Envato is turning five, and celebrating another year with an amazing bundle for sale, the Envato Birthday Bundle. This year they’re going all out and giving you more than $500 ($507 in fact) worth of some of the most awesome marketplace files around for the rock bottom price of $20. That’s a saving of more than 90%!

This bundles has motion graphics, sound effects, music, tutorials, code, site templates and themes, stock photography, Flash and Unity, graphics and vectors, 3d models and more! There are 51 files all for only $20! But be quick, this deal is available for 4 days only! ( 22nd to 26th midday AEST ).

This is a really great deal, get it while you can.

Cya

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.

Yesterday, I finished developing another website called The Dreamy Spoon. The Dreamy Spoon is a Self Served Frozen Desserts Store located in Maumelle , Arkansas and it a full flash website that also has a wordpress blog with it. This has to be one the most fun websites I have done in a while, partly because of the silliness of the design (which was done by Cody Scott of  Kinetic Media Solutions ). Some of the special things about the website are they it uses SWFAddress to increase SEO and add the ability to go straight to a specific page, as well as a custom MP3 music player, and all the animations were pretty cool too. The website includes everything from a flavors page, a contact page, and links to the social media websites.

One of the hardest things to code for the website was getting the stage to resize correctly when the user resizes the browser window, because the grassy hills had to stay at the bottom and the cloud background had to scale correctly.

To increase SEO, I created the The Dreamy Spoon Blog (made from WordPress) that the owner could add news posts and I also duplicated the flash pages  into wordpress pages and basically hide them from the user (meaning no actual links to them), but when I submit a sitemap to Google Web Mastertools I will include those links so they get indexed.

This might be the best flash website I have done so far and it was a lot of fun to work on, let me know what you guys think.

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

Since joining ActiveDen, where you can buy and sell royalty-free Adobe Flash and Flex files, I have wanted to make the featured author of the week. I am proud to announce that I have finally achieved this goal of mine.  I am really honored and humbled to be chosen and want to thank Envato (The Company that owns  the marketplace) for selecting me, especially LanceSnider, the ActiveDen Site Manager. If you have ever thought about selling graphics, or wordpress themes, or anything of that nature then the Envato Marketplaces are the way to go.  These sites have the best community of authors and buyers.

Its really been amazing creating files and seeing people use them on their own sites, and  there is something really rewarding in it thats hard to articulate with words. Thanks again ActiveDen for the opportunity you give us and for the feature.

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

As you may know, I have completed quite a few projects and written several posts regarding the integration of Flash and WordPress. In fact, my latest project was a complete Flash and WordPress Website called RocFolio 2.

A few weeks ago I was excited to be contacted by Packt Publishing. They asked me to review one of their books, “WordPress and Flash 10x Cookbook”. I was honored that they contacted me and excited for the opportunity to read through their book and see what I could learn. Here is the book information followed by my review.

Book Information

Full Title: WordPress and Flash 10x Cookbook
Author(s): Peter Spannagle, Sarah Soward
Pages: 268
Published: April 2010
Publisher: Packt Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-847198-82-2

My Review

The book as a whole is written well and includes over 50 simple and effective techniques on how to control certain tasks relating to Flash content in WordPress. The easy-to-follow step by step instructions, and pictures to help out those of us who are more visual, that accompany the techniques make integrating Flash and WordPress a fairly straightforward process.

This book is aimed at new or intermediate WordPress users who are interested in learning how to create the unique and media-rich sites that using plug-ins and Flash can provide, so much of the book’s content I was already fairly familiar with.  But for the newer user looking to enhance their personal or business sites and blogs, this book definitely contains strategies and techniques to help you do just that. Just remember that a working knowledge of XHTML, CSS, and graphic design is helpful and familiarity with WordPress is required, because the book does not address the basic mechanics of using WordPress itself. Also, any previous experience with Flash is helpful but not necessary.

Honestly, the Cookbook focused more on how to add, edit, and embed Flash into WordPress than an actual integration of the two, which is what I had originally thought it was going to be about. It also mentions several really nice WordPress plug-ins, some of which were strictly for helping you add and control Flash on your WordPress site, while others mentioned are to help you with SEO, Google Sitemaps, and optimizing your WordPress site as a whole. The Cookbook also delves into some Actionscript 3.0 scripting which is followed by examples paired with actual code. Here are links to some of the plug-ins the book mentions that I found to be particularly helpful tools in building a WordPress site:

Kimili Flash Embed Plugin
Dean’s FKCEditor  Plugin
Google Sitemaps XML Plugin
SEO Title Tags Plugin
FLV Embed Plugin

If you don’t know how to use these plug-ins, or have an overall desire to learn more about Flash content within WordPress, the WordPress and Flash 10x Cookbook definitely explains in detail the best way to do so. Overall, this book is a great reference and would be a helpful addition to your desk or workspace, especially if you’re a new or intermediate designer/developer. Hey, even if you’re an advanced user it could still come in handy, teaching you something you might have missed along the way as you taught yourself… we all have something to learn. Right?

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

So to load your XML you have to create your load and request variables and then you should create a few event listeners for progress and complete events, like this:

1
2
3
4
5
6

var loader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
var requestURL:URLRequest = new URLRequest(xmlfilename.xml);
 
//create progress and complete event listeners for the loader, and load the urlrequest
loader.addEventListener(ProgressEvent.PROGRESS, getBytesLoop);
loader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, loadXML);

Now in your loadXML function all you have to do is figure out where the xml file actually ends, and then index that spot and then cut the rest of the string out with the substring() command. Here is how you do that.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24

//function loadxml loads the xml and handles assigning to places
function loadXML(e:Event):void {
 
	var dataString:String = e.target.data;
	var finalString:String = "";
	var endofString:uint;
 
        //find out where the end of the xml file is, however your set it up it should be the last closing tag, this one is </settings>
	endofString = dataString.indexOf("</settings>", 0);
 
	//cut out the good part of the xml using substring, then use 0 as your starting point to where you got your endOfString
        //make sure to add whatever amount you need to be at the end of the your last closing tag, </settings> has 11 characters in it so +11
	finalString = dataString.substring(0, endofString+11);
 
	//then assign the finalstring to your XML variable
	try {
		var theXML:XML = new XML(finalString);
	} catch (e:TypeError) {
		//loader.load(requestURL);
		trace("A TypeError has occurred : \r\t" + e);
	}
 
//then go on with setting up your XMLLists so you can access the data how you want
}

So hopefully this helps those out there that are getting weird parsing errors when trying to load multiple XML files. I know I tried finding the solution out on the web and couldn’t so that’s why I wrote this, if it helps you out please leave a comment.

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

Cya

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:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14

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 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.

Cya

I was looking around on the internet and come across the PureMVC website and was pretty impressed. PureMVC is a lightweight framework for creating applications based upon the classic Model, View and Controller concept. This concept is an architectural pattern used in coding that isolates the application logic for the user from the GUI, allowing development to come from different places “permitting independent development, testing and maintenance of each”.  PureMVC is open source and was originally implemented in the ActionScript 3 language for use with Adobe Flex, Flash and AIR, is now being ported to all major development platforms. I have taken a very quick look at it but it seems very cool. An example of this in use is the T-mobile website, which has a very cool flash GUI on the front page, take a look and see what I mean. The picture above is taken from the PureMVC website.

Cya

• 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

So add a movieclip to the stage that is the same size of the stage, but make the color’s alpha zero. Make sure the instance name is “bg” then in the actionscript add this:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27

    //import library files
    import flash.display.StageAlign;
    import flash.display.StageScaleMode;
    import flash.events.Event;
 
    //reset the background movieclip function
    resetBGsize();
 
    //set the stage scalemode and alignment to no scale and top left
    stage.scaleMode = StageScaleMode.NO_SCALE;
    stage.align = StageAlign.TOP_LEFT;
 
    // add an event listener to the stage for when it is resized
    stage.addEventListener(Event.RESIZE, onResizeStage);
 
    //onresizestage function for the event listener, calls resetBGsize
    function onResizeStage(e:Event):void {
       resetBGsize();
    }
 
    //resetbgsize function resizes the background movieclip and centers it
    function resetBGsize():void {
       bg.width = stage.stageWidth;
       bg.height = stage.stageHeight;
       bg.x = stage.stageWidth / 2 - bg.width / 2;
       bg.y = stage.stageHeight / 2 - bg.height / 2;
    }

Hope this helps someone out.

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.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56

//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

I just heard about a free flash 3d image slider creator called CU3ER. It looks amazing, its free to use in your own and commercial projects, its customizable by XML, and you can tailor any of the transitions and several other things to make it your own. I am in the process of creating my first template to sell on ThemeForest, another Envato Marketplace website, and I am definitely going to use it. Art director and designer Stefan Kovac came up with it and much thanks goes out to him for such an awesome utility.

Cya

I recently created my logo in  3d space. I used a program called Blender to create a DAE file of it and I also rendered out the color map that I could edit and change the shading and color of the object. I put it up on my site for a couple of days and wasn’t very happy with the pixelation of the image and I really like a clean style so that’s why I took it off. So, I am putting in the blog because I wanted to show I could work with 3d modeling somewhat. The 3d  example and color map below.

Cya

Cya

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73

//create a boolean variable for when the volume button is being pushed, and variables for the new and old rotation of that button
var buttonCircleMovement:Boolean = false;
var newAngle:Number = 0;
var oldAngle:Number = 0;
 
//create the inital volume variables, start at .5 or 50% volume
var volumePercent:Number = .5;
var currentVolume:Number = .5
 
//masks the volume tracker to what the currentVolume is times the width of the volume bar
volumeTracker.volumeBarMask.width = 80 * currentVolume;
 
//on mouse down allow the the volume to change, on mouse up make it so the volume can't change
buttonCircle.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, volumeOn);
buttonCircle.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP, volumeOff);
 
//add event listeners for mouse movements and call the button circle move functions for the button circle
buttonCircle.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_MOVE, buttonCircleMove);
 
//function is called when the mouse is down on the circle movieclip
function volumeOn(e:MouseEvent):void {
 
	//set the button circle movement variable to true
	buttonCircleMovement = true;
	// get the initial angle of where your mouse click was before the rotating the object
	oldAngle = Math.atan2(buttonCircle.y - mouseY, buttonCircle.x - mouseX) * 180/Math.PI;
}
 
//function is called when the mouse is up off of the circle movieclip
function volumeOff(e:MouseEvent):void {
 
	//set the button circle movement variable to false
	buttonCircleMovement = false;
}
 
//function that controls the volume bar
function buttonCircleMove(e:MouseEvent):void {
 
	//if the button circle movement variable is set to true
	if (buttonCircleMovement) {
 
		//as your mouse moves, calculate the angle by where your mouse is located
		newAngle = Math.atan2(buttonCircle.y - mouseY, buttonCircle.x - mouseX) * 180/Math.PI;
 
		//make a temporary variable hold the difference between the new and old angle
		var tempVar = (newAngle - oldAngle) - 360 * Math.round((newAngle - oldAngle) / 360);
 
		//rotate the circle to the new angle that is being calculated
		buttonCircle.rotation = newAngle;
 
		//make the old angle where the new angle is now
		oldAngle = newAngle;
 
		//get the new volume percent by adding the old percent to the temporary variable divided by 360
		volumePercent = volumePercent + tempVar / 360;
 
		//if the volume percent is greater than 1 then just make it 1
		if (volumePercent >= 1) {
			volumePercent = 1;
		}
		//if the volume percent is less than 0 then just make it 0
		if (volumePercent <= 0) {
			volumePercent = 0;
		}
 
		//make the current volume equal to the volume percent
		currentVolume = volumePercent;
 
		//changes the width of the mask for the volume bar
		volumeTracker.volumeBarMask.width = 80 * currentVolume;
 
	}
}

Cya

So I have been working on a mp3player that is designed similar to a ipod with a little bit different functionality. I needed the text fields to scroll back and forth so you could see all the text written inside of it, if the field was shorter than the width of the text. After looking around for a tutorial or another persons help and not finding a thing for Actionscript 3, I decided to write my own. I am using Tweenlite to handle the tweens because its really low on weight and its a very smooth and powerful tweening engine. I am almost done with the mp3player and I will show you that very soon, but I wanted to post an example of the scrolling text or flash ticker (as some people call them) to you first before then. The example and code is below. I use one movieclip with an instance name of item that has two items inside of it, a dynamic textfield holding the text and a mask to only show the part I want shown.

//import libraries
import flash.utils.*;
import flash.text.TextField;
import gs.*;
import gs.easing.*
 
//make the text too long for the textfield and assign the mask for it
item.menuItemText.text = "This text is too long to fit in this tiny textfield, here is the end";
item.menuItemText.mask = item.menuItemMask;
 
//call the scrollWords function
scrollWords();
 
//the scrollWords function
function scrollWords():void {
        //make the textfield wordwrap false and autosize to textFieldAutoSize.LEFT
	item.menuItemText.wordWrap = false;
	item.menuItemText.autoSize = TextFieldAutoSize.LEFT;
 
        //if the textwidth is longer than the masks width which is 173 then call goforwardtween
	if(item.menuItemText.textWidth > 173) {
		goForwardTween(item.menuItemText);
	}
}
 
//go forward tween, on complete it calls go back tween
function goForwardTween(tf:TextField):void {
	TweenLite.to(tf, 3, {x:-(item.menuItemText.textWidth) + 163, delay:1, onComplete:goBackTween, onCompleteParams:[tf] });
}
 
//go back tween, on complete it calls go forward tween
function goBackTween(tf:TextField):void {
	TweenLite.to(tf, 3, {x:10, delay:1, onComplete:goForwardTween, onCompleteParams:[tf] });
}

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

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

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

This  made sense of why mine weren’t working correctly, because when you add media to WordPress it saves it in the “wp-content/uploads/” directory. So the workaround they tell you to do is to make sure that the HTML that runs the SWF file has the param allowScriptAccess’s value set to always.  For example,  “<param name=”allowScriptAccess” value=”always”>”.  And then they also say to make sure that the when using a link to use ”_blank” as the target, which will cause your browser window to open the link in a new window. After I did this it worked again, which is great unless you want the browser window to open the link in the same window.

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);
            }
        }
    }
}

So I had a little extra time this weekend to work on some flash stuff so I createD a newsletter sign up form.  Which brings me to this point,  one of the things that attracts me to Flash so much is that I can easily customize the look and feel of anything I work on really easily. You have to love the Flash IDE, thats all I am saying.  Some of the features that I programmed into this sign up form that I would like to point out are:

1. Use of the “Enter” key with the keylistener function to make it more user friendly
2. Tab indexing functionality also to make it more user friendly
3. Error detection on the input field for those users who are retarded (basically it won’t take any input that is not a valid email address)

I am all about user friendliness, and  I will get more into that at some point.  There is a really simple PHP script that goes along with this, and for right now it just sends the email address the user inputs to a certain email address (right now it just sends it to my email). At some point, I would like for the input to be put directly into a database but thats for later.

Cya

Cya

I did come across a few interesting things. When accessing the titles of each heading, I used “.nodeValue”, but when accessing the links of the headings I had to use “theNodePath.toString()”. I thought this was weird because all the information looked the same inside each node in the XML.

I will use this technology on my blog as well as my Flash site, once I get some time to work on them. Hopefully soon, because I am pumped that I figured out how to do this.

Cya

If you have a WordPress blog already setup, then you can do all this easy too.  All WordPress blogs have a RSS feed built into them, so what I did was access that php file that creates the RSS feed (which renders out as XML),  and thats all Flash needs to have to be able to do what we want.  The best part is that the .swf file updates itself automatically anytime it is called which makes the whole thing dynamic.

Click on the image below to see an example that retrieves every heading to every post on my blog and puts them into a simple list component.

Here is the code I used in the .FLA, its AS2:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32

// Create new XML Object and set ignoreWhite true
var theXML:XML = new XML();
theXML.ignoreWhite = true;
 
//the function to check to see if the xml file was loaded
theXML.onLoad = function(success) {
     if (success) {
          trace('Your XML file was loaded! See its right here:' + '\n\n' + this.toString() + '\n\n');
          processXML(theXML);
     } else {
          trace('Your XML file was not loaded');
     }
}
 
//where to find the the xml file and loads it
//just change the url to your rss url
theXML.load("http://www.scottrockers.com/blog/wp-rss2.php");
 
//function that puts all the posts' headers into the list component
function processXML(xmlInfo) {
     // xmlInfo is now a reference to the XML
     // object where our information is stored
     for (var n = 0; n < xmlInfo.firstChild.firstChild.childNodes.length; n++) {
          if (xmlInfo.firstChild.firstChild.childNodes[n].nodeName == "item") {
               trace(xmlInfo.firstChild.firstChild.childNodes[n].firstChild.firstChild.nodeValue);
               theList.addItem(xmlInfo.firstChild.firstChild.childNodes[n].firstChild.firstChild.nodeValue);
          } else {
               //these are the parent nodes, do not print them
               //trace(xmlInfo.firstChild.firstChild.childNodes[n].firstChild.nodeValue);
          }
     }
}

I can even access certain categories by changing: theXML.load(“http://www.scottrockers.com/blog/wp-rss2.php”); to theXML.load(“http://www.scottrockers.com/blog/?cat=4&feed=rss2″);

Click on the image below to see an example that retrieves only headings to posts under the category “Portfolio” and puts them into a simple list component.

Since I now know how to access those node values then I will also be able to do anything with them, such as animate them on to the stage, make them links, etc. I am sooooo pumped about this.

Cya

I have been trying to find a way to integrate Flash and WordPress for a while now, so when I update my wordpress blog then it goes straight onto my Flash site.  Well, I have found some files from Tim Wilson’s website and I have learned a lot so far from them.  You basically have to integrate Flash with the wordpress’s xml and have some php communicating between the two.  Hopefully this will be a big help in redesigning this blog.

Also, if your interested in doing this I recommend watching a video on gotoAndLearn that basically has to do with integrating mySQL, Flash, and PHP.

Cya

Cya

1) Select the site to configure in IIS, right click and select “Properties”
2) Under HTTP Headers Tab, select “File Types” under the MIME Map section and select “New Type”
3) Type “.flv” as the associated extension and “video/x-flv” as the content type.
4) Select “OK” and you’re good!

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