Category: Flash

“Snow Chase” Holiday Game

Note: This is old stuff.

At the creative black hole that is MicroTek, the only relevant accomplishment I have to show from four years there is this fun little game which we sent to our business contacts to wish them happy holidays. Use the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard to chase down the snowflakes and try to catch them on your tongue.

Originally, this talked to an ASP page that grabbed a dynamic high scores list from a database, which the SWF read via XML. This has been disabled.

Technologies Used:

  • Flash MX / AS1
  • Wacom Tablet (for the stunning artwork)
  • Illustrator

LED Animation for Dayton Flyers Basketball

I created two animations for the Dayton Flyers Basketball 04-05 and 05-06 season. These animations play during the players’ introduction and warm up on the school’s new LED boards placed under the scorers’ table. I created the animations in Flash and Swift 3D then exported the final file as an AVI.

The animation may appear choppy the first time through as it loads. There is no pre-loader because the final product was an AVI.

Technologies Used:

  • Flash MX
  • Swift 3D

Trebuchet Simulation

Note: This is old stuff.

I created the following trebuchet simulation for MoreSteam, a company involved with Six Sigma education. The application is used in college / MBA courses teaching Six Sigma continuous improvement. Students are expected to run these simulations several times to understand how each variable affects the final result, and in the process discover dummy variables that have no effect on the outcome.

I created the 3D models and animations in this project with Swift 3D.

To hit the castle select these options: Limestone, Light, Rawhide, Long, Heavy, Low, Day. Then change the counterweight to Medium to hit the moat.

Technologies Used:

  • Flash 5 / AS1
  • Swift 3D

Brewery Simulation

Note: This is old stuff.

I created the following brewery simulation for MoreSteam, a company involved with Six Sigma education. The application is used in college / MBA courses teaching Six Sigma continuous improvement. Students are expected to run these simulations several times to understand how each variable affects the final result, and in the process discover dummy variables that have no effect on the outcome.

I created all of the drawings using a Wacom tablet (very cool) and Illustrator.

* Drag all to the sliders to the top to cause the fermentation tank to blow up.

Technologies Used:

  • Flash 5 / AS1
  • Wacom Tablet
  • Illustrator

Scrollbar SmartClip

I created this scrollbar back in the days of SmartClips, Flash’s precursor to Components (which actually made this obsolete a few months after creating it). I was successful in mimicking the Windows scrollbar exactly to use it in various Flash applications.

Try adding and deleting text to see the scrollbar adjust itself. Also try using the scrollbar as you normally would; drag it, click the arrows, click the negative space between the arrows and the dragable part, etc. Notice the delays when you click and hold the arrows ant the negative space.

The SmartClip was used throughout the site I did for O.A.R.

O.A.R. Risen Site

Note: This is old stuff.

This was my biggest project as a freelancer from back in 2001, and I think the site speaks for itself. Designed around the band’s story of a wanderer, the user wanders through the site to learn about the band, check tour dates and more, all with the ability to listen to their music. The site launch coincided with the release of the band’s 3rd album, Risen.

The Flash based music player was one of the first of its kind. It was designed before Flash had any run-time mp3 (which means there was a FLA and published SWF for each and every song, at a high and low bitrate version) loading capabilities and allows users to listen to the group’s music without opening other programs like Windows Media or Real Player. The home page, discography, and tour dates (using Flash’s new XML parsing feature) are all dynamically loaded through ASP and Access databases. Be sure to try the music player as it is the highlight of the site, and was especially innovative when the site was released in Feb 01.

Technologies Used:

  • Flash 5 / AS1
  • Fireworks
  • XML