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: Flash BlogOT: How Cool Are Your Flash Projects?
I tend to work from home and office quite a lot, and transfer my IDE drive between the two places on a daily basis. My old 5.25″ IDE caddy was seriously in need of replacing due to damage and the fact the internal fan had packed in, so I replaced it with the beastie shown above.
Thermal alarms, temperature monitor and a good sized fan ensures my data and Flash projects remain at a nice consistent temperature, and it looks pretty damn cool too! Way off topic, but thought I’d share it with you
New Flash Article!
There’s a new Flash article released at Sitepoint entitled The Ones That Got Away: Image Loader and Random Link Apps in Flash, which covers a couple of development effects that didn’t make it into the book (Flash Anthology: Cool Effects and Practical ActionScript), so why not wander over and take a look!
The effects encompass an image loader, and random link of the day, both of which are easy to modify for use in your own projects.
Flash Video and Learning Curves
I had a few minutes spare last night, and created a mini-focal piece for phireworx.com and the Flash Anthology book using a small video clip and some winky effects in After Effects 6.5. The effect is simple and to the point, but uses some complex keyframing to achieve the desired effect.
What I’m driving at here is your usage of Video in Flash, so lets have a quick straw poll on your video usage in Flash.
1. Do you use Flash video in Flash MX+?
2. Do you use post processing such as After Effects to glamorize / correct the final video?
If you answered ‘No’ to question 2, then is this because you have no need, or you lack the pieces of the jigsaw to do it?
I’m considering writing a tutorial on Video in general with a focus on post processing before the Video gets into Flash. Would you guys want such a tutorial, or is it a little too niche?
Blinds Transition Effect for Flash MX 2004 Professional
Note: Flash MX 2004 Professional Only!
See Blinds Transition Effect for Flash MX 2004 Professional in Action>>
Download Blinds Transition Effect for Flash MX 2004 Professional>>
Following on from yesterdays post (Pixel Dissolver for Flash MX 2004 Professional), I’ve created the Blinds Transition Effect in a similar fashion.
All that remains for me to do now, is to port the rest of the effects into a single interface and we’ll have a nifty effect generation utility
Pixel Dissolving Effect in Flash MX 2004
Note: Flash MX 2004 Professional Only!
See Pixel Dissolver for Flash MX 2004 in Action>>
Download Pixel Dissolver for Flash MX 2004 >>
In Flash MX 2004 Professional, there is the ability to add transitions to screen based applications as you are moving screen to screen (you know the kind; Iris, Wipe, Blinds etc), which got me to thinking… A couple of minutes later, I had the idea of pushing the built-in transition to individual Movie Clips for a more interesting effect.
Note in the example above, I’ve used the ‘onLoad’ event handler and for each row used a different effect duration. All in all, it took about 60 seconds to go from a blank FLA to the finished effect!
The result of which was the panel that you see above, in a similar vein to the ‘Alpha Fader Panel’ I did a few weeks ago, whereby the code is added to a frame based upon your selection within the interface.
Simply select the Movie Clips that you wish to apply the effect to, make your selections within the interface and press ‘Generate Code’, and all the hard work is done for you!
There are many more transitions that are available in Flash …
New Flash Article
Flash has many hidden facets, and many components that can often be overlooked, ignored or undervalued. In my latest Sitepoint Flash article Flash’s Hidden Gems: The NumericStepper Component, I dig into the NumericStepper component, a component whose value will soon become apparent when you start to investigate its methods, properties and events.
If you’ve ever wondered what uses you could find for the NumericStepper component, then I advise reading this article which will shed some light on one of Flash’s hidden gems.
View Flash’s Hidden Gems: The NumericStepper Component
Here
Comment Adder Panel for Flash MX 2004
Download Comment Adder for Flash MX 2004 >>
View the Interactive Movie of Comment Adder in Action >>
Anyone for another timesaver? This time, I’m attempting to save you some time when adding comments to your ActionScript by way of the Comment Adder for Flash MX 2004.
It has the following features:
Dynamically add comments at the click of a button, including the following types of comments:
Comment Block, To Do, Bug, Kludge, Tricky
It also has the option to optionally include your signature and a date/timestamp
NOTE: Due to limitations in the API, you are only able to add comments at the end of the current ActionScript in a selected frame rather than inline at the selected cursor point
Alpha Fader for Flash MX 2004
Alpha Fader can be downloaded here >>
Example of Coded Example that took a couple of seconds to create!
One of the most common tasks done in Flash via ActionScript is the opacity fade, and when used cleverly can add a nice touch to your Flash projects.
I tend to use opacity fades quite a lot via ActionScript, and get pretty bored of typing in the names of Movie Clips, and adding the control code. Call me lazy? Nope, I just want to move on to bigger parts of a project, and those valuable seconds saved here and there really add up in the full run of a project.
I created this panel, to alleviate my pain, and it does quite a good job, simply select either a single or group of Movie Clips from the stage (doesn’t matter if they are named instances or not as the code will take care of unnamed instances), and play with the following parameters
Event Handler Checkboxes: The type of interaction with the Movie Clip
Start Opacity: The starting opacity for the effect
End Opacity: The ending opacity for the effect
Fade In Speed: Speed of fading in
Fade Out Speed: Speed of fading out
Once you are happy …
Dynamic Skewer Panel v1.0.5
I’ve added an enhancement to the Dynamic Skewer Panel that was mentioned via this blog yesterday, to include some simple isometric checkboxes to make commonly used skews available at the click of a button.
To those of you who downloaded the extensions yesterday, the link is to the same file, but a different version (v1.0.5), so feel free to upgrade your previous version
Download Dynamic Skewer Panel for Flash MX 2004 >>
Dynamic Skewer Panel for Flash MX 2004
Off the heels of the Dynamic Scaler Panel for Flash MX 2004 , is another panel, this time controlling the skewing of an MC. This panel simply gives you fine granular control over the vertical and horiztonal skewing
If you find any issues, then feel free to use the panel on the left to send me feedback and I’ll get them fixed
Download Dynamic Skewer Panel for Flash MX 2004 >>
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