mouseDown ( )

AS3 Physics Engines

2010-03-16T10:19:00.003Z

Whilst looking for solutions to a roulette themed problem I found a great review of the available AS3 physics engines available here

The rag dol example offers fantastic kinetic realism.

Flash Development for the iPhone finally

2009-10-07T01:18:00.005+01:00

So we can finally develop apps using Flash. The ability to output .ipa files straight from CS5 is amazing news! My head is buzzing with ideas about what kind of games, or apps I can now develop. The app store is awash with tosh that people seam to be making a killing from, I imagine there will be an almighty flood of apps to accompany them very soon.

Some lucky developers have obviously got their hands on some pre releases of CS5 as there are already 8 or so apps in the appStore developed using AS3 and published to apps.

The slider mobile framework looks very promising too. Looks like it's going to be a long wait until the beta comes out (Early November)

Answers & Ale

2009-08-11T22:49:00.005+01:00

I just watched Lee Brimelow's JUST ASK US session and was pleased to hear that multi-toutch support will be coming to air soon. Exciting stuff! Finally, we'll be able to create really slick interfaces like the ones built for movies such as minority report and Star trek. Well, maybe not that slick but great news nevertheless.

Other highlights from the video included:

Flashplayer 10 beta coming later this year. Mobile platforms to support include Google Android, Nokia Symbian, Windows Mobile, Palm. Apple, pull your finger out.
Future version of AIR to support HTML 5.
The fact that Newky Brown gets a shout.

ASDoc for Flash please?

2009-06-30T22:48:00.002+01:00

So I know Flash Builder 4 ships with ASDoc integrated but the support really isn't complete as yet. The internet is scattered with people having build issues and the tool is still only run through the command line. Sure, there are some decent AIR apps that will generate the correct bash script to run but I really think generation of documentation should be made more user friendly.

I'm in the process of standardising all code. Most of the projects I work with are built using flash, unfortunatley ASDoc runs into errors when the .as files reference library generated classes and I really don't want to create dozens of .swc files just so ASDoc can reference them.

This amnoungst other issues has led me towards Visdoc. Just a shame the documentation is as ugly as sin. I think I'm going to have a crack as styling it to mirror ASDoc.

Actionscript Errors Repository

2009-05-14T16:47:00.002+01:00

Actionscripterrors.com is an awesome little repository site that enables you to search for, yep you guessed it actionscript errors. I think this is a great resource - sometimes the Adobe appendices could be more helpful. The site is still in beta but seams to work well. It contains full descriptions of all the Flash warnings too!

Thanks to Matt Przybylski over at Evolve for pointing this site out.

Ajar Productions

2009-05-04T21:10:00.004+01:00

Ajar Productions keep impressing me with their superb array of Flash CS4 extensions. All free, all excellent. They have already saved me heaps of time as when I've been animating and should be used by anyone who ever does any timeline animation.

http://ajarproductions.com/blog/flash-extensions/

My favourite, by far is definitely the motion sketch tool. Check it out!

Actionscript 3.0 Facebook Library

2009-04-20T16:21:00.002+01:00

If you didnt already know, Adobe have recently announced that they have taken control over an open source library project by flash developer, Jason Crist. Facebook applications can target literally millions of users and engage them in exciting social ways. In an effort to increase brand awareness, I've been researching the ActionScript Facebook Library and deciding if it's something that the company I'm working for can use.

The potential that it offers really are great, but only in the right scenario. I've been searching for ways of integrating the technology with the existing systems and thinking up ways to create new ones... I've come up with some good solutions but I can't help but feel I'm suggesting the integration of chance for the sake of change!

Long time no speak.

2009-04-17T15:01:00.000+01:00

Wow, I've really been neglecting this blog! I've been too wrapped up in work to bother expressing my thoughts and struggles as a flash developer on to here... That's going to change though. Starting next week I aim to be giving much more input into this. I'm currently in the process of updating my portfolio website and hope to create some form of mash up between this blog and my site.

Paperdude

2008-10-13T20:18:00.001+01:00

Perhaps Im just in a very silly mood but I found this highly amusing. Awesome use of kinetics. I can't wait until the bones features ship with CS4. Creating animations like this will be a breeze.

Adobe CS4 At last !

2008-09-25T10:02:00.000+01:00

Haven't checked out the full suite yet but flash CS4 looks amazing. Some great features, I especially like the motion panel. Access to individual properties only accessible via tween classes previously.

Great sneak peak vid at the flashblog

Speechless

2008-09-17T13:39:00.000+01:00

Ive just built an application in flex that monitors and enables chat in up to 6 chatrooms, provides a scaled down representation of 7 online gambling games, has accordian style options panel that provides control over all aspects of the software and provides intuative interaction to control functionality such as award prize, ban etc. Here are some user feedback comments.

"Its too busy, don't like the drag and drop..."

"although u can change the background colour just doesnt seem as bright and happy as the old one"

"I want functional not pretty, I'm here to work not to enjoy the asthetics."

"I have concerns about the new interface that health and safety has not been at the top of the list with this new interface"

"Is the white a more bright white than usual? It it the fineness of the text as mentioned above? Whatever it is it hurts my eyes. This can't possibly be safe from a health and safety point of view."

Fat-Man Aspirations.

2008-09-17T10:11:00.000+01:00

I'm absolutely loving this papervision site from the fat man collective. The little touches like how the planes are affected by air resistance really add to a great effect. One of the best I've seen in terms of smoothness. My self-assigned mission this weekend is to neglect all human contact in place of creating something similar.

http://www.fat-man-collective.com/

Flash Switcher

2008-09-10T14:34:00.000+01:00

Finally got round to installing both Flash 9 and Flash 10 using the the awesome flash switcher plugin for firefox. No need to uninstall and reinstall the players when working between current and future projects.

Ryan Stewart has a great guide to configure both debug versions with the switcher.

Welcome to mouseDown

2008-09-10T14:03:00.001+01:00

Hello all.

Welcome to my blog. I should have gotten round to this a long time ago but always found something or other that Id rather be doing instead. Could have backdated this thing to include so much stuff but I guess I'll start from today. Im impressed I managed to get the mousedown domain, hopefully I get round to making a mousedown site to showcase my work... I'm imagining a cartoon of an injured mouse).

Anyway.....for those that don't know me, Im Chris. I have my finger in many digital pies but mainly love getting my hands dirty with flash, flex, video and other multiple media. When Im not in then various watering holes of Newcastle I can be found either working as a flash developer for the UK's most popular bingo site or training for the Great North Run.... but Im sure that will all change after October 5th.

I'll be using this post to share my angers and thoughts and probably to have a good old rant. Working in IT isn't the most sociable of emvironments so I have to vent my spleen somewhere !

Hope Im not shouting to an empty audience.