myFlashPortal

Changes of usage of _autoAlpha in Tweener AS3

2008-07-06T23:53:00.003+08:00

This has to be a post I need to make to remind myself in the future. I almost wet my pants when I found my code to automatically hide an object invisibility, doesn’t work in AS3 anymore.
The usual code is like...

Tweener.addTween(myMC, {_autoAlpha:1,time:1,transition:"linear"})

in which there is no problem with the syntax. But upon searching through the vast sea of internet. This post at http://lists.caurinauebi.com/pipermail/tweener-caurinauebi.com/2007-October/000293.html

enlighten my life that most of the special parameter that is not “official” will need an intialisation like :

import caurina.transitions.properties.DisplayShortcuts;
DisplayShortcuts.init();

Same, as the poster commented, hated to do these initialisation. But for the goodness sake of the API growth, it will help to keep the main API non-polluted, so to speak. My god.

Update : 8th July 2008
Got into more tips on using _Blur_blurX instead of the usual _blur_blurX now from this blog comment. And of course, you need to initalize your Tweener script once before using it.

import caurina.transitions.properties.FilterShortcuts;
FilterShortcuts.init();

Thanks for voting

2008-06-20T11:50:00.001+08:00

Again I would like to express my gratitude over the weekend on your stay here. Of course at the same time I'm interested to share my knowledge over my slow transition from AS2 to AS3.

Best use of interactive media, yet.

2008-06-20T11:42:00.002+08:00

Uniqlock
I am always impressed by my fellow mentors from the East in creating creative campaigns for brands, be it big or small. I would rather say it is unconventional that is what makes this campaign so big and successful, and there is countless websites that has already reviewed on the campign itself, but I wouldn't want to talk on it again. Somehow it does proves the fact that something that walks along the line of beautiful, pretty, soft-core, but yet usable-effective idea, will be 'possibly' successful, the rest depends on how is the brand trusting the agency in implementing mind blowing ideas or execution.

Case study
The video that explains the campaign in short. In about 1 minute.

Innovation Within Mind

2008-06-20T11:27:00.009+08:00

floe
One of the most amazing stuff that you can always do with Flash is to present an idea through motion, sound or poetry, and in return, influence people to change for better. This is one of the initiatives to encourage individuals to take action in curbing the global warming issue.

World's first balloon race
Probably this would be one of the most clueless site that I have been to so far, in terms of how they are going to implement the event. It is a global event which encourages participant to place a widget on their website to entitle for racers to go through their website when the race starts. Only 3 Days to go. Did you take part?

Thermo
It is a project that is still kept under wrapped by Adobe themselves, but from what we can see from the wiki site itself, it is something that allows designer to create rich internet application with ease without spending too much effort into hacking or pulling their hair off. Looks promising at this point of time.

You Be The Driver
I wouldn't say or claim that this site will have something that is technologically mindblowing to keep you within the site, but the game itself is good and polished enough to keep you entertained. That includes the visuals designed inside.

Moodstream - by Getty Images
What would be the best search engine to your content? Some might say Google, but this tool would be appealing towards designers because it allows user to search through their feeling, that a generic search might not be able to replicate, in terms of what you really want to find. A very great approach to help stock image finder. This perhaps will inspire a lot of Flash designers or developers in looking to build more visual search engines.

Joshua Davis Presentation Workshop Slides
Something to share.

SWFAddress

2008-06-20T11:19:00.002+08:00

SWFAddress - Deep Linking For Flash (and ajax)
Horray! The days of Flash bashing is (almost) over! And the complains has always been made that there is no possibility to deep linking inside Flash, that hurts when you want to bookmark a 'certain' area on a very cool flash site. Probably what is worse when you are going through a shopping cart and wanted to go back and forth using the browser's back and forward button. This has come to shed 'some' light to you. Upon a quick look inside the implementation. It would be applicable to corporate or portfolio sites, which normally uses 'label' for targetting from one section to another, because for this to work, we will have to use 'anchor' inside Flash, just like how HTML's anchor link works.

For example, an anchor link in HTML looks like...
link
and then it will directly bring the user towards the relevant page.
This applies that the almost similiar function will appear using SWFAddress.

Geoquake - Driving virtually

2008-06-20T11:08:00.003+08:00

GeoQuake - Driving on Google Maps
This is one of the crazy invention from our fellow friend from the East that came up with a mashup of both driving simulator and Google Maps. What happens here is, he started off with building a parking simulation game in Flash, and then ended up applying the Google Maps Flash API. And it became something entirely new, and perhaps, useful! You could probably virutally drive to the place you want to be in advance before reaching there? I'm wondering how hard would it be to implement hit test on this global map, probably something that the Google team can work out to team up with someone and build literally, a driving simulation game. Hmm... I wouldn't want to drive onto the ocean.

Flash Player 10 on its way

2008-06-13T15:39:00.006+08:00

The way we are all looking right on the platform is heading, full fledge 3d environment. Some of us might have been blasted with some magnificent overwhelmingly great 3d flash sites, but most of them still share one problem in common, limitation of the browser and software rendered 3d. This upcoming version shows a lot of promise that probably 'developer' are always wanting to explore. Designers might find their way through this as well, a whole world of new possibilities. No more prerendered 3d videos.

We are finding the path are either blurred so much that it emerged in between flash, website and 3d gaming on pc. Or even mobile. I wouldn't be surprised in the future (it is happening now) that there will be an entirely new market for creating 3d casual games through Flash and people buying accounts online, entirely, look at how Playstation Network, WiiWare from Nintendo and even Microsoft Xbox Live Arcade is expanding.

Flash Player 10 Demo | Flash Player 9 Demo
Some short write up on the Alternativa platform on this on chewing pixels. They even had a news release on the site launch.

Newsground Sugar Glider
Look on the above example, some of us might or not, heard of the other underdog of 3d in the Flash industry, known as Away3D.

Fifa Street 3

Green Planet
Though of course some of the big player like North Kingdom and Lessrain has been implementing it on their commercial projects. I did take a quick look into it, and certainly the learning curve it less steeper compared to the ever popular Papervision3D. Of course certainly the game might not be as exciting as what we can expect, but there is a lot whole some of thing to except with this new possibilities!

Ecodazoo
Though I had no freaking idea which engine they might use for this, it is certainly fabulous, on both the idea and execution for this agency site. Amazing I would say. You can rotate the book around to see from all angles of its transition. Thanks Kai for sharing.

Bowling Buddies
But fear not, one of the most polished 3D flash game to date would be this I will say. But sadly this can only be accessed through Facebook App, if you only have facebook account. But this also means that a lot of working opportunities will be open in the future for game developers.

Panorama For The Office
Upon browsing through the sea of informations, I found through this article from Blitz Agency that is kind enough to share with us their techniques in building a VR Tour using Flash and Papervision3D.

André Michelle
If you browse deep enough nito André Michelle's library, you will notice some of the newer work compromised of very hardcore 3D driving games in Flash. For example the FunCup.

Spectra
One of the most innovatively used, visually exciting and usable newsreader. I'm impressed. This would be great if the news source are not just restricted to one.

Download Flash Player 10
The link above will lead you towards the download page for the beta player. I'd suggest you get the ActiveX version of the Flash Player to view the SWF in your desktop, so it wouldn't interfere with your browser plugin that you are currently using. It is certainly very exciting future ahead for Flash.

Some more resources for your consumption :

Disclaimer : Do this the correct way and no harm will occur, and I take no responsibility in any manner if you just being unlucky screwing up your computer.

[Freebies] jumbleText Class - make your text dance

2008-06-11T11:18:00.005+08:00

jumbleText Class (v1.0 11 June 2008)
Hi there everyone, I’m hereby would like to share with you my first humble experience in creating a class for AS2.0, namely jumbleText.as which you can download at :
http://www.manmeng.net/fun/jumbleText.zip

What it does?
Takes up your text and jumble it up in a bunch of gibberish and then slowly forming it back to the original text. Look at...matrix? or http://www.yugop.com

How does it look?
Here I have setup a sample page : http://www.manmeng.net/fun/jumbleText.swf

What is this?!
It’s an experimentation that I did back then to incorporate to my long overdued portfolio site, but I felt it’s best I share it to see how I can improve from here.

How do I use it?
I’m trying my best to make it as dumbproof and easy for user, but at this point, here are what it is needed (refer to screenshot on top as well).

Create a new font and link to “myfont”
import com.manmeng.misc.io or import.com.manmeng.misc.*
use an empty movie clip, probably name it, such as “mc”
use this... io.jumbleText(movieClipName, yourText, width, height, textColor, textSize)

And then you are ready to rock! Hope you will enjoy it. Any bugs report or suggestion please mail it to siaukia [at gmail dot com. I will port this to AS3 as well. Keep in tuned!

HelloRussia

2008-06-10T11:40:00.002+08:00

Instinct
I'm not quite sure if I ever will understand Russian, but this site needs no more than visual explanation to show you how weird it is, but in a good way, it's inspirational and the flash is top notch. Perhaps I would call this experimental, but for company portfolio site, well, it really depends. From the interactive agency known by RedKeds.

More goodness

2008-05-23T13:06:00.024+08:00

Enabling Mousewh eel on Flash (AS3)
Pixelbreaker is kind enough to show us the light towards enabling mousewheel on MacOSX! Finally after years of anticipation. But on the other hand I am also hoping there will be support for horizontal scrolling, and that would really revolutionize on how navigation will going to be created. Thanks!

Tag Galaxy
A very innovative (note the word innovative) way of presenting a metaphor of 'searching' through categories of pictures. I am impressed by the presentation and usage of PV3D here, but on the same time, what impressed me is the concept behind that makes good use of a metaphor , planets vs. related keywords. Instead of displaying only text, this site gives you a good idea on 'related' planet nearby. Awesome. Additionally, the navigation is very usable. Note the history/back option.

foedus
A list of hardcore but detailed work to be precise is in it's bucket here. I'm always impressed by how subtle the designs is but without the elements present in their work, it will be just another plain-jane site. Serves as a good design inspiration as well.

From all fancy looking sites and sounds, perhaps you might interested to do some reading on the dark side of Flash that is contributing towards the Web2.0 webosphere.

Get Out And Play
One of the cool looking and fun site I have stumbled across throughout this year. On the first look, I never realized it would be a marketing campaign site by Nokia, to rebrand the Ngage plat form which serves like an online marketplace for gamers to play and share. What is cool about this site is the clever use of conventional idea, but blends with some wicked twist, and a hell lot of effort. Note : the video.

Bar Da Boa
Some viral site takes us into creating fancy looking character and sends it to our friend, and back and forth. This one? Takes a look at tattoo and real time "tracking" of the text you input on the video that has the character.

Street Fighter
The classic fighting game is making a comeback this year. And that is with a big bang on our face. Probably you might start to ask me why I am talking about this site while it has nothing in spectacular about it's backend or glitters? But I would like to emphasize on the good use of media in this case, the video itself is a great selling point for the whole site, it's beautiful and...powerful. On the other hand, you might notice that there is a widespread usage on anchor link. the # symbol. It is especially crucial in these day where Flash is always questioned on it's realiability between switching forward and back inside a browser history. Look, a fine example.

Acrobat.com
No this not the usual annoying slow-loading pdf reader that we always used to hat...like? This time around, this site sure hits the bulls eye. Do not be fooled by it's plain looking introduction landing page. Wait until you go inside you can't stop your mouth from opening wide from the great thoughtful navigation for the users, and design. This site acts like a all-in-one manager for your documents just like how Google manages your emails, calenders, documents and so on, just that this one is in Flash, and it's 'exceptionally good'. Really.

White Void
A very inspiring studio that leads into some ground breaking interactive design work.

Nat Geo Offroad Challenge
And when I thought driving inside Flash has died down. Thanks to Kai for this. It feels

Goodness Inside

2008-05-06T15:30:00.008+08:00

Foundation AS3
Going through the ups and downs in Actionscript 2.0 is not like an overnight experience, I know and I understand. But time has to go and the new one has to come. Actionscript 3.0, is all of our nightmare. It's been year more than a year, perhaps even 2 or more. But I'm glad I found few resources that deemed helpful to me, that helped me built my first button in AS3! Yay. On the site itself you may find very helpful resources on the example file that you can do in AS3. But of course with the book guidance, it would be even easier and faster to learn than guessing each syntax. Enjoy.

On the other hand, after getting firmed up in basics of AS3, you might want to look into some interesting basics in Papervision 3D, which this site from Dennis Ippel gives you a heads up on how to quickly set an environment in AS3 + Papervision.

Singularity, the global web conference: October 24-26, 2008
Singularity is the first large-scale online web conference in the world.

Setting up FMS3
If you are into multiplayer-flash programs, Flash Media Server 3 would be the best choice, but the price itself might already kill half of your intention of doing something big, but on the other side, there is this open source engine known by the name Red5, an alternative. How awesome is doing multiplayer is? Look at :

Dofus
An online massively multiplayer game built on the Flash platform. It's excitingly beautiful!

Adobe, Make Some Noise

2008-05-06T14:33:00.004+08:00

Adobe, Make Some Noise
Interesting enough, this has start to slowly gain momentum in the Flash creative circle. What is this you ask ? Below is an extract on what it is all about...

“Adobe, MAKE SOME NOISE is a campaign, which addresses the lack of dynamic sound manipulation in Flash. ”

Nice I would say since this would kick some start at looking into some supersonic sounds application in the future. More robust one that enables us to input more microphone and control/detect level of treble/bass/frequencies.

Creating the right W3C validation Flash page

2008-05-06T10:32:00.003+08:00

Sometimes it just kills you to figure out on how to make the both world of Flash and HTML in one lovely space. But no matter how good you are in Flash, you will always bound to HTML in holding your lovely website. I wouldn’t say it is a burden to learn and adapt to the web standards, since it will not only help us, but the future of web.

There are of course various methods published on the web previously on how to create a valid page that embeds the Flash object, which is entirely different from what your Flash’s F12 can do.
I now introduce SWFObject, a very versatile javascript utility that makes your day shine brighter. Not only it embeds your flash file that complies to web standard. It’s being constantly developed and updated. Now on version 2!

But what surprised me is that they even provides you a dumb-proofed HTML generator that saves you a lot of hassle on figuring how to alter the original HTML template to fit your needs.
What can I say more? It’s one of the MUST-HAVE tool inside your personal Flash toolbox.

[Experiment] Sticky Particles /w Source

2008-04-26T04:26:00.004+08:00

Sticky Particle
Originally inspired by yugop on his creation @ amaztype. But that was years ago before BitmapData is even out. That really made me wonder what kind of algorithm he thought of to make this work. A pure genius.

Source file is in Adobe Flash CS3 Format, commented and available for download at :
[ Download FLA ]

Demo is viewable at :
[ View SWF ]

[Tips] Using Tweener

2008-04-23T21:37:00.014+08:00

I hope you are still having a good weekend through this week. And if you remember a few post back then regarding the usage of Tweener, it has became an essential tool for me, if not, a neccessity for me in building a Flash project, faster and more efficient.

Like the good ol’ MC TWEEN, a spiritual succesor towards Tweener, you can download the free class files at http://code.google.com/p/tweener/

In this post I will go through a sweet short usage introduction that is enough to entice you to try more. Compared to MC TWEEN, in which you will have always declare :

#include mc_tween.as;

...at the start of every flash file, contrary to Tweener, you have to only do this, just like importing class for BitmapData or BlurFilter. Like :

import caurina.transitions.*;

But how do you use it? Unlike, MC TWEEN that only requires installation through a MXP package (double click and install through Macromedia extension), you need to place the classes in a correct folder. I will share with you on how to prepare your Flash to use Tweener.

Step 1 : Go to Tweener website at http://code.google.com/p/tweener/

Step 2 : Click on Downloads, or alternatively, you can download directly from the Featured Downloads link at the right of the page.

Step 3 : Select the Class file that best suite your preference, I will choose AS2 at the moment, it shouldn’t differ too much with AS3.

Step 4 : Once the link is clicked, the download will proceed immediately. Unzip the folder to your Desktop/Finder after download is completed.

Step 5 : This step here is purely optional, but I practice this because it really help to boost up my productivity and organize my Flash Files altogether. Adapted from Lee Brimelow’s tutorial, I will usually have a “Flash” folder on my Desktop that stores all my external Classes (Papervision, etc etc) and my experimentats. In this case, I will put the extracted caurina folder into Classes for all my AS2 files, this applies to any classes that is for AS3. Reason? It is best to have a separate Class folder for both AS version to avoid mixup and overwriting.

Step 6 : Now we will go into Flash and add our own Class Folder. Go to Preferences inside Flash (Ctrl + K for PC and CMD+K for Mac).

Step 6.2 : Select Actionscript from the left menu and Actionscript 2.0 Settings on the bottom right.

Step 6.3 : It will now pop a window for you to specify the location of the Class folder. Press on the plus (+) sign to add a new directory for this. And click on the Target button to find/browse the specified folder.

Step 6.4 : Select the correct folder which stores all of the external classes.

Step 7 : We will now proceed with our first experiment on using Tweener. It is really simple, which I will provide the example file on the end of this sharing. Create a new document with a movieclip that is named as “box” as its instance name. On the first frame and layer a/s, we will initilize the Flash file with importing the Tweener class.
By doing : import .caurina.transitions.*;
We will now try to move the box from the left side of the stage to the right end of the stage. Additionally, it will fade out after it reaches the right side. Awesome?

Step 8 : We will start with moving the box from left to right with the syntax as below :

Tweener.addTween(box,{_x:400,time:1,transition:"easeIn"})

Test the movie and it should slide gracefully from the left side of the screen to the right. Okay now, you might think on what about making more crazy stuff? Before going into that detail, the code is compromise of the name of the movieclip you need to control, and inside the {} curly bracket, you will then need to specify what you want the movie clip to do. It’s that easy!

There are a lot of syntax that you can explore and refer from the online documentation at :
http://hosted.zeh.com.br/tweener/docs/en-us/
But the most common used by me are : _x, _y, _xscale, _yscale, _frame, _color, _alpha, _autoAlpha
And you might think what are those? _autoAlpha?! basically it’s some really cool predefined animations that set to tween your movieclip to alpha 0, and make it disappear (_visible = false) automatically!

Step 9 : Now for the magic, we will add another line as :

Tweener.addTween(box,{_alpha:0,delay:0,time:1,transition:"easeIn"})

Notice the delay there? It is the same amount of time (in second) as the first tweening, that means the second code of tweening will wait in line until the first one finishes in 1 second. Experiment around. You will be amazed.

Extra note : For starter or intermediate learner, you might be stunned with all these examples that you can find at http://tweener.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/examples/. Head on to gotoAndLearn() as well for those recent tutorials that made use of a lot Tweener.

[ Download Tutorial File ]

[Toy] YouBrowser - YouTube Visual Finder

2008-04-09T22:11:00.003+08:00

YouBrowser - Look For Video (literally)
I had some chance earlier last year to play around with YouTube’s API and I’m looking forward to improve this toy. Basically when we want to find something, etc “look” we really want to look around. So I hope you will find this useful and have fun “looking” for top videos.

Do keep the comments and suggestions coming in to make this one a better one for all of us. Cheers!
If you like it, digg it or bookmark the url, will be permanent at : http://labs.oneduasan.com/YouTube.html

Update : Tips to share.
In regards if you are looking to do some dynamic user input/search through php-->flash. There’s some trick I found on the internet. I will probably share it in detail next time when I finalize the detail on YouBrowser search engine. But basically if you want it to work, you need to send a string to youtube on the ‘tag’ you want to search and parse it back as a xml document to you through php. And I realized it can’t be done directly through Flash, at least in AS2.0.

$devid = $_GET['func'];

$theURL = "http://www.youtube.com/api2_rest?method=youtube.videos.list_featured&dev_id=".$devid;

$contents =implode ("",file($theURL));

echo($contents);

?>

Note that the function that is helping this to work is the implode() function that feeds the data from the api into xml data and then send it back to Flash. Hope you will find this useful.

[Inspiration] Jonathan Harris

2008-04-09T15:40:00.003+08:00

Telling Stories Using Data : Jonathan Harris
An exclusive interview with data virtualisation pioneer, Jonathan Harris. One of my big source of inspiration from his work is his habit in reusing existing material but to make it more visually appealing and effective in conveying communication. Talk about good design being made better.

[Tools] Tweener

2008-04-08T18:33:00.002+08:00

http://code.google.com/p/tweener/
"...In layman's terms, Tweener helps you move things around on the screen using only code, instead of the timeline..."
"...Tweener is also the spiritual successor to MC Tween..."

Basically if you are familiar with the succesful MC TWEEN for ActionScript 2. You will find yourself blessed with this. Since there are quite a lot of aspect improved in terms of efficiency in implementing tweening. On the other hand, it will help for you to learn faster if you are also regularly learning from gotoAndLearn()

Random Bits of Sharing

2008-04-04T15:21:00.007+08:00

ColorFlip
A rather simple and direct site. But it definitely does a good job in simulating a full page spread paper that you can tear. Much like a layout pad that concept/2D artist draws on. A canvas.

Shuffle
Knock your opponent’s ball, er... away. Pretty addictive if you ask me. But nevertheless it does reminds me of both snooker, billiard and dodgeball.

Real Time Raytracing in AS3.0
While announced a while ago, it seems that the Flash technology has reached another milestone in implementing 3D technology onto the web. Does it mean, in the future, we will see, RTS or FPS games inside your browser using Flash?

World Golf Tour : PGA Charity Challenge
This would definitely be one of the stunning 3D Flash game at the moment that I had seen. I’m still thinking that the gameplay or instruction could be further enhanced. Took me several minutes to figure out how to hit the golf ball.

Transitioning & Effects

2008-04-04T15:16:00.002+08:00

Starbucks Coffee At Home
Sometimes, what really is impressive about a website is not how it is technologically
driven, but it is so beautiful beyond words that you are seamlessly feeling like you are watching an interactive video showcase in a website. This website doesn’t shout out loud on the crowd but it does all bit of details that makes this one a premium site to be inspired at. The details of video transition, rollover, sound effects. This all small elements makes up to a big outcome that will define if the site is worth of visit. And the concept are just fantastic, from the usual shop that we see, that uses chalk on the blackboard to promote the latest drink, this straightforward idea is then brought to the web, and it’s fresh once again! bravo.

Using Papervision 2.0

2008-04-04T13:47:00.003+08:00

Papervision 3D Tutorial
gotoAndLearn() is an amazing resource for video tutorial from the basics to the intermediate level in Flash Actionscript programming. In my recent browse to the site, they have one really interesting tutorial on implementing a 3D cube navigation with papervision 3d. Check em out!

Dear readers,
I has been a mild long time since this has any updates. This time around I will look back into sharing interesting thing I have found over the years.

Salutes,
Mervin

The site's plan now and then

2006-09-13T18:39:00.000+08:00

I guess it's partly my fault here and there since I've not been updating regularly due to my havoc in work and life imbalance, well and just got back some time to blogging after completed one project seemingly unrelated to Flash. But that's just I guess a valuable experience to me somehow.

But whatever it takes, I'll still come back often as I could to post more findings and reviews I can find on the internet about this great application. But I had no idea when I will really feel demotivated and wanted to run away, due to stress from work and deadlines. I feel that i'm degrading.

But really, let me know what you think and feel. It might enlighten me a bit.

Not dead but not too alive, yet.

2006-09-13T09:03:00.000+08:00

Flickr Related Tag Browser
A very cool richmedia application by Airtight Interactive, This one's a search engine where the search keywords will then display related keywords around the center search result, I guess this is one of the good or best flickr information visualisation yet. But I can't seem to find the Amazon search visualisation built by Yugop since I've ever come back from the Max Conference at Singapore.

Vodafone Journey
A very impressive site by it's navigation so far I've ever visited in my life. I'd mean it does really breakthrough how a stereotype website would be on a normal basis. Awesome FLV implementation and it's so freaking smooth that you couldn't believe you are viewing a website, it's like on a CD-ROM! It's best if you have ear/headphone with you as you listen to it closely, you can observe how much detail are really put into it that the transition for the intersection are carefully planned to let it merged so well with each other.

North Kingdom
Who'd say that technology and design can't blend well?

Oooooouch
This is a very interesting website advertising a sunblock lotion product :D. Ouch as you touch the girls. Play on and you'll know why. I'd think they're using FMS/FCS for the backend I guess?

Would You Like A Website
by Freedom Interactive Design.

Session
Still remember the great intern for Exopolis from HyperIsland that sets a bar for motion graphics in Flash? I mean, I'd really have deep respect down to its toe for this guy man, he rocks even in this latest attempt on creating motion graphics in Flash. That's just plain insane.

1Mug
A creative agency, but which provides an interactive tour around the company with a fully rendered 3d sequence, you'll need a fast broadband connection to view this. But well it's good and resembles Sony Style also in its own league.

Magnum in Motion
What's so special and impressive about this site is the narrative style that is proved to be totally brought out the mood of the picture which is taken professionally. With a surplus touch onto the audio, some of the audio will really take you down to a journey which will gives you a chill in your back, some even goosebump. But seriously, you must pay a visit here. Great navigation and Flash implementation from the dudes at Group94. Awesome as always.

Makine
Talk about being fun and serious and somewhere in between. This is a portfolio site which you'll be spending some time in clicking on hidden objects while playing around enjoying some cool transitions.

Mecano
This site has previously won various awards from FWA and more. And the site is absolutely beautiful separated with different colour scheme and hidden bonuses. What's more attractive is probably the navigation systems are friendly and usable indeed.

LoveLines
Ever wondered what other people in this world think and feel about love? This is an experimental site collecting datas from an external sites and then VISUALIZE the information in graphical manner. And I'd bet this trend will go stronger and stronger in the future and more people would demand information to be displayed in graphics for better information absorbtion instead a bunch of text right? Well, this happened to be started way long time ago from Marumushi @ NewsMap. And now Digg's even doing it. Who's next?

It has been a while since the event ended and it was awesome, both nominated sites and even winners, they're just both awesome though I suppose there are more that deserves the award. But of course, it's also one of my dream to attend one of these great flash conference or even best still, to participate and give speech *cough* on it, well, it's a dream.

Flash Forward Conference Seattle
Below is the list of site i compiled from the nomination and winner list, but well, in case I afraid they took it off, so i just list it out here, in no particular order :P
http://www.99rooms.com/
http://www.geocities.com/gio_art_1/splash.html
http://www.nfb.ca/perpetualmotions/perpetualmotions/?w=engrenage
http://www.byma.de/phraggles
http://www.aardman.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/fairlyreliable/
http://www.biteycastle.com/littleFoot.html
http://www.wefail.com/sundaypants/
http://www.acura.ca/acura/csx_micro/en/csx-popup.html
http://www.bowwowlondon.com/
http://www.md-extreme.pl/
http://www.tazo.com/
http://www.bluesuburbia.com/
http://www.incomplet.org/
http://www.fubbs.net/
http://www.liquidjourney.com/
http://www.deathinsakkara.com/
http://www.dofus.com/
http://www.mtv.com/cms/templates/games/video_games/obsessed/flash_game/
http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/thelegendofzorro/zorro_game/
http://www.artnatomia.net/
http://www.curatingthecity.org/
http://www.geoimpact.com/cx/project/gitanenglish/index.html
http://redstudio.moma.org/interviews/shahzia/
http://www.converseone.com/
http://www.corpsebridemovie.com/
http://www.havaianas.com/
http://www.theunseenvideo.com/
http://english.pobediteli.ru/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/shakespeare/game.shtml
http://www.theassassinationofrichardnixon.co.uk/
http://www.zimmertwins.com/
http://www.andreescu-gaivoronski.com/
http://www.bbdo.com/
http://www.moma.org/contemporaryvoices/
http://www.remo.com/
http://www.forestandthetrees.com/findr/
http://nesteaice.com/
http://www.goober.nu/nim/high.html
http://demo.fb.se/e/volvo/xseachallenge/
http://www.asunit.org/
http://www.i2off.org/flashed
http://www.rbkcustom.com/
http://www.rr.com/flash
http://gzone.jp/
http://www.dreamstudiodesign.com/
http://www.extrememusic.com/
http://www.newpaul.com/
http://www.fbfx.co.uk/
http://www.i2off.org/
http://www.schemexpo.com/2005/
http://www.wordsatplay.com/
http://www.dearmrb.se/
http://www.liveonthefly.com/
http://demo.fb.se/e/ikea/dreamkitchen/
http://www.samsung.com/se/current/campaign/d600/index_en.htm

Fun with Flash

2006-07-13T14:22:00.000+08:00

Physics in Flash?
http://www.cove.org/
http://www.sephiroth.it/blog/img/flade.swf
http://www.chilloutzone.de/files/05062202.html
http://www.blog.lessrain.com/?p=115
Was browsing around the net for resources and then found these interesting links on physics inside Flash. Cool.

UnitZeroOne Daily dose for Flash application.

BlinkVille
A highly interactive site that lets you post message onto it, well, to leave a mark. But for sure, it's really awesome, and the backend and coding although not revolutionary, but it's far than surpasses any Malaysian site ever created yet. So far. From (if) interactive.

FLV Meta Data Injector
A very useful application I found from Buraks which injects meta data into your FLVs so it's crawlable by search engines, and also, if i'm not mistaken there are also SWF MDI somewhere around the net where you also able to let search engine to crawl swf's meta data injected to it.

Old-Film Webcam Effect on-the-fly using Flash 8
Here's a site that i've ran through that provides a really nifty codes that let you run in Flash8 that produces an old-film-alike effect in your webcam output.

The Black Sheep
One very cool mention here, The Black Sheep is actually a graduation campaign from one local design college in Malaysia, but I won't mention about it. Anyway, why it's here? That's because of the quality of build are put inside the site, dynamically and interactive. And powered by XHTML and CSS. I salute the team behind it.

I miss U E-card
Do you miss anyone lately?

camMover v.3 Move the cube with your hand!

2006-07-11T11:53:00.000+08:00

Screenshots

The Thing
[ View the Demo here ]
[ Download the Source ]
(You need a webcam and flash player 8 or newer to view it properly)

////////////////////////////////////////////////
//////////// CREDITS AND SALUTES ///////////////
// 3D CUBE Script by Kirupa, www.kirupa.com //
// Webcam Detection Script by betaruce.com :) //
// Inspired from Quasimondo's Minority Cube. //
////////////////////////////////////////////////

CamMover Prototype Version 0.3 ( 11st July 2006)

+++++Using the Script++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Basically the video attached on the stage are for
reference only, which you can remove it, but if you
notice, i've offset the BitmapData outside of the stage
which it replicates the Orangebutton's position.
Same goes as well for the Orange square, you can hide it
using _visible = 0 or setting the alpha to 0.

And if you look closely as well, there is one green tiny
dot appeared running around the video, you can also
hide it from appearing with setting the alpha/visible.

+++++Author's Note+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Currently i'm still working on different navigation
or interaction possiblity with this webcam input.
There are still lots of bugs to fix at the moment
but I guess it's way better than the first prototype
i produced which taken the example from Guy Watson's
fla file, which is way heavier and laggy even on a
3.0ghz machine, and it would crash whenever it runs
for a long time. But it has not been tested on this file
yet. Let me know if this file also crash on a long run.

There are basically around 3 type of different interaction
until this moment.
1. Scrolling through a picture gallery
2. Control a 3D cube (which you'll be able to select one of it)
3. Drawing with your body + sound

But of course most of it only uses 1-point interaction,
I'm looking forward on implementing a two point interaction
so it would be possible to use 'zoom-in/out' or 'rotating'
the canvas in the future. But if you know of any solution.
Let me know about it ya. Thanks a lot.

Drop me a comment on what you think if you decide to
use it on your project. And i would be glad to see how
far it would go to.

p.s. - reason i'm doing this? I think by sharing this would make the community better, especially
when OSflash is promoting on how to make the flash community better.

p.s.s. - but ONE serious note here ya, if you knew anyone that misuse this source for their own commercial use, without noticing me and give credit back, let me know i'll sue that person off until the end of this world. :D

Copyright (c) 2006 ManMeng.net. Some Rights Reserved.

Making good, effective and usable site

2006-05-05T11:53:00.000+08:00

Computerlove
If you want to see one of the best integration on the web on the latest cutting edge web application + high quality, I guess it's really been a while. but cpluv answer all your questions. What amazed me is not only very well designed XHTML+CSS valid site, and also, something you can see from Frappr, which connects you within the world of a network together with other really awesome designers, creative and art directors alike. Upon digging into their About section, the site's backend are maintained by the guys from Embassy of Aesthetics. And really cool photo sharing enabled by Woomp! I'm yet to know how far this competes head to head with Flickr's API, but it's promising, on the main page to see a rather dynamic presentation on recent uploaded pictures.

DQBooks
Very beautiful yet minimal approach on building skectchbook. And the work speaks for itself. Self explainatory. Art directed by 1h05, which also responsible for Days in a Day project that takes you through A city's map, which I've seen this 1 year back if i'm not mistaken. (It's rpg-like type of game, but without a specific character)

Refeed : Checking back with Andre Michelle's blog, lots of update on Flex2 & AS3 development. Happy to hear he's invited to Flash Festival's Paris.

Volvo Design
Very unusual, but intuitional and daring implementation of navigation, for such a big company, really, really, exciting. And I guess if this method are being pushed towards the market loudly, it can be a very useful and usable type of website, to stand on it's own, because you're navigation using the logical arrow navigation. Up, down, left and right. And you can zoom in and out. I'm not really sure but I guess it's also heavily influenced from gaming design as well, with the very useful "map" displayed on the bottom right to indicate where they are now. Very nice.

Media Catalyst
Heavily influenced from transitions you always from TV commercials (if you know psyop, you'll know what i mean). Besides from being experimental on the transition, they still maintain lots of usability on the site, content and navigation still remain intact and usable. But I guess by looking at this website, how much % it will impact your site's experience towards the user. See, the transition.

Shave Everywhere
If you wonder how far that Flash Video presentation would take your site, look at this site, and it answers most of your doubt in selling a product, on it's 100% effectiveness. Very smooth site on both platform, tested and one worthy note, there's very little hiccup in between of the loads of the FLVs, very optimized. With this approach, your audience will most of the times feels a lot closer interacting not in only mouse clicks, but, a person that talks to them, telling and educate the audience with the correct message they want to deliver.

Reflets
One of the very best animation work I've seen incorporating Flash8's filters after littleFoot, Prowlies at the river. You'll be amazed by the details and cinematography that is able lives almost up to the 'movie-like' standard. Unique style i would say, a joined effort between Sukiland and Papy3d, i wasn't too much suprised when they're being nominated on both Flashfestival and Brooklyn International Film Festival. Congrats guys. Yes, I still think, Suki's illustration is great as ever, check em out!

Webcam Fluid Dynamics
Certainly, another cool experiment done using Flash 8's new features. and live from gskinner's blog, i saw this... "...This experiment lets you interact via the webcam with particles that behave similar to fluids. They flow downhill, get caught in bowl shapes, and are generally a lot of fun..."

Converting SWF to other video formats

2006-05-05T09:15:00.000+08:00

This has always been one of the most used feature that a lot of TV Shows are gaining momentum in using Flash to animate it before airing on the TV. So there's probably a lot type of question on beginners that how they can convert the ever small .SWF file to ...let's say... an AVI file format?

The Freeware
http://www.pizzinini.net/projects/swf2avi/
Though I have not used this one yet, but I guess it could be one of the good one out there.

/////////////////////////////////

LIMITATIONS

- no audio support
(simple workaround: record your windows stereo mix :)
- no support for compressed movies

////////////////////////////////

The Shareware
http://www.winmpg.com/SWF-to-AVI.html
http://www.flashants.com/root/swf2video.shtml
Not free but powerful, with support.

The Flash Itself
You can actually use the built in export function from the Flash interface itself, File--> Export Movie but there are of course certain limitations would occur from using that, and that's even if you're not using Quicktime Pro.

We'll discuss about audio export later, now we can come to the video itself, by using Flash export, it's easy, yes, but there are things you'll notice that the movie clips inside the main timeline, that normally has animation, doesn't play when exported and stopped at it's first frame. Why? I've yet to find an answer. But if you have everything animated on the main timeline, i guess you won't have any problem with it.

And as for the audio...
You can playback the SWF file, and while it's running...
1... You set your Recording Control's setting to Stereo Mix
2... Open or use any audio recording device, such as Adobe Audition, MySoundStudio etc etc.
3... Press record on your recording software and then fire up your SWF...
4... it will record whatever that is streaming on your pc at the moment, so make sure you turn off volume for all other application, if you have audio player running of course.

Combining the both
And after you get both output file, audio and video itself separately, you can now combine it with any video editing software, such as Adobe Premiere, or VirtualDub.

P.s. - not actually an official tutorial but more like a sharing. :D

Next generation 'trend' of Flash experience?

2006-05-03T17:26:00.000+08:00

XRS Nowe Media
First the evolution of timeline-based-navigation. Now, inspired by airport terminal, which has all of the ambient and sound element when you are at that place. This site really captures it well, and should be one of the revolutionary one. What's very nice about this is the integration of the whole concept, planes, terminal, the 'ticking' sound. The good guys behind this.

Recruit 2007
Comparing to the XRS Nowe Media that is about some airline services, what similarity that shared among this 2 site is the navigation system. You are moving along the line.

Quasimondo : Incubator
One of the Flash developer page you shouldn't miss out anytime soon. You'll find Mario's experiment on generative art, prototypes on installation and more. But a look at the recent dugg article on his Minority Report 3D Cube prototype (you can control the cube with your hand!) has an interesting comment...

"...And if someone decides to decompile it and use the algorithms without my permission I will find out one day and sue that person's ass off..."

Chill out dude :D. Another noteworthy group that Mario's behind as well, côdeazur.
(côdeazur is the venture of four renowned software engineers, Claus Wahlers, Ralf Bokelberg, Mario Klingemann and Florian Krüsch.)

Pulpservices
The ambient of this site is just cool, bringing you through various quizes that is related to the services provided by this company, and the hands on experience is not bad, with being you walking around the forest with a piece of paper, marking down the answers on the paper. Reminds me of BadLuck-o-Meter.

FlipMo v.2
A really cool portfolio site really lives up to its name, Flipping Motion, as what you can see, every transition towards other section gives you a whole-moving section. Controlled dynamically with ActionScript and XML, I can say the cpu usage for this site is awesome, optimized and smooth between pages. And i'd want to congratulate him for winning few recognition and being nominated as the 6 finalists in Flashloaded for May. Kudos.

Frappr
Another RichMedia Application, that is going pretty hot and gaining momentum slowly, well, slow i mean. Which at this moment it's still beta, and acts more like a community site that lets you get to know where your friend located at, through the integration of google earth/maps. Similarity found @ shoutwire :D

Diesel | Cabinet of Visions
The brand, which is really has been infamous as one of the big brand incorporating designs strongly with fashion. I'm really suprised that the ambience of this site has gone way higher notch than I expect, from the loading screen that emulates the old TV screen, which flickers with dust and scratches, and when being at the main page, dropping petals. Awesome.

Mind Flood
Going back retro, this site aesthetically has the 'look' & 'feel' but what's more interesting is the organisation of the content, and how it is being presented. As the finalist of One Show Interactive, they're no small names to be reckon with, but I guess, featured work such as Red Bull MET and Interactive Mirror really does justify at where they stand now. Check em out.

Yoann Lemoine
One notable thing with this site is the 3D space around the main page, while on the other one, is the illustrations.

Mazda5 Quiksilver
Bling your car, the street style. We make graffiti out of anywhere or canvas we can find, the wall, table, bags and more, but, this time, legitly, on the car, pre-customized by designers.

The Formshape
Multi displicinary designer, from Crew11 (remember the toysite?), with just only 21 this year, does scores a lot of promising work so far. From visual identity to illustration. You just gotta dig into his style of presenting portfolio, 3D space in an interesting setting, leaves as transition

_moving
A bit on the experimental work asides, this Shockwave page provides you a random list of picture displayed all around that the installation has occurred. I guess you will have to check out the site for more interesting specs on it.

Full Throttle Energy Drink
Those dudes from BigSpaceship has done it again. Integration of FLV clips within the sites, transitions and smooth surfing experience, all packed into one, and of course, being in that site reminds me of a retro console game "Rock'N'Roll racing" back in the Sega Megadrive era. I guess that's how gaming really plays a big role inspiring some great works.

Coming back towards the mid

2006-05-02T00:13:00.000+08:00

Spam Recycling
Who doesn't hate receiving spam? A project initiated by EnBW, we had enough hearing from recycling bottles, cans, aluminium cans and stuff...but...spam? Why instead of trashing away all of your spam mail, why not participate and make the world a beautiful place? Yes, your spam mail can create really nice artwork, logon to see.

Jan Peiro Communication Design
It's interesting to see how flexible this website can be, being catered towards two different distinct audience, his client. With both option to choose from, both high and low bandwidth, design are altered and file size are reduced greatly though the content stays the same. This is where the power of XML comes in, and of course that is from my point of view on how I intepre the site is being done, possibly could be done the other way, but this is what XML integration really comes in and powerful, which you have one set of standard content but you'll able to socket it with different design

Tom on the web
Another Flash tutorial goodness, but this is catered specially towards FLV, though you'll find other speciality within that site. Look at how and what can be possibly done with your FLV plus with the filters.

Ashtray Mouth
Of course, myflashportal is not the one portal that talks about good design and methodology but, we can discuss about how effectively one thing is being applied towards a subject, for an instance, i guess it's good for once in a while for an awareness campaign towards anti-smoking campaign, but how effective is this? As usual which i always saw around my country that promotes it using the 'scary-pictures' which has larva brains, and a lot of disgusting pictures, but well, still, i'm not really sure if that is really working. Look on the other side, there are always debate on "why do they pay for killing themself?". Interesting thought.

The Flash Blog
Hey, if you're interested in some interested inside-scoop of what's gonna come next on Flash, look no more to keep yourself hook onto this site always. And if you know, the guy behind gotoAndLearn? Yes, it's the same author, just except to feed yourself with really goodness of flash tips and tricks, especially on the really neat alpha mask tutorial. And also, you'll find some Breeze presentation on filters in flash8.

Yutaka Loves London
This has to be one of the blue moon i've seen any site providing tour to a tourist attraction this way. Being in love with one place is one question, but to make a site out of it and to present and introduce to other foreign visitor as you're the resident there is what makes it unique. I once heard and I still believe that..."content is...king"

Forgotten War
Being in the midst of war of commercialism doesn't always take you far if you only think of digging up cashes from your beloved clients and consumer's pocket, but as what Pill & Pillow are moving toward are different and seem to gained a lot of momentum. Forgotten war is one unique site that acts as an awareness central to keep people aware of what's happening on the world outside, in Congo. This site certainly reminds me of a site back then that is done by the good guys from Leo Burnett Malaysia on Pakistan's war (correct me if i'm wrong, i have bad memory). I'll try to dig the URL to see if I still have it. It resembles quite a bit in a way that both of the concept/contribution from the user will form the shape of the 'country' that is under fire, while unveiling a little bit here and there of the suffering people. And it has also came across my mind that the navigation has seem to go trendy from an experimental one. Remember the one that yugop did for the xbox360 campaign in japan (i guess that site went offline)? and leoburnett canada?Zoom in Zoom out.

MyFlashPortal's status (updated)

2006-04-21T12:10:00.000+08:00

Been a lack of updates for few weeks, because I'm pretty exhausted from my fulltime job's project. But I promise i'll update and share with you guys as often when i get myself back on track with some time. Can't even have time to develop any experimental work for quite a while as well.

Don't worry, i promise and i will always will, keep the passion burning for flash, and if you would like to have a look at the latest project i worked on, it's at http://www.creativemediaaward.com.my
A lot of massive debugging and tweaking needed to be done

Salutes,
ManMeng

updates : yeap, i'm back to bring you guys with the juices I've been overflowed with those creative sites recently. hi world.

Diversify Yourself = Limitless

2006-03-15T13:45:00.000+08:00

Isabelle de Vooght
A very good portfolio site (content wise), seeing how this designer successfully conveying message of a car brand's selling point, combining both seemlessly non related object together. Who says you can't do that? That mini site won herself quite few recognition.

ConceptM
Just when I stumbled across this site, i went like, "ah...ok, the simplest idea that people say it might not work, might turn out to be the best idea". And this sparks another reason saying how limitless what kind of outcome Flash can do to you. A newspaper, as a company's site. Who say you can't do that? It's the matter of you want to do or don't want to.

Pardus - Massively Multiplayer Online Browser Game
Let's see, how things evolved nowadays, where prefernce are moving towards browser based application, which installation are void, except that you need to have a fast connection, and a hassle free browser, like Firefox, and a latest plugin from Flash. If you fancy a Shoot & Loot action, head on to The Land of the Dead.

Wayne Kerr Music
This is another site which sparks a good marriage between textures, music, vector graphics and some neat navigation. Though this site has came way back then, and looks dated, but the idea isn't, you might think to grab some inspiration off from different section and make it new all over again, and yes, this site gives a 'narrative-style' of presenting information, the left site and the right side are divided equally, and visually, it's beautiful. :D

Dstrict
Remember a site back in 2004 that appeared for Samsung, and broke the tradition of defining interactivity? And created a 'OH MY GOD' on everyone's mind? Yes, this is the portfolio site for the company that developed that site, DSTRICT, based in Korea, even on this site itself, the navigation and 'interactive experience' are clearly redefined, and how 'exploring navigation' should be. A+ Class Quality & Revolutionary

Pixel::Blog
A blog dedicated towards some rich media application development, another hangout by the Flash Developers discussing on what's hot and not on the scene, plus you'll find at lot of interesting post targetting towards technology, browsers and operating system, good to know you'll learn something extra to optimize your Flash projects.

Crew 11
Latest graduating list of students from HyperIsland, namely crew11, and ready for internship for a period of 6 month (if i remember correctly), which turned out to moving towards a different art direction this time, compared what is usually done, previously, (look Crew9) which suggests a bright and clear look of the graduates, which this time, they decided to move towards a darker theme. This of course, created a lot of conversation between designers, and the reaction and outcome turned out to be very positive and satisfying. Having a web based project as big as this is certainly not an easy task, especially when dealing with more than 5 person involved. (You'll certainly know if you managed any campaign before), deadlines, and commitments, everything. I'd salute and bow to these dudes out there. And of course, HyperIsland is one of my dream land to step on.

SamBakZa
SamBakZa, a very unusual name, but it's already very infamous among Flash animators, especially if you visit NewGrounds frequently for your daily flicks on Flash Animations, you'll see the top 10 having 2 animation did by these 3 talented dude from Korea, titled "There She Is". Of course, what makes them stands out so much from the rest, let's say, Ninjai? Is because the planning and execution would makes your jaw drops upon watching it(the animation). Camera Angles, music and sound effect synching, and well, virtually, you'll have to see for yourself. And this really makes everyone wondering, afterall, is it all about the $$$ or passion? Kudos to them.

TychoMusic
If you'd need a break and in search for a different direction and a retro look, head over to this site, and note the styling done on the site's header, a video, yes.

Swatch
Are you ready for some spring'ing action? Inspired by the latest sets of watches for Spring (note the season). You'll see how bouncy the site would be for you.

Spring By Dannon
*BOING* Those dudes from Juxt Interactive has done it again! I can't stress enough how much I enjoy most of their latest web projects, since NesteaIce, which nominated as the finalist for the Best Sound Category for Flash Forward this year. And also, the not very long ago, Just For the F Of It are also granted the Best Site of the day by TheFwa, man, this guys just really know how to keep the user busy with the brand while keeping the site loading. Pure fun. And clever.

Struck Design
Design, randomness, textures, and design, there's where you can talk about going inside the site.

http://www.oneclub.org/oneshow/osi.php
Probably one of the most enlighting quote that I've saw throughout this year, "If you aren't doing interactive, you'd better get out of the business." Something really that great about this site, is THAT IT IS THAT BIG. And it's almost like the Emmy or Grammies for Interactive Design. Just look at the Gold winners, you'll be amazed on how something that is so unconventional works commercially. And you'll of course, find yourself looking at a vast variety of creative works.

Describe Fun & Refreshing =/= Commercialism?

2006-03-14T13:37:00.000+08:00

It has been a major great debate around decades for designers from our country, the beloved Malaysia. Money or Passion? How much is the blame to be put? On the designers or client? Or pointing finger is useful anymore? Or the responsibility comes back to designer to always hold on to the passion and convince the client that new ideas/execution will work on branding and sells their product better? I'd think it's worth for us to think how to make us to grow better? faster? or how? and what?

Shiroganeya
This sites, will show you, ZEN. The fusion of good transition, cleverly used sound effects and awesome compositions. Now, it's not about how well you throw you graphics to move vertically or horizontally anymore, look and see for yourself to believe. The elements are so well blend that you'll really feel that you are sucked inside into the environment itself, it has been a while since I seen any site with that kind of ambience. Developed by 7779, it's really worth for you to look into this designer's transformation from his old work to the recent work, it's just utterly amazing, and you can explain it with words. And yes, his photography work, see to believe. One word, speechless.

McDonald's Videogame
Have you ever wonder you can stand on Ronald McDonald's big red shoe and manage the ever big corporation on your hand? This site, is not related to the company as well, more like a tribute to it, and I'd salute to the effort placed in making this site/game workable and, of course, addictive. Seeing it as a game is not enough, because of the depth and thought placed inside, you'll really see the value beyond entertainment, and it really benefits young kids to learn how they see McDonald from the other way round, how the meat are produced, the bread and so on. Come, introduce it to your friend and start selling burgers! Credits : Linkshard

AbsolutKravitz
Seeing how the brand, Absolut, evolved from just a beverage to an icon, is really revolutionary, featuring Lenny Kravitz, this collaboration creates a track composed by Kravitz himself, with a few remixes, you'll be able to see how Flash Videos (FLV) can be cleverly manipulated inside Flash to create a higher level of experience to convince and make the entire surfing experience more richer. Transitions that are connecting different artists, and as well, to keep things in place, instead of asking the user to wait for the loading on the next section, this site cleverly place the loading on the lower priority on the lower right side so that the user still can navigate and continue to explore on the other section.

The Fan
Imagine having a satellite tv channel on your mouse click, it's a allrounded website providing you all tv stations with a few mousewheel-ing on your finger. The idea's cool, but how far it can go, as far user experience is concerned. A cool idea to reorganize the data together in a circular roulette format. Very XML-driven site.

Sesam Katapult
Let's talk about some wicked game, and this foreign site, though with language as the barrier and I have no idea on what the games means, but it does somehow reminds me of the old 'Rocket Knight Adventure' from Genesis/Megadrive back in the console day. And of course, this game is addictive as usual, you get a good angle, and *poof* off you go up the sky, and you get higher by jumping on those purplish-pinkish clouds. Created by the dudes from Agens. Credits : Linkshard

The Streaking Game
A great way to create revenue, but to have a great balance in both fun and commercialism. You are a character, running and flashing at different venue, creating 'Eyes' for people to look at you. Avoid getting caught and reach the destination to get your score recorded. Might sound retarded at first, but soon you'll get hooked on the entire site, sound effect and music is great. Thumbs up.

Reading A Day Keeps The Doctor Away

2006-03-10T11:48:00.000+08:00

TriWorks
Talk about awesome realistic 3D Design and with latest integration of the Flash player's capability, this site brings you depth in Flash site design. Although at many view that the 'Blur' effect might be underlooked or overused in the wrong way, it can really serve a lot of purpose in bringing the navigation message clearer. What's so unique? Look at the scalability of the site for different screen resolution, it's being properly utilized, and as well the motion of the navigation, the feedback that it gave to the user whenever you roll the mouse on any of the buttons. Lot's of little detail, but big impact. And you know what's going on

Flash Player for PSP
Good news and rejoice! Here's a portion of the article...
"...supports Flash 7 action script. Not everything mind you but a good portion of it..."
It's much more than you can celebrate :). For those who have no idea about what's going on that link, there has been a big debate and competition in hacking their PSP to run Flash inside of it. Homebrewed program of course.

http://bcdef.org/
A good resource centre to start with experimental Flash works. Remember all of the previous posts regarding application made with the integration with Flickr API? An interesting developmend you can follow for Flappr on this site.

Metah's Flash & Web Technology Blog
Another good resources centre to look into the technical aspect of Flash. You might even find neat tips on indexing your Flash site on major search engines. Might not sound too practical at times, but it's worth trying. And of course, besides looking at various Flash-tech related news, you'll find yourself enlightened by articles related web accesibility issues.

OkaySamurai
Remember the ever interesting storytelling-narrative Flash site?OkayDave.com? I can't stress enough if you haven't visit that site before, do it NOW! It's not only rich in the navigation experience, flow and hierarchy. But look, the content is so nicely blended with the design. Man, I can't seem to not love this site. OkaySamurai are actually a blog created by the designer to keep in touch with his family on his life's updates and works. But what attracts the attention and makes this blog is different is that the Flash header has been beautifully used to gel it's content and concept together. And yes, lots of interactivy to explore inside.

The Elements And Site
The Honda Element's site for the fellows in the States. Not sure if we'll able to see this car being imported to here. An intersting site to start with, which would entertain you for a short 'RPG' game. And this really draws a fine line between a very 'WOW' website and a 'oh...ok' effect type of site. The concept and direction are pretty interesting to start with, but it is really sad to see that the execution and outcome could have been better, and it might the deadline or other causes that stops them from doing better. It's really cool though. Try it. Nice. Of course, at certain time, you'll see that you never get the joke they trying to potray.

Mouse's Mouse?!
It's a bit off topic, but blame me for my reading sensation habit, i bound to found this courtesy of my friend reading it off some tech site. And passed me on this. I'd really wonder if we really could be productive with this. Who knows.

Money vs. Deadline vs. Pride vs. Dupe?

2006-03-10T09:20:00.000+08:00

There has been a massive uproar on a recent incident happened regarding duplicate of concept found on both of the site in between a famous site developed by Mr.Yugo Nakamura and his team and a local site developed by a local Malaysia company.

The Original Site
Of course this debate much has pretty much done a lot damage to the company and the local design industry justifying how us as sneaky Flash thief. It's really sad. But of course, instead of seeing everyone and being one that is bitchin' about What and How's bad the thing is, why not take up the courage and learn from the mistake?

I'm really tired to see the ugly side of the commercial world. Which a lot of the competitor of the company took up this advantage to bring down and defame the company. Sad case, it shows so much how Malaysian design company would do to survive and keep themself at the top.

But look, as a responsible designer at the first place, if it's all about money you're doing inside this industry, and I can gladly say, please get the hell your arse out of this industry and work in the pirated CD printing service, or sell Keow Teow goreng, yes please. At a point, we're looking at how we can 'make people happy with our work'. But if it's all 'only' about chasing deadline and finish the project because the sake of client ask us to finish it without them knowing why they ask you do the project at all. Worry not, soon, this country, beloved Malaysia, will R.I.P. and left no more responsible good designer, but all, just lame machine that copies work from other, and like photostate machine? It's not all about money, really.

I see a dying passion, why not we all work towards and fix it? Instead of only bitchin' about it? Why? It's okay we are weak, but the worst part would be we don't want to acknowledge that we are weak and improve from it.

Play a part, be yourself, be responsible. Learn from how other great one striving to build a better design community in this very 'corrupted' industry. I support THINK, DOXOB, Digital Malaya.

Timeline power

2006-03-06T09:47:00.000+08:00

SAAB AeroX
Site navigation powered by a main timeline, this site's ambience is just awesome, captured the essense of how this car want to potray, mysteriously powerful, and to feature a car this way, an all 360 round view of the car can impress your client on how they can sell the features to the consumer. What I can really say is, be daring, and you might never know, that if you convince your client that this kind of idea will sell, just make sure that it will sell even more! Reminds me of the revolutionary Eminem's website navigation that won them various awards.

[Tutorial : Advance] Flexible Magic Button

2006-02-26T21:31:00.000+08:00

Have you ever stucked in a situation where you need to duplicate tons of button where it looks the same but only varies on the text? Let's say in a survey or trivia game, or probably a website which expands to a lot of different section. And you're in confusion and clogged with bunch of unnecessary repeated and hassling steps. Here's the help that might bring you out of the dark world. Welcome.

Difficulty : Basic / Advance
Topic : Flexible Magic Button
Download : [ Flexible Magic Button ]

Starting Up
A canvas that measures up 200 px X 200 px would be sufficient for this tutorial.

And we'll create a new Symbol which we'll name it btn_template.

Yes, we'll have nothing but only this movie clip inside our library. Amazing isn't it?

Inside the movie clip (using it to act as a button)

Moving on, we'll have a very simple looking movieclip which will act as a button. Three layers.

Actions - nothing complicated here, only stop(); will be placed here.
txtbox - A dynamic textbox will be placed here, which where the magic comes from.
design - Only functions visually, and doesn't affect your button.

We'll prepare as planned, one simple rectangular and dynamic textbox.

See? Nothing's complicated. Unless if you decide to implement advance interaction here.

Next, we'll proceed with giving this dynamic textbox a name, for this case, we'll name it txtName

Some tweaking which is up to your preference to make the Dynamic text appear. For this case, it's more appropriate to center the text and unselect the "Selectable" option on the Properties panel.

We're done setting up the movieclip. We'll go back to the main scene.

The Finishing
Remember the golden rule in doing any project, REMEMBER TO SAVE! :)

The Stage's empty now right? Drag one instance from the Library to the stage, and name it btn1

Be patience, we'll about to see some magic soon, and on the actions layer, write the script as shown on the screenshot. And we'll test the movie and see if it's working.

You can choose the option Test Movie or by using Ctrl+Enter (CMD+Enter for Mac user)

THE MAGIC! yes, the word appeared. And what's next, no, we're not done yet.

As usual, we'll use the super-power of function make everything here easy. If you notice correctly, you'll find the similarity with the Rollover Smooth Button scripts. Yes, the share the same format but in this tutorial, you can dynamically change the content inside the button, using dot syntax.

Using Functions to simplify everything

On the functions' layer, we'll have this. Because instead of repeating the same Rollover and Rollout code all over again and making everything looks crowded on the actions layer, we'll simplify and only call rOver() and rOut() only.

*Note *
You might ask if it would make a difference if you place the functions and actions layer different, let's say for this case, note the function layer are placed above actions layer? And on the actions layer i placed a stop() on the bottom of the actions layer? In this case, if I place the actions layer on top of function layer, you might notice that the magic won't work, not even the Rollover/Rollout effect, this is because you stopped the movie before Flash reads the function layer. So, it does takes some planning if you want to separate layer. But not a big problem though, just a reminder.

Possibilities

Yes, you might ask, can i reuse the button and name it differently? Yes you can! That is where the magic comes from. And if you're interested to expand the idea and how far this interaction could go, I'd say, your creativity is the limit, and you can learn more on how to integrate different thing, and I'd have the tutorial ready in case you want to refer, and YES, you can combine all of it!

Rollover Smooth Button (Transitions when rollover a button)
Adding Sound to your button (Creating the wow-effect)

Here's the FLA file, have fun Flashin'
Download : [ Flexible Magic Button ]

What does it take to be really good?

2006-02-26T13:29:00.000+08:00

Z4 by Joshua Davis
So, this is when and where you will stand when you are really good at what you are. And people believes and stands behind on your philosophy and way of doing things. This is what Joshua Davis are, right now. A very special project initiated by BMW, he was approached by BMW to create a series of print work to show the representational icon of the Z4, and I'd strongly suggest you look into 'The making of' section, and the video will stunned you, by the way how he worked things out, and clears people perception on 'code is ugly'. This is what he is, and what he does.

MMO Pong
Remember the classic pong game? Where 2 player are bouncing one ball across a plain? Ever imagined that you will be playing with hundred of other internet user at one time? What would it be like?

One by One Design
Let's talk about transition and giving your user unexpected interactive experience, you'll find yourself navigating through the information, the unusual and conventional way. Eg. you need to drag instead of scrolling for information. Back to transition, this site is unique by it's own way, cool texture loaded as you go across different section. Worth checking them out if you're looking for a classic theme in get yourself inspired.

Strato Cucine
Developed by the dudes from Group94, you can never take your eye off this site for a second. Talk about being innovative and to keep usability in mind. And see here, as commented by other user, if the site moves slightly slower than what it is now, the interest and impact wouldn't be so great as from what you are experiencing now. Thing's and transitions are moving fast to keep interest alive, but at a decent speed. I'd say it all comes back to user testing sometimes to see if a certain effect make or breaks your site. Interesting navigation and intro movie. Unusual.

Harness The Continuity Power

2006-02-24T17:41:00.000+08:00

ZoomQuilt
I can't say how and what I can do to put this into word, and it's such a crazy idea to plan the transition that it sticks together. What you'll experience, as what the domain name suggest, you'll zoom through a series of beautifully crafted illustrations, as if you felt that it's infinite. Bravo. But it would be utterly awesome if anyone crafted thier website this way and make every single section interact-able.

Inspiration Juices

2006-02-21T15:19:00.000+08:00

FindR
A very slick application that gained it's place on the FlashForwardConference's Finalist on the application category. What really suprises me that this stands out from the normal Flickr Flash application is that it's one of the most usable one yet. But of course it's very personal on how a person perceive usability. But on a general view, it's one that gives you for what you want to find. And of course, to develop an application like this doesn't really need you to take a rocket science test. Just the matter of patience and will to learn. Recently, I've been looking up to connecting Flash with XML from a remote server, well, and it does seem to be moving towards a positive direction. If you like to find more of this kind of application, and if you wonder why Flickr are so popular among developers, is because Flickr, themself, are very supportive in having their Flickr API accessible to people to create new innovations. And of course, having Flickr to provide such tool is not enough to start off with, you'll have no idea where to kickstart at, visit KevinLuck's blog and you'll find that he actually developed FlashR that would really help you to make stuff that similar like Findr.

Super Mario Bros' Super Synth
To certain designer that might it too seriously when finding source of inspiration. But somehow, I bound to find this very interesting piece of Flash that might appear to be redundant to a lot of people. But I'd find it is interesting and i praise the person's effort in putting it up. You might not know that by looking at it, you might find it to be your next project's biggest inspiration. A lot of more crazy, funky stuff can be found from ODK. But isn't everything that sounds and looks original came from an existing idea, but with a twist?

MoNiChengSi
Being a creative studio on it's own. This site bears it's light not on the actionscripting, but it's portfolio. I was amazed to know that this person designed the cover for one famous Chinese Pop Singer, Faye Wong. And the work displayed within the site are very diversed. Good inspiration juice.

NooFlat
Recently, I've read an interesting book about Math Creativity in Flash, i'd recommend anyone that want's to advance in A/S to read it. And then I bound to found this kewl writer that was writing about Iteration (Some kind of movement that being scripted by you, and it runs by itself continously).A simple but Math-packed site. You'll find various experimentation on ActionScript possibility. Check out the place where he worked at, Relevare.

What's the meaning of being unconventional?

2006-02-20T17:08:00.000+08:00

OkayDave
As unconventional as it gets, this site uses a lot of collage and montage of papers and sketches. I know this has been done thousand or millions of time. But do pay close attention to the transitions in between. Clever usage of Flash Video and After Effects.

FlashForwardConference
Standing at the point which it's almost like the Grammies for the Flash, which held annually. The finalists this time proved to be extremely vibrant and dynamic with their Flashes. Worth checking them out if you're curious to know how Flash has developed up to this level. It's utterly amazing. Of course, you'll find it much or less like an award ceremony similar to TheFWA.com. But with an addition that this event gathers all of the very infamous and expert Flash developer at this very one place and share their thoughts and a lot of workshops. I wish I could go, but the air tickets are out of my way that I can afford it.

Katamari Damacy's Flash Game
Talk about addiction, this ever famous PS2 game has landed on the web, with Flash! A lot people labelled this game as a stupid one, but it's fun and addictive. Besides from rolling what's ahead you, collecting it, you may find it's pointless. But wait until you try it. *tips* try clicking on the hidden triangle and explore a hidden playmode.

NRG.be
The guys behind Ultrashock. It's the portfolio site, which you'll able to notice the smooth transition between different shape.

SukiLand
Talk about being cute and have cool attitude. This site will suprise you with the illustrator's unique style of humour. Worth checking it out. Nice transition applied as well.

Bersama-Sama
Alright, i know this might sound way off topic from Flash, but I'm really proud of these guy. Featured at TheFWA.com. Recently which they held their animation showcase at one of the local colleges in Malaysia, has seem to won few of the rapport from the big players. And to have themselves featured in FWA, is not an easy task, really great effort placed inside that project. Worth checking them out. Bersama-sama are in Bahasa Malaysia language which means "Together".

Raku-Gaki
A pretty unconventional design, like how the menus are placed, pretty experimental to a certain extend. Nevertheless it's interesting, and has interesting 'transition' that you should check out. Besides that, this site utilizes a lot of 'mouse position' interaction, whenever you moves it around, there are some picture that reacts to it. Cool.

Design Your Ride
Another seemingly unrelated article/paragraph about Flash, but MyFlashPortal supports this. Join it, you may never know you'll shine on it.

Do you have a grudge?

2006-02-20T04:39:00.000+08:00

The Grudge
Holy cow, if you ever want to be in a position to scare yourself until you piss on your pant. Try this site for a ride. The mood's are creepy, the transitions are crazy, and of course, you'll be amazed by how creatively they blend the transparent video with their interface, as if you've forgotten that you're navigating it through a website, and, it's so smooth as if you're going through a DVD-ROM content. It's very engaging, I can rest assure say that. Of course, to ultimately enjoy the site with fear, fast broadband connection are strongly recommended.

The present interactive

2006-02-15T02:43:00.000+08:00

Wow, it has been so long i've looked into the interactive Flash world. Never know that it has developed so much, and i've been left out so much.

Simple Viewer
A great rich media application, done in Flash, which displays image integrated with XML. Remember a post being made previously that there is another picture gallery that charges you with money? This one is free, and it's really professionally developed! And AirtightInteractive is one of a resourceful site to visit. Promising development!

Mutualresponse 6th Project
Won the site of the week from FWA, a very dynamic community site. Utilizing concepts alike from Fort Minor's site and Mr. Yugo Nakamura's text? The site, although is simple within the layout execution, but the transition is so rich that makes it stands out so much, and of course, the artworks displayed within are so brilliant.

Kakarod
From Korea, this really crazy dude developed that site above, the Mutualresponse site. Looking at it as a normal portfolio site, the transition, concept and design are fantastic, as in you're really exploring into what's being 'interactive'. Or does this have to come to a conclusion that the interactive scene has gotten very competitive in Korea, that not only you have to excel in design sense and execution, but might as well, to equipped self with the latest scripting and programming knowledge in mind?

IKEA
Remember the ever famous 3D/movie-like navigation from IKEA? A 360 degrees of their furniture? Somehow i'd agree to sell a products that related down to furniture, interior design, it is best served with biggest impact if the user and purchaser are able to see the real thing 360. Which will boost much more confident in purchasing it. Looking at the similar execution from Mexico's Sony Style (below)

Thing's just get better and better doesn't it?

The future of rich media application

2006-02-07T09:01:00.000+08:00

GTalkR
A really need rich media application which emulates the combination of GoogleTalk, YouTube and Flickr together in Flash! And what's so amazing is, you can check your mail in it as well! Of course, looking towards this, Google always been developing their chat system within gmail itself. Which then, i've been wondering which site will be more popular later?

Crazy Multi-Input Touch Screen

Early CNY eGreeting from (if) interactive

2006-01-27T12:18:00.000+08:00

Togetherness
The very own and famous Malaysian interactive agency, if interactive has just announced their very interactive Chinese New Year portal. A very complete, professionally done and cutting edge backend they used for this. Impressive.

Scripts & Resources

2006-01-18T22:02:00.000+08:00

Few weeks back, was exploring towards some experimental script in making a 'trivia' based game. Fiddled around with google and found of these really interesting resources to share, might appear to be helpful in your projects.

Prototype
Great database for experimental scripts in Flash!

Tips & Tricks In Flash
A site which has an article on optimising your flash movie, especially on animations.

Continous Movements
If you've been looking for a continous moving movie clip from a direction that looks like rain, stars or snow, this would be a good place to start with.

Changing Tints for MovieClip
There's been a small project I've been doing, that required me to changing tint for my movieclip, and I'd found this has been always underrated feature being used. Really neat.

Local site showcase

2006-01-18T00:56:00.000+08:00

http://peteteo.com/
Talk about local music talent, I'm so suprised and found myself did not know about this great local artiste. If i would want to describe the site and him, the relation? Style i would say. The site has nothing in spectacular from the technology used, but it is relatively usable and friendly, the navigation.

http://www.musiccanteen.com/
Pay to listen music portal, as I would expect that I thought it would be another boring community-money-earning site. But hey, they proved me wrong and I'd think it's real cool they incorporate this kind of design for a music site. Interesting approach. Nice subtle feel.

What's function? what's onEnterFrame?

2006-01-17T11:09:00.000+08:00

I've been browsing around the net and stumbled upon this very interesting Flash Video tutorial.

Animating with Actionscript
Functions explained inside, take a look, really interesting on how easy you can understand function with this. Neat. Plus, you'll hear little explaination on how you can understand fps works together with your flash movie briefly.

Simplicity is less

2006-01-13T18:12:00.000+08:00

Ashby Design
One of the very prominent design firm out on the industry, in my opinion. Well, it was for a while i've been wondering which company that did the website and branding for RIAA, it was them, and remember the little icon of Parental Advisory? Slick navigation that slides out and fades in. And it does the job nicely.

Flirc

2006-01-13T16:09:00.000+08:00

Flash + IRC = FLirc
An interesting development on an IRC (Internet Relay Chat, which is way popular back during 98-2000) client using Flex + Actionscript 3.0. Extract from the site's post :

"...I started working on my Flash IRC Client (flIRC) some time before Flash 8.5 was released. Now two days later I want to show you the first demo of my little project and experiment. You can see a very early version here..."

Elegance in Design

2006-01-13T15:02:00.000+08:00

http://www.ashbydesign.com/
One of the site which I've seen that has a great range of portfolio. Though the comments being made towards this site varied between different people, which some like and some dislikes it. But i'd think it's worth a visit for a better design inspiration in Flash. It's stylish.

Innovation in Flash Designing

2006-01-13T07:26:00.000+08:00

Above The Influence
Talk about being yourself, how much you realize that you're pressuring yourself in changing to fit into the group? Above The Influence, a very interesting website promoting public awareness in being what you want to be. A very informative + interactive website that will guide you through in searching for a better you. Very nice art direction.

No Animals Were Hurt
Talk about creativity and innovation in programming, this site has an interesting concept in telling the story of Alan Turing's. And some brief extract from the website for you to better understand the site.

"...The picture plays too quickly while the sound plays at normal speed, but with each visitor the picture slows. After enough visitors, the sound and picture will play at equal speeds, allowing the story to finish. Each unique visitor unlocks one frame, out of the total 5000. Each time 5000 is exceeded, the counter is reset. Currently, after 12822 visitors, the film is 57% its proper length..."

MMORPG fever?

2006-01-12T14:07:00.000+08:00

Adventure Quest
Interesting Online Role Playing game made using Flash + PHP/MYSQL backend. It's not real time like Dofus. But it's rather interesting because it simulate the idea around Final Fantasy's gameplay.

Zoe Chicco
A very stylish and elegant website that is designed minimally, but with very functional purpose in mind. Designed by Oringe.

Oringe
Talk about motion impact, this site has it. And usability? this site provides you with clear navigation indication. Very clever use of Flash 8's technology. Take note on the 'blur' effect whenever you scroll the page down and up, it gives the user an impression that the page is moving dynamically. Clever. Simulated what's being shown from the MAX Conference 2005.

2006, year of mixed flavours.

2006-01-11T14:17:00.000+08:00

Bio Bak
Drag, drop and throw! I was speechless and couldn't find a word to describe the creativity outcome of this site. Despite the pretty interface, which looks absolutely tasty, the details that you should look at is the site's usability. It's very well thought of, the sound effect, indications on what's clickable and what's not. Look, there's so much hidden or extra features to be explored around. Neat! (Why i'm impressed? Because the site is highly optimized and a lot of 'navigation' bug that happened to be around especially when using custom cursor, that designer solved it! Remember the day where you right click on a flash site with custom cursor, and then your own arrow stays there)

Memory Park
Talk about weird fantasy world, this probably fits half of the description. But wait, there's more. a very explorative site which you'll find yourself clicking around for more and more suprises for the rest of the world, it would partially reminds you of Samorost though.

Arturo Fuentes
3D space emulated in Flash? Interesting experimental site that evolves around the idea of music sheets.

Eminem
This site is one of the very content driven towards one subject itself, visually. I was impressed by the way of how they managed to visually intepret the storyline for Eminem's life. And you'll suprise to find a lot of hiddens inside as well. You would think it would be rather late to introduce or recommend this site to anyone. But i found there's no 'late' in always telling people what's great and nice out there. Worth looking out for the studio that designed this site, WeFail.

Liberty City Stories
A game for the PSP. But the interactivity that evolves around the site makes it worth exploring. What's worth watching is the transition in between items.

Yucca Studio
This site reminds me of Fort Minor's site where the navigation evokes the transition where different section acts as part of the layout for the site. But wait, not only beauty justify the site's quality, but as well the work from this studio, which it suprised me when i found BigBrosWorkshop's are done by one of their creative division, JunkFlea.

Marriage between design and codes

2006-01-07T12:17:00.000+08:00

I was fiddling around the internet and then i bumped down to David Michaud's site, which appeared to be designed by Great Exposure. That it gaves me the impression, a hybrid that marries code and design together. Of course this has been said millions of time, but again, from my point of view, it is a beautifully done piece of web design work. And if you look closely to the details that being considered for the design, every single rollover gives interactive feedback to user indicating that they are navigating through the it. It's really one of the very important detail that a lot of casual designer lacked off. Which leads to a lot of bashing from people which thinks flash is nothing but just Flashy sellout program.

Talk about simple yet functional and informative website, look at Grand People. The clarity of the navigation makes the site stands out from its own. Neat.

And if you're looking for famous authors and quotes, or even tips in designing more effective work. Look ActionScript Toolbox. Great start for inspiration.

Was doing research towards implementing RSS/XML in Flash, and found this site, which appeared to provide a very cool Flash gallery tool, of course with a price of $20. Do check if out if you're finding a solution for your client, or as well a lot of project involving showcasing artworks or photos.
Slideshow Pro

WebDesign-Festival, 10 countries challenging each other on a showdown to showcase their best in web designing skills. An annual event i suppose.

Would like to give the credit to French N Fresh for part of the site. They rawk. lol.

Realm of awesome characterness

2006-01-06T15:20:00.000+08:00

If you're going to head to buy some softtoy to ease your heart or for the one you love, and i'm not making free promotion here, but regardless of the product, the site is excitingly cute, the character design and the transition's detail.
PulcoPiyo

And not only that, you gotta have a look at the designer's portfolio site, it's filled with awesome interaction that might cook you up for the day. I'd say, a very good sense of motion and animation the designer has.
PulcoMayo

If you look forward towards entertaining simply mini game, head towards Filiere Bois. Very nice illustration. very.

And slightly off topic and I'm not sure if it fits this thread, but Microsoft decided to make a facelift for Windows Vista's main page, it looks Mac-ish, nevertheless, it's very well done.

Test your website on a Safari, using the browser?

2006-01-05T12:37:00.000+08:00

How will your website look on Safari in Mac?
Pretty neat and useful. And yes, it does work! I'm glad at the very least it looks 'fine' on the browser while i'm being limited to controlling and testing the features of rollovers and DHTMLs, Javascripts realtime, but that's just a matter of time and the developed planned to make a VNC where you are able to control a MAC OS X remotely from your computer, with a small fee applied.

Retrievr - Search using what you remembered!

2006-01-05T12:02:00.000+08:00

It's still very experimental and early development stage, but i've seen various amazing output from this, which the concept is basically really helpful and interesting.

You remember a certain part of a picture that you want to find, and then you couldn't remember the name but you're dying to look for it! Here, this is where the app comes in handy.

Named Retrievr, developed by the guys from SystemOne, a brief introduction about it,

Retrievr lets you find flickr images by drawing rough sketches of them.

You can read more about the project here. Credits of the source from Kottke.org and Drawn.ca

Tea Time Game

2006-01-04T14:18:00.000+08:00

Have fun with all these mini games, found it to be entertaining.

The Sith Sense

South Park Studio - Create your South Park Character

Usability in Flash?

2006-01-04T12:14:00.000+08:00

There's once and before tons of people condemned Flash with it's inability to make usability to the optimum level, for example which it usually breaks the 'back' and 'forward' function in a browser where user had no idea on which page they've navigated and how to go back to the previous page.

But this when, partially, this site proves that the thinking is no more. The RSX Institute, which reminds me of the site from Toyota's Hybrid City which also tries to maximises its usage on the powerful Flash 8. But still, this site is very poweful, from the backend perspective and as well visually, it is so tasty. It's highly interactive, trust me.

Take a ride at RSX Institute

On the other hand, I had a chance to stumble across this site from Andreas Wannerstedt. To my suprise, which he had taken a training at Hyper Island.

Thus he then worked on a amazing reel using Flash 8, that talks about his intern in Exopolis, really, truly an amazing designer. Thumbs up. A little bit history about the designer, which started off a print studio at 2w. Worth looking at.

Visit Portfolio site

View the Reel Here (HOT!)

Great day, great site.

2006-01-03T15:34:00.000+08:00

IF Oturstest : Bad Luck O Meter
I was stunned when i was presented with this link, the quality of the image, the smooth narrative storyline, and most of all, the loading time on a broadband connection, it's just fascinating. What makes this site stands out from the crowd, is the rich interactive experience, that you interact with the site different on every different scenario, and afterall, the timing is so nice that it just doesn't intimidates you to know more about the product. Refreshing!

VS2X Virginia S. van Slimming
A beautiful site done by a relatively young Interactive Designer. Check her out. And yes, beautiful illustration style she has, reminds me of Samorost :D

New Year 2006 Craze

2006-01-01T15:51:00.000+08:00

Happy New Year to you, since that I won't be working tomorrow, due to public holiday replacement, I'll condiser to write tutorial using function or probably a preloader, let me know what you think.

And I stumbled across these few weird sites,
Very simple addictive game, a crossover between, puzzles, crosswords, but you make the word from anywhere you like.

MultiPopWord

And next is one of the weirdest thing ever you'll see people do from the internet, world's smallest website and game.

World's Small Website

Beware : you might hurt your eye by looking at the screen for too long.

Flash Game Development

2005-12-30T11:29:00.000+08:00

Was browsing around to look for more information on Flash 8's BitmapData in exporting JPEG format using FLASH/PHP. Hidden Resource is a portal where it posts news and findings on game development in Flash, very interesting articles they have there.

This is then i've stumbled across this link, A REALTIME RTS in FLASH! OMGLOLWTFBBQ
It's called Dawn2

And I'm deeply sorry if I haven't introduce you guys to Samorost 2, which released quite some time ago, which is developed by Amanita Design. A very addictive RPG-click-based-adventure game.

Their idea is always wicked, wacky and mysterious, you never know what you'll expect. The game's rich in animation, fluid and sound effect, well, go and explore, you'll know what i mean.

Off topic? I've bump across very weird site courtesy of Paul Neave
I'd realize that if you enjoying those click-based journeys in Flash site, i bet you'll like this even.

VectorPark

AFLAX : Ajax like application? Flash + Javascript?

2005-12-30T10:57:00.000+08:00

AFLAX (Wikipedia Entry) is a method through which developers may use JavaScript and Flash together to create AJAX-type applications, but with a much richer set of vector drawing controls than are available in either Internet Explorer or FireFox. Developers using this library have access to the full range of Flash features, but without ever touching the Flash IDE.

Flickeur

2005-12-30T10:21:00.000+08:00

Flickeur
An interesting application created by Mario Klingemann @ Quasimondo
It's an app where it retrives and fetch a random picture from Flickr API and then displays it on the screen infinitely as if it's playing a video. You get the idea. And you'll never know what's coming next for you to see, because everything's random inside.

And if you're interested in developing an applicaiton like that, you can look for a solution to guide you one step easier in acheiving it using Kelvin Luck's Flashr. Of course you'll have to take in account that you understands advanced AS. One of the few very interesting app you seen developed are Flash version of Flickr, known as Flappr

Web Usability : Video ?

2005-12-29T09:09:00.000+08:00

Very useful piece of study and information about why and how to implement a more efficient and user centered video content.

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/video.html

And if you would like to know more about how to build a site that at least follows the web usability guidelines, look no where from Dr. Jakob Nielsen's useit.com

The power of Flash 8, how far can it go?

2005-12-28T20:00:00.000+08:00

I bet you've been wondering how far that Flash 8 would take our browsing experience to?
Visit the site to experience it.

Underworld Evolution

At first I would give myself a second though what makes this site so unique and award winning besides from the ultra sharp and detailed images, which is very vivid and breathtaking, especially the sound effect plays a big role in bringing the mood strong for the site's ambience. If you look and dig through inside, you'll realize that you'll stumble across lots and lots of contents/information about the movie, isnt it? Which keeps you running around the site for a while.

[Tutorial] Basic : Adding sound to your button

2005-12-27T00:15:00.000+08:00

If you remember the old time where you had to manually adds the sound effect for your Flash button one by one, and it's a big hassle when you need to make adjustment for it, remember? Worry not. The help is here, and function() is your friend. :D

Difficulty : Basic / Advance
Topic : Sound Effect for Button
Download : [ Rollover Button Sound Effect FLA ]
*Updated FLA File with more sound effect

If you remember previously on the tutorial that you had follow on the 'Smooth Button'. You'll find this one is extremely, or even it looks so fake because it's so freakin' easy. Believe me, when i realized that i can add sound for my button this way, i almost cried. :D

For starter, you only need one file, the sound file that you want to add for your button.

See? You can download the FLA file and refer to it if you're unsure. Let's move on.

Next, probably you find it's not familiar for you to use "Linkage" in Flash. It's really a useful tool/option that you can grabs things from the library and slap it on the stage through Actionscripting. Very useful. But for now, if you're new, don't worry, it's very easy to understand the concept. You'll only need :

1. Right click on the sound effect you want your button to produce, and select on "Linkage".

2. If you realize when you clicked on the option, you'll presented with a window. Don't get freaked out yet, click on the "Export for Actionscript" as on the screenshot, and insert a name for this sound file, for this case, i use 'click', you can put any name that you can easily remembers it.

Okay, we're done for the first part, let's move on.

Look, we'll use a 'MovieClip' to act as a button, why you ask? I have no idea and how to explain, but i know it's so versatile and flexible that you can use a movieclip to do absolutely anything, you can combine the "Smooth Button" with this tutorial, and makes one kewl button for your website or interactive work. For this case, we'll name it "my_btn"

We're done with the setup! Now let's have a brief look at the script, and start realize how easy it is.

Now here, to make thing's clearer, i've splited both functions and actions on a different layer, and for this case, the function helps in 'grabbing' item from the library and 'plays' the sound whenever it's triggered. Look at the function's structure, it's pretty straightforward, no strings attached. Few line does the job pretty neatly.

Next we'll look at the actions layer, look how scary is it, isn't it? Only one line, and whenever user clicks on it, the "click" sound is triggered. S C A R Y ISNT IT?

We're done! Congratulations, now please agree with me functions is your friend.
Finally, let's say that we have a scenario that we have thousands of button using the same sound effect, using this option would be so flexible and helpful for you!

Notice that you can call your functions absolutely from everywhere, within the Flash movie, hidden deep inside, and it'll still work!

Here's the FLA file, have fun Flashin'
Download : [ Rollover Button Sound Effect FLA ]

Plant A Tree, Grow the Forest

2005-12-24T09:15:00.000+08:00

Stumbled across this site on netdiver this morning and felt it was rather refreshing to see this concept, you plant a tree on this christmas instead of bringing one back home or sending cards :)

http://www.lida.com/festive-forest/
credits : netdiver

This is one of the very shiny and outstanding character designer and flash site i've been to, very notable effort on every point of it's site, the transition and the details on the animation. Salute. Must Visit!

http://www.postgal.com

ProtoKid.com - Online Scrolling Shooter Game

2005-12-22T14:21:00.000+08:00

It's like an ordinary game? You bet, but it's rather very addictive and the concept is very interesting. You act as a 'kid' that collects and retrives back the data destroys by the virus inside the computer, the graphics are pretty cute and nice and neat. And too bad there's no pause button for me, the music's great as well. And it's just an overwhelmingly addictive lol. By DIESEL

PopPirates

http://www.protokid.com/

credits : French'N'Fresh
Developed by d00ds from http://www.blocmedia.com/

O'Neill.com

2005-12-21T09:08:00.000+08:00

Designed by : http://www.shanemielke.com/

A very notable site on the interactivity and creativity in tie'ing the flash interactive experience with the product. Usually that a product shopping experience would be slow, smelly, boring and lame. But this changes the perception of it.

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and experience how you can play and 'customize' the product the way you want, NFS:Underground way. You have the power to "Mod" it the way you want.

https://www.oneill.com/

[Tutorial : Advance] Rollover Smooth Button

2005-12-21T00:35:00.000+08:00

Look at http://www.newmediaaward.com and http://www.manmeng.net's navigation. Have you ever wonder to produce smooth rollover effect in Flash? That a button that will shrink and grow according to your mouse rollover?? That it's so trendy out there? Here's below a tutorial that will briefly guide you through on how to setup your site with that kind of interaction in no time.

Difficulty : Basic / Advance
Topic : Rollover Smooth Button in Flash
Download : [ Rollover Smooth Button FLA ]

By looking through this tutorial below, provided with basic understanding on how to work on animation, and motion tweening, you'll find this is rather easy and wouldn't be a tough task for you to use this navigation system.

First you'll need to have a MOVIECLIP to act as button, unlike conventional button to make the effect, you'll need to have to use a movie clip instead. Inside the movieclip, what you'll need to do is :

1. Put a stop() only for the actions layer.
2. Make an animation that you'll want your user to experience, either it's a masking animation or a 'grow/shrink' effect

*p.s.* Of course a more complex interaction can be done with only actionscripting completely without needed to do animation and tweening, but this method are very encouraging to people in making interesting and creative navigation.

Next you'll only need to make sure the movieclip is properly named.
For this instance, i named it btn_home.

And by looking at the screenshot above, there's very little Actionscripting you'll need to modify, which is when you have tons of button like that, you only need to make sure :
1. The correct name is pointed to the correct movieclip, btn_home, btn_about, btn_contact...etc etc..
2. for the onPress action, you can change the action according and suite your flash movie, because it might be the case that you want to the user to change the scene of this flash movie instead of popping up a new website url.

All of the tutorial above is coded and controlled by the Flash Event Model, which i think i'll spend more time explaning it in a different article. And what makes this "navigation" system so versatile is because :

1. You only need to copy paste a lot and only change the name
2. We use "function" in it. Curious of what it can help you? Wait for the future article that i'll write
3. Remember of those awesome and stunning Flash website that you came across that DOESNT LAG or takes up your CPU power so much? I've optimized the code to run that way, but if you found any bug or problem running it, do not hesitate to contact me :)

Here's the FLA file, have fun Flashin'
Download : [ Rollover Smooth Button FLA ]

A hybrid of creativity between product and a game

2005-12-20T18:40:00.000+08:00

The Samsung D600 Mystery
A very clever site delivered by the guys from Perfect Fools

Create animated FAVicon!

2005-12-20T16:59:00.000+08:00

It may be offtopic toward flash's developer but i still think it's a great news and a neat feature for us web developer. You can do it now!
Tutorial : Animated FAVicon

Realtime FPShooter Game

2005-12-19T09:56:00.000+08:00

It's now made possible, very strong backend. Very very great backend.

Imagine playing Quake 3 Arena in Flash.
Realtime Game with Ping (Similiar to Counter-Strike)

Dofus (Imagine playing WoW in Flash)

More examples on recursion /w FLA files

2005-12-16T17:42:00.000+08:00

Enjoy the exploration and let me know what you have discovered as well!
[ Download FLA ]

How far Flash animation can go?

2005-12-14T16:38:00.000+08:00

Part I
http://tabmok99.mortalkombatonline.com/mk_vs_sf.html
Part II
http://www.welf.org/sven/temp/crap/MKvsSF2.swf

Let the animation do the talking, big salute for the improvement, damn. I like it.

Recursive Study :D

2005-12-14T10:23:00.000+08:00

Inspired from my idol, Mr. Jared Tarbell, made a study on this, really amazing how it can turned out :D can't wait to release the code after i'm done cleaning and experimenting with it. More to come :D

Recursive = A repetition of a certain code, making it to duplicate things around, :D i'm not good at explaining things, guess i'll work it out somehow.

[Experiment] Pong, bouncy area.

2005-12-13T13:52:00.000+08:00

It's really been so long since i've posted any tutorial, been busy lately, but still i've been experimenting with various scripts, and gladly that i finally understood little bits of it.

Below is one of the script i want to share, although it's not optimized and finished yet, it simulates a pong game,where you can set the boundaries and let it bang on the wall, but one thing, i've yet to discover, to make the ball has a velocity and slows down on every hit on the wall.

[Download FLA]

*Update 20th December 2005, improved the engine, with the ball that has speed, but it's still far buggy than complete. Because if you try to release the ball with a faster speed, it'll run away from the stage. Lol.

http://www.incomplet.org/

2005-12-09T22:57:00.000+08:00

Noteable site. http://www.incomplet.org/

Mouse 1.0

2005-12-07T17:43:00.000+08:00

Simply Addictive and Revolutionary. Period.

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/281187

SecurityUpdate - Update your flash player

2005-11-15T10:25:00.000+08:00

http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/security/security_zone/mpsb05-07.html?pss=rss_flashplayer_mpsb0507

Thanks for Netdiver for the information. For you guys there which has Flash Player 8. It wouldn't be any harm for you already. This is because the guys out there found that there's possibily unauthorized third party would able to execute malicious code into the target computer that has Flash Player 7 or earlier installed on their computer.

Poor thing.

Flash MMORPG a dream? Not anymore

2005-11-07T10:32:00.000+08:00

http://www.dofus.com
An amazing with great graphics to date and utilizing Flash to enable you to connect to thousands of other gamer out there.

Seriously, i'm amazed, not because the game itself is great, it's good, but because it's using Flash God-Dam-It!

You'll seriously stunned by how those guys from Dofus developed the backend technology for it, try it, no regrets assured. :)

Experiment with random output

2005-10-31T14:54:00.000+08:00

Source will be available soon, after some cleanup. lol.
Inspired by http://levitated.net/bones/walkingFaces/index.html
[ Download .SWF ]
Playable on Browser, requires Flash Player 7 or newer
[ Download .EXE ]
Playable on any PC, but bigger file size

Inspirations

2005-10-30T11:40:00.000+08:00

I stumbled across Neave's site, the inspiration section, http://www.neave.com/inspiration which in a way he got inspired by the Flickr's services on how you can experiment with different application using flash, such as
http://www.krazydad.com/colrpickr/

It reminds me back of Guess-The-Google by Mr.Robinson. Hail to them.

OpenSource : Magnetic Field V1 (unoptimized)

2005-10-30T03:09:00.000+08:00

OpenSource : Magnetic Field V1 (unoptimized)

Author's Note
It's not optimized for this version because it's using the onEnterFrame code which runs all the time even when the user does not do anything, which it will eats up a lot of CPU resources, and in fact, it will also makes your work inefficient for a larger scale basis. V2 coming soon.
Tips : Setting it at a higher FPS will make the thing runs smoother, but with a tradeoff that the script will need to loop more times, if you have more Frames Per Seconds.

30th October 2005
[ Download FLA ]

Easy/Medium : function() in Flash

2005-10-21T11:27:00.000+08:00

Author : ManMeng
Difficulty : Easy / Medium
Topic : function() in Flash

It's powerful i mind you, and it's even mightier than Thor or Hercules, well, in my
opinion of course, at least it helped me to get through the website I've completed
recently, and saved my a** on a lot of troubles, (http://www.newmediaaward.com/).
Reading this article, I assume that you would have at least a minor knowledge of what
Flash MX / Flash MX 2004 can do for you, generally.

Introduction
It's so powerful that you can't live without it, and it's so dynamic that you are able to 'call' the function from everywhere within the movie, even if your movieclip are hiding
down deep inside the flash file. And what's even more you can put function inside another
function! And you are not even restricted to do all those super-hyper-special-dynamic-
interaction anymore!

But before i begin anything, i would like to seriously salute, bow and thank to Mr.Chee
Yen from HueVisuaLab that at least enlighten me towards this path to function() in flash.
:D. He's a great mentor to me at least.

The Concept
Okay, you'll even notice that the 'trend' are moving towards from what you hear:
-Script-everything-in-one-frame-flash-file
-ActionScript 2.0
-No-need-write-any-on-release-on-button-anymore
-use-alot-of-movieclip-only

Okay, that must scare you away, well, to be honest, REAL HONEST, it's not that freaking
hard to do it, and you'll be amaze and cry until you dry your tear how easy it is to
master all of those above! I did, and so can you!

The Trick
To show you how it works briefly on this article before i move on to another new post that i'll show how you can utilize this cool function() to create awesome navigation effect without even need you to go through the hassle copy pasting million of times.
So to understand the concept is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT.

First, we only need to have 2 layers for the Flash file (I'll provide the link for download at the end of this lesson). Obviously we'll need one layer that stores the Actionscript & function().
And the layer below is a MovieClip that will act as a button.
You ask why? It's my preference and you'll know why later.

To demonstrate how actually this function() will work, let's start by giving the button a name, i'll name it mc_btn. Then proceed to the actions layer, open up your Actions Panel by pressing on your F9 on your keyboard (PC). We'll use Export Mode if you're in Flash MX (Flash MX2004 by default, we'll have to type the script ourselves,but dont worry, it's not that hard as you think it is!), and it'll be easier for me to demonstrate how this thing work.

The ActionScript
No worries, here's the code you'll need to make it work, if you have trouble understanding it, it's the new Flash Event Model, I'll provide a link for you to read some articles about if you're curious, but even if you have no idea what it is about, you can master it easily, weird eh?
//--------------------------------------------------------------
// the function that you will call when user click on it //
function btnClicked() {
trace("hi")
}
// when user click on this button, instead of writing
// on (press) on a button, you can now do it on the frame
// while still getting the same effect

mc_btn.onPress = function() {
btnClicked()
}
//--------------------------------------------------------------

Save the movie and test it! Note that you can replace the trace("hi") with any other action you want flash to perform, using trace() is just for testing purpose and demonstrate how it works.

[Download FLA]

Have fun!
Salutes,
ManMeng

www.newmediaaward.com

2005-10-14T14:19:00.000+08:00

So i've completed the first ever hyper-hardcore-coded interactive Flash website under my hand, but the real pain in my head is, it's ultiamtely CPU intensive that rendered me speechless when it ran on Mac, slow as a rock.

Well, i would still like to share the ups and down throughout the project itself and few discoveries I found and made within the project.

Some basics one, it's best you never user wmode=transparent for good god's sake, you'll end up scratching your head fighting for compability across platform and browser, that is when i realize it is not supported in Mac, and even worse, it increases the lag/cpu hogging. So when i switch back to an opaque background instead for the site, i'm still pondering on how i can stretch the background that is textured to look right on 'designer' point of view instead of splatting a flat colour background on it, it's a real pain, really.

So then i've started to study how it is made posssible that all these interactive sites nowadays, made full use of FSF (Full-Scale-Flash) which stretched the entire flash to 100% width and height, that covers their entire browser and doesnt scale the movie whenever i resize the browser's window instead it only moveis it position and maintain it at center.

That is when something like Stage.align really saved my ass from all the trouble. But as soon i got happy and uploaded the site, i'm bound to another tragedy that the size only loads half on Firefox, i keep on cursing and found out that there's a runaway for it, to add a bit of CSS code on top of your page.
height 100% for your body,html

So that really pissed me off, living thinking when there would be a day that browser war stops. But it's not the end yet, after spending restless month developing the site and figuring out this and that, I've chosed to use only 100% for the width of the class while maintaining the original height of the Flash without stretching it to 100%, because it doesn't fit correctly/entirely inside a 1024x768 screen resolution and would crop my project into half. God.

But alas, it's online and up at http://www.newmediaaward.com. The only pain left to me is to reduce the cpu processing cycles within the site, because even on idle, the movieclip's onClipEvent are everywhere and hogging up all the processing power.

Experiments in FlashMX 2004

2005-10-14T13:53:00.000+08:00

Some testing on scrollbar, customly scripted by me. Supporting the mousewheel button, experimental design inspired by guys from http://www.oniondesign.com.tw

Flash Experiment // Magnetic // Runaway

Flash Clock :)

Basic - The Basics in Flash Part II

2005-08-07T12:50:00.000+08:00

Here is again another part of the basics in Flash, covering more topics in how to publish/export your Flash movie files.

Difficulty : Basic / Easy
Topic : Publish Settings in Flash MX 2004

Once you've save your file, you can start to fiddle around with publish setting by going to File --> Publish Settings or by clicking on the Properties panel's publish settings.

By default, there are both 2 options to choose from, both Flash and HTML format.

Look closely at the options, you'll see there are options for Projectors as well. It is actually a file that will make your SWF files to be able to run on their computer even if the user doesn't have Macromedia Flash Player or any browser installed. But Windows Projector will only work on Windows operation system while the Macintosh Projector only work on Mac OS's computer.
Projector files helps designer or developer to make their Flash contents into CD-ROMs or even helps compabitlity across different platform with different settings.

Note : Every options changed here will NOT affect the way your Flash movie will react/behave/interact but merely changes the codes within the HTML page that will render your Flash movie, example, transparent Flash Movie files, etc
As with the HTML settings, the options are pretty explainatory by itself,
Template : What platform your Flash movie will be used on? A computer or PalmOS?
Dimensions : Define the size of your Flash movie will look like
Playback :Define if you want user to control the movie by right clicking for Play/Rewind/Forward options
Quality :The default quality you want the Flash movie to run, From Low to Best, recommended High (default)
Window Mode :You should experiment around with this option, as for the transparent windowless, i've tried it only to work on Windows, while on Mac's IE, it doesn't seem to render properly, and the background of the FLash will still be in opaque colour.
HTML alignment :Which location you want the Flash movie to be located on the HTML page?
Scale :Define if you want the user able to enlarge(zoom) into your movie files, but default setting is recommended
Flash alignment :similar to HTML alignment, you will have to experiment to get the effect you want.
Show Warning Message : Alert messages when your Flash movie has broken script that might make user's computer freeze,it is recommended to turn it on to inform your user in case it asks if they want to stop the Flash movie file from playing.
Publish : Publish!(export)

That should be a brief introductory towards the settings that you will need for exporting your Flash files to SWF/EXE/HQX files. Coming up i'll feature a preloader instead which will be more useful and functional/practical.

Basic - The Basics in Flash

2005-08-05T22:34:00.000+08:00

Although i'm supposed people that browses into this blog would have a minimum level of understanding on how Flash works, i assume. But i'll start with something light before i move on to something more advance, involving typing out custom scripts and so on.

The Basics
Just like any other software, your Notepad/SimpleText(Mac), you have to go to File -> New before you can start to do anything inside the software, the tools are standard where you can use some of the tool to draw, resize, delete, arrange your objects and so on.
Like mine, i have my Action-Frame panel opened, which is then used to write simple ActionScript. But you'll only have to understand how the Properties panel at the bottom of your screen work at the start. Because it will help you a lot in making things easy for you.

Upon opening new document, please observe the Properties panel at the bottom of your screen. There are some settings that you'll have to observe and understand what every each of it does and affect your Flash movie. It is not crucial to understand every single of it but it's useful if you do.

If you notice, there are few fields that you can adjust on the spot, such as Frame rate/Fps and with other miscellanous information about your Flash movie file. Click on the Size : 550 x 400 to check with what setting you can adjust for your new Flash movie file.

Dimensions : Setting a value for this will define the space that your movie will be, the default value would be 550px * 400px.
Background colour: Define what background colour that you want your movie to be
Frame rate : By default 12fps (Frame per second) would be sufficient for a normal animation / navigation menu bar, but if you're working towards a complex and smooth movie/animation, you might think to adjust it to a slightly bigger value, but do beware and keep in mind, even if you set your movie frame rate to 60fps, but not every single computer are able to process so many frames per second as smooth as other computer, especially with older generation of computers, Flash movie files tend to run slower than usual because the CPU couldn't process so many objects or frame at one time, making the entire movie/browser slowdown or sometimes crash. The optimum and most used around are 30 - 60fps. Unlike movies, which are either 25fps/29.97 (PAL/NTSC format) Flash movies behaves differently although there are similiarity.

If you notice below the Size setting, there are also another Publish : Settings. I'll cover more on that on the next post, as it has something to do with Exporting your Flash files into HTML and some settings to optimize your Flash movie to run faster/smoother.

There won't be any FLA file for this tutorial as it's just an introductory towards the Macromedia Flash MX 2004 interface.

Have fun.
ManMeng

Why Flash MX 2004?

2005-08-05T22:26:00.000+08:00

I'll start this site with some basic introductory on why Flash MX 2004, and reasons of not to avoid it, or scared by it.

There are few good ones, besides from you have to type the ActionScript by yourself, which i know most of us hate to do that, with all those memorizing of alphabets in our mind.

But before this, i was like this as well, i bear the fear to approach or to use this software at all, until i started to work after i graduated, and I got in touch upclose with this software, which since last time, i worked with Flash 4, 5, MX, which i've got myself used to the predefined script inside, and rely a lot on it to make my movie work, take for an example, the simple stop(), which I'll even open up the ActionScript editor and double click on the predefined stop(). It's not to be ashamed of, indeed everyone learn from the basic, and i did. And i would say, the experience to be able to type out the ActionScript out by your hand, the satisfaction is something which is really rewarding, looking back yourself which don't know anything at all about Flash, except animating objects inside.

There are sure lots of people, especially designer turned back against Flash MX 2004 due to it's being focussed more into OOP already, but until now, although i'm a designer, but i realized Flash MX 2004 itself are more versatile then what i used to work with the older version of Flash. The .as files and so much more thing, i mean, it amazed me on how Flash can be expanded, from a single user interface application to multiplayer application, imagine, Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) on Flash!

I'm looking forward to share lots of my knowledge with you pals,

Salutes,
ManMeng

myFlashPortal!!!

2005-08-05T21:44:00.000+08:00

Regards,

Here now you'll find absolutely no bs except when i post site news, and it will be an ongoing post of tutorials, from basics to advance and expert scripting in Flash MX 2004 (I will still feature few Flash MX files, but rarely), this is due because i'm intensively working on Flash MX 2004 recently in the past few month.

And that got me really going with it, for your information, I'll separate the tutorials into 3 category from
1. Basic (Menus/Basic animation/Tips)
2. Advance (Requires understanding of basic actionscript, such as gotoAndPlay)
3. Expert (This would require you to understand complex scripting which you might need to understand how variables in Flash works)
4. Experimental (Things that you find it has no value, but it has it's fun factor in it, basically some of my personal development or experimentation on certain combination of ActionScript)

There won't be a category separator since blogger doesn't include it, so you'll have to search within the posts if you want to look back at past tutorials, but it wouldn't be much problem, email me if you want to request for a help or tutorial, i'll be gladly to help you out, at the moment of course lol.

But no worries, i'll ensure that you'll love Flash like i would, and i really grateful and thankful to those who supported me and urged me to get my head into Flash, especially I've even shocked to know myself that i'm able to learn Flash MX 2004, with me typing out my codes. lol.

I'll do a lot of talking later. I'll start to write tutorial from today on. Why myFlashPortal you ask? I'll answer that later. For now have fun!

Salutes,
ManMeng