Clint Hannaford - Portfolio » Flash/Actionscript

Drawing shortcut for MovieClip.graphics

admin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 03:32:41 +0000

Thought I’d share this little shortcut that I hadn’t really come across before, which definitely helps to keep your code that little cleaner when working with MovieClip.graphics in Flash.

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this.grapics.lineStyle(1, 0x00000);
this.graphics.moveTo(10, 10);
this.graphics.lineTo(10, 20);
this.graphics.lineTo(20, 20);
this.graphics.lineTo(20, 10);
this.graphics.lineTo(10, 10);

this.graphics.beginFill(0xFF0000);
this.graphics.drawCircle(40, 40, 20);
this.graphics.endFill();

this.graphics.beginFill(0x00FF00);
this.graphics.drawRoundRect(40, 0, 40, 20, 2, 2);
this.graphics.endFill();

Can also be written:

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with (this.graphics) {
lineStyle(1, 0x00000);
moveTo(10, 10);
lineTo(10, 20);
lineTo(20, 20);
lineTo(20, 10);
lineTo(10, 10);

beginFill(0xFF0000);
drawCircle(40, 40, 20);
endFill();

beginFill(0x00FF00);
drawRoundRect(40, 0, 40, 20, 2, 2);
endFill();
}

Pretty simple, and surprised I hadn’t seen (or thought of) it before.

Replacing Events with AS3Signals

admin — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 09:14:53 +0000

I’ve been playing with AS3Signals lately, and think I will be replacing flash events with it on all future projects.

It’s so simple!

So what is AS3Signals?

AS3Signals is a lightweight replacement for Flash Events written by Robert Penner.

AS3Signals aims to reduces the amount of traditional ‘boiler plate’ code required to receive and dispatch messages in Flash.

Why use AS3Signals?

Writing custom events tends to be a bit of a tedious chore on most projects, and I know many developers approach custom Events in different ways.

Some choose to create a single flexible Event with a loosely typed payload (ie. data:Object), while others like myself, like to strongly type events with value objects wherever I can (resulting in many custom event classes per project).

AS3Signals practically does away with the need for custom event classes altogether, as you now simply append any number of parameters to your signal.

The time saved not having to write all of these custom events alone is reason enough to jump into AS3Signals.

AS3Signals also brings a few nice features that events don’t have, such as “addOnce” that automatically removes the listener the first time a signal is received, “removeAll” which removes all listeners of a given signal, as well as “NativeSignal” which allows you to map traditional events (like MouseEvents) to signals. Finally there is DeluxeSignal which adds the ability to get the target object of a signal, and enables bubbling

So how do I use AS3Signals?

John Lindquist has a video tutorial that sold the idea and simplicity of AS3Signals to me, and I expect just about any other flash developer who watches it.

I’ve included my own basic demo and source code below to illustrate just how easy they are to use.

Sample

You can click on the face icon to “hit” the player. The SignalsDemo.as class listens to the hit, kill and click signals from the Player.as class and prints messages to the textfield.

AS3 Signals Demo - requires Flash.

SignalsDemo.as

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package com.pleribus.as3signalsdemo {

import flash.events.MouseEvent;
import flash.text.TextField;
import flash.display.Sprite;

/**
* @author Clint Hannaford
*/
public class SignalsDemo extends Sprite {

public var player:Player;
public var textOutput:TextField;

public function SignalsDemo() {

addPlayer();
addTextField();

// add signal listeners
player.playerHit.add(onPlayerHit);
player.playerKilled.add(onPlayerKilled);
player.click.add(onClickPlayer);

}

private function addPlayer():void{

player = new Player();
player.init();

player.x = 30;
player.y = 30;

player.buttonMode = true;

addChild(player);

}

private function addTextField():void{

textOutput = new TextField();

textOutput.x = 10;
textOutput.y = 100;
textOutput.width = 350;
textOutput.height = 200;

textOutput.border = true;

addChild(textOutput);

}

//Signal Handlers
private function onClickPlayer(event:MouseEvent) : void {

// Hit the player when clicked on
player.hit();

}

private function onPlayerKilled(message:String) : void {

textOutput.appendText(message+"\n");

player.playerHit.remove(onPlayerHit);
player.playerKilled.remove(onPlayerKilled);
player.click.remove(onClickPlayer);

this.removeChild(player);

}

private function onPlayerHit(message:String, health:Number) : void {

textOutput.appendText(message+" - health now: "+health+"\n");

}

}

}

Player.as

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package com.pleribus.as3signalsdemo {

import org.osflash.signals.natives.NativeSignal;
import org.osflash.signals.Signal;
import flash.display.Sprite;
import flash.events.MouseEvent;

/**
* @author Clint Hannaford
*/
public class Player extends Sprite {

public var playerKilled:Signal;
public var playerHit:Signal;
public var click : NativeSignal;
private var health: Number;

public function Player(){

}

public function init() : void {

health = 10;

playerKilled = new Signal();
playerHit = new Signal();
click = new NativeSignal(this, MouseEvent.CLICK, MouseEvent);

with (this.graphics){

beginFill(0x000000);
drawRect(0, 0, 50, 50);
endFill();

beginFill(0xFFFFFF);
drawRect(10, 10, 10, 10);
drawRect(30, 10, 10, 10);
drawRect(10, 30, 30, 10);

}

}

public function hit():void{

health--;

playerHit.dispatch("Player Hit", health);

if (health <= 0){
kill();
}

}

private function kill():void{

playerKilled.dispatch("Player Killed");

}

}

}

Coca Cola – Summer Blast

admin — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 01:34:39 +0000

[Site no longer online - see video below]

Players launch themselves into the air by timing the power bar to get maximum height. They are then able to steer themselves as they fly through the air with the aim of staying in the air as long as possible and scoring maximum points. Players steer themselves through the air bouncing off hot air balloons or finding up currents to gain extra air time. Collecting bottle caps and landing in a designated target area give you extra points.

Coke Summer Blast from Pleribus on Vimeo.

Wrigleys 5 Gum

admin — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 07:00:25 +0000

http://www.5gum.fr

Wrigley’s 5 Gum “Stimulates Your Senses” was the core objective of the new www.5gum.fr website.

The innovative site targets both the visual and auditory senses.

Boffswana was engaged to create a site utilising Augmented Reality to enable users to listen and control various music tracks as a sound mixer. Once three base tracks have been selected, users can modify the audio being played through the simultaneous use of three controlling markers.

Jack Links Beef Jerky – Living Sasquatch

admin — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 01:50:23 +0000

http://www.livingsasquatch.com

The ground breaking project gives you the ability to ‘mess’ with the Jack Link’s Beef Jerky Sasquatch in a whole new way by bringing him out of your computer, onto your desk!

You can choose from 35 different Sasquatch animations and add them to a timeline and record your interaction with the Sasquatch through an intuitive and easy to use drag and drop interface.

You can even add speech bubbles to give Sasquatch a voice!

Once these short movies have been created, you can send them to friends and add the movies to the public gallery. Movies in the gallery then receive “Stomps of approval” or votes from other viewers of the site.

Living Sasquatch from Pleribus on Vimeo.

It’s movie making with a difference where you are the writer, editor, director and co-star with your very own 3D Sasquatch.

Visualisation of the development process:

Developing Living Sasquatch from Pleribus on Vimeo.

Awards:

Site of the day – FWA – Favourite Website Awards

Save Your Sensible

admin — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 06:51:34 +0000

[Site no longer online. See video below]

GPY&R came to Boffswana to develop an online interactive 3D character and Facebook Application for their client Cadbury Schweppes Australia. The campaign for their Spring Valley brand, involves ‘finding and meeting’ your own ‘Sensible’; a comical character that inhabits us all, is directly impacted by our lifestyle choices and exists to remind us that we occasionally need to do something good for our bodies. The aim of the site is to allow users to see and interact with their own Sensible, inform their Sensible as to what they have been up to, and then care for their Sensible.

Save Your Sensible from Pleribus on Vimeo.

Awards:

Site of the day - FWA – Favourite Website Awards
Silver – MADC Best Microsite 2009
Bronze – MADC Best Integrated Campaign 2009
Bronze – One Show Interactive 2009
Finalist AIMIA – Best Advertising or Marketing 2009

Nike Armoury

admin — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 07:06:43 +0000

[Site no longer available - see video below]

Boffswana was commissioned by Publicis Mojo to create a 3D product carousel using Papervision3D, a rich 3D engine written in flash. As Publicis Digital’s own team of designers and developers worked on other elements of the site, we created a carousel mechanism featuring dynamic lighting, different display modes and a simple API to help the integration of the carousel back into the rest of the sites structure.

Nike Football – The Armoury from Pleribus on Vimeo.

NAB Socceroos Celebration Dance

admin — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 07:00:41 +0000

[Site no longer available - see video below]

To promote NAB’s sponsorship of the Socceroos for last years Asian Cup games, Boffswana was commissioned by Clemenger Blue to design and develop a large scale interactive Flash game.

Featuring fully animated 3D versions of John Aloisi, Tim Cahill, Harry Kewell and Archie Thompson, the game allows players to take control of their favourite Socceroo and run him through a series of post goal “Celebration Dance” moves.

NAB – Socceroos Celebration Dance from Pleribus on Vimeo.

Awards:

• Finalist - London International Advertising Awards 2007
• Finalist - New York Festivals Midas Awards 2007
• Finalist - AWARD Awards 2007
• Bronze (online & mobile game) – AWARD awards 2007
• Silver - Asia Interactive Awards
• Best of Show – W3 Awards USA 2007
• Gold (Sports) – W3 Awards USA 2007
• Silver (Advergames) – W3 Awards USA 2007
• Silver (Events / Sponsorship) – W3 Awards USA 2007
• AIA – Creative Showcase Award
• Bronze MADC – Best Interactive Craft
• Finalist MADC – Best Online Game
• Finalist – Cannes Cyber Lions 2008
• Merit – One Show Interactive 2008

Carlton Draft – Plastic Cup

admin — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 02:02:06 +0000

[Site no longer online - see video below]
Using a custom built flash 3D game engine, the Plastic Cup game lets players navigate an obstacle while trying not to spill any Carlton Draught.

The game was an entry mechanic into an actual footrace to win $100,000 held during the Spring Racing Carnival in Melbourne. The game proved extremely popular, with thousands of players entering.

The competition was fierce with only split second results separating the top players, who played hundreds of games to shave split seconds off their times.

Carlton Draught – Plastic Cup from Pleribus on Vimeo.