious game, called “SLIM:ES3”, has become part of Army basic training and won the Department of Defense Training Simulation of the Year award in 2005. In April 2006, Andrew returned to Disney Online and led the technical development of the DXD platform. He is now working on developing Flash-based virtual worlds.
