So, the other day I was looking for a way to duplicate a movie clip that the user clicks on. In my case, I had lots of buttons made of the MCs that I wanted to copy. I could have made a big switch statement like this:
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Posts Tagged ‘tutorial’
Duplicate MC in AS3
Thursday, July 15th, 2010Database access with a Chumby
Thursday, May 6th, 2010
In my earlier posts, I’ve writen about writing a Chumby widget, writing a configuration widget, and accessing the accelerometer. Now we’ll look at accessing a database from a Chumby widget.
First, you’ll need to set up a database. I’ll assume you have access to a web server and know how to create a database, tables, and code to access it. I use MySQL and PHP.
You’ll also need a Chumby widget.
And to connect the two, you’ll need a crossdomain.xml file.
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Practice Makes Perfect
Monday, April 12th, 2010
Vectortuts Pen Tool Exercise
Need to sharpen your penmanship? The pen tool is by far one of the most important tools in illustrator’s repertoire. It allows you to create lines and shapes by using anchors (think connect the dots). The pen tool can be a bit daunting at first and take a bit of time to master, but it’s definitely a necessity for a ton of projects. I came across a comprehensive guide to the pen tool on Vector Tuts+, which broke down the features, shortcuts, and methods for working with the pen. I’d suggest trying out the Pen Tool Exercise at the bottom of the article if you need practice, or maybe even a little refresher course. Best thing I took away from this read: being able to change the anchor point and handle display. I’m loving the larger sized handles. To change the size of your handles in Illustrator go to Illustrator > Preferences > Selection & Anchor Display. In this dialog box, you can then choose the handle and anchor size to your liking, click Okay, and enjoy!
Anchor & Handle Prefrences
Basic MODx Template Tutorial
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010
We here at Zoom Creates love giving people the option to maintain their own websites once we are done building them. One of our favorite CMS platforms is MODx. It’s based on PHP, is open source, and is extremely flexible. Today I’m going to talk to you about the basics of building a HTML based template.
Personal Patterns off the Runway
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
Project Runway pattern design
Spoiler Alert.
I hope everyone already caught last week’s episode of Project Runway, and if not, you should run and watch it now. On the latest show, the designers were put to the challenge of creating their own signature fabric prints to incorporate into a finished look, representative of their personal aesthetic. The designers had one whole hour (I’d like to see what they could have come up with in more time) to draw out their prints on a HP All-in-One desktop PC. Some were hideous (Check out Mila’s rainbow mess), and others were a success with the judges (check out Emilo Sosa’s graffiti styled brand pattern). After creating the patterns on the computer, they were then printed digitally onto fabric. The idea of printing my own fabric made me green with envy. I’m a nut for interior design, so getting to further personalize my home using my own graphic design prowess excites the banana’s out of me. Unfortunately, the task seemed way out of reach.
As luck would have it, I wondered across this gem of a web site that let’s you upload your artwork and purchase your very own fabric masterpiece. Best part is, that it won’t break the bank and there is no minimum! I think it’s time to start getting creative. Need help creating your own patterns? Check out this post on creating seamless patterns in illustrator.
FYI, (for those in the know) I hope I never have to hear “T.G.” used as a nickname ever again. You’re killing me Mila.
Accessing the Chumby Accelerometer
Friday, March 26th, 2010
Let’s take a look at the Chumby accelerometer. It’s the thing inside Chumby that tells it if it’s looking up or down, sideways, or up-side-down. It also detects sudden changes in acceleration. It’s basically an electronic inner ear. So if you shake Chumby, knock him on the side of the head, or drop him on the floor, the accelerometer will detect this and report how hard and in what direction the jolt happened. Disclaimer: I do not recommend or endorse violent behavior to Chumby, including hitting, shaking, throwing, or dropping.
If you’re familiar with Actionscript, you know that it’s pretty easy to find the position of the mouse cursor on the stage. Well, it’s also easy to get data from the accelerometer. The trick, however, is making use of it. Let’s take a look.
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More Fun With Flash
Monday, March 22nd, 2010Here’s a little thing that I wrote a while ago while learning the Flash particle system. It just makes little light blurbs generate from your mouse pointer. It’s pretty neat, and if you don’t know how to generate particle effects in Action Script 3, the code might help you out. Check it out if you want to.
If you find it helpful or fun, let me know in the comments. Thanks for reading! Code when you click through…
Building your first Twitter application with PHP
Monday, February 22nd, 2010
I’ve written before about how great it is to work with a service that has a great API. Twitter was one of the tools that I talked about in that post and today I’m going to show you the basics of working with their API.
PHP is a great language for web applications, and it’s available with just about any web host. If you aren’t familiar with how PHP works, this tutorial will probably be a poor place to start. Today we are going to talk about how to work with the Twitter API and PHP, and you’ll need to know a few things about how PHP works to keep up. For a good refresher course on PHP, click here.
Click through and let’s get started!
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Challenge Update with Adobe Illustrator Tips
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010
At the beginning of last month, as a new year’s resolution, I accepted Smashing Magazine’s Design Something Every Day challenge. I am happy to report that I have not fallen off the wagon. I have created and posted to Holodek 365, my blog, every day since January 1. Let me tell you, it is quite a commitment. It is not as easy to find time every day as I thought it would be, but the persistence seems to be paying off.
My thought for the first month was to strictly do Adobe Illustrator tutorials. These became something to fall back on when I was feeling uninspired which so far has been about half the time. I cannot believe all I have learned from following these few tutorials—everything from basic commands that I should know (or have just forgotten) to advanced techniques. Thought I would share a few of the simpler ones because they have come in super handy since I relearned/discovered them.
To scale just the pattern that has filled a shape, select the shape, bring up the scale tool’s dialog box by double clicking on the tool in the toolbar and check only Patterns in the Options section and then type in a scale percentage.
Cycle through color models in the color panel by shift clicking the spectrum bar at the bottom of the panel.
Option + Command click and drag a slider in the color panel to move the other sliders in relation to it. This keeps similar color but with a different tint or intensity. (Especially helpful in RGB mode when creating a gray.)
Make a layer a “Template ” layer buy selecting Template from the Layer Panel’s fly-out menu. This will lock the layer and make the graphic transparent for easy tracing.
16 two-color gradients are much more manageable than one 17 color gradient.
I have also learned that sometimes rasters have their place in Illustrator (especially drop shadows). Most the rasters I used were eventually vectorized and/or live traced to achieve some great effects I never thought possible.
Hope you find this useful. Here’s to another successful and productive 333 days.
