Art + Logic

Playing with Processing

2011-12-06T22:53:00.002-07:00

I've been fascinated with Processing lately. So I decided to port a small part of my terrain generation code from my Strategy Games in AS3 series. I was surprised at how easy it was to port and how fast it runs. An unexpected benefit, I found that rethinking a problem by writing it in a different language gave me better insight into the problem I was originally solving.

State Machines

2011-11-22T22:13:00.007-07:00

The third course--State Machines-- in my Strategy Games in ActionScript 3 series is now available from CartoonSmart.com.

5 hours
Learn to master state machines in part 3 of the Strategy Games in AS3 series. Attach A* to sprites to move them across terrains, bringing together the two previous parts of this series.
Create a shaded terrain.
Dynamically adjust contrast with the ColorMatixFilter class.
Create multiple states for an object.
Progress from a simple switch statement to object-oritented states.
Create multiple players.
Learn to create a turn-based environment for units and players, for both human and computer input.
Create computer opponents.
Create multiple unit types: land, air, computer and human.
Use the bitmap class to create a “fog of war” that reveals the map as units move.
Differentiate between turn-based and non-turn-based states (and support both).
Add combat between units.
Refactor to use a singleton design pattern.

You can also get a bundle of all three courses, 10 hours of training:

Terrains
A* Pathfinding
State Machines

Adobe releases Flex

2011-11-16T06:09:00.003-07:00

Adobe announced they are contributing Flex to an open source company. What does that mean to Flex developers? Well, Flex has been open source for some time now (since version 3), the big difference is that Adobe will not be guiding its direction. I'm wondering how much of that means dollars.

What is Flex? It is a framework of APIs written to facilitate application development on the Flash Player. A wrapper around the Flash Player APIs.

Flex is also a term people used to refer to Flex Builder/Flash Builder. The IDE sold by Adobe to write Flex applications. It is really just Eclipse with a plug-in that Adobe developed. There are other tools (commercial and open source) to develop not just Flex applications, but also pure ActionScript applications. Adobe has never seemed to put big money into its development compared to its other tools like Illustrator and Photoshop. But then lately as I've looked at Adobe apps, it seems like outside of those two, they have not been doing anything dramatic with Dreamweaver or Flash Professional, those seem to be more in maintenance mode than any big development.

As someone who has had great experiences with an open source tool (Blender), I know that it can be done right if led by the right person. But Adobe is releasing it to a group, so who's going to lead?

The real question for me is not what is happening with Flex. It is a good framework, but frameworks come and (look at Flex 3 vs Flex 4). Nor is my question what happens with Flex Builder, anyone who's seen my AS3 videos knows I don't use it exclusively during development. My question is what are Adobe's plans for the Flash Player?

I wanted to title this post "If 3D, then death". When I saw the introduction of 3D support with Flash 11 at MAX I made a joke about Flash must be near death. 3D was introduced into Director when it was near its end. But the Flash Player is still alive and well on hundreds of millions of machines and devices.

This announcement is about something Adobe does not have a knack for, making money on a framework (who does?) and creating software development tools. Where does Adobe make its money? For the first half of its life, Adobe made its money on licensing PostScript. Is that still the case? When I first saw Flash taking over, I remarked that it was like PostScript for the web. It didn't surprise me when Adobe acquired Macromedia.

The Flash Player, it's support of AS3, and it's great set of APIs for doing very visual apps is what I really enjoy developing with. The combination of ActionScript 3 and the Flash Player APIs has been the most fun developing since Lingo's update in Director 4 back in 1994. In addition to AS3, I've used many languages, popular (Java, C#, C++, Python, JavaScript) and less popular(Prograph, Lingo, Applescript, HyperTalk). AS3 is outstanding when combined with the right tools.

Adobe showed at MAX forthcoming tablet apps that were made with Flash, so they still have a vested interest in the platform for the moment. Heck, the Flash player was all over MAX, Eclipsing other tools (no pun intended... okay, it was intended). From a developers tools standpoint, HTML5 and JavaScript is not there yet. Adobe has shown it can create a great runtime and core APIs. With tools like Flash Builder, Adobe has shown they're not the best with creating software development tools. Maybe they're better off with their core strength of creating visual tools for designers, HTML5 being just one more medium to output to.

Getters and Setters

2011-09-06T17:29:00.002-06:00

I first encountered the C# way of creating getters and setters, I thought they were such a nice improvement over the Java way of creating methods to get and set data. When I moved onto ActionScript 3, I continued to use and appreciate them (as they worked similarly to C#). They facilitated development nicely, you could quickly create a class with a public member, and then refactor that member to get and set functions without breaking the code that was accessing that member. For example, say you had a member:

public var data:String;

You could re-write it:

public var _data:String;
public function get data():String { return _data; }
public function set data(value:String):void { _data = value; }

The Java way (in AS3) would be:

public var _data:String;
public function getData():String { return _data; }
public function setData(value:String):void { _data = value; }

Lately I've been more careful about how I use getters/setters for two reasons:

First, the way I've been using them more recently has been a problem. I've been putting more code than I should in the setters, code that results in other state changes for the object. Side effects make debugging fun. I know, I know, this is an easy one to fix. But I must say it is so tempting to do!

Second, an advantage of a setData() function over a set data() property is that when using an IDE like Flash Builder, when you want to find all the places you called setData(), that's easy. But when you try to find all the places where the set data() function is called, you end up seeing all the places both get and set functions are called. I'm not sure if there is an easy fix for that one. It'd be nice if Flash Builder had a preference where when you searched for references of a set function, it did not include uses of the get as well.

Strategy Games - Pathfinding

2011-03-20T15:46:00.001-06:00

My latest course Strategy Games - Pathfinding has been release by CartoonSmart. This is part 2 of a series (part 1 being Strategy Games - Terrains).

Strategy Games in ActionScript 3: Terrains!

2010-11-29T21:34:00.004-07:00

Just released is my 8th lesson for CartoonSmart.com and my first one featuring ActionScript 3.

Strategy Games in ActionScript 3: Terrains!

Bits of Blender #60 - Normals and Nodes

2010-11-11T06:36:00.005-07:00

Due to some bugs with the 2.55 beta, Richard and I go back to Blender 2.49b to show you a tip on normals and material nodes (the info in this Bit will work in 2.5x eventually).

Speaking of bugs, we normally distribute our videos via blip.tv. But two weeks ago blip.tv had some big changes and I've had trouble with both display and distribution of Bit #59 and #60 (this one). I've been using Vimeo for some time, but now I've upgraded to Vimeo Pro and will be using it as my main method of distribution.

Strategy Games in AS3 - Preview 2 - Connected Component Labeling

2010-10-10T17:12:00.005-06:00

Strategy Games in AS3 - Preview 1 - Terrain

2010-10-10T17:11:00.003-06:00

Make your own battlefield!

2010-10-06T21:32:00.004-06:00

Check out my ActionScript 3 based terrain generator. You learn how to randomly generate terrains as part of my forthcoming CartoonSmart.com course: Strategy Games.

After 7 Blender courses, I'm developing my first ActionScript 3 course for CartoonSmart.com. It's not just a cookbook lesson, I am teaching concepts that can be carried forward to other languages/frameworks. In it you'll learn about:

Terrain generation: Learn how to create your own randomly generated maps with the BitmapData class and without.
Pathfinding: Ever wonder how A* pathfinding works and how to integrate it into a game? I'll take you step-by-step through the process.
Statemachines: With state machines you'll be able to give your objects some easily extendable behavior.

Along the way, you'll also go from learning how to deal with bits, all the way up to how to use some common design patterns.

Next CBUG: Oct 21st

2010-10-06T19:44:00.003-06:00

When:

Thursday, October 21st

7:00-8:30pm

What:

General meeting (no presentation). Come hang out with other Blenderheads, chat about Sintel, your current (or past) Blender experiences, show and tell (bring your work).

Where:

Parker Library

10851 South Crossroads Drive

Parker, CO 80134

Who:

John R. Nyquist

blender@nyquist.net

It will be in the Parker Conference Room just inside the entrance.

SWCs and FlashDevelop, Part 2

2010-09-05T16:41:00.002-06:00

Quite a while back, I wrote about the method I was using for developing using SWCs and FlashDevelop. At that time, I was discussing using inheritance (an "is a" relationship) and the issue of which direction the inheritance went: write in FlashDevelop and have the Flash MovieClip extend from it, or create the MovieClip and have the code in FlashDevelop extend from that. I found my preferred approach is: neither.

I have migrated to a style I used when I was developing in Director and Lingo. In Director, I'd have my Parent Script's using artwork. In other words, a "has a" relationship (also known as "aggregation"). So now I'll create a class in FlashDevelop, have it extend Sprite (or MovieClip), and then that class will create and use an instance of a MovieClip from the SWC as a child.

I've used all of the above approaches over the years, and I'm sure I'll still find times I'm choosing one of the "is a" methods. But for the moment, "has a" is working best.

3D Artist Magazine

2010-08-29T09:24:00.004-06:00

My Blender Basics tutorial from CartoonSmart.com made it onto the 3D Artist magazine disk for issues 16 and 18! (Thanks Will!)

It's been a while since I've posted an update (or a Bit). So an update is overdue! I'm still here and using Blender. I've been using Blender 2.49b on a long contract job. I've been sticking with 2.49b because the scripting APIs are stable. Now that 2.5 has gone into beta, I'll look into migrating the project to 2.5 if the APIs (which have changed significantly for scripting) are more stable. I've held off on Blender lessons in 2.5 until the beta to avoid frustrating new users, so now I'm plotting my first full-length 2.5 Blender course.

In the meantime, I'm developing my first ActionScript 3 course for CartoonSmart.com. It is on creating a strategy game. It's not just a cookbook lesson, I am teaching concepts that can be carried forward to other languages/frameworks. I've been using AS3 since it was released with Flash CS3 in Spring 2007. I've used its predecessors AS2 and AS1 as well. AS3 is more similar to Java and C# than AS2/AS1 ( both of which I've also used professionally). I've been wanting to teach a class on it for sometime, so I'm looking forward to this course's release!

Next CBUG: July 25th

2010-07-18T17:25:00.003-06:00

Our third Colorado Blender User Group (CBUG) meeting is scheduled!

When:

Sunday July 25th

3:15-4:30pm

What:

3:15-3:45 Open discussion, socializing

3:45-4:10 Overview of using Python and Blender.

4:10-4:30 Show and tell (bring your work)

Where:

Parker Library

10851 South Crossroads Drive

Parker, CO 80134

Who:

John R. Nyquist

blender@nyquist.net

It will be in the Parker Conference Room just inside the entrance.

Come on over and say "hello" and share your Blender experiences and questions.

FlashBelt Conference, June 13-16

2010-05-28T08:08:00.004-06:00

The FlashBelt conference is coming up fast. It is June 13-16 in Minneapolis, MN. It looks like they've a great set of workshops and sessions! Let me know if you're going and we can meet up.

Blender and SecondLife

2010-05-20T21:45:00.005-06:00

This lesson is for Blender users and SecondLife users! Whether you use Blender, SecondLife, or both, you'll get something out of this course.

Lesson 1 - Just the Basics
This section is for the Second Life user who has never used Blender. It will teach you enough of the basics to get started.

Lesson 2 - Adding Clothes
In this part, you will learn to bring in one of the standard meshes and import in your images. After viewing in Blender, the image is brought into SecondLife and you are shown how to use it to create clothes in-world.

Lesson 3 - Skirt
This section deals with the skirt's mesh.

Lesson 4 - Projection Painting
Even experienced Blender users will appreciate this section. Use images to paint on your clothes with Blender's powerful projection painting features. You'll start from scratch (a blank image), and use four different photographs as your source images to create a UV texture. You'll also learn the tools, as well as the workflow, for using multiple source images. This technique is useful well-beyond SecondLife clothes. You can use it to create texture maps for illustration, animation, games, etc.

Lesson 5 - Beyond the Basics
Go further and learn the different OBJ import options and strategies to combine, group, and separate meshes. Then view the UV textures in the game engine and when they are rendered.

Lesson 6 - Super Quick Start
You've done the tutorial, now watch a quick refresher on how to bring in the model and images to view the clothes in-world.

What Another Pro Says About This Course...
"Concise, clear, patient delivery style, etc. But what really has that "BoB" golden touch is the 'Projection Painting' movie. OMG! Seriously!! Dude, I could've used that a few months ago when we were working on a 'Star Wars' game where we were asked to animate some idling Jawas (and their cloth robes*). Absolutely brilliant, Man!!"
-Tim Sisco
3d Artist at International Game Technology (IGT)

17 Blenderheads Meet!

2010-05-20T21:31:00.004-06:00

This month's CBUG meeting had 17 members show up by the end of the evening! We'll need a bigger room if this keeps up. Richard created the example as I talked through the fundamentals of Blender's Logic Bricks.

Next month I'll do some basics of going from Logic Bricks to Python. It will be a shorter presentation, we'll still have time to socialize, but we'll also have a slot to have other Colorado Blenderheads show there recent work.

Camtasia 7 Bug

2010-05-09T18:23:00.005-06:00

Camtasia Studio 7 has a serious bug if you export to H.264 using the QuickTime option. You'll get nasty screen artifacts that do not occur in Camtasia 6 (or 5 for that matter).

I reported it to Techsmith last month and I worked with a Techsmith engineer to demonstrate how to re-create it. They are going to do a fix with the yet-to-be-scheduled 7.0.1 release.

In the meantime we found a work-around. Camtasia 7 has two different ways to create H.264 (from two different codebases). The buggy one is when you export using QuickTime. If you use the mp4 option for Flash, that one is not buggy.

Bits of Blender #57 - Redirecting Edgeflow

2010-05-07T14:09:00.001-06:00

Bits of Blender #56 - Ripping

2010-05-07T14:06:00.003-06:00

Two firsts for this video: it's our first 16x9 video and it is the first public use of the new Nyquist Art + Logic logo!

Bits of Blender #55 - Always Sensor

2010-05-07T14:05:00.000-06:00

Next CBUG: May 20th

2010-04-24T10:54:00.004-06:00

Our second Colorado Blender User Group meeting is scheduled!

When:
Thusday May 20th
7:00-8:30pm

What:
7:00-7:30 Open discussion, socializing
7:30-8:30 Exploring Logic Bricks in the Blender Game Engine (I'll present and walk through some of the basics).

Where:
Parker Library
10851 South Crossroads Drive
Parker, CO 80134

Who:
John R. Nyquist
blender@nyquist.net

It will be in the Parker Conference Room just inside the entrance.

Come on over and say "hello" and share your Blender experiences and questions.

Bits of Blender #54 - Keyframes

2010-04-23T19:53:00.003-06:00

This episode has two "firsts" for Bits of Blender.

Richard takes the lead
Blender 2.5 is featured

Richard has been wanting to do a Bit and ever since trying 2.5, he does not want to go back to 2.49b. Seems natural that the next generation of Blender is introduced by the next generation!

I'm still half in 2.49b and half in 2.5, so I can't guarantee I'll be doing a 2.5 Bit next, it'll have to depend on what I'm teaching. I think 2.5 is great, but it's still alpha software, which means it's feature set is not yet frozen (or even completely implemented) and there are plenty of bugs. All normal stuff for alpha software.

If you're new to Blender, don't judge its stablity by 2.5. Blender 2.49b is among my most stable and best-performing applications. When 2.5 moves out of beta, I've no doubt it'll have the same high-level of stability and performance as 2.49b but also with a great new user interface and a host of new features and functionality.

Blender Users Exist in Colorado!

2010-04-22T21:50:00.006-06:00

We had 7 people at our first meeting! From as far away as Colorado Springs, with a wide range of interests, skills and experiences (programming, compositing, animation, and education). Thanks to Clay, Tom, Troy, Duncan, Matt and Richard for showing up and sharing their experience.

Colorado Blenderheads Unite!

2010-04-18T19:30:00.005-06:00

I'm going to start a Blender users group and have our first meeting this Thursday at 7pm! It will be at the Parker Library in Parker.

When:
Thusday April 22nd
7:00-8:30pm

Where:
Parker Library
10851 South Crossroads Drive
Parker, CO 80134

Who:
John R. Nyquist

It will be in the Parker Conference Room just inside the entrance.

Come on over and say "hello" and share your Blender experiences and questions.