connectedpixel.com - Flash

Detecting unwell xml

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:52:24 -0700

If an XML file is created manually or edited manually, it is easy to misspell a closing tag, misplace a greater than sign or forget a quote mark – it's easy to create non-well-formed xml. Flash will not be able to read it and your application will fail. Furthermore, it might load some of the data and operate in a mysterious, crippled fashion, and the cause of the problem will not be obvious.

More embedded font strangeness – CSS

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:07:46 -0700

I thought I was done with the Flash-embedded-font in my previous blog entry, but there is more. I received an email requesting help with CSS and embedded fonts, and when I looked into it, found some quirks related to the CSS specified font-family and bold/italic text.

The Unbearable Strangeness of Embedding Fonts

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:23:45 -0700

The 'why' and 'how' of embedding fonts is a Flash 101 topic. The main 'why' is that the user can't see fonts that she doesn't have. If your swf uses these fonts, you need to bundle them in the swf (or with the swf). The 'how' also seems very simple: in the properties panel for a given text field, click the 'Embed' button and select the character range you want to embed. Click OK. Done. Move on.

But it's really not that simple. Once you start using fonts in a shared library, referring to embedded fonts in a css file, etc. weird problems start popping up. I've had embedded text working in some swfs but not others, static fields displaying garbage and bloated swfs.

Bandwidth Limit/Monitor tool

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:42:45 -0700

I was working on a website that needs to adapt to bandwidth. To really test it, I had to run it over the Internet -- the 'simulate download' feature didn't cut it in this case. And, I don't have a dial-up modem anymore. Furthermore, the adaptive features needs to work over a variety of bandwidths.

I found a cheap, very useful tool: Netlimiter 2. The pro version is only $30. There is also a lite version. With this tool, you can limit and/or monitor the bandwith and bytes downloaded for each application and each ip address.

Face Morph - Part 1, Morphin' George

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:54:07 -0700

Unlike Grant Skinner's gooify, which is a free-form distortion, the morph presented here is more constrained. It has an editable triangle mesh (which I'm not showing right now).

Simulate download: Static vars not re-initialized

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:44:09 -0700

The 'Simulate Download' feature in the Flash IDE is very useful. It can help debug race conditions that are a cause of intermittent problems. However, it can also lead you astray.

Problem: AS2 static variables are NOT reinitialized when you hit control-Enter the 2nd time to go into simulate-download mode.

If you'd like to try it, here's a simple test class:

Flash Perlin Texture Components: Wood and Marble

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:44:46 -0700

A while back, I wrote about rendering Wood and Marble using Perlin noise. But I've found that these code bits are a pain to use. You need to write code just to see them. You can't work with them in the Flash IDE; i.e. they are inconvenient.

Solution: package them in components with live preview. That way you can see them, adjust their color visually, mask them, drop shadow them, etc.

#include for jsfl

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:45:16 -0700

Unlike ActionScript, JSFL does not have an include directive. I've started writing some useful jsfl classes, but having no include means a lot of copying and pasting and duplicated code. This is a bad thing.

Flash Forms in PHP with AFLAX

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:09:51 -0700

Paul Colton has ported my Flash 8 wood texture code to AFLAX. It's amazing that it works so well. He must have figured out some sneaky, under-the-hood code to make it work (sneaky in a good way). Still blows my mind.

In addition to creating typical Flash movies, here's another possible use for AFLAX: Flash Forms for PHP (or ASP.NET for that matter).

Until recently, I had no idea what Flash Forms were. But a couple nights ago, I attended an mmsug meeting where Derek Versteegen demonstrated some work he's done with Flash Forms and how they work.

Flash8 Perlin Wood Texture

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:47:10 -0700

The Flash 8 documentation for perlinNoise() has this intriguing statement:

You can use Perlin noise functions to simulate natural phenomena and landscapes, such as wood grain, clouds, and mountain ranges.

OK. That sounds like fun. But how is this done? It's not immediately obvious, at least not to me. So I googled .

According to these links (here and here), the formula for wood is:

g = perlin(x,y) * 20;

grain = g - int(g);

"Ultimate Aqua Button" in Flash8

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:48:05 -0700

Since OSX first appeared, I've been in love with the aqua button look. I still love it.

CommunityMX has a great tutorial by Brian Edgin on creating an aqua button with Fireworks. It looks like a real piece of glass. I've seen a few Flash-only aqua buttons. They're very cool, but they're not as nice as the Fireworks version. Flash 7 was not capable of that degree of realism.

But now we have blends and filters in Flash 8. We can make an all-vector aqua button with the same quality as the Fireworks version.

Flash Below the Browser Fold Gotchas

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:49:38 -0700

If your browser-embedded flash movie is not scrolled into view when it initializes, you can run into some weird, browser-dependent problems.

Here's what I've found:

Spirographs in Flash

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:49:58 -0700

Do you remember playing with a Spirograph when you were a kid? Did you ever go to one of those rock-music laser shows at the planetarium? (I think they went out of style in the mid 80's.) Those complicated-looking patterns can be described mathematically as parametric equations where x and y are sinusoidal functions of a parameter t.