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- New MinimalComp: WheelNavNovember 18
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This is an idea I got from this article:
http://jonoscript.wordpress.com/2008/10/28/pie-in-the-sky/
I read it a while back, but was recently thinking of ways to make a decent 3D interface. Not an interface that is in 3D, but an interface that allows for rotating, scaling, and moving 3D objects. I've done all sorts of menus, toolbars, keyboard shortcuts, but it never was too usable. I thought this might be better. I'm not sure it will be better for that purpose, but at least I wound up with a cool component that will surely be useful for something.
Here's some demos. First with labels, like you see above. Just click anywhere. Drag to the item you want, and release.
And here with icons:
The use is a bit different, but pretty straightforward. When you create the menu, you need to specify the parent (usually best to place in main class so it's above everything), the number of segments, outer radius, icon radius, inner radius, and default select event handler. Actually, you only need to specify the first two. The rest have default params.
- Flash on the Beach Miami tickets on sale!November 18
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For those of you who have been unable to make it over to Brighton to Flash on the Beach, this may be your chance to get a taste of the awesomeness that is FOTB.
http://www.flashonthebeach.com
Tickets are on sale now, and the super early bird price for the first 199 tickets is just $299.
Less than three hundred dollars!!! For one of the best conferences you could go to! Un-freaking-believable!
Now if you look at the list of speakers, you're not going to see my name. Due to various potential scheduling situations, I couldn't make a commitment at an early date. But I just might hop on a plane at the last minute and go down there.
- The Flash Platform is dead! Long live the Flash Platform!November 17
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Adobe announced, or TechCrunch announced, or Adobe will announce... um... anyway, there's this brand new thing called the Flash Platform now on Adobe.com:
http://www.adobe.com/flashplatform/
The Adobe® Flash® Platform is an integrated set of technologies surrounded by an established ecosystem of support programs, business partners, and enthusiastic user communities.
This is not to be confused with the Flash Platform that was announced by Macromedia several years ago. Not to be confused, because it's the same thing. Which is good, because I've been running the Boston Flash Platform User Group for 3 years now. Would be a shame if that meant something else now.
Some have reported that Flex is changing its name to the Flash Platform, but I don't really read it like that. In fact, this chart shows things very clearly:
I have to say though, that I'm really disappointed that Flex Builder is still Flex Builder. It's SUCH a misnomer. As Chuck said in the link above:
The product we knew as FlexBuilder has really just been a much more code-friendly way to build apps for Flash. This name-changing effort will clear up a lot of confusion, especially to those new to Flash that didn't quite understand how/why two
- 25 Line ActionScript Contest begins tomorrowNovember 14
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We have rules. We have judges. We have prizes.
Now we need code.
The contest begins at 12:00:01 a.m. tomorrow morning EST (GMT - 5).
- Deconstructing Flash 10 3DNovember 10
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In the comments of this post, Emanuele Cipolloni put forth the idea that Flash 10 3D is simply done behind the scenes using drawTriangles. That was a interesting realization for me. Made sense, so I decided to test it out. Basically, how would I create a 3D engine like Flash 10 3D using drawTriangles?
1. I'd get the bounds of an object as a rectangle.
2. Create a bitmap of that width and height and draw the object into it.
3. Transform the four corner points of the bounds using standard 3D formulas.
4. Use these transformed points as vertices for triangle drawing, and the bitmap as a bitmap fill.
Here's what I came up with. The image on the left (the only image you can see at first) is simply an imported bitmap in a movie clip sitting on stage. Click on it, and I do steps 1-4 repeatedly, drawing the triangles in the right part of the stage. The rotationY is increased on each frame.
Essentially, the same thing. The built in version is a lot smoother and cleaner looking, but I'm only using two triangles. And I think they are throwing some smoothing into the mix somewhere. (Perhaps even a slight blur???)
Here's the code. Beware, it's crappy, crappy, crappy code. Done on the train and bus on the way to work. Begs to be cleaned up, but I've proved my point and probably won't do much more with it unless I can think of so