cursor following eyes

[pata]

Apologies if this has already been asked, but I want to create a couple of eyes that follow the mouse wherever it moves on the whole web page. I have a gif image of a funky animal that has relatively big eyes, I want his pupils to move following the mouse around the page.

Any help is REALLY appreciated.
Thanks

[dalangalma]

Get the mouse position from _xmouse and _ymouse, then move the eyes towards that position.

[MG315]

eyes._x = _xmouse;
eyes._y = _ymouse;

[Technosailor]

lol...you can't be serious...

[freddydoesphp]

eyes._x = _xmouse;
eyes._y = _ymouse;

If I am reading this correctly, you want the pupils to follow the mouse not the actual set of eyes. That will take some math calculations to detect the angle in relation to the mouse movement. Can you clarify.

lol...you can't be serious...

Well there are some who still use flash for silly animations.

[MG315]

sorry, i read it wrong. i thought you wanted the eyes to be attached to the mouse...

[pata]

Can you clarify.
Well there are some who still use flash for silly animations.

That is correct. I want the pupils to follow the mouse, not the actual set of eyes. I need the critter to always be looking at the mouse.

As for it being a silly animation... a couple of things:

1. Who's to say it's silly? It may be silly for you but it's not for my client who requested it.
2. And, if it is silly, what's wrong with using Flash for silly animation? Is Flash so high and mighty and "royal" that it can only be used for "serious" animation (whatever that is). Where's the mandate that says: "thou shall use Flash only for Corporate Identification?" how boring.
3. To me, this is a very interesting technical challenge and I'm excited about it. I'm also excited to be able to give the client what they want.

As developers, it IS part of our job to stear the client in the right direction, keep him away from evil things like highlited or blinking text, bad design, bad color usage, etc. This little thing, I think is benign.

Thanks for your help in advance. I don't think there's any way I can come up with the math to do this.

[Golgotha]

goto www.plasmapages.com and check the Harley-Davidson ads there. If this is what you want PM me.

[freddydoesphp]

Woah, pata! I didn't mean your work was silly nor did I mean you were in the business of creating silly anything. I was actually kind of being sarcastic to Sketch's response above mine, as I have a feeling he still feels flash to be a product that really has no place on the web. I couldn't disagree more. No offense to you either Sketch if I was wrong.

If you want me to show you the math for that just ask.

[Technosailor]

No offense all the way around. I was under the impression we were talking about those javascript eyes that end up on all the cheapo kiddie websites.

I, of course, feel Flash has it's place on the web but is an oft overused solution. But then...I don't want to go 'round with Golgotha again...

/Monday Night Football theme music....

[pata]

No offense taken guys, just thought I'd express my views, is all. I don't have anyone to talk about this stuff with, so I figured you were a good audience

Yes, freddy, please send me the math. Also, Sketch, if you think this can be done with javascript, even better, I never thought it could be. Javascript is preferable actually.

[Technosailor]

http://javascript.internet.com/miscellaneous/eyes.html

[freddydoesphp]

I take back everything I said before. Is this something you want to sit in a small flash movie in an html page? Flash has a hard time detecting where the mouse is when its not over the movie. So you may have to revert to javascript. Which we all know will be buggy at best in different browsers. Well actually it fares pretty well, just tested the majors and Mozilla is the only one choking.

HOWEVER: like Sketch I find this sort of thing to be horribly annoying, just my view. So no offense and I know clients can ask for the weirdest things.


So can you confirm did you want this sort of effect or something more like a stationary set of eyes on a flash site whose pupils rotate to the angle of the mouse?

[pata]

So can you confirm did you want this sort of effect or something more like a stationary set of eyes on a flash site whose pupils rotate to the angle of the mouse?

Hmmm. What I need is the pupils to rotate to the angle of the mouse, following it as it were. If Flash has a hard time finding out where the mouse is when it's not on the movie that might be a problem. Ideally I wanted a small flash movie inside an html page, yes. But it's just the home page of the site that will have this, so maybe I can make the whole are a flash movie (though that's probably a bad idea due to load times, etc.). Maybe javascript is the best way to go, and whichever browser can't handle it, they just don't get the eyes moving...?

[Golgotha]

such a small trivial effect is likely not worth dropping Flash into your site, IMO.

but, I too have done some things I normally wouldn't simply because the client wanted it that way.

[freddydoesphp]

It always amazes me that a client hires someone to do this stuff, but then always dictates what they want even if its against the recommendation of the professional. Its like why hire me at all. Its like the old, I want some pretty music on my site but I don't want flash. That one always gets me going.

[freddydoesphp]

Golgotha now that my interest has been peaked, you mind showing me how to calculate that angle from the eyes to the mouse?

[pata]

And then of course, the problem with javascript is that it doesn't work in all browsers. I was thinking it wouldn't work in pre 4's so no big deal, but it turns out that the link that Sketch sent only works in IE for Windows (so far). I tried it in Mozilla for OS X, and Safari (Konqueror code recompiled for OS X) and no go. So I guess I'm back to the Flash thing...

[Technosailor]

I'm sure there's other versions. All I did was googled for javascript eyes.

Aaron

[saraazriel]

Try this too: http://www.javascript-2.com/cgi-bin/...%3Apm=1&q=eyes