Category Archives: Flash

Bezier Tween AS2 Class

  • Posted On: May 9th, 2005
  • Posted In: Flash

Bezier tweens are great for creating organic type motion. Robert Penner created an AS1 bezier tween function in this FlashCoders post .

Here is that code ported to an AS2 class. The BezierTween class extends Macromedia’s Tween class and can be used in a similar way. Download the BezierTween class. Instructions for use are included in the code comments.

Below is a demo that uses the BezierTween class (click here for a larger version).

[FLASH]http://www.airtightinteractive.com/projects/bezier_tween/bezier_anim.swf,400,200[/FLASH]

Quality="best" is better

  • Posted On: April 27th, 2005
  • Posted In: Flash

[EDIT: This post applies to Flash 8 only. Flash 9 has a different way of handling stage quality]

This is something that is not very well documented, so I thought I’d point it out here.

By default Flash will publish your movie at quality=”high”. Setting the quality setting to “best” is a good idea if you are doing any scaling or rotating of images. Leaving the quality as high can lead to artifacting and jaggies as seen in the tests below.

Set your movie’s quality settings in Publish Settings -> HTML -> Quality.

[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.airtightinteractive.com/projects/quality_test/qual_h.swf” width=”200″ height=”200″ fversion=”8″ bgcolor=”#ffffff”/] [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.airtightinteractive.com/projects/quality_test/qual_b.swf” width=”200″ height=”200″ fversion=”8″ bgcolor=”#ffffff”/]

Flickr Related Tag Browser

  • Posted On: March 28th, 2005
  • Posted In: Flash

More Flickr goodness. Flickr Related Tag Browser lets you surf Flickr’s ‘tag space’. Flickr tags are keywords used to classify images. Each tag has a associated list of ‘related’ tags, based on clustered usage analysis.

These user-created tagging systems (or folksonomies), are an interesting way to organize data for ‘free’. Wandering between Flickr’s related tags can be a fun way to come across new images.

Flickr Postcard Viewer

  • Posted On: March 12th, 2005
  • Posted In: Flash

Here is a little application that lets you browse thru Flickr’s huge image database, by searching for tags (keywords).

It’s quite amazing how many images are in Flickr. Type in practically any word and you will get back a load of images. I can imagine Flickr becoming a global collaborative image database, like a visual wikipedia.

Many thanks to the Flickr team for putting together a really easy to use API.

Postcard Viewer

  • Posted On: January 16th, 2005
  • Posted In: Flash

The quest for the perfect image viewer continues! Check out PostcardViewer.

This one is just for fun. It’s very simple: no preloaders, no thumbnails. PostcardViewer is based on a real world metaphor: a set of postcards shuffled onto a surface. If you would like to use it with your own images, instructions are here.

Useful Flash Extension Roundup

  • Posted On: January 3rd, 2005
  • Posted In: Flash, Useful

Here’s a roundup of the Flash extensions that I use on a regular basis. Boost your productivity with these handy extensions.

To use them you need Macromedia Extension Manager and Flash MX 2004. To install, just download and run the MXP file, then restart
Flash. Most of these extensions will add an item in Flash’s ‘Command’
menu.

Add Stop frames. Creates a Stop action in the selected frame. Joy!

Distribute to Frames. Takes all the elements in the selected frame, and places them sequentially in the layer.

Duplicate Layer. Does what it says on the tin.

Duplicate Folder: Doesn’t work for nested folders.

Frame to Symbols. Makes all elements in the selected frame into library symbols.

Library Manager Extension. This adds a menu item in your Window->Other Panels menu. The Library Manager shows all your library symbols as a list, and allows you to manage multiple export and linkage options.