At the moment I’m trying to learn how to make timeline animations in Flash and yet somehow I end up animation which is 80% coded, isn’t that just great!?
Just fooling around I came up with this result:
Jolly jellyfish - vector animation | download
The movement and generation of the jellyfish is all actionscript (2.0), the “squezing” is timeline-animation…
justGREAT! I was experimenting a little with new cartoon/vector styles in Flash and now here we are with some nice (widescreen) wallpapers for your ass:
air critters – vector – flash cs3 | download
HOOT… – vector – flash cs3 | download
critters – vector – flash cs3 | download
no name - vector – flash cs3 | download
face – vector – flash cs3 | download
Hope you like ‘em. Feel free to use and/or distribute…
Flash on the Beach 07 was just GREAT!
Although I had to miss some of the sessions on Wednesday 
because of the amazing party on Tuesday 
(read: loads of beer and dropshot) the whole event inspired me to really start experimenting in Flash again.
In contrast to Mad in Spain (which was mostly about great webdesign) this event was all about Flashy-artwork (it was to me anyway).
Almost every session I went to dealt with particles, algorithms, particles, fractals and then some more particles…. 
Fractals all over the place… 
The absolute particle/algorithm/fractal climax was Jared Tarbell’s session “Algorithms to Fill Space”. Although I was familiar with the basics of the algorithms and particles, this session made me see how easy it mas to make very complex and cool experiments with them.
Another great and very funny session was Joshua Davis‘ “Dynamic Abstraction”. This guy makes just GREAT art using mainly flash. Although his site doesn’t fully do justice to his work you should check it out because he has some great pieces there…
Besides these two amazing sessions there was a lot more that inspired me. As I want to spend most of my time experimenting in stead of updating my blog here is a little sum-up of these sessions (no particular order):
- Alex Jenkins – Pulling the emotional trigger
A session with a some very entertaining websites. Check the Unit9 portfolio:
http://www.unit9.com/
- Seb Lee – Delisle AS3 Particle Effects – Now 1000% Extra FREE!
A great session about the basics of particles. Although the session started of very easy, it got more interesting near the end as it showed some really pragmatic solutions to common problems (e.g. with a few tweaks you can make your particles look like real smoke without speed loss). Check out the Plug-in Media! site for some cool effects!
http://www.pluginmedia.net/
- Keith Peters – Make Flash Games. Retire Early
A session about how to make money of your “simple” flash games. Since I already have some game engines in store I really need to turn them in to real games and start making money. 
His site is more about his experiments but it’s really worth to check out:
http://www.bit-101.com/
- Craig Swann - Perceptive Interactions + Alternative Interfaces
A nice and inspiring session about Craig’s experiments with alternative in- and out-put. The experiments are a weird combination of video, sound, webcam, and a bunch of home-made electronic input devices. Check the lab-section on his site for some of the freaky shit.
http://www.crashmedia.com/
- Robert Hodgin - Breaking away
Although (or maybe because) his work was not made in Flash, it was just fucking GREAT! By using processing this guy created the most amazing art. Check his blog for some of his work (make sure to check the videos).
http://www.flight404.com/
- Erik Natzke – Beyond the Knowledge: The Art of Playing
I’m not a big fan of his work (particularly the old stuff) but he has got some nice pieces out there.
http://jot.eriknatzke.com/
There were a lot more interesting speakers, but as a already mentioned I really like to get busy right now my self. So after I finish my uncles portfolio site (any time now) you should expect some great experiments and games! Stay tuned…
Just great! I still got a little tan from the Mad in Spain and already I’m packing for a trip to Brighton. Flash on the Beach here we come…
This time we’re going with six people from <theFactor.e> Flash/Flex team. I hope to be even more inspired by this trip than the previous one.
Stay tuned…
Isn’t it just great when you finally find a useful new feature in Flash 9.
I’m talking about the script-timeout period.
Remember how you sometimes had to run a script for more than 15 seconds and always got that annoying timeout popup? From now on (using Flash 9 / player 7 and up) you can set the timeout as you wish. Isn’t that just great?!
It gets even better when you use AS3; the player doesn’t just show the script-timeout popup but it actually throws an Error (“Error #1502: A script has executed for longer than the default timeout period of 15 seconds.”). This way you can make a certain part of your script (which needs more time than the supplied timeout period) run over and over again until the calculation is complete.
Here is an example:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 | package { import flash.events.Event; import flash.display.MovieClip; public class TestMC extends MovieClip{ private var i:int = 0; private var loopCount:int = 0; public function TestMC() { this.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, this.calculate); } private function calculate(event:Event):void { try{ while(true){ this.i++; } } catch(e:Error){ this.loopCount++; trace("____________n'i' after "+loopCount+" frames = " + this.i); if(i<0){ //i will be negative when it becomes to big, normally you would check here if your calculation is done... this.removeEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, this.calculate); } } } } } |
This is just an example and I’m sure you can think of much more useful ways to use this feature.
Hope it heps you along…
Update (1 December 2007):
Just great; I forgot to mention HOW to set the timeout . Well here is how:
You can’t set the timeoutperiod by code (neither in as3 nor in as2). You have to set the timeout manually in the publish settings of your fla: Ctrl+Shift+F12 > flash-tab > “Script time limit”.
Let me know if you still have trouble.
