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SIGGRAPH 2004 has finished up today (having started last sunday the 8th running through to today the 12th). There is a blog on blogspot recounting the events. SIGGRAPH is THE conference for computer graphics and interactive technology (well less so now than it was 5-10 years ago). I strongly suggest checking it out if you haven't already been keeping up.

Just uploaded two new source files. One, rotatearoundabsolutecenter.fla, is a Flash 5 file (though it still applies to MX+) which shows how getBounds can be used to rotate a movieclip around its absolute center no matter where its registration point is placed. The other, changemoviecliptimeline.fla, shows a method of changing the _parent of a movieclip, or, how to move a movieclip from one timeline to another (doing so with a class called FreeRangeMovieClip).

Kirupaforum.com and the forums over at billybussey.com have engaged in a friendly battle. Unbeknownst to me, I was entered. Last night was the (well, my) deadline so, last night, before I fell asleep, I whipped this up.

Entry (source)

I spent maybe a couple of hours on it, though, admittedly, much of that time was also spent on IRC and chatting with others. I had planned more, but I got tired so I went to bed - you know how that goes.

Still, it's not horrible. Update: The source file is now available (made using Flash MX).

Voting will take place on blinking8s's forum.

There's a new name in town, and that name is flamingbarrel. Yes, that's right, our very own friend Ahmed is working on a new version of his site and I'm happy to report that it will continue to be branded with his flaming barrel (err... "orange"). To commemorate this, I present http://www.flamingbarrel.com - your portal to the flaming barrel!

Keep an eye out for updates and a brand spanking new look. You never know where the flaming barrel may roll to next.

Here is something I started probably a few years ago but never really completed until yesterday when I saw a request for something similar over at http://www.kirupaforum.com. It's a simple drawing pad created in Flash MX which will let you save your drawing to a server and then let you reload it again for future reference/use. This example uses PHP, though really any server technology can be used since the drawing is saved and loaded as a simple text file.



Check it out

Updated: You can now save and load any number of files.

The idea behind the concept when I started it way back when was just to create a format for storing Flash drawing API commands that could be kept in a file of minimal file size. The result was the ASDRecorder class.

When working in dreamweaver, the one panel I use most is easily the site panel. It outlines all the files in my site and gives me access to each for editing. However, the site panel does not always provide the solution to my needs. For example, I may have an image folder with a large number of images which I am unfamiliar with. It would be nice to be able to look at a thumbnail listing of those images quickly and easily. The best way to do that would be to open a folder view of that folder and list the files as thumbnails. Easy! However, often my site is defined on some obscure location on my hard drive making it difficult to navigate to, and, sadly, DW provides no direct way to open a folder from the site panel (at least that I know of). Well, not until now.

This simple extension does exactly that; it takes any single folder selected within the site panel and opens it in explorer for file viewing (Windows only). Files, too, can be opened in this way, though, because explorer.exe is being used to open the selection, it usually appears in IE (depending on file type). Simply select a folder (file) in the site panel and select Open site selection from the Commads menu to open it.

opensiteselection.dw.mxp*

*Macromedia Extension Manager required to install.

Along with the introduction of Contribute 3 comes Flashpaper 2. Flashpaper is a PDF-like format for printable material that is handled through the Flash player and can open documents in a browser window in under a second - much faster than Adobe's Acrobat Reader. Flashpaper 2 allows not only the creation of Flash Flashpaper documents but PDF as well.

See Flashpaper examples here.

Computer Weekly also has a brief article on it.

Codenamed "Ellipsis," the new Flash updater (for Standard and Professional versions of Flash MX 2004) has been released and is available on Macromedia's updates page here.

A list of changes/updates can be found here and include:

• Over 400 new code examples
  
• The percentage of entries with examples has grown from 43% to 98%
  
• Increased the amount of ActionScript documentation by 85%
  
• Added 21 new documentation example FLA files demonstrating common application functionality
  
• Fixed over 2000 documentation issues
  
• Added 2 new chapters about working with Components
  
• Rewrote 2 existing Components chapters, including styles and skinning info
  
• Updated Styles info for every component

Despite the vast array of improvements, Macromedia admits Flash is still not perfect and known issues are also listed. Some of which won't be addressed until the next full release of Flash. :doh:

Macromedia has once again upgraded Contribute, its easy to use web publishing tool, bringing it up to version 3. New feature highlights include:

Reviews and Approvals
Enhanced Administration
Dreamweaver MX 2004 Integration
Client and Server Extensibility
and Contribute Publishing Services

More information on these can be found at the Contribute home page. itweb also has some information which can be found here.

I believe I have yet to receive one tutorial request this year (which is odd). There are a few I have "in progress" or on my todo list but I would like to get an opinion from those of you out there on what you want. Here are what I have to potentially do in the future so far:

- Update 3D tutorial (adding other methods, reorganizing current structure)
- Update Isometric tutorial (adding examples and organizing current)
- Intro to actionscript; beginners actionscript
- Collapsable XML menu (have example complete; need accompanying text)
- Preloaders (in progress approx. 75% MX, .5% MX04)
- General XML (reorganizaing & adding to whats available now from forum post)
- Extending Fireworks/Studio (in progress approx. 15%)
- Scaling, panning, interactive map (example complete, need accompanying text)
- OOP FLA examples (AS1 and/or 2)
- Using Event Dispatcher
- Components (MX? MX04?)

What should I prioritize? Is there anything else that you would like to learn - anything else that documentation seems iffy on? In other words, when I get time to work on a tutorial, what do you think I should be working on? Post in comments below. Thanks.