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Flash Snapshot Application - an AIR/Flickr/Moo mashup

Tue, 27 May 2008 14:41:32 +0000

There’s lots of fun to be had with Moo mini-cards, and I’ve been getting good feedback on the batch of fractal cards I made recently, which were created by taking snapshots of one of my flash experiments. The magic behind this was so simple I may as well share it with you. All you need to create your own set is the Flex/AIR app I created, which you can download here, and a Flickr account. This is how it works:

You give the app the path to your swf, and hit enter. It then runs a function to start a timed loop, as follows:

private var _saveDir:File; private var _timer:Timer; private var _counter:int; private function startSnapshot(url:String, time:Number = 5):void { // loadedSwf is the name of the mx:Image that will contain the swf loadedSwf.source = url; // create a directory to store our snapshots var dirName:String = "snapshots"; _saveDir = File.desktopDirectory.resolvePath(dirName); var x:Number = 1; while (_saveDir.exists) { _saveDir = File.desktopDirectory.resolvePath(dirName + String(x++)); } _saveDir.createDirectory(); // start loop _counter = 1; _timer = new Timer(time * 1000); _timer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, snapLoop); _timer.start(); }

Then, while the swf plays, the timer loop fires this function every few seconds to take a snapshot:

private function snapLoop(e:TimerEvent):void { // create a new BitmapData object based on the size of the loaded swf var BMPData:BitmapData = new BitmapData(loadedSwf.width, loadedSwf.height, true, 0xFFFFFF); // take a snapshot of the swf, and store it in the BitmapData object BMPData.draw(loadedSwf); // encode it as a jpg var jpgEncoder:JPEGEncoder = new JPEGEncoder(80); var jpgBytes:ByteArray = jpgEncoder.encode(BMPData); // save it var ourFile:File = _saveDir.resolvePath("snap" + _counter++ + ".jpg"); var fileStream:FileStream = new FileStream(); fileStream.open(ourFile, FileMode.WRITE); fileStream.writeBytes(jpgBytes, 0, jpgBytes.length); fileStream.close(); }

Note that the BitmapData snap may give unexpected results with transparent swfs, so it is best used with swfs that have a solid background.

Once you have a folder full of snapshots, upload these to Flickr. For this example I pointed the app at a local version of my favourite fractal experiment swf, to produce this set of images.

To turn these into mini-cards, the final step is to use Moo’s Flickr import option. Point it at the Flickr set you have created, pay your money, and in 10 days or so a pack of groovy cards pop through the postbox. Simple.

Monster Burn

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:32:47 +0000

A message to clients with big ideas (and big money) - this is what we can do with Flash these days:

(c/o the mighty mrdoob)

Adobe AIR: an Apology

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:14:29 +0000

The portfolio has just received a long overdue update, with some recent projects added to it, one of which being (slightly prematurely) the CD-Rom I am currently finishing off for Natural England, which I put together using Flex3 and AIR. I mention this because in the process of doing this project I have come to realise that I now owe Adobe a small apology.

A year ago O’Reilly books generously sent me a review copy of their Apollo For Adobe Flex Developers Pocket Guide. Apollo, or AIR as it has since been re-christened, was only at alpha stage when the book was released, and was full of bugs. I had spent a lot of time hacking away at both that and the documentation-less Flash 9 Alpha that had been released not long before. With AIR, even with the help from some of the development team, I couldn’t get even the most basic of applications to run. Because of my frustration (and because I thought I was oh-so big and clever) I wrote a deeply sarcastic review of the book for Blogcritics.

So this is my apology. I made my peace with Flash 9 and ActionScript 3.0 some time ago, and now, since AIR finally got it’s first 1.0 official release last month, I have had a complete u-turn in my opinion of that too. AIR is an utter delight to work with. And with Flex reaching version 3 to coincide with the release, they go together like Peters And Lee. Harmonious.

Adventures In PaperVision 3D

matt zb — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 09:53:31 +0000

I’m sure this isn’t the first PaperVision game, but I might make claim on it being the simplest. But then I only really had a day free to do this, which doesn’t allow the time for any sexy 3D modelling or texturing. Otherwise, you’d be looking at day-glo Tron Light Cycles racing around the grid below, rather than blue blobs. The keys are A/D or Left/Right arrows, and the idea is to collect the green things. The rest you can work out for yourself. Fullscreen version here.

What you’re looking at is PaperVision 3D. Not the silly snake game, but the Flash 3D engine rendering all those polygons. PV3D is probably the greatest Flash Open Source success story to date. At my local nerd club, a recurring topic of conversation is the “Open Source question” - i.e. should I open source my code or not, and what exactly do I gain by giving away my work for nothing? The creators of PaperVision, Carlos Ulloa, John Grden and the rest of the crew, answer this question. Rather than being the authors of a great 3D engine no-one knows about, by setting their code free they have become the leading experts in a 3D engine that EVERYONE uses.

At November’s FOTB conference PV3D was on every developer’s lips, within six months even clients are asking for PaperVision. By giving away their work, the creators of PV3D have made themselves coding mega-stars. This is how Open Sourcing works, the trade is in kudos, not commodities. The Open Source movement is the economic paradigm shift of the 20th Century, it happened in software five years ago, last year it made it’s mark on music, this year it will be publishing. The year after that … who knows. As the Chili Peppers advised, give it away, give it away, give it away now…

Cracked, True Isometric 3D in ActionScript 3

matt zb — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 22:35:37 +0000

It’s been six months at least since I’ve had the spare time for any ‘leisure’ coding but I finally found a few hours to get back into my Flash isometric 3D engine this week. And I’m really chuffed with what I’ve achieved.

You can move the ball with keys QAOP (once you’ve clicked on the movie) but the really interesting bit is the sliders. Thanks to AS3’s speed, I can now redraw the isometric space at runtime, so it is a “true” 3D engine.

I reckon MC Escher would have appreciated it.

Reading the querystring from Flash

matt zb — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 13:05:41 +0000

Very easy when you know how.

The Javascript (embedded in the html of the page holding the swf) -

function getQuery() {
    retstr = “”;
    fullURL = parent.document.URL;
    if (fullURL.indexOf(’?') > 0) {
        retstr = fullURL.substring(fullURL.indexOf(’?')+1, fullURL.length);
        retstr = unescape(retstr);
    }
    return (retstr);
}

The Actionscript -

import flash.external.ExternalInterface;

var query:String;
if (ExternalInterface.available) {
query = String(ExternalInterface.call(”getQuery”));
}

if ((query) and (query != “null”)) { query = unescape(query);}

Flash 9 at 95% Penetration

matt zb — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 12:36:00 +0000

Adobe’s version penetration figures for December 2007.

	Flash Player 6	Flash Player 7	Flash Player 8	Flash Player 9
Mature Markets	98.8%	98.8%	98.3%	95.7%
US/Canada	99.0%	99.0%	98.5%	96.8%
Europe	98.1%	98.1%	97.6%	94.3%
Japan	99.5%	99.5%	99.3%	95.3%
Emerging Markets	97.4%	97.3%	95.5%	93.3%

Wii Whiteboard

matt zb — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:25:10 +0000

More Wii fun. Using a Wii remote, infra-red LEDs, and a ballpoint pen, this guy has mashed together a low cost interactive whiteboard.

Stick with this video, the demo is really worth seeing:

Tumblr

matt zb — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:14:08 +0000

When I was schoolboy I used to tape music videos off the ITV Chart Show onto a Betamax tape recorder. This used to require studious attention and a steady hand over the pause button. Going back and re-editing a playlist was near impossible. Now the only place I see music videos is on YouTube, and they can be added to or removed from my favourites list with a click. This is what we call progress.

Similarly, back in the heady days of 2007 I used to blog using WordPress, which involved actually writing words, adding links, and embedding media using a WYSIWYG interface. It also required you to have something to write about in the first place. How primitive. In 2008 I’m using Tumblr.

It’s all about simplicity.

Blogging for people who don’t like blogging. Brilliant.

Wii-Learning

matt zb — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 18:16:07 +0000

If you’re in the mood for some outside the box thinking on interface design, how about putting a bit of physicality into your learning and controlling it with a Wii remote?

Already you can run Flash content on the Wii, and control it with the remote. But now there are third party apps for reading data from the Wii-mote on a Mac or PC.

Lets just ignore the accessibility considerations for now, and think about how much more fun eLearning would be if it involved flinging your arms about.

Flex Brighton

matt zb — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 16:43:22 +0000

Currently Flex Developers are a rare commodity, hard to pin down for freelance work. This may be about to change, in Brighton anyway, after Flash Brighton’s Big Day Out event, where Adobe were generous enough to give out a free copy of Flex Builder 2 to everyone who attended.

The Flash Devs of Brighton have been really spoilt this month, with Flash On The Beach, The Big Day Out, and the rest of the Digital Festival. I’ve been to so many events over the last few weeks that my collection of freebie promotional geek t-shirts is now spilling out of the drawer.

Major respec’ to the Flash Brighton crew for the organisation behind the Big Day Out, it was a really good day. Two highlights - 1. Seb and Dom’s 15 minute masterclasses. 2. Andrew Shorten’s preview of Thermo (which is a long way away, but is already getting everyone excited).

Papervision 2007 Showreel

matt zb — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 00:07:46 +0000

I’m sure you’ve heard enough about how great Papervision is. So let this be the last word on it (until version 2.0 anyway):

Jared Tarbell’s One Legged Creatures

matt zb — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 02:05:25 +0000

I’ve been getting very into the work of Jared Tarbell after seeing him at FOTB week before last. There were no shortage of generative artists working in Flash at that conference, wowing us with animations, but Jared goes one better than most of his contemporaries by open-sourcing all of his stuff. His throwaway Flash experiments can become a launching platform for another coders exploration.

His ‘one legged creatures‘ animation, above, is a beautifully example. Click on the stage to launch more creatures (upto 11) and watch what happens when they run into each other. Some creatures combine in effective ways and make for strong swimmers. Others go around in circles, fighting against themselves, while others just give in to chaos and stagger around erratically.

This doesn’t inspire me to go and do some coding. Instead it makes me want to go into work and sort out a few management issues.

My Ten Most Important Lessons Learned At FOTB07

matt zb — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 18:35:58 +0000

1. Generative Art is very in this season.

2. Just about everyone seems to think we should be rediscovering the play in our work.
Even Keith Peters was suggesting we quit our jobs and start making casual games for a living. (Next year the theme will be “Flash - not just a toy”)

3. There is a revolution in Flash audio just around the corner.

4. 99% of what we do as developers is shit, but we need to do shit to make that 1% of masterpiece. (Andy Polaine paraphrasing Hemmingway)

5. Flex is not exciting any more, it just IS.
(Same goes for everything else we were excited about following FOTB06 - Papervision, AIR, etc)

6. Flash is so last week. We should all be learning Processing instead.

7. The Dead Sea is dead because nothing flows out of it. This is why we should be giving away at least 10% of our stuff. (Chris Orwig) Preferably 10% of the shit, not the masterpiece I presume. (Personally, I advocate giving it all away).

8. MicroSoft Expression? Get outta town (or to the end of the pier at least).

9. A Flash experiment is never finished, only abandoned. (Jared Tarbell paraphrasing Valery)

10. All the smart money is in print-making.

Transitions

matt zb — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 16:47:45 +0000

Transitions - utterly useless from a usability perspective? Rubbish.

Transitions can often contribute more to an application’s look and feel than fonts, colours and sounds. Most of what we present as multimedia comes down to pages of data, laid out attractively, with some way of navigating in-between them. But why have just a simple page to page sequence when, with thoughtful use of transitions, you can give a sense of space. A few examples:

http://www.leoburnett.com/
This is an old favourite, but still a goodie. It’s a portfolio site that is just a series of pages, but the way they are connected together makes it feel like a 3d environment to be explored. The pen scribble that you leave behind is the most inspired trick, as this a) orients you to show where you’ve been, b) leaves ‘evidence of use‘ behind as you explore (much underused in multimedia).

http://www.sixthsenseuk.com/
This is by our local chums futurlab, and I like it a lot. The desktop metaphor is a well used cliche, but to do it as smoothly as this you find yourself exploring just for the joy of watching the transitions, not just to find what you’re looking for.

http://www.wefeelfine.org/
This isn’t Flash, it’s processing, but there are plenty of great navigation ideas in here. In fact it’s essentially a site of nothing but experimental navigation ideas. Again, it is so visually appealing it wouldn’t matter if this was data about the sale of dental equipment, it would still be great.

There were two sessions at FOTB that got me thinking about transitions, especially as FM are planning a showcase site at the moment, which will be a great opportunity for a bit of experimental navigation. Firstly, Tink’s Flashing Flex talk, showed how simple it is to style Flex and not feel limited by the framework. There’s no reason Flex cannot have the same dynamic animation behind it as Flash does, because they are essentially the same product after all.

Secondly, Carlos Ulloa’s demonstrations of Papervision showed how it can be used for much more than just animating 3d fish and spaceships. Just a simple 3d transition between two planes can make the difference between an application being a series of pages to it being an “environment”. See Carlos’s work for Sony Bravia as a good example.