cBlog

The ‘new’ Class keyword and creating dynamic buttons in AS3

I use dynamic movieclips in almost every project I work on and AS3’s new method of adding dynamic movieclips to the stage makes it easy, instead of using AS2’s duplicateMovieClip() method. I will show you some tips and tricks to easily create applications in which dynamic movieclips are used and easily manage those movieclips.

1. Create a movieclip with a linked Class
First create a new AS3 project in Flash and create a new movieclip (Insert > New Symbol…), let’s call it MenuButton. In the Linkage properties (click the Advanced button if needed), check the Export for ActionScript box and for this example just leave all the settings like they are so click OK. You can put anything inside the movieclip you want but for this example I’m putting in a black box with the following properties: X:0, Y:0, width:100, height:20. Now return to the root scene, highlight the empty keyframe and open the actions tab.

More »

cBlog is back! + CK on AudioJungle

Hey everyone,

I’m happy to announce that my blog is now equipped with a good spam blocker so I’ll be accepting comments again and plan to post regularly again. Thanks for your patience and support.

Also, I’ve been selling stock Flash files on FlashDen (now ActiveDen) and now I’m starting to sell audio files, specifically music loops for websites, presentations, intros, etc on AudioJungle. The Envato marketplaces are growing fast and I’m excited to see what comes next!

Thanks,
CK

All apologies

I’m sorry I haven’t been active on my blog and I’m also sorry that I am no longer able to sort through your comments because the blog has been completely flooded with spam. But hopefully it will be cleaned up soon and I will post up some new articles. Please follow me on Twitter if you would like updates of my work or my files on FlashDen. Thank you.

New FlashDen Files

Just want to let everyone know that the Compare and Contrast gallery is now online as a Flash file on FlashDen here.

Also, I combined the two experiments posted here (mouse proximity blur and auto drag & snap) to create a Creative Iconic Menu with mouse proximity effects Flash file now on FlashDen here.

To keep up with my new FlashDen files and new work on my portfolio, you can follow me on Twitter here.

Thanks! 

Mouse Proximity Blur Tutorial

How to make a menu or icons with a proximity blur effect

A mouse proximity blur is an effect which means the amount of blur on the movie clip is dependent on the distance between the movie clip and the mouse cursor.

In this tutorial, I will take you through a very basic and easy tutorial on how to set up a simple iconic menu and walk you through the ActionScript (AS3) to add this effect on the menu. I first created the mouse proximity blur menu as an experiment in my last post here. This is what the finished product will look like:

More »

Mouse Proximity Blur

I created another little experiment with the same setup. This time a mouse proximity detection which blurs the button. The farther away from a button the mouse cursor is, the more blurred it will be. Bring the mouse to the center of the button and it will become clear without any blur. Also think this will work nicely into a creative menu. I may combine this one with the Auto Drag and Snap one to make one cool menu for FlashDen. These cynical, but beautiful Valentine’s Day icons were made by Eugen Buzuk at IconDrawer.com.

Auto Drag and Snap

I made a little experiment, which would be well used in a menu. It could be a cool effect for a icon-like menu. For each button, on mouse over, the buttons snap to your mouse position - or close to it - and then follow your mouse, but the further your mouse differs from the original position, the more the button lags behind. On mouse out of the button, the button snaps back to the original position in a elastic transition.

3D Slide Picker Experiment

I thought of this idea with a 3D kind of layout for picking images or even have site sections in each of these slides. It’s not enabled to shift slides, but you could do this with shifting the depths and so forth. You could probably also achieve this if not better with new CS4’s 3D capabilities. Maybe I will do an extended version of this in the future.

Introduction to OOP

OOP: Object Oriented Programming

Object Oriented Programming is a concept rather than a technique or method of coding.  However, within the concept of OOP, there are certain techniques and methods.  Object Oriented Programming (OOP) is an object-based style of programming that uses objects to store and work with data. Templates known as classes are used to define the properties and methods that make up objects in code.  So the point of it is to easily re-use robust code, making developing applications much easier, stronger, and allows more possibilities.

In this tutorial, I will take you through a very basic and easy, but very powerful method and aspect of OOP in Flash.  We will create a loading circle that spins around by attaching external code to the movie clip.  This will hopefully demonstrate to you the power of OOP.

More »

Particle Experiment

Today someone showed me a very cool site, ThisIsSand.com - once I saw this, it reminded me of an old particle experiment I did with AS2. I converted into AS3 and played around a bit more. Click and hold to spray; use the arrow keys to adjust the pressure and spread of the particle spray. I’m still trying to figure out how to make the sand pile up on top of each other..