FLASH :: FLEX :: ILLUSTRATION :: ANIMATION
Illustrating In Illustrator 101 Part 2 of 5 – taterboy
January 5th, 2009 | Filed under: Digital Art, Tips
Construction
Wether I am illustrating an imaginary device or something I use everyday, it is good to understand how the object is or should be constructed. Other information like functionality, and how these objects are interacted with are very important in making our illustrations more convincing.
Questions you could ask yourself are how much heft and mass does this object possess, What kids of materials are used to build this object? How does this information effect how light reflects/refracts off the object. These evaluations help us understand how the details should be rendered.
The object could be steel, but is it built assembled with welds, bolts or both? The object could be made from concrete, Styrofoam, wood, glass or plastic molds. Each material is assembled differently with different types of joints. The time when an object is built also will give us a clue as to the type of assembly would have been used. We should carry that information or hints of that information into our illustration.
Read More »
Flash Actionscript 101, The First ActionScript I ever learned – taterboy
December 21st, 2008 | Filed under: Flash AS2 to AS3, Tips
This is it, the very first bit of actionscript code I ever learned, besides play() and gotoAndStop() of course. The lesson went down with an experienced programmer looking over my shoulder telling me what to type. After this little app was finished, my brain hurt only understanding a few of the lines we wrote. That code was referenced and/or modified on more then a few projects that came after, each time deciphering more and applying it to new functionalities.
The original script was back in the day of AS1, but I am going to present it to you in AS3. If you are a beginner to ActionScript then it is the perfect time to learn AS3.
We are going to start really remedial for a minute and go over the basics of the classes and objects we will be using. It is kind-of long, so if you already have the basics covered, you can skip to the Application code.
Read More »
A Simple Game Engine Using Random – taterboy
December 1st, 2008 | Filed under: Flash AS2 to AS3
Using Random in Game Development, with strict guidelines, can bring some variety to game play.
This sample is not a single solution but an approached I used in developing Whacky Voting - a politically smashing game. It uses random with some strict rules to get rid of sequences that some players can easily remember, yet keeping game play consistent from one game to the next.
This demo starts with a configuration section, used to set up how we want the game to act. The engine it self could be organized a little better to be more transportable. It is commented pretty well though, so it should be easy enough to understand the approach as well as practical usage. Random is used to shuffle all of the objects that appear on screen as well as what container the objects are associated with.
Configuration:
We use config data for each game so that we can easily tweak game-play without hacking our code later. We can use arrays, xml or other data sources. Plan ahead and build config options into your game as it is developed.
Read More »
10 Flash/Flex streaming video tips – taterboy
November 27th, 2008 | Filed under: Tips
In a Birds-Of-A-Feather discussion group at Adobe MAX last week. No remarks were planned, It was supposed to be a discussion, we hoped to talk to other developers about what’s new in using Flash video. We did not get a bunch of new information but we did get a lot of hard questions. Some of them were not fully answered and others were speculated upon. When I was asked my tips, I gave all I could think of at the time. Later that evening I remembered a couple more, some of my best ones.
So for those who went to MAX and those that did not, here are my official video tips for Flash and Flex.
Read More »
Adobe MAX 2008 day one – taterboy
November 17th, 2008 | Filed under: General Info
The first day of MAX has ended at 10:30 pm Monday night. East coast time is taking it’s toll, but I know I am not the only one. I just finished moderating a video tips group that was full of drooping eyes.
Today was a success with 4 new t-shirts and a few new tips learned. All of the sessions are going to be available for free at Adobe TV. I have heard the Flash Catylist (thermo) sessions were really good, the Flash Player Internals session had some nice insight on optimizing code, my favorite one of the day. The Flex Tips session showed off some features of Flex Builder that I never new existed and now will not be able to live without.
MAX 2008 Sessions added to Adobe TV - 12/11/08
MAX continued – taterboy
November 17th, 2008 | Filed under: General Info
Max keynote is available online now. keynote
I cannot do it justice from my iPhone, so check it out.
Updates:
Apparantly the keynote video does not live at the address I placed above, that is what was on the big screen at the end of the keynote. sorry about that.
Here are a couple links of real live blogging (bet they had a laptop).
Liveblogging MAX 2008 Day 1 General Session Keynote
Adobe MAX 2008: Monday - Keynote
Tour de Flex on a 20′ screen, shot by Greg Wilson. Tour de Flex on a 20 ft Screen
Abobe MAX 2008 San Francisco – taterboy
November 17th, 2008 | Filed under: General Info
Adobe MAX 2008 kicks off with Shantanu Narayen, Adobe CEO.
I will do some live blogging from MAX. All post are being typed on my iPhone, due to my broken laptop, so do not expect a lot of details.
Over 5000 in attendence.
Followed by 2 more MAX conferences in europe and Asia.
Flash catalyst announced, previously Thurmo.
(Red) Wire announced, delivered on AIR. $5 a month.
Kevin Lynch on stage.
Cloud and client. Across multiple screens/devices.
Flash player 10 is awesome.
Audio waveform data, 3D, text engine, drawing API, pixel blender.
FAST realtime processing.
Adobe launches Tour de Flex – taterboy
November 17th, 2008 | Filed under: General Info, Tips
It is official, Adobe launches Tour de Flex, the update to the Flex 2 Component Explorer. Check it out here Tour de Flex.
Check out the About link in the drop-down in the upper right, to find links back to this blog (Todd Williams) and our company HD Interactive.
Also Greg Wilson has more background on how this version can to be.
HD Interactive launches new site – taterboy
November 16th, 2008 | Filed under: General Info
HD interactive launches a new website. Check it out here, www.hdinteractive.com
Adobe Max and Taterboy blog update – taterboy
November 14th, 2008 | Filed under: General Info
Adobe Max is just a few days away and we are so excited about some of the events planned this year. Unfortunately the little bit that I know can’t be discussed until Monday November 17. I will try to do some live blogging from the keynote as well as the rest of the conference.
Some of you must be thinking I have been slacking off with about three weeks since my last post. Maybe you are not keeping track, but I am and I feel really bad about it. I assure you there are still plenty of post ideas rattling around topside and some are sitting on my hard drive partially complete. It has been really difficult, this past few weeks, finding the time to finish them up and make ‘em live.
To prove my commitment, here is a vague outline of things to come:
Max will provide plenty of content for at least few posts, plus I still have some of my best AS2 classes and components to release. We are building mostly Flex and AIR apps lately, so there are a few more post slated about current technologies with some foundation skills demos on illustration and animation in the works.
My Excuse:
We have been so busy working on Max, building a new HD Interactive web site and clearing work schedules to allow for three days off that all the free time has been used up sleeping and eating. We hope to have the new HDI site up this weekend and the rest we will be announcing from Max. If you are a client reading this, all you need to know is we will be very under the weather next week.
Hope to see you at Max, if not, stay tuned.
