Posts Tagged ‘circle cube’
Thanks for your patience as I’ve been tinkering with the theme, layout and css of circlecube.com.
I started with a free theme from Justin Tadlock, Options Theme, available at theme hybrid. I’ve changed that theme quite a bit, from restyling it to fixing bugs I found and updated many other things on the site as well. So the reason I’m going on about it is I think I’m finished… and I’m asking you to let me know if you see anything that looks odd or fishy, or even just want to make a suggestion or comment on how much you like/hate the redesign. Comment on this post or contact me!
And as always, if there’s something you would like me to write about or have questions you can also contact me. I’ve even set up a poll in the sidebar showing post ideas I have which you can vote on and encourage me to write the one(s) you want most first! So let me know what you want, it encourages me to write more as well. And be sure to subscribe to the circlecube rss feed so you won’t miss anything that’s coming up!
Author: Evan Mullins | Filed under: portfolio
Tags: blog, circle cube, css, design, dreamweaver, html, php, web design, website, wordpress
I’ve re-purposed an old project of mine, the interactive pog portfolio viewer, to FlashDen. I call it the pog portfolio because each work is represented by a circle, or pog, and you play ith it in the “bay” with different interactive physics configurations. When you click a pog you can view a close up image of that item and more details. The whole file has been cleaned up (code and graphics) and documented for easy customizations.It is a small file size as well, under 36kb swf!
This is mainly an image viewer, stay tuned for any updates, like video support etc.
Works and configuration loaded in through a single xml file. Select works from the bay to view title, description image and a link (if applicable). Organize works with the tags or select all and choose the physics of the bay for interactivity control (gravity, spring, grid and friction).
It is fully customizable and fully driven by xml. The xml file contains values for configuring the swf, and also all the information about each work to be included in the portfolio.
Each work is loaded into the “bay�? as a round thumbnail or “pog�?. These pogs are animated with the interaction options (gravity, friction, spring and grid). The pogs are sortable by tags (parsed in from the xml).
The whole color scheme of the image viewer is configurable, or can even be set to random! Have a different color scheme every time your image viewer loads!
Clicking a pog in the interactive bay sends that thumb to the holding area and loads the close up into the focus window for that work. It also loads the details about that work into the detail box (to the right of the focus box). Each works needs a 50×50 thumbnail and a close up (max 375px x 270px) image. Focus images are all loaded in with an informative preloader and fade is once loaded.
Site easily integrates with Google Analytics to track user interactions within this flash portfolio!
All works in the portfolio are passed in through an external xml file, here is a sample work node from xml:
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| <!-- Name or Title of work -->
Random Gear
<!-- Description of work -->
Random gear photograph from FlashDen assets.
<!-- Image paths (thumb and focus) are both constructed with the directory names above, or you can use an absolute path (http://flashden.net/new/images/pictures/icon_newsroom.gif) -->
<!-- Image thumbnial, this is brought in and masked to a circle (width:50px x height:50px) -->
random_gear.jpg
<!-- Focus thumbnail, loaded into the Focus Box when pog is clicked (max width:375px x height:270px) -->
random_gear.jpg
<!-- If a link exsists place it here the Text goes in the title node and the url in the url, if no link leave empty -->
http://flashden.net
<!-- Tags for this work. Tags are parsed and displayed across the bottom of the bay (seperated by a pipe '|') -->
Photo|Industrial |
Enjoy, and let me know what you think!
Circlecube Files on FlashDen
Author: Evan Mullins | Filed under: portfolio
Tags: abstract, actionscript, analytics, animation, as2, circle cube, color, download, experiment, flash, flashDen, game, interactive, open source, physics, portfolio, review, web design, work, xml
iKill: Pick Fruit, Be Happy, Keep Killing
I developed this game for my Digital Media Thesis. I wanted to do a project that was interactive, and enjoying flash I decided to create it in the form of a game. The project called “iKill’ is Installation Game Art, and is also available online. It explores multiple these, such as man in nature, globalization, fast food, economics, etc. The game was part of an installation for the Digital Media Exit show of Spring 2007. I kept progress of the game online at my digmeexit blog with incremental demo versions of the project. The installation had a fully interactive game and used game controller to play. In the game you play the generic man and work through the work week. Your job is to pick fruit as it grows on the trees. You receive your wages according to your harvest and at the end of the day you “cash out” and earn your happiness (how else but with Happy Meals). You do encounter obstacles and must kill the bugs before they deprive you of your happy harvest! It is pretty simple critique on a culture that equates unhealthy food to happiness without regard to the environment, and equates a mindless 40 hour work week and competitive salary to a full life. For more details visit the development blog (digmeexit.blogspot)
Use the arrows to move, space bar to pause, ‘z’ to jump and ‘x’ to swat.
Author: Evan Mullins | Filed under: portfolio
Tags: actionscript, as2, circle cube, design, experiment, flash, game, installation, interactive, physics, portfolio
I have been thinking of different interactions that are possible with objects. If you’ve read this blog at all you’ll know that I’ve played with physics and gravity and throwing balls and bouncing balls and all sorts. But I hadn’t wrapped my head around an interactive spinner. I know it’d be easy to make a slider or something that would apply a spin to an object, but this just isn’t interactive enough for me.
Circle with slider to rotate and button for random spin:
This attempt at spinning is ok. I mean, it spins the object and it even glides to a stop if you press the button for a random spin… But it’s just not intuitive and not fun. But if you want this, here’s how I did it.
Actionscript:
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| drag = .96;
speed = 0;
slider.handle.onPress = function() {
spinning = false;
//drag along the line
this.startDrag(true, slider.line._x-slider.handle._width/2, slider.line._y-slider.handle._height/2, slider.line._width-slider.handle._width/2, slider.line._y-slider.handle._height/2);
}
slider.handle.onRelease = slider.handle.onReleaseOutside = function() {
this.stopDrag();
}
_root.onEnterFrame = function() {
if (spinning) {
//apply the speed to the rotation
knob._rotation += speed;
//recalculate speed
speed = speed*drag;
//if speed gets unnoticeably tiny just set it to 0
if (Math.pow(speed, 2) < .0001) {
speed = 0;
}
}
else {
//set the rotation from the slider position
knob._rotation = slider.line._x + slider.handle._x + slider.handle._width/2;
}
//spit out feedback continuously
feedbackr.text = knob._rotation;
feedbackaccr.text = speed;
}
spinner.onRelease = function() {
//find a random speed
speed = (Math.random()* 50) - 25;
spinning = true;
} |
I want to grab it and spin it though. I want to apply the same principles from physics, like acceleration and friction as forces to the object, so I can grab to spin and release to watch it glide gracefully to a stop. I’ve been thinking about this and how I’d have to use trigonometry and stuff to do it. One day I finally had the time and tried it out. It took me a minute but I figured out that what I needed was arctangent. So (with pointers from jbum, thanks Jim!) I came up with this:
Interactive grab-able circle to spin and twirl:
This one is much more interactive and intuitive. I really think this is because there are no sliders or buttons, no controls, just an object to interact with. It’s much more like real life!
Steps:
In order to make a grab and spin object
1. You have to know where you grab. The user clicks on the shape (knob) and you must figure out what degree or rotation point they have started at. (atan2)
2. As the knob is clicked and the mouse moves (dragging), calculate new rotation by mouse position
3. When mouse is released figure out the current speed of rotation and apply it to the knob with friction, so it can be thrown and spun in that way. (Of course this is optional, if you just want to spin it when the mouse is down you’re done at step 2)
Actionscript:
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| damp = .96; //friction
r = 0; //rotation
accr = 0; //speed of rotation
knob.onPress = function() {
dragging = true;
//find mouse y coordinate in relation to knob origin
a = _root._ymouse - knob._y;
//find mouse x coordinate in relation to knob origin
b = _root._xmouse - knob._x;
//using arctangent find the spot of rotation (in degrees)
oldr = Math.atan2(a,b)*180/Math.PI;
}
knob.onRelease = knob.onReleaseOutside = function() {
dragging = false;
}
knob.onEnterFrame = function() {
if (dragging) {
//find mouse y coordinate in relation to knob origin
a = _root._ymouse-knob._y;
//find mouse x coordinate in relation to knob origin
b = _root._xmouse-knob._x;
//using arctangent find the spot of rotation (in degrees)
r = Math.atan2(a,b)*180/Math.PI;
//use current rotation and previous rotation
//to find acceleration
//averages the acceleration with the
//previous acceleration for smoother spins
accr = ((r - oldr) + accr)/2;
//apply the acceleration to the rotation
knob._rotation += accr;
//remember current rotation as old rotation
oldr = r;
feedbacka.text = a;
feedbackb.text = b;
}
else {
knob._rotation += accr;
//apply friction to acceleration force
//and if acceleration gets tiny, just set it to zero
if (Math.pow(accr, 2) > .0001 ) {
accr *= damp;
}
else{
accr = 0;
}
}
//spit out feedback continuosly
feedbackr.text = knob._rotation;
feedbackaccr.text = accr;
} |
I commented the code to explain what is happening, if you need more just post a comment. Let me know if you find this useful and what you end up making with it.
Downloads:
spin.fla and interactiveSpin.fla
Author: Evan Mullins | Filed under: portfolio, tutorial
Tags: abstract, actionscript, animation, as2, circle cube, download, experiment, flash, game, interactive, open source, tutorial
Author: Evan Mullins | Filed under: personal
Tags: circle cube, network
