I have finally finished up my first full Flash Template Website for sale on Activeden, and its called Origins XML Website – Flash and Mobile Website Template and its a Flash XML Website that also comes with a mobile version of the template. All you have to do is update one set of xml files and it completely generates a mobile version of the Flash website for you. Origins is the accumulation of all my best selling files remastered into one website with added functionality and features. This file was 6 months in the making and its really exciting to finally get it live.

Origins Flash Website is deep-linking for added SEO (allowing the user to go to particular pages by direct links), fully XML driven, and modularly built. Create as many pages as you want, and reuse as many modules as you need. From the main logo and footer text, to the main navigation icons, everything can be changed by simply editing the XML settings files, so no Flash knowledge is needed.

The mobile site uses php to gather its content so the preview is hosted on my site, view the Origins Mobile Website Now!

Features

• Fully Generated Mobile Website
• Fully XML Driven
• SWFAddress Deep Linking Menu (Added SEO )
• 9 Page Modules (see examples and images below)
• Simple Page Module
• RocFolio 1 Page Module
• RocFolio 2 Page Module
• jQuery: PrettyPhoto LightBox Page Module (show images or movies, including YouTube, Vimeo, and QuickTime )
• Piecemaker 2 Page Module
• News Feed Ticker Page Module
• Contact Form Page Module
• Simple Link Module
• Loading Swf Page Module
• Full Music Player
• Page Specific Backgrounds Images
• Autostart Page Feature
• Social Links Menu
• PSD File of 48 Icons Ready for Use
• PSD Website Template File
• Detailed help file for installation and customization

Mobile Version Website

At the present time, Flash doesn’t run well on most hand-held devices. Heck, some devices don’t run it at all! To circumnavigate this, I decided to create a mobile version to accompany the Flash Website. It’s completely mobile-friendly and is created from all of the same XML config files used to create the Flash Site. This means there’s no need to update a ton of other files to create the site; Edit only one set of XML files to update both the Flash and Mobile versions of your site! The mobile website uses jQTouch which is a jQuery plugin for mobile web development on the iPhone, iPod Touch, Android, and other forward-thinking devices. View the Demo Here

Customizable Header Area

In the header section you can easily add your own logo image, and you can either display, hide, or just deactivate the music player altogether. All this is controlled through the XML config files.

Customizable Menu Area

In the menu section, you can easily add and remove as many menu items as you need. You can change the icon, text, text color, and text padding. Then easily assign each menu item to a particular module.

Customizable Footer Area

In the footer section you can easily add your own footer text, and include all of your own social media links with the associated icon.

Simple Page Module

The Simple Page Module is exactly that, a simple Page. You can change the image of the page we well as any text in the scrollable HTML text area. The text area supports changes in text size, color, hyper-links and images all formatted through HTML documentation.

About Page Module

The About Page Module is based off one of my best selling files called RocFolio. This module is perfect for an about page, staff page, or for anyone wanting to display their latest featured work. You can either populate the slides with a RSS feed (or any feed type), or use the sample XML file that’s included. If you use a feed, the content automatically updates when a post is made to that feed.

Portfolio Page Module

The Portfolio Page Module is based off my second version of RocFolio. This module is perfect for a portfolio page, feature page, services page, or products page. Similar to the About Page Module, you can either populate the slides with an RSS feed (or any feed type), or use the sample XML file that’s included. If you use a feed, the content automatically updates when a post is made to that feed. Also, this page module comes with three columns of editable text.

Piecemaker 2 Page Module

The Piecemaker 2 Page Module is built off the Piecemaker 2, a free 3D Flash image rotator gallery. This module is perfect for displaying any type of content including images, swf files, and videos. The Piecemaker 2 includes several new features including improved navigation, tooltips, animated shadows, and unlimited effects. The piecemaker module does not work with the cs3 version of the FLA .

Photos Page Module

The Photos Page Module uses the popular jquery lightbox clone called prettyPhoto. This module is perfect for an image gallery or slideshow. Each image gives you the option for an description field as well.

Videos Page Module

The Videos Page Module uses prettyPhoto just like the photos page module. But for this page module, you can add as many youtube, vimeo, or .MOV video files as you want. Each video gives you the option for a description field as well.

News Feed Page Module

The News Feed Page Module is another one of my best selling files called Flash News Feed Ticker and its compatible with all feed types (RSS and ATOM , directions included on how to handle these feed types). This module automatically grabs the first image in each feed post to display, and updates automatically. If you don’t want to use a feed then you can use the news feed sample XML file. You can easily change the colors, size and several other options all through the XML configuration file.

Link Module

The Link Module allows you to make the navigational item a link to anywhere you like.

Contact Page Module

The Contact Page Module allows you to setup a contact page with email validation already included. There are also two HTML text areas included on this module that are editable.

Music Player

The Musicplayer can be easily customized through an XML configuration file and you can change the colors and add as many songs as you like. The music player shows the song name, the artist name, the album name, and supports album art.

A few weeks ago, I finished developing and designing another website called Coronado Cupcakery. The cupcakery, located in Coronado, California has a fun but clean feel to it and the owner, Rosalina, wanted to have a similar look and feel for their website. Rosalina was a great client and I loved designing and developing her site. Some of the things I love about the site are the clean lines, classic text, and lots of color (I kept the background white for a clean look, and so that the colors and pictures would pop off the page). The website includes everything from a flavors page, to an ordering form, to a gallery of some of their most impressive work…. all organized in a fashion that is user friendly and easy to navigate.

Another part of the site I like a lot is the navigation. To create it, I used nettuts How to Build a Lava-Lamp Style Navigation Menu but I edited the files some so that the hover effect didn’t cover the entire menu item, but instead just kept an thick underline underneath the menu item. I really like the effect and I think I might recreate it as a flash menu.

Cya

I have finished working on another freelance website for a client, its called richardgodwin.net, and as you probably guessed it was for a person named Richard Godwin.  Richard is a really talented writer of dark crime fiction and noir,  and is about to publish his book, called ‘Apostle Rising.’  He had two blogs already that he consistently updated, so it was an obvious choice to build his site off of the WordPress Framework. Another reason I built the site using the WordPress framework is because of the awesome admin section it has. It really does do a great job in allowing the client to change the content on the website whenever they want, especially when they don’t have any coding knowledge.

As I worked on the site, Richard hired a graphic designer named Matthew Swann to finalize some graphics for the site. I usually do the graphics as well for the sites I work on, but it was a nice change of pace to have some help and it was really great working with Matthew.

There are a few special things I did for this site, that I want to list off here. There was a great plugin called WordPress.com Stats from their old site, that I implemented into their new site that lets them view their hits and pageviews from the WordPress dashboard. There were some problems initially with it but I fixed it by going into phpMyAdmin and messing with some fields in the SQL database.  For the navigation of the website and blog, they really liked the CSS Horizontal Menus I found on http://www.cssmenumaker.com. So I implemented one of those into the theme, and changed the color around to go with the rest of the site a little better. Another cool item on the site is the Steel Melting Flash Text Effect in the banner. I bought the file from activeden and added it to the site on two different pages. I think it looks really great and it achieved the flashy effect that Richard was wanting for announcing his upcoming book.

The last thing I want to talk about is the new default theme for WordPress called Twenty Ten. I created his blog theme from the Twenty Ten Theme and I just wanted to say that it was really easy to work with and modify, and that it comes with a ton more admin options in the dashboard area that the old default theme was really missing. My hat goes off to the WordPress team as they constantly raise the bar of their product again and again.

Cya

I have just finished working on another file for sale on ActiveDen and its a Flash News Feed Ticker. This is the second version of my News Feed Ticker, and the biggest difference is that I implemented an XML file to style it and for customization reasons, and it has a lot of improvements including:

• It’s compatible with all feed types (RSS and ATOM )
• This ticker automatically grabs the first image in each feed post to display
• It updates automatically
• It is completely customizable through an XML file so there is no need to even open up Flash to edit it
• Completely re-sizable so that it fits to any size container
• Easy to change the number of posts you want displayed

This news feed ticker, or reader as some people call them, includes three different skins or themes: a dark, a light, and a social media skin. Also if you want to customize the look and feel of it, you can do this very easily by editing the colors in the XML settings file or by editing the symbols in the Flash file’s library. Also there is an in-depth help file included.

Cya

This was very exciting for me because it was the first big project I undertook at the company, and it allowed me to show off my skills and worth  (plus I could learn a lot along the way).  Long story short, I got a redesign approved and started hacking away at developing.

Some of the special features I integrated or developed into the new site include:

1. a new navigation system, which include the main drop down navigation as well as a side accordian-like structure navigation (all programmed in javascript)
2. a new overall design with consistency and flow, because before the site was very unorganized and sloppy
3. bookmarks, for increased user friendliness to navigation the site
4. Flash based graphics and advertisements, this was huge because as you know I  love Flash

Here are some before and after pictures of the site, click on them to view a larger image (sorry some of them might be a little fuzzy but I had to resize them down to fit a 800 x 600 dimension).

BEFORE	AFTER
Here are a few before and after pictures of the navigation, click on them for a larger image.

Cya

I have finished redesigning another website called changeofstatus.com. The purpose of the site is to help simplify and minimize the confusion involved in an employee’s change of status (sometimes called a “life event”) as it pertains to their various healthcare benefit plans. When someone gets married or looses a dependent, usually things like this are considered life events and allow the employee to change their benefit package accordingly, so they are not paying for something they do not need. Also on the change of Status website there is a tool that converts the complicated employee change of benefits status matrix to an easy-to-use, three-step wizard, allowing employees, employers and administrators to determine what life events are permitted under IRS rules and regulations. I redesigned the site completely, you can see the site images above. The image on the right is the ‘before’ image, and the image on the left is the ‘after’. I used this template before on other company websites and I thought I do the same for this site to keep the branding consistent overall.

The site uses the jQuery Cycle Plugin for the banner rotater so that its visible even on devices like phones that don’t run Flash. Also, the website is completely SEO friendly. This is another case where I put my SEO checklist to work and it has helped tremendously. Previously the site was around 500 hits a month. Now even after a couple weeks, it has raised to over 1,500 hits a month. I’ll post the google analytics pictures as soon as I can.

Cya

I have finished up another website for a client of mine (my wife), designed for her blog called housemadehome.net. The blog chronicles the renovations and decorating of our house, some recipes, and stories associated with the raising of our family. I worked really closely with her on the design of the site and I think it came out really well. I developed it using the WordPress backend, so she could easily make posts to it and handle the whole site by herself. We focused a lot on search engine optimization and the site has had a really good start so far… she has over 15 followers already. There are tons of home design blogs out there and they are getting bigger all the time. If you are looking for a custom made blog template, contact me so we can discuss the details of the project.

Cya

I have just finished my second website template, it’s a Flash WordPress Template called RocFolio 2.  This Flash WordPress Template is perfect as a portfolio or if you want to display your latest featured work in a great way. If you use wordpress, then it automatically updates itself by getting the information from your wordpress site after you make new posts. If you don’t have a wordpress blog, a sample XML file is included that you can use. This template is very easy to use, easy to setup, and easy to customize all through XML . RocFolio 2 comes with a help file and 5 different themes. The different flash themes include a Dark, Light, Bokeh, Starfield, and Two-Tone version, or you can customize the look and feel of it very easily. Also, each templates include  a contact form with error checking, and a muic player with tons of features. This Flash WordPress Template includes navigation for going between multiple Feeds (or multiple sample xml files) or external links, and another navigational menu  that can be used as social media menu that has a special random letter hover effect. Like I have said before, if you use wordpress then it automically updates itself through the RSS feed of the site, and then it automatically grabs the first image in the post to display. This template can be customizable through 4 simple XML files, uses tweener for smooth transitions, and has a 3 column layout layout with headers that have the ability to add an image, use text, or both. There are tons of other features and options, and I hope you enjoy it.

RocFolio 2 is the second version of one of my best selling items on ActiveDen.net.  First first version, RocFolio, is more geared towards being a Flash and WordPress Portfolio Template, because it can only take in a single RSS Feed, unlike RocFolio 2 where you can go between multiple rss feeds or wordpress categories.  Below is a preview image of RocFolio. It its not fully customizable by XML like RocFolio 2 is but its still really easy to use and setup through  Flash.

Cya

I have just uploaded another file to ActiveDen.net for sale. Its a flash horizontal menu and its great for any site or flash project. It can be used as the navigation on any website and is super easy to use and setup. The main function of this menu allows you to add graphics and text with your links. If you want to use it in your flash file you can just drag and drop it, or if you don’t know Flash and you are linking to several webpages, use the provided swf and XML file and you don’t even have to open up Flash, all you do is just edit the simple XML file. Some other features include that you can easily change the width and height (and a special javascript function handles the resizing in the browser). Also, you can easily change the font color, the hover color, the font size, font type, you can easily position the text, and change the space between items and navigation padding on the left to easily center it. It handles most html tags for even more customization. You can add as many links as you want. To view the file just click the image above.

Cya

If you guys have any more specific questions about scrolling in Flash,  just let me know by sending me an email through my contact page or leaving a comment.

Cya

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<script type="text/javascript">// <![CDATA[
	if ((navigator.userAgent.indexOf('/iPhone/i') != -1) || (navigator.userAgent.indexOf('/iPod/i') != -1)) {
		document.location = "http://www.scottrockers.com/iphone.html";
	}
// ]]></script>

Add this Javascript inside your <head> tags. and change the document.location to the page you want the user to get redirected to. The reason I have a iPhone version of my website is because my home page is made in Flash and as you know the iPhone can’t display Flash yet. So I created a basic html page that has a div in the body of it that is sized to 300 width by 350 height. And if you put this line of script in the <head> section it will tell Safari that the viewport should be the same size as the iPhone screen. Setting this line of code forces the content to always fit the window.

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<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0; maximum-scale=1.0;">

Now, if someone wants to bookmark your website, they can hit the + sign and then click “Add to Home Screen” and you want to specify what icon to use for the iPhone, then create a 57px by 57px .png formatted image, put it up on your server and put this line of code in to your <head> section as well.

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<link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="http://www.scottrockers.com/library/images/sriphonelogo.png"/>

Just make sure the href tag is the correct destination to your image. What is cool is that you don’t have to add the corners or shine effect on the webclip because the iPhone will do that for you.

If you want to see all the actual html code, you can just go to scottrockers.com iPhone Version and click view source.

Cya

Website of the Week (wotw) is a new series I am doing on my blog, featuring one website per week or as often as I find a good one. I was basically doing this before when I would talk about other really useful websites that I use all the time or ones I come across while surfing on the net. Now this will by no means be anything close to thefwa.com in terms of awesomeness but it might be useful to anyway out there who is a surfing trying to find some good stuff.

This first entry in the Website of the week is Free Icons: More than 100,000 Icons in One Place. Its a really great site for all things icons, and if you still can’t find an icon that you need you will surely find something that could help you at least get started. Be careful though, you can spend hours looking at all the different  icons without even realizing the time flying by.

Cya

This error occurs when your flash file is trying to get data from a different domain and it can’t because of security reasons on their server. The usual fix for this is to create a crossdomain.xml file that allows access from other websites to use the data on yours, but the problem with that is if you don’t host that site you want the data from then how could you create or update the crossdomain.xml file on their server.

I did find a work around for it though! Not sure if its “the right way to do it” but it does work.

Here is the solution, I copy that url of the feed I want the data from, go to my feedburner account and create a feedburner feed of the same feed. If you don’t know what feedburner is then you should definatly check it out. You basically can sign up for feedburner if you have a google account already. Anyway, after you get the feedburner feed of the data you want you can view it. Then if you want to see the xml version of the Feedburner Feed, you can just add  “?format=xml” onto the end of the url they give you, and this is the normal RSS 2.0 feed that we are wanting.

This is the data you want, because its not on the security problematic website. The next thing I ran into was getting the images to display in the news ticker as well. I kept getting the same error but if I dismissed the errors then they still worked. So I used a try-catch clause to get the error and throw it if it gets one. Here is an example of that code:

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function imageLoaded(e:Event):void {
	try {
                //make the image into a bitmap and smooth it
		var image:Bitmap = e.target.content as Bitmap;
		image.smoothing = true;
 
		//resizes the image
		e.target.content.width = 55;
		e.target.content.height = 35;
 
	} catch(error:Error) {
		trace("Error catch: " + error);
	}
}

This is called from an event listener when loading it in using a loader object, that looks like this:

imageLoader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.INIT, imageLoaded);

So basically it worked after this, and the images even showed up without showing the error. The only problem is that the images don’t get resized because they can’t be loaded into the swf memory. Here are the examples: the one on the left is the broken example, it can’t get the information it wants to so it just keeps trying to load it. The example on the right shows the fix. (You have to view them in IE so the error warnings appear, another thing to hate about IE. :/ )

Any thoughts or comments are encouraged,
Cya

I have another file for sale on ActiveDen, its called Mini RocPod – XML Flash Music MP3 Player. Some of the special features of this flash mp3 player is that it is fully XML driven, it streams the mp3s, you can add unlimited amount of songs, it has auto start feature, you can auto hide the panels on start up or show them on start up, it can be easily added to actionscript3 files by just dragging and dropping. you can easily change the color of the music player through the xml, it displays album art, and it has 7 different background skins or art to choose from.  I used a lot of the same functionality as my first flash music player I creatd,  the RocPod – Flash and XML MP3 Player, but I wanted something that was a little more standard so I took out the circular scroll wheel volume controller and the ipod style menu. I still wanted to mix it up a bit so I added 7 different background arts and the hide-able panels  and appropriate settings in the xml for them. In the end I was really happy with the design.

Cya

I wanted to take a second to talk about an awesome add-on for firefox: the Web Developer Toolbar. The Web Developer extension adds a menu and a toolbar to the browser with various web developer tools. It’s a must have for all developers and designers because it saves countless hours of developing and troubleshooting time, and it has tons of really great features. One of those great features is the ability to edit the CSS of a website in real time and see your changes updated on the web page as you type them. Then you can save out the changes you made and update accordingly. This alone can save you tons of time when  sifting through the files on your server searching for the correct CSS file to update, uploading  changes you made to it and then refreshing the browser to see the changes.  Another really nice feature is the one-click validating of your page’s HTML, CSS, and javascript. Instead of going to the W3C Markup Validation Website, and manually copying and pasting the urls into the field. It automatically does it for you, SO TIGHT!!!!! There are several other features of it that are really nice and if you are a designer or developer of websites I highly recommend it.

Cya

I have just uploaded another file for sale on ActiveDen, its called  Scalable Dynamic Flash Background Behind HTML and its a easy to use Flash background generator or creator. And it allows you to create an unlimited amount of different backgrounds for your websites. You can easily change the shape to allow you to can create a cool pattern or simply randomize the position of the shape. You can use the default color of the shape, or change the color to a single color, multiple colors that you can define, or random colors.  Display as many items as you want, You can also set the maximum size of the randomly created movieclips, change the blend mode, and you have the option to blur the items. The Flash background is transparent so any thing behind it could still be seen, and this file can be the background of any html file or the background to a specific div, it sits behind the html text and is transparent. It’s scales to fit the browser and it changes everytime the page is refreshed or revisited.  Its Easy to use, and setup instructions included in help file.

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• Fully Customizable by XML
• Easily change the width and height, and a special javascript function handles the resizing in the browser
• No need to even open the flash file
• 3 Different direction types to choose from
• Easily change the scrolling speed, delay time, and duration
• Easily change the font size, font color, font type, and link color
• Handles most html tags for even easier customization
• Add as many items as you want (Displaying one at a time)

Cya

Cya

I have added another item to my ActiveDen Portfolio, it is a Mechanical Futuristic Preloader. It is really easy to use, just drag and drop the movieclip into your flash file. A version for both AS2 and AS3 are  included, and there is a special variable that allows the user to display it for a certain amount of time before loading the content. Also it allows the user to control how many times the parts of the movieclip to rotate. If it doesn’t look very smooth its because my flash file in the header of the page is a memory hog, you can  go to the activeDen page to see it run as it should.

Cya

I have added a background animation to my ActiveDen Portfolio, It is an animation of Cracks or a Cracking Background. It can be used with a logo really easily or any website backgroud. It is really easy to use, and I made in all vector graphics so it is scalable. I used it on one of my old sites that I created, Lookatmept.com, but he wanted to change to a full html site instead of having Flash on it, So I thought I might as well sell it.

Cya

I have recently created a Flash template that is integrated with the WordPress backend. Click the image above to be redirected to the preview and see the flash file in action. I have added it to my activeDen Portfolio for sale. This Portfolio Template is perfect for anyone wanting to display their latest featured work. It automatically updates itself by getting the information from your wordpress RSS Feed (You can even link it to a particular Category).

I have talked about WordPress Flash Integration before in several tutorials showing you how to do it, here are links to those:
Update: WordPress and Flash Integration part I (AS2)
Update: WordPress and Flash Integration part II (AS3)
Update: WordPress and Flash Integration part III (AS3)

If you don’t have a wordpress blog, a sample XML file is included that you can use. This template is very easy to use, easy to setup, and easy to customize. Here are some of its’ features:

• Includes 3 Skins: Dark, Light, and Colored. Or you can customize the look and feel of it very easily
• Includes Contact Form with error checking
• Resizes Automatically to fit any screen size
• One click linking
• Automatically Updates
• No XML Required (unless you want to use the sample XML included)
• Automatically Grabs the first image in the post to display
• Uses Tweener for smooth transitions

External resources used in Template: Function Icon Set

Cya

To increase SEO of the site, we updated the text, added meta descriptions, added Google Analytics stat tracking, and I validated all the pages.

Cya

Cya

One of the first problems I encountered is when I add the url loader with this line of code, “addChild(loader);” Most other tutorials will tell you to put this in your eventlistener complete function, but I have come across several problems when doing that such as the ugly “1009 cannot access a property or method of a null object reference” error.” The reason you get this is because you are trying to do something with the loader before its actual loaded into memory. So I just add the “addChild(loader)” outside of any eventlistener and it resolves it. Then, I add another function inside of the eventlistener complete function to handle any tweens or effects on the preloader itself after its done loading.

Another problem I come across is the text field not fading away when tweening it. This is a textfield problem, I can’t explain why its doing it, it just is, so the work around there is to make it a movie clip and change that movieclip’s blend mode to anything but normal and then the tweens will handle it correctly.

Make sure to check out some of my advanced preloaders for sale on my activeden portfolio and please buy one if they spark your interest. A nicely designed preloader can really impress your client and its only costs a few bucks.

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//import tweening libraries
import fl.transitions.Tween;
import fl.transitions.easing.*;
 
//stop command
stop();
 
//initalize percent, loaded, and total variables for preloader
var percent:Number = 0;
var loaded:Number;
var total:Number;
 
//intialize loader variable
var loader:Loader = new Loader();
 
//set up the listener for the loader object to get the progress of the download
loader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(ProgressEvent.PROGRESS, getBytesLoop);
//set up the listener for the loader object to call loadingDone function when loading is done
loader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, loadingDone);
//set up the listener for the on enterframe event, this is called all the time
mypreloader.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME,preloaderMotion);
 
//load the swf you want
//***change this swf name to the one you want to load****
loader.load(new URLRequest("testContent.swf"));
 
//add the loader to the stage
addChild(loader);
 
//getbytesloop function sets the info of the loaded swf during the progress of the load
function getBytesLoop(e:ProgressEvent):void {
 
	//set the total and loaded variable for the progress of the preloader
	total = e.bytesTotal;
	loaded = e.bytesLoaded;
	percent = Math.floor((loaded / total) * 100);
 
	//make the text on the screen show how much is loaded
	textMC.myText.text = percent.toString();
}
 
//loadingDone function hides the preloader when its done
function loadingDone(e:Event):void {
	hidePreloader();
}
 
//preloader motion function give motion to the preloader, add effects here to make your preloader move
function preloaderMotion(e:Event):void {
	mypreloader.rotation += 5;
}
 
//hidepreloader function, fades away all the objects in the preloader and shows the loaded content on the screen
function hidePreloader():void {
	var myTween2:Tween = new Tween(mypreloader, "alpha", Strong.easeOut, 1, 0, 1, true);
	var myTween3:Tween = new Tween(textMC.myText, "alpha", Strong.easeOut, 1, 0, 1, true);
}

Download Flash AS3 Preloader

Cya

Cody and I each came up with a design for this site and I have attached the images below, mine is the second. For my design, I used an image called “Dark Wood” by ~zygat3r from deviantART as the background but in the end we decided to go with Cody’s Design.

Cya

Cya

The first thing I had to do was set up a localhost server to be able to test on, so I used WAMP. The second thing was to download the Zend Framework and put it on my localhost, and make sure it was working properly.  Patrick had been working on this a little while before me so he had a file structure in place already that I needed to mimic, so he setup a SVN on googlecode, and I downloaded it and am in the process of setting it up on my end.  Setting up the work enviroment will probably take the longest to do but as soon as we get that done it will be a lot of fun, and I look forward to it. Patrick wanted me to design a layout for the site and I came up with what’s below. I was pretty happy with the outcome, and I think I might create non-flash based WordPress template from it to sell on ThemeForest.net.

Cya

Cya

I have just added my first sellable Flash file to ActiveDen, which is a website for buying and selling Flash files, components, effects, and other stuff.  I’ts called Layered Circular Preloader and it’s a preloader I designed and it has both versions (Actionscript 2.0 and Actionscript 3.0) for only $2.00.

Click on the image below to view a preview swf of what I am selling. If you want to purchase this item, all you have to do is create a free account on their site and then deposit some cash and then buy it. I will be starting to work on creating a widget for wordpress that implements the Envato Marketplace API, that shows the latest items for sell that links back to the page for selling. More to come soon.

Cya

Here is another site that I have finished while working at DataPath, its called myPath. We needed a site that catered to TPAs, Brokers, Employers, and Employees that demos My Wellchoice+ wellness system. I designed and developed the layout of the site from scratch and was very happy with the outcome.  Some special features  include an admin section where Brokers and TPAs can print reports of which employees and employers  actually used the site for tracking purposes. Also they can download customized marketing material that I had to create for them as well.

Cya

I did some editing to the source files to change the look of it so its more my style. For example, I created an array of the colors I wanted and passed it through the drawParticles function on the rotatingParticleBoard.as file. I choose the same colors that are in my design scheme for overall consistency on the website. With a little guidance from Dan I figured out how to rotate the particle borad by changing the arguments in the quaternion object, which changes the orientation and rotation of the particles in three dimensions. I had to find out online what variables to pass through the object to get the particle board flat, so it looked like it was eye level on the x-axis. Another thing I added was a  glow and drop shadow effect to the SR logo through actionscript.  Also, I disable several things such as the automatic rotation of the board and the mouse interaction that was initially in the files, and once everything was done I was pretty happy with the outcome.

The example on the left is Dan’s inital example of the particle waves and on the right is my rendition after all the changes.

Cya

Here is the swf, and below is the actionscript 3:

package  {
    import flash.display.MovieClip;
    import flash.display.BlendMode;
    import flash.events.Event;
    import flash.net.URLLoader;
    import flash.net.URLRequest;
    import flash.text.*;
    import fl.transitions.Tween;
    import fl.transitions.TweenEvent;
    import fl.transitions.easing.*;
 
    /*
    * Redo of scott rockers's wordpress to flash integration but in AS3 and as3wordpressFlash class file
    */
    public class AS3WordpressFlash extends MovieClip {
 
        public var i:uint = 0;
        public var titleList:XMLList;
        public var linkList:XMLList;
        public var tf:TextField;
        public var format:TextFormat;
        public var tweenIt:Tween;
        public var tweenIt2:Tween;
        public var theXML:XML;
        public var loader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
 
        public function AS3WordpressFlash() {
            loader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, loadXML);
            loader.load(new URLRequest("http://www.scottrockers.com/blog/wp-rss2.php"));
        }
 
        function loadXML(e:Event):void {
            theXML = new XML(e.target.data);
            titleList = theXML.channel.item.title;
            linkList = theXML.channel.item.link;
            createTextFields(titleList, linkList);
        }
 
        function createTextFields(titles:XMLList, links:XMLList):void {
            format = new TextFormat();
            format.font = "Arial";
            format.color = 0xFFFFFF;
            format.size = 14;
 
            for (i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
                tf = new TextField();
                tf.blendMode = BlendMode.LAYER;
                tf.width = 10;
                tf.selectable = false;
                tf.autoSize = TextFieldAutoSize.CENTER;
                tf.x = (stage.width)/2;
                tf.y = -20;
                tf.htmlText = "<a href="&quot;+ links[i] +&quot;" target="_blank">" + titles[i] + "</a>";
                tf.setTextFormat(format);
                addChild(tf);
                tweenIt = new Tween(tf, "y", Elastic.easeOut, -20, 50 + (i * 30), 30 + (i * 15), false);
                tweenIt2 = new Tween(tf, "alpha", Strong.easeOut, 0, 1, 100 + (i * 100), false);
            }
        }
    }
}

I have just added my first sellable graphic to GraphicRiver, which is a website for buying and selling Photoshop files, vector graphics, icons, textures, shapes, brushes, and other stuff.  I have been wanting to do this for a while now and I finally made it happen.  I will also be submitting flash files to ActiveDen, which is another website created by Envato. Envato is a company that hosts a bunch of sites that caters to designers and developers, whether it be selling files or training techniques (such as PSDtuts+ ).  I have been going to their sites for a while now for inspiration and learning, and I thought I might as well sell some stuff along the way.

Click on the image below for a full size image of what I am selling. If you want to purchase this item, all you have to do is create a free account on their site and then deposit some cash and then buy it. There will be more files to come.

Cya

I have been working on creating a personal logo for a while now and I have finally come up with something that I was very happy with. That’s all for now.

Cya

Here is another website I had developed for a client. His name is Tim Willoughby, and he is an old college friend and an amazing photographer from South Carolina who actually did my wedding photos as well.  He has quite an unique style and I highly recommend him to anyone looking for a photographer.  I redesigned and developed this website, and Tim has some knowledge in flash as well so he went back and changed some of the aesthetics of the site to his own taste. Some of the highlights I would like to point out is the client login area and the mp3 player.

I am also posting a link to my wedding pictures by Timwill.

Here they are, Timwill and My Wedding Photos.

Cya

I thought I should post this even though I am going to recreate it in Papervision3d and have more designs implemented into it.  To make a long story short, about a year ago I was trying to find a new job because my wonderful wife wanted us to move closer to her family so I created a portfolio site to showcase some of my work to potential employers.

It was really exciting yet challenging at the same time to create my own portfolio because “The most important thing, as its a creative industry, is that the site is YOU. The site has to hold the same personality as yourself.”  As I worked on it I wanted it somewhat simple and basic without too much style involved because I was focusing more on usability and originality (even though now carousels are all over the place) and I think it hurt me a bit in the end keeping it so basic.

I had quite a few interviews, even a few companies flew me out to interview in person, but in the end nothing came of it and we decided to stay in Little Rock until the economy and job market comes back from the black hole its in now.

Well, here it is, Scott Rockers’ Portfolio

Cya

Here is another website that I have done more recently.  I created it for a client, Roger Decker, who is a certified personal trainer and has some great ideas about in-home training.  He also wanted to be able to make updates and posts so I setup a WordPress blog for him as well.

I wanted to do something different with this site and learn something along the way. So I implemented a simple drag and drop method as well as a double-click resize method. (I know that’s nothing new in the flash community but for me it was a great learning experience). I also created a short tutorial before the site launches to explain the functionality. (Completion Date: 7/23/2008.)

Here it is, look@mePT.

Cya

I wanted to start archiving and showing off some of my work that I have done previously.  This site was for a band called Friday Mourning, and they started up at the college I went to.  Some of the guys in the band were my really close friends and the band was awesome.  This was my first flash site, and I thought it was pretty good at the time, but then the preloader took way to long.  So I had to redo it and break up all the individual pages into their own flash files and load them using the MovieClipLoader class.  It was a really good first lesson and from this point on, I loved Flash and all of its capabilities.

Here is the link, Friday Mourning.

Cya