Award Winning Team

Yesterday in work the results of the BBC Magazine awards were revealed and I'm very happy to say that the BBC Customer Publishing team won the Innovation award for the interactive digital magazines they produce. So kudos to Julie Williams, Alison Hazell, Paul McIntyre, Pat Reid, Alun Harris, Cavan Scott and last but not least, Kerry Bradshaw and - me! The two Flash developers that build the magazines.

Video Cube

activeden tweeted about this a while ago describing it "this is one of the coolest flash things I've seen". I think its pretty cool too - take a look for yourself

Beautiful Flash 3D

This is just so nice. I'm not going to say anymore. Just go look for yourself

Interactive Flame Thrower

Just for fun, a little bit of experimentation and a bit of insomnia. I've never used Flash's ability to read microphone input so I thought I would check it out. Its actually quite limited in terms of accessing the raw data (although there is an online petition to get Adobe to allow access to raw mic data, and some cool stuff here). All you need to do is blow at your microphone and make flames!
Try it for yourself

Javascript/Flash mp3 Player

I was recently asked if I could make a Flash mp3 player that was controlled with Javascript. Obviously my first question was why on earth would you want (or need) to do that? The answer I got was perfectly understandable. To have the ability to integrate the Flash element seamlessly into HTML content. In other words the links would be normal HTML links that when clicked played the song in the Flash player. Of course this also has the benefit of streamed content speeds, the user doesn't have to download anything. Flash's ExternalInterface class is the key to this solution, it makes linking from ActionScript to Javascript a piece of cake.
Here's an example. The white pixel in the top left corner of the grey panel is the the Flash content (it's white to show you can see it).

SoundMixer.computeSpectrum + Timeline Audio

I am posting this little Flash ActionScript hint here in case somebody googles the same problem...

When a sound is embedded directly in the timeline of a Flash movie as opposed to being loaded dynamically, using the SoundMixer.computeSpectrum() method doesn't work. Well, sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't. I had a working sound visualiser when I went to bed last night, and this morning I didn't. No changes to the code at all.
After a lot of googling I found this post by Jason Van Cleave on the [Flashcoders] mailing list. Thanks Jason!

Basically you have to load in an mp3 of silence, assign it to a channel and play it. Then your spectrum analyzer will work with your intended sound/music.

I know - its weird!

I also found loads of posts about how it is not a true spectrum analyser yadder, yadder which were quite interesting. If you like that kind of thing...

[CODE]
// Strange silent mp3 hack
var s:Sound = new Sound(new URLRequest("2sec.mp3"));
var channel:SoundChannel = new SoundChannel();
channel = s.play();

var ba:ByteArray = new ByteArray();
var g:Graphics = this.graphics;
addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, loop);

function loop(e:Event):void
{

SoundMixer.computeSpectrum(ba, true, 4);
g.clear();
g.lineStyle(3, 0xFFFFFF, 1);
g.beginFill(0xC11226);
g.moveTo(0, 250);

for(var i:uint=0; i<256; i++)
{
var num:Number = -ba.readFloat() * 500;
g.drawRect(i*2, 250, 2, num/15);
}

}

[CODE]

X-Dof effect in Papervision

Speedok of the Flash community came up with this cool effect. I don't really know how to describe it but I like it! Click to change the shape/pattern and move your mouse around to distort it.

X-Dof = extreme depth of field

Augmented Reality Webcam Trickery

If you don't know what Augmented Reality is then I'll tell you.

It's magic!

Well nearly, it's webcam magic. There's open source software available called ARToolkit in c++ or there's FLARToolkit for the Flash platform which is really taking off at the moment. In a month or two you'll probably be sick of it. This demo was put together by John Lindquist with some help from Seb Lee-Delisle and it rocks! Check out more AR examples on John's blog, Seb's blog or at squidder.

Box2DAS3&PV3D (thats easy for me to say)

I've got to write a CV, build my portfolio proper etc, etc so I've been playing again instead .... Thanks to John Linquist I've revisited Box2D physics but this time integratedit with Papervision3D. The cubes in the example can be picked up and thrown around and stacked etc. It would be nice to be able to move them on the z axis (backward and forwards) but well - one step at a time I always say :)
Oh and if you're wondering what the letters and stuff mean they are the letters of reactionfaction.
Enjoy!

Tin Foil?

I revisited some old tutorials on Papervisio3D shaders and combined it with some AS3Dmod and came up with Tin Foil. I was going to call it "liquid metal" but, well its not really liquid is it?

Magic Carpet

I tried out Bartek Drozdz' AS3Dmod classes for Flash 3D tonight and I'm extremely impressed, particularly at how easy it is to get cool results. AS3Dmod is a set of Modifiers like you would find in a 3D modelling application like Maya or 3DS Max. The Magic Carpet example uses the Perlin modifier.

As usual click on the image to see it in action.

Bartek does some great 3D work in Flash. Right now he's got a sweet car demo on his blog. Go and check it out.

Wow - 3D Motion Trails by Zupko in Papervision3D

Andy Zupko of the Papervision3D development team has yet again produced some amazing work for all to share. If you use Papervision3D then head over to his blog and read up on it, otherwise just click the image to enjoy the eye-candy.

3D Carousel

3D Carousel gallerys are nothing new on the web I know but I made one anyway.... most use papervision3D but this is entirely done in Flash CS4. Thanks to Lee Brimelow for the tutorial.

Click the image to see it in action. I think it looks nice...

The images are by Wright George photography (and are copyright).

The Strongest Truck in The World!

This game is so cool and simple - and of course difficult to master. It's made using a combination of Papervision and (I suspect) Box 2DAS3. I have managed to flip it three times so far! See how you get on!

Pointless Painting Powered by Papervision3D

Being part of the Papervision3D community means I get sent links to new sites all the time and they're mostly very slick websites.
Well this one's different. There's absolutely no point to it at all except FUN!

Its by the guys at iq12 to celebrate their birthday. Check it out here.

The Spiralizer

The Spiralizer is a different version of The Blade - almost the same but more reactive to the music.

The Blade

Yes its another visualizer but I think its got real retro power!

I call this one The Blade

Cool Visualiser

I thought I should share this link to a cool visualiser with you since I've been doing a lot of these kind of things lately (but not in 3D). Its by Grant Skinner who is one of the Daddies when it comes to Flash and Actionscript.

Check it out- its pretty cool, and expect to see something similar here soon!

Which reminds me, I haven't shown you any papervision stuff....

Too much Candy?

Well I restarted Firefox and they all work again. I guess it must be a cache thing... too much candy and the fox gets sick!

Anyway here's another visualiser. This one looks like an eye so I've imaginatively called it Eye Candy!

More Candy!

I wrote a thousand words of my paper today so I though I'd reward myself by playing with Flash a bit more.
I came up with what I've called Candy Visualiser Its not interactive, you just admire its beauty!
Be warned! It is processor heavy so if you PC is old or slow it may crash! (sorry)

[Edit] I don't know whats going on with these Flash movies, sometimes they work and sometimes they dont....

I know all these generative art things have been done before but they are so much fun to do!