My esteemed colleague Nik Rowell has graced these pages with some really cool Flash experiments in the past, which has inspired me to also explore the wonderful capabilities of ActionScript 3.

Audio visualization is a fun area to experiment in, as you can do some very interesting things with very little code. Nik showed us a unique way of looking at sound in this post. His code utilizes one mode of Flash’s sound compute spectrum method, which returns the raw sound wave data.

In my program I decided to use the Fourier transformation mode, which returns a set of calculations derived from the sound wave data. These calculations output a set of frequency numbers, starting with lows and ending with highs.

If your browser has Flash 9 installed click here to see a really cool song by Kate Havnevik brought to life with Flash. If you don’t see anything except the background right away, please be patient. On slower connections the sound may take a minute to load.

As many of you know, I’ve been spending a bit of my time exploring the cool features in ActionScript 3.0 – some new, some not. Lately, I’ve been intrigued by the SoundMixer class which has a special method, computeSpectrum(), that essentially takes a snapshot of the wave of a streaming sound (or an embeded sound, but I’m talkin’ 100% code here)…

The finer details quickly boil down to binary data, but the power of this is the potential to create audio-powered animations in Flash.

After a refresher in Trigonometry, some tortellini, and a late night (or early morning), I’m pleased to present latest ActionScript 3 experiment!

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I’ve done some more experimenting with the Papervision3D class library. This experiment uses a “Plane” object, the ArcStone logo for the plane’s “material” property, and a little bit of math to allow a full 360-degree view of the logo. The logo’s X and Y-axis rotation is determined by the mouse position.

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I spent a good portion of my holiday weekend sifting through the documentation for Papervision3D (let this load, it’s worth the wait!). Papervision3D is robust, open source ActionScript class library that aims to simplify the process of creating and animating 3D objects and effects in Flash.

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Just as promised, I have a more exciting experiment that makes use of the Grid Maker from my previous post. For those who caught the OOP reference in the title, the Mosaic Creator is actually not a subclass of the Grid Maker… although it probably should be.

After about $15 worth of Vanilla Lattes (which, sadly, is probably only 3), I’m pleased to introduce my Mosaic Creator – and AcionScript 3.0 experiment that dynamically creates a mosaic based on a few variables – photo, tile/cell size etc. (more…)

I realize how potentially boring a ‘Dynamic Grid Maker’ might sound, but it is mainly a precursor to some more exciting experiments (some of which are done but are awaiting an official Technology Translated introduction). And just to keep your attention, I’ve added a function that allows you to ‘explode’ the grid. (more…)

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, just my keyboard was stirring, along side the mouse … (more…)

Several months ago, I had the privilege of attending Flashbelt, a 3-Day conference on Adobe Flash capable of dropping the jaws of enthusiasts and critics alike. One of the hottest topics of the conference was the release of Flash CS3, and with it, the new and improved ActionScript 3.0. The new version boasted enhancements performance, features and overall sophistication. The catch was that there were significant changes in the class structure and approach to common tasks.

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Last Saturday, after a good dose of caffeine at Sebastian Joe’s and some grapefruit juice and zucchini fries at the Independent (seriously), I decided to throw my own after-party and do some night photography. (more…)

I like flash. A lot. In fact, I think it was flash that first piqued my interest in interactive media. But it’s not without its criticisms, which is what I want to address in this post. This will be the start of many-a-flash posts on the power of ActionScript and why Flash-ing your audience can be a good thing. (more…)