This small example was inspired by FlashMagazine’s tutorial on the Away3D engine. 3D is becoming the biggest rave in the flash world and has a bright future…Note that there are limitations on the flash player performance. Click on the image for the popup. Please be patient while it loads! (Too lazy to add a loader right now)

Links to resources in this example:
Away3D
JHT’S Planetary Pixel Emporium

TAKE 1: Particles (Actionscript)

I have seen many particle experiments out there nowadays. Some of the code that captures the essence of particle emulation and recursion is quite simple to concoct and implement. I love particle coding and was looking to get my hands dirty in the Flash IDE. Recently i found a simple class authored by SebDeelisle. All of us coders out there know the meaning of simplicity especially in code. Yeah keep it simple you all then build from there. Here is an example of some stars crescent shaoes floating around looking for their maker – Ha!
 

[kml_flashembed movie="/experiments/Step 7.swf" height="300" width="550" /]

TAKE 2: Pointillism (Processing)

A basic image of some cricket fans with the ever so familiar crescent masks!

The same cricket fans redone in processing with the code for pointillism attached. Not the best rendering but at this moment I’ll gladly take it.
/*
* Pointillism
* by Ahad Bokhari
*
* Mouse horizontal location controls size of dots.
* Creates a simple pointillist effect using ellipses colored
* according to pixels in an image.
*
* Created 5th April, 2008
*/

PImage a;

void setup()
{
a = loadImage(”crick.jpg”);
size(415,318);
noStroke();
background(255);
smooth();
}

void draw()
{
float pointillize = map(mouseX, 0, width, 2, 18);
int x = int(random(a.width));
int y = int(random(a.height));
color pix = a.get(x, y);
fill(pix, 126);
ellipse(x, y, pointillize, pointillize);
}

I am intrigued by physics and how to apply it and make flash go baby go. Over the next months i will be doing alot of experimentation with physics. Here is a simple experiment with physics and gravity. You should know about the attachMovie method and duplicateMovie functions in AS before playing around with this one.

By the way here are some great physics engines that you most definitely want to check out. (This file doesnt use those Engines).

1. Cove Physics Engine
2. Fizix Engine
   

Be sure to check them out….

[kml_flashembed movie="/experiments/physics_gravity.swf" height="325" width="500" /]

Download Source

Another simple experiment using a for loop and attach movie…This time with more code in the ball_mc:Movieclip which is attached to the simple for loop.  Makes for a great effect and if you play around with it i am sure you can get something even more interesting.

[kml_flashembed movie="/experiments/color_for.swf" height="250" width="500" /]
As always you may download the source files:
Download

[kml_flashembed movie="/experiments/Tree.swf" height="400" width="400" /]

Go ahead and click anywhere on the stage.

Download Source

Just experimenting with Flash and its capabilities…I am always amazed how one can easily create particles and attach them at runtime using a simple for loop…Check it out.

[kml_flashembed movie="/experiments/Particles.swf" height="250" width="400" /]

Feel free to download the source files to see how simple it really is!
Download Source Files

Pretty Cool…yup..It gets better though. Add a variable speed to the script and adjust it in the onEnterFrame function and you get something even cooler:

[kml_flashembed movie="/experiments/Particles1.swf" height="250" width="400" /]
And the Source Files:
Download Source Files

With a frame counter and Bitmap Cache turned on:

[kml_flashembed movie="/experiments/Particles_frame.swf" height="250" width="400" /]

Been working on some Randomize text effects in Actionscript…I havent quite figured out how to do so yet, but it wont stop me from trying new things with flash…I have seen these effects all over the net..Check the about www.simonrasmussen.com, www.nebojsanikolic.co, and of course www.yugop.com.

The below effects are quite simple mask effects with an invisible button for the event handler….

[kml_flashembed movie="/experiments/random_blog.swf" height="100" width="200" /]

The closest i have gotten to ActionScript verison is this code snippet here.

////////

var $speed = 50;
var $string = “This is the text to unjumble”;

Array.prototype.randomize = function() {
var i = this.length;
if (i == 0) return;
while (–i) {
var j = Math.floor(Math.random()*(i+1));
var tmp1 = this[i];
var tmp2 = this[j];
this[i] = tmp2;
this[j] = tmp1;
}
return this;
}

var $count = 1;
var $max = $string.length;
_root.animateInterval = setInterval(function() : Void {
var $startnormaltext = $string.substr(0, $count);
var $endjumbledtext = $string.substr($count, $max).split(”").randomize().join(”");
trace($startnormaltext + $endjumbledtext);
$count++;
if ($count == $max) { clearInterval(_root.animateInterval) };
}, $speed);

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