I have been freelancing for the past year and was getting on okay, but in July I stumbled across a job advert that spiked my curiosity. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I applied for the job, got an interview, trialed - part time over 2 months and started full-time again in October. I am now helping to build an army of robots to take over the world*
Continue reading ‘Best Job Ever…’
Archive for the 'Flash' Category
14
Nov
Best Job Ever…
16
Sep
Google Chrome…
So much for my rant about relying on Google to much - I have been running Google Chrome too, yes I admit it, but hey as a web developer, I have to check out browsers to make sure my sites don’t break…
Continue reading ‘Google Chrome…’
06
Jun
SWFAddress and a tip
Working on a revamp of a website, I decided to try out SWFAddress to make the back button work instead of a hand-rolled solution…
I managed to get this up and running really quickly, which was nice, but then I spent 2 hours working out why it no longer worked when I integrated the SWFAddress into the site…
The Flash bit worked okay - change something and the address bar got updated, but the back button never worked - or did not send any events back to Flash.
2 Hours later, after stripping my code back, I found the problem:
If you are using SWFObject, the javascript for this needs to be included before the SWFAddress javascript. Doh!
Apart from that small hiccup, it’s nice and fairly simple to use…
16
May
SAS SOS
I finished a big project last week for Surfers Against Sewage called Save Our Seas.
This is another free educational resource like Operation Beach Clean which I had done previously.
Anyway, this time I did some animation myself and also re-used part of the intro from OBC, adding some extra audio and lip-sync’ing to this.
The Flash is a bit more modular this time, so we can easily create new content and add it to the XML sitemap to be loaded in. It still runs in AS2 as it borrows some code from the OBC project.
Some cool stuff which helped a lot: the XPath implementation from XFactorStudio, Jobe Makar’s Wordsearch game from Flash MX Game Programming Demystified was ported to AS2 and I used the Tween Lite package for the first time when the ripple transitions started slowing everything down - nice and simple. I also had some great help from the FlashCoders mailing list with some tricky problems, cheers guys.
Anyway, check out the finished project and if you know any teachers who might like it, let them know too.
http://www.sas.org.uk/education/sos/
Tip - don’t launch PDF documents as a URL in Firefox, Acrobat Reader keeps hanging the browser for some reason…
Here is some code to help:
Quick Code
private function _showPDF(_pdfURL:String):Void {
//use JS to pass in the browser variable to Flash: - http://www.quirksmode.org/js/detect.html
var browser:String = String(_root.browser).toLowerCase();
if ("firefox" == browser) {
_useDownload = true;
}
if (true == _useDownload) {
var fileRef:FileReference = new FileReference();
if(!fileRef.download(_pdfURL)) {
trace("Failed to download.");
}
} else {
getURL(_pdfURLl, "_blank");
}
}
18
Mar
Adobe - Make Some Noise
Just read a post by Andre Michelle a guy who has done some amazing stuff with sound in Flash. Anyway, he is asking for Adobe to address a serious issue that is threatening to break a lot of sites that people have done trying to work around Adobe’s crappy implementation of the sound API in the Flash Player, so I am putting up his widget in support and adding my £0.02’s worth.
For a long time I have wondered why Adobe have not paid the same attention to the sound side of Flash than they do with the visual side - in Flash 8 they gave us Bitmaps and Filters to mess with these, but no access to the sound API beyond panning and volume. With ActionScript 3 came a leap in the speed acheivable for applications, but no major improvements in the sound API beyond compute spectrum - which everyone can now use to make visualisations of soun, great, but I want to play with the sound please…
Fortunately Andre & some other people found workarounds to create sound on the fly in the Flash Player. It takes some interesting ActionScript hacks to do this, but they made some really good real-time music stuff with it. http://code.google.com/p/popforge/
http://www.flashbrighton.org/wordpress/?p=9
Now I think Adobe understand that music is an important part of the “experience”, so why they don’t make it easier for people to play, when they have done lots of the hard work with bitmaps, is beyond me. They really should be taking the stuff that people like Andre have done on board and realise that giving us tools to play with sound is something that would open up huge avenues for creativity in Flash…
Manipulating bitmaps is done in 2 dimensions as opposed to working with sound, which only requires one dimension, so the processing requirement for sound is usually less - depending on the complexity of calculations for effects. This should be a no brainer Adobe - are you tied down by some dubious industry patent bollox or is there something else you are not telling us? Maybe they are all tone-deaf with extremely acute visual acuity to compensate, because that’s the impression I get from the apparent bias towards visuals.
So what do I want in the Flash player:
The ability to apply filters to a sound channel ~ adding filters to a movieclip.
The ability to grab the sound data and do wtf I want with it ~ grabbing bitmap data.
Midi control built into the Flash player please.
Maybe a MOD player - that would make games a bit more retro sounding 
I have asked them for this, if you want it, fill in the wish list…
I just ran into a frustrating problem with Flex using embedded fonts and a custom preloader…
I have been working on a small app, was ready to upload it all the other night then tested it again and noticed my fonts were not working properly - they had previously been fine.
It was really wierd, the bold version of my font was fine, but where I was using the normal weight typeface, my character set was limited to a few characters:
“adgino0123456789L.”
I tried changing the font I was using and embedded a different font and everything was okay - wtf?
I spent about 2 hours fiddling round without any luck and was about to change the font I was using permenantly because it seemed that Flex was having problems transcoding all the glyphs I wanted to use in my project - time for a break.
Sitting down and feeling refreshed, I noticed a strange thing about my characters - look again and see if you can work it out:
“adgino0123456789L.”
Still no wiser (it’s an anagram)…
Oh b****r, it says “Loading.”
Guess what, the last thing I had done before uploading was tweak my custom preloader for the project to display the % loaded. There are a few useful tutorials about doing a custom preloader for Flex:
http://www.onflex.org/ted/2006/07/flex-2-custom-preloaders.php
http://www.bit-101.com/blog/?p=946
http://jessewarden.com/2007/07/making-a-cooler-preloader-in-flex-part-1-of-3.html
Unfortunately by making my preloader use dynamic text, I had also embedded the font in the SWF file. This overrides Flex’s embedding of the font - not sure why, I guess the font in the preloader is “loaded” before the main application fonts, so Flash Player thinks it is already there - what a nightmare.
So, beware if implementing a custom preloader - don’t use the same fonts as you use in your app, or embed all the characters you are going to use, which defeats the object of having a preloader if you ask me…
Nasty, on further reading, it seemed that Jesse Warden has also run into the same problem…
http://jessewarden.com/2006/12/integrating-a-flash-interface-into-flex-2.html
15
Feb
Grrr Adobe
Not happy with Adobe today.
I installed the trial version of CS3 to have a play, but it has fucked up all my file associations without asking. As I am busy on live projects using Flash 8, etc. it is very annoying when I click a file only to find it opens up with CS3 programs, especially as something like Flash CS3 takes even longer than Flash 8 to start…
Normally, you can easily restore your file associations by messing round in the folder options dialog box in Windows Explorer or right click the file, choose “Open With” and find the program you want then tick the “Always use this program…” box. Unfortunately, in their infinite wisdom, Adobe have seen fit to dick with my registry because even if I choose Flash 8 as the program to open my Flash files, this choice is overridden..
I like your software Adobe, but my computer belongs to me, don’t dick with my settings and I will think about paying for your software rather than looking for other tools.
Now I have to spend an hour reading up how to fix my registry - a dangerous game even for someone like me - but really unnecessary because I now have to fix stuff for about 50 different file types.
Grrr.
08
Nov
Flash On The Beach
I promised myself I would start blogging this year and after a few failed attempts, I have been truly inspired to say something. I also have to write an evaluation so this will help me out too.
I just got back from Flash On The Beach in Brighton which was my first ever conference and I have to say the best so far. Anyway, for those of you not in the Flash world, it was a chance to get together and geek out about a piece of software and the world that revolves around it. Mundane you might think, but if you throw in some well known people from the industry of multimedia, design & print and get some of them to show off the work they have done, you may be as inspired as me to make a conscious effort to explore the world of Flash or just the work of these people in more depth.
Before going, I did not really know what to expect, but thought that one - two hundred people in Brighton getting a chance to see some good stuff and learn was a start. My first surprise was walking in on Monday morning to find about 800 people - wow. I was also a bit starstruck seeing quite a few faces of people who’s blogs I have been reading for the past 18 months too - what do you say to someone who can do this
I tried to plan a bit of a schedule and choose a few people I really wanted to see and as a result, my list seemed a little too heavy on the creative / graphics side of things rather than the coding one. I mainly write code, so I thought I may need to remedy this, but after the first day, I realised that following my heart rather than my head was the best thing to do. As a result, I got to see some of my heroes and well known people from the industry & some new people whom I had not yet discovered.
I have come away from FOTB totally refreshed and inspired - last night I had about an hour’s sleep on the train, but was awake writing down about 50 ideas at 2am. I think this is the start of something really good.
Anyway, who was there, what did they do & what did I see? Well, check out the original schedule here
Stuff that was cool:
Chris Orwig talked about telling a story behind something to engage and hopefully get an emotional response. He also gave us the impetus to find more interesting ways in which to present ourselves using these ideas.
Joshua Davies gave an amazing insight into the way he produces his work using Flash to generate illustrations & sketches then hand picking out the best bits to produce compositions. I really liked his full on personality & humour - fuckin’ awesome. You can look at his slides here: http://workshop.joshuadavis.com/
Brendan Dawes’ session gave me a sense of nostalgia. He talked about going away from the “default” so I really need to make sure my blog template is changed soon otherwise there will be trouble. I must find out what records he cut in the 90’s. The only thing in my notes from this session was “inspirational nutter” which about sums it up…
Craig Swann was another person who talked about getting away from the usual stuff and I really got into his idea of messing around with video / electronics / Flash and combining these technologies. His presentation was really cool looking too, but his MIDI guitar & camera was great to see - Think Differently.
Mario Klingemann - wow, like Kraftwerk got a computer. Might have to call him “super Mario” as he prepends everything with the word, but stuff generally is super if he has anything to do with it. This is the guy to ask anything about Flash & Bitmaps. He is also doing some amazing work creating multi-touch interfaces just by using a webcam and some of his really cool code. http://lectures.quasimondo.com/
Carlos Ulloa showed us some really cool tricks to start doing 3D simply and then showed off his work on the Sony Bravia site - nice.
Alex Jenkins and A.N.Other (sorry) from Unit 9 showed us some of their work and talked about getting an emotional response - a theme emerges here. Alex has done animation work on some of the cooler sites that you may have seen around this year like Adobe’s Creative Mind see more at http://www.unit9.com/
Robert Hodgin who developed flight404 has had enough of the limitations Flash so he has been using Processing. His talk continued to astound me as he revealed his work piece by piece - building up from simple components into his Magnetosphere project. Just check out the video piece he did to Trentemoller’s audio - make sure you have about 10 minutes and somewhere quiet to enjoy it. This had to be the highlight of the conference for me - audio is often neglected in work I see, but sometimes it can be combined with visuals to create a sublime & moving experience. Definitely got an emotional response.
Erik Natzke was another guy who’s name I had heard a lot, but only recently discovered. Again, he does some really interesting stuff with Flash, algorithms & visuals. Music seems to be an important part of this guys inspiration and most of his presentation stuff was accompanied with some of the sounds that drive him. He also showed us one of his video pieces, which, again, blew me away. On top of all that, I managed to get one of his beautiful prints from the Concentrik work - cheers Erik!
I have been waiting to see Neville Brody for ages - I was mimicking his stuff at school. I was a bit miffed at first because his presentation started the same as one I have seen on video about “restarting” and challenging the norm. But it did change soon enough and it was interesting to see behind the work Research Studios did on The Times newspaper. I am not sure if he got to see the other presentations by various guys, but maybe he will find out that most of the people I have listed above are all saying similar things to him - get out there, play, challenge the norm & do something different.
Finally Jared Tarbell rounded off the conference with a cracking presentation showing how he does his work. The stuff he does is a bit more rooted in maths algorithms than some of the other guys work, but it can produce some beautiful results - check it out at Levitated.net but also go and have a look at the Etsy project he is involved with.
There was loads of cool stuff going on that I have not listed here, so go and explore the sessions / speakers and look at their sites. The general theme seemed to be break the rules / think different / play more and seeing this stuff, I am inspired & determined to start messing round and experimenting with my Flash code again. Watch this space…
