Posts Tagged ‘flash’
As you may have heard today Adobe released Astro, Flash Player 10 Beta!
Highlight Features:
- Create Custom Filters and Effects (with Pixel Blender)
- Performance Boosts (GPU blitting and compositing)
- Drawing API Enhancements
- Vector Data Types
- New Highly Flexible Text Engine
- 3D Support and Effects
- Automatic Variable Bitrates for video streams
- Larger Bitmap Support
- Better File Reference (user uploading)
- Context Menu Enhancements
- UBUNTU
Press Release
Official Download at Adobe Labs of Flash Player 10 Beta code named Astro
Official Release Notes
Also released is Pixel Blender (Hydra) – which allows custom filter and effect creation!
Adobe is also reworking the Sound API as well, here’s an example from Keith and Tinic’s Posts (as always with much detail): Adobe is Making Some Noise Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3!
Dont forget to visit the official Demos at Adobe Labs – Flash 10 Demos at Adobe Labs
If you have other article to link to don’t hesitate to add them in the comments!
Author: Evan Mullins | Filed under: other
Tags: actionscript, flash, review
Author: Evan Mullins | Filed under: portfolio
Tags: css, dreamweaver, drupal, flash, html, illustrator, interactive, photoshop, portfolio, stompernet, web design, website, work
Here’s a new site and series from StomperNet called Going Natural 3!
It’s a bit of free videos made and released to showcase the talents and business of what StomperNet is about and what they do for their clients. They’re ‘moving the freeline’ so to speak…
The first video series begins with Dan Thies talking about his ‘Crazy Theory’ for AdWords.
On signing in there are a couple BONUS videos for you as well. So go check them out as well!
Watch Going Natural 3 – Adwords Triangulation Method and more
This site contains the latest flash video player built by yours truly. I also did the design of the site: involving html, css, php, javascript and dealing with drupal too!
Author: Evan Mullins | Filed under: portfolio
Tags: actionscript, as2, css, drupal, flash, html, javascript, php, stompernet, video, web design, website, work
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
Overview
The Shared Object is like a cookie for flash. It lets flash store some data on the local machine, so between sessions it can remember things. Learn more from wikipedia.
Shared Objects are used to store data on the client machine in much the same way that data is stored in a cookie created through a web browser. The data can only be read by movies originating from the same domain that created the Shared Object. This is the only way Macromedia Flash Player can write data to a user’s machine. Shared Objects can not remember a user’s e-mail address or other personal information unless they willingly provide such information.
I’ve seen many Local Shared Object tutorials and examples, which have users input their name and/or hometown and other filler data. But I wanted to show how to creatively incorporate shared objects into interactions. So I’ve thrown in many simultaneous examples including the uber-simple ‘input your name and I’ll remember it’ approach. I hope I didn’t throw in so much that it got confusing… just let me know if you have any questions or anything is unclear. Keeping it simply and broad there’s only a few things to know about Shared Objects.
Steps
Simply put there are only a couple things to worry about with Local Shared Objects
- Create them.
- As in create the shared object
- Write them.
- As is write to the shared object
- Set them.
- As in setting variables in the shared object
- Get them.
- As in getting variables back out of the shared object
- Clear them.
- As in clearing the shared objec
Actionscript
here’s samples on how to do each of those
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| /* Create them. */
//make Local Shared Object named myLocalSO(in as) called "myflashcookie" on disk
var myLocalSO:SharedObject = SharedObject.getLocal("myflashcookie");
/* Write them. */
//flush the SO, write the SO to disk
myLocalSO.flush();
/* Set them. */
//set key's value to specified value in SO
//key is the name of the data
//val is key's value
function setVal(key, val) {
myLocalSO.data[key] = val;
trace(key +" set to "+val);
/* including writing to Shared Object in the setter function */
//flush the SO, write the SO to disk
myLocalSO.flush();
}
/* Get them. */
//get key's value from SO
function getVal(key) {
return myLocalSO.data[key];
trace(myLocalSO.data[key] +" received from "+key);
}
/* Clear them. */
myLocalSO.clear(); |
Example
here’s my colorful example.
The purple/yellow circle is draggable, so place it where you want it. Enter your name and age in the input boxes. Press the center red ‘Set cookie’ button to copy those values to the shared object that is on your computer now. The red transparent circle represents the cookie positions. You can position the purple/yellow circle from the cookie contents with the dark green ‘Position from cookie’ button, or position it randomly with the blue ‘Position randomly’ button. Erase the cookie with the orange ‘Erase cookie’ button. Toggle easing (animation) with the Bright green button (which changes to dark red when off), it tells the current mode of ease. I have the cookie coordinates displayed and the current coordinates of the purple/yellow circle also displayed.
The cookie includes a date object, which is used to calculate the age of the cookie (watch it reset when you erase the cookie (orange button)).
The ‘All Time Visit’ stat is the only thing that does not get reset when you erase the cookie,
[kml_flashembed fversion="9.0.0" movie="http://blog.circlecube.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/sharedObject.swf" targetclass="flashmovie" publishmethod="dynamic" width="300" height="400"]
and source code:
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| //////////////////////// Initialize variables ///////////////////////
//make Local Shared Object named myLocalSO(in as) called "myflashcookie" on disk
var myLocalSO:SharedObject = SharedObject.getLocal("myflashcookie");
//speed var for easing
var speed = 3;
var w = myCircle._width/2;
//toggle var for easing
var ease = true;
//as var to store alltime cookie
var allTimeVisitCount=0;
countVisit();
cookieFeedback();
//line style for tracing movement
lineStyle(1, 0, 50);
//////////////////////// Functions ///////////////////////
//set key's value to specified value in SO
//key is the name of the data
//val is key's value
function setVal(key, val) {
myLocalSO.data[key] = val;
trace(key +" set to "+val);
//flush the SO, write the SO to disk
myLocalSO.flush();
}
//get key's value from SO
function getVal(key) {
return myLocalSO.data[key];
trace(myLocalSO.data[key] +" received from "+key);
}
function countVisit() {
//if first visit
if (getVal('visitCount') == undefined) {
//create date for now and store in cookie
var todayDate:Date = new Date();
setVal('date', todayDate);
trace("creating date");
//start/reset counting visits
var visitCount = 0;
//notice allTimeVisitCount is not reset, but stored still as a var in actionscript
}
//not first visit
else {
visitCount = getVal('visitCount');
allTimeVisitCount = getVal('allTimeVisitCount');
}
//increment visit counter
setVal('visitCount', visitCount+1);
setVal('allTimeVisitCount', allTimeVisitCount+1);
//feedback of visit counting
visitsFeedback.text = getVal('visitCount');
allTimeVisitsFeedback.text = getVal('allTimeVisitCount');
}
//feedback of cookie contents
function cookieFeedback() {
//in defined print coordinate contents
cookiex.text = getVal('circleX') == undefined ? "no cookie" : getVal('circleX');
cookiey.text = getVal('circleY') == undefined ? "no cookie" : getVal('circleY');
//if not easing assign coordinates from cookie
if (!ease) {
myCookie._x = getVal('circleX');
myCookie._y = getVal('circleY');
}
//set target to cookie coordinates
else {
ctargetx = getVal('circleX');
ctargety = getVal('circleY');
}
//if name then trace cookie contents
if (getVal('name') != undefined) {
visitorFeedback.text = "Returning Visitor";
nameInput.text = getVal('name');
ageInput.text = getVal('age');
}
//no name then a new visitor
else {
visitorFeedback.text = "First Time Visitor";
nameInput.text = "";
ageInput.text = "";
}
calculateCookieAge();
}
function calculateCookieAge() {
//make a date now
todayDate = new Date();
//get the cookie's stored date
cookieDate = getVal('date');
//difference between two dates
cookieDateAge = Math.floor(todayDate - cookieDate);
//convert miliseconds to a timecode
cookieAge.text = msToTimeCode(cookieDateAge);cookieDateAge;
}
//convert miliseconds to a hh:mm:ss
function msToTimeCode(ms) {
//make sure value is within bounds. if a number grater than zero and less than the duration of video
if (isNaN(ms) || ms< 0) {
ms = 0;
}
//find seconds
var sec = ms/1000;
//find minutes
var min = Math.floor(sec/60);
//adjust seconds
sec = sec - min*60;
//find hours
var hour = Math.floor(min/60);
//adjust minutes
min = min - hour*60;
//floor seconds down to whole number
sec = Math.floor(sec);
//make time code with hours
if (hour == 0) {
if (sec < 10) {
sec = "0"+sec;
}
if (min < 10) {
min = "0"+min;
}
var tc = min+":"+sec;
}
//make time code without hours
else {
if (sec < 10) {
sec = "0"+sec;
}
if (min < 10) {
min = "0"+min;
}
var tc = hour+":"+min+":"+sec;
}
return tc;
}
////// Actionscript attached to Objects/handlers //////////
//place data on stage into cookie (circle coordinates and input text)
setCookieButton.onRelease = function() {
setVal('circleX', myCircle._x);
setVal('circleY', myCircle._y);
setVal('name', nameInput.text);
setVal('age', ageInput.text);
//update the display on stage
cookieFeedback();
}
//make random coordinates on stage
randomButton.onRelease = function() {
//if not easing assign coordinates to myCircle
if (!ease) {
myCircle._x = Math.random() * (Stage.width - w);
myCircle._y = Math.random() * (Stage.height - w);
}
//if easing assign coordinates to myCircle's target coords
else {
targetx = Math.random() * (Stage.width - w);
targety = Math.random() * (Stage.height - w);
}
}
myCircle.onPress = function() {
this.startDrag();
dragging = true;
lineStyle(1, 200, 30);
}
myCircle.onRelease = myCircle.onReleaseOutside = function() {
targetx = this._x;
targety = this._y;
lineStyle(1, 0, 50);
dragging = false;
this.stopDrag();
}
myCircle.onEnterFrame = function() {
//print position feedback
currentx.text = this._x;
currenty.text = this._y;
//if eas move to target
if (ease) {
if (!dragging) {
moveTo(this._x+w, this._y+w);
this._x+=(targetx-this._x)/speed;
this._y+=(targety-this._y)/speed;
}
//draw line
lineTo(this._x+w, this._y+w);
}
}
myCookie.onEnterFrame = function() {
//if ease move cookie to target
if (ease) {
this._x+=(ctargetx-this._x)/speed;
this._y+=(ctargety-this._y)/speed;
}
calculateCookieAge();
}
//Position from Cookie
cookieButton.onRelease = function() {
//if not easing set coordinates from cookie
if (!ease) {
myCircle._x = getVal('circleX');
myCircle._y = getVal('circleY');
}
//if easing set target coordinates from cookie
else {
targetx = getVal('circleX');
targety = getVal('circleY');
}
}
easeBtn.onRelease = function () {
//toggle easing
ease = !ease;
//advance the frame of this button...
this.play();
}
clearCookieBtn.onRelease = function() {
//clear the cookie (swipe all data)
myLocalSO.clear();
//restart visit count
countVisit();
//read cookie and give feedback
cookieFeedback();
} |
Source
download the source for this example: sharedObject.fla
Author: Evan Mullins | Filed under: tutorial
Tags: actionscript, as2, download, experiment, flash, interactive, open source, tutorial
