Flash 8 (Maelstrom) tutorial

[Mortimer Jazz]

Hi all,

There is a new (as yet unchecked) Flash 8 tutorial that I have just finished writing and uploading to my website.

It will give you enough info to start publishing Flash 8 content straight from the Flash 7 IDE (you can play around with the new filters, blending modes and bitmap data). It contains links to plenty of Flash 8 specific source code.

As always you can find it in the tutorial section of my website: http://www.nwebb.co.uk/

Feedback (and typo-spotting etc) is appreciated, as always.

Kind regards,
Neil

[Ricod]

Wow, pretty fast Neil ! Thanks, I'm wondering about those blending modes.

The headache's gone I figure ? ;)

[Mortimer Jazz]

Thanks.
Oh yeah, here you go.
http://www.osflash.org/doku.php?id=flashcoders:undocumented:flash8

[Ricod]

Ah, thanks !

I see they added the long awaited 'drop shadow' Photoshop users have been overusing for years. :D

Bevel, (saves me from manually having to fake it), blur, glow ... yes, very nice, but where is the overly loved lens flare ? You know, that IS for Photoshoppers what the Flash ball used to be for Flashers during the good old days of Flash 4 / early Flash 5. I'm expecting a revival around Flash 9. ;)

Sigh, there goes my life savings.

[Mortimer Jazz]

that IS for Photoshoppers what the Flash ball used to be for Flashers during the good old days of Flash 4 / early Flash 5.
Used to be?? Damn. That's still my best trick!

[Ricod]

Now don't be modest Neil.

We all know that your 'hairdo-variation' technique is unsurpassed as of yet ! I still have to resort to the 'gell' method for that. :rollover:

[BadBadNeil]

Sorry been away for awhile but is Flash 8 supposed to come out soon? Haven't read anything really but lot of talk about it here and no info yet from Macromedia...

Woops just read something about 8/8 is supposed to be a release of it to the public. Yay :)

[Mortimer Jazz]

@ricod - ah yeah the hair. Okay, so the ball and the hairdo variation then. And for my party trick I can pat my head and rub my belly simultaneously.

@badbadneil Yeah I read that - "the magic 8". The player is still in beta. Hopefully we will see a relatively bug-free IDE release sometime before the end of the year ... or sometime before 8th August 2008 :)

[Ricod]

Ah, I can already see the photo fx people will be writing with some of those new features. Rain, mist, clouds, lighting storms ... :rolleyes: Just to give those already exciting holiday photos of yourself standing next to a large tree or a statue of someone you never heard of that extra bit of 'kabam' !

Sigh, I better start saving up ... :( I'm going to stand outside for a bit, the rain is free. Tapwater isn't.

[Mortimer Jazz]

I'm going to bevel everything

[Wino]

I'm going to bevel everything

You and everyone else! At least we won't have to worry about causing epiletic seizures from the bevels!

[Mortimer Jazz]

Oh, on my site you will!

var i:Number = 0;
var si:Number = setInterval("causeSeizure", 10);
private function causeSeizure()
{
i++;
if(i % 2 == 0)
{
setBevel();
}else{
removeBevel();
}
}

I just noticed - 150 people have viewed this thread and there's been a distinct lack of feedback about the tute. Normally this isn't so. Are people not bothering with the tutorial? Is it rubbish? Too difficult? Should I have made another one about kung-fu? (because that one seems very popular). Let me know :)

[Wino]

Tutorial feedback:

I think it should be "Blend it like Bleckham," but that's just making a bad play on words even worse. ;)

I started out wondering what I'm paying the $399 for, if I can appropriate your xml file to get the new maelstrom stuff working with my present package. But then I realized that there's a lot more, including the help files, that I won't get if I don't shell out the bucks. (Another "ching, ching!" to MM).

I like the ease with which you did the transformations. I think if you added a non-rectangular BMD effect (like a circle), as well, some people might grasp it better, but maybe not. Just an idea.

Good tutorial.

[Mortimer Jazz]

Oh, and I was proud of that one ;) I wondered how many people outside the UK would even get the reference.

Yeah, point taken. Normally I keep tutorial examples really, really, really simple, but in this case it was more about demonstrating the power of the bitmap copy and paste - which is also why I didn't cover every line of the code and what it was doing. I wondered if that was a good move or not.

I broke my golden rule, which is to try not to exclude anyone with a passing knowledge of AS ,from being able to follow every bit of the tutorial - then again, I didn't expect many less experienced users to be playing around with F8 at this stage.

Thanks for the feedback.