Several Sites, by Polly

I started out surfing the web, trying to find art sites that used flash, and perhaps math algorithms. But most of these sites were pretty tame. So, instead I am going to post some sites that I did find fun and interesting while I was doing this search. To make up for the fact they are only slightly related to what we are doing in this class, I will post several of my favorites.

A really great Site was created by Alan Becker. He is an artist who dabbles in several mediums, but he has done two great cartoons using flash. They are called Animator vs. Animation. Check them out!!

SiteNo2 is simply a video of a man called Bruce Shapiro who makes motion art using materials he finds, and computers. There is no real flash here, but the video is worth watching. He combines computer science, motion physics and art to make his pieces.

The Museum of Modern Art in New York has an exhibit called Design and the Elastic Mind. I decided to include this third site because it uses a lot of flash and I think it does it very well. For instance, no matter where you are on the page, when you go to the top, the title is right there. This is basically an information page which is designed to entice you into visiting the exhibit. The site design is entertaining. They do have links to the contributors, so if you want to know more you can locate them.

A fourth site also makes great use of flash software as a way to get you interested in their business. It is a photo imagery site called Getty Images. They have a game page that uses their photos and flash interactively and is a great demonstration of what Flash can do.


The last site, called Box2D, uses Actionscript 3 to describe motion of 2D objects. Anyone can download this code for free. It has several demos, and they use some scripting we have already learned. The site is authored by Erin Catto, but it also has many contributors – and has become more of a group project. Some people in our class might find this site very useful. She has written a user manual to go along with the scripting.

The Mobile Ecosystem and Business Opportunities in the Mobile Market

NOTE: Sorry this is so late getting posted! Technical difficulties (in a computer class, that's a bad sign...)

I guess a fair argument could be made that the wheel is the most important invention of all time; but I know a fair number of people who may argue that the mobile phone could hold that distinction (I, myself, may argue for DVR – but that’s another story…).

The mobile phone and its evolution are an amazing success story of our generation. In its infancy, the mobile phone was an bulky, ugly, clumsy piece of equipment seen only in the hands of wealthy business moguls in moviess. I myself remember a time when I couldn’t imagine always having a phone with me at all times. Today, I feel naked without one (yeah, scary thought).

The mobile phone has evolved not only in form, but in function. No longer is it merely a method of voice transmission. Today, business types connect to their company’s Exchange server while teens (and us more mature tech junkies) connect to the web for mobile music, web and video. This evolution of function offers a new forum for content development and distribution. To understand this opportunity, it is helpful, of course, to understand the market. It’s really the best way to know where the money is…

Over 1/3 of the world’s population now owns a mobile phone. In fact, in the US, there are 3.5 times more mobile phones than PCs. As expected, these phones primarly serve to transmit voice communications – but even this is evolving. As technologies change, the uses of the mobile phone are expanding to other realms. Data transmission, including video, music, text, and web is becoming increasingly more common among mobile phone users. This evolution offers both opportunities and challenges to those involved in content development and distribution.

The first and most obvious limitation to mobile device evolution is the limitations of technology. Recently, phones themselves have been changing to reflect capabilities that go beyond voice. Screen size and QWERTY keyboards are good examples of this. Bandwidth itself also presents a challenge to non-voice mobile devices.

Non-voice content is currently provided in two ways: The first, and most common is over-the-air, standard cellular transmission. The advantage to this transmission is that the provider not only controls it, but can charge for it based in volume of use. However, many providers are now offering flat-rate packages even for data transmission, making the latter advantage moot. The second method of transmission is short-range. This means via USB, Bluetooth, WiFi, etc. This method, also known as sideloading, is usually performed by the user, and offers less control for the provider. For this reason, “sideloading” was often disabled or impossible with many phones. The advantage to sideloading is that it takes less bandwith from the general cellular use – meaning more bandwidth for everyone else (and to be resold by the provider). It also allows for relatively easy transmission of large files such as entertainment video. Slowly, advertisers and developers are starting to see uses for sideloaded content, making it increasingly more common.

Currently, most mobile content is not user-generated, but is provided by a commercial entity. This content provides several levels of opportunity for different related businesses. These different levels start with the Content Owners, such as CNN or ESPN; this goes next to the Design and Development team, then to the Publishing group, and to the Hosting company and finally becomes the responsibility of the Marketing group. All of these sections offer unique opportunities for revenue in this growing market.

The mobile market also offers opportunities for advertisers. The evolving uses for the mobile phone offer a variety of chances for advertising. It is estimated that mobile data, web and “infotainment” will become an increasingly valuable asset to advertisers. Different areas of opportunity include downloaded video and tv, in-game applications, web search results, in-website advertising, and ads delivered over text message.

Whether it be from content delivery or advertising, the mobile market present many opportunities for businesses to take advantage. Understanding the “mobile ecosystem” helps us see where business opportunities lie. With the expansive growth of this new market, these opportunities should be plenty.

*Based on an extensive whitesheet published by Adobe discussing the “mobile ecosystem” and the future of Adobe Flash Lite.

Implementing 3d in Flash.

As you know there is no build-in tool in Adobe Flash to create and animate 3D objects. But there are two major ways to deal with this problem.

The first one and the easiest way is to use supplementary software to render 3D objects, animate them and export them to Flash. In my opinion the best example of this software is Swift3D by Electric Rain.

Swift 3D is the industry-leading 3D software for quickly and easily creating high quality 3D animations for Adobe Flash, video, print and Papervision3D projects.

This company also has two plug-ins in their production line, allowing 3ds MAX and LightWave 3D users “to render their 3D scenes as high-quality, low-bandwidth vector or raster Flash animations viewable by more than 97% of the entire Web audience”.

Here is a good example of pre-rendered 3D animation for Flash: producten.hema.nl
But this way of 3D rendering is limited because it is almost impossible to create interactive 3D objects.

That’s where the second way may help. Scripting 3D in Action Script requires a good base in Mathematics and programming, but you may also find a load of good tutorials online. One example – tutorials on kirupa.com. The material covers the basics; articles are accompanied with examples of code and results.

Design Exploration - Paper Critters

In reviewing the 'Flash Forward' entries from the Adobe Edge Dec. 2007 newsletter, I found the site papercritters.com to be particularly entertaining - from a couple points of view.

This website was designed and developed by JR Fabito as his final project at the Academy of Art University MFA Computer Arts New Media Program. It was created using the Adobe Creative Suite CS3, ActionScript 3.0, 3DS Max (3D animation) and the open source Papervision 3D engine.

The website offers you a chance to either be a 'Toy Creator' and create your own Paper Critter and then print it out and fold/stick it together or you can print and construct one of the thousands already existing in 'The Colony'. If you decide to create your own critters, you can save the critter to The Colony at which point you get to name and characterize it (cute/evil, etc.). You can also save your favorite critters from The Colony in your own 'collection' (subset).

The paper critters are all the same basic block'ish shape. What users have a chance to do is to decorate them.

The idea of paper model making has been around quite awhile - Japan, of course, with its origami art is the most recognized proponent. There is a Japanese program called Pepakura that I purchased for my son when he was in middle school that is seriously impressive - it takes 3D model files and creates printable paper models... very complex models. He downloaded complex spaceships from some of the online games he played and built them - beautiful models. Very impressive technology went into this program. You can check out their website if you are interested in what people are doing with the Pepakura program:

You could consider Paper Critters a free and much downsized parallel to this program that is conveniently available from your browser. I could easily see elementary school children LOVING this - a 3D version of paper dolls. Adults can immortalize their favorite person, cartoon character... or simply have fun with the boss (print and stick pins in it!). What's nice is that it is simple, easily understood... the critters are not hard to put together (I made one).

What is entertaining about this website is two fold - from a graphic design point of view, the site is very nicely designed. It is austere, but colorful and edgy. Appropriately, given the culture that most recognizably brought us paper-folding, it is somewhat Japanese in its appearance. The page backgrounds are very muted - the main page is white, the secondary pages are a very washed out and somewhat cloudy gray... very light, but the color and its faint texture do give the secondary pages added dimension. The site uses black, turquoise, and a bright green as its primary colors. The font family used for the titles and larger buttons is cute, appropriate for the paper critters... almost cut out looking itself. The logo uses one decorative font and the larger buttons actually a secondary, slightly edgier font that is a bit more linear. The large round buttons are fun and bubbly in design and echo the font used in the logo. The graphic design is an interesting and effective blend of fun with a feeling of tech - introduced by the use of black and gray and the clean interface design.

Secondarily - the functionality is simply creative and fun... and the implementation is awesome. From the main page you are offered the opportunity to enter the site within the browser or full screen. There are also links to view 'critters in the wild' (photographs of constructed paper critters in their 'natural environment'...). I particularly like the use of a LOT of the constructed critters to form a pretty cool collage on the wall behind a young lady.Or the currently selected '10 best' critters as voted on by the user community.

The Colony page is a rather cool navigation design - you see two rows of paper critters, one behind the other. The movement of your mouse on the screen creates some movement of the displayed critters which does nothing functionally but it does encourage you to 'come closer' and float your mouse over the displayed critters. If you do that, you get the 'stats' on the critter you mouse over - the username of the designer, how the design has been characterized (cute/evil, rebel/loyal, the critter's name and when it was created. You can click on the back row of critters to bring it forward. Moving your mouse off the back row returns to the original display. At the bottom of the page there are controls that allow you to sort the critters displayed. What is very pleasing is the smooth movement in the pages - the front and back rows sliding smoothly, just managing to move at a reasonable pace without jumping at you. From The Colony you can click on the critter and from there you are able to view a 3D version, spinning and examining it from all sides by moving your mouse. You can leave the designer a comment...

The Toy Creator is a simple digital art program entirely focused on decorating the paper critters. On the left hand side you can chose which side of the critter you want to work on. Tools include a marker, line and shape drawing tools, and stencils. You have a color chooser, zoom tool, the ability to create opacity, the ability to choose a solid body color, the ability to add a grid, and a welcome addition - the ability to upload a single image of constrained size. You can only upload a single image, but the interface allows you to apply it to the critter repeatedly... like a custom stamp tool. The interface is easy to use, intuitive... you can preview in 3D at any point to see how you're doing with your design. There is an 'ink' something or another near the zoom tool that I wasn't quite sure about, it seemed to be a meter or ? because it did nothing I could tell functionally but that was the only obtuse part of the interface.

There are a couple things about the site navigation that are funky - if you get into the Toy Creator or The Colony there is no way to get back to the main page directly (without using the BACK button and that doesn't necessarily do what you want either). So, a smallish OPPS. You want to click on the logo to return to the main page, but that functionality isn't there. Also, functionally... in the Toy Creator... you can clear the design from the critter you are working on but you cannot clear and upload another image without exiting the page and re-entering. Not cool. That was the only thing that I found strongly objectionable.

I would have liked one simple and one more complex addition to the site - I would have liked to have been able to print out a page with the blank patterns on it to sketch on... and I would have liked to have been able to upload image files for each side of the critter so you could design more complex designs in Photoshop or ? HOWEVER, I understand why JR Fabito would have chosen not to do the latter.

The website clearly demonstrates a lot of the same Web 2.0 principles and focus that Karl pointed out to us with BuzzWord, the web-based word processing program designed using Flash.
It makes a strong effort for collaborative design and sharing of designs... the functionality focuses on online community building to draw users to the site and involve them.

Levitated

Levitated.net is a cool site of recreational computation, generative art, mathematics, and open source flash code. Most of the development was done by Jared Tarbell from Albuquerque, New Mexico. The flash modules are extremely interesting and experimental. Some of of them are good examples of self-organizational and emergent behavior. The overall site is very accessible and well designed. Each module clearly explains the mathematically principle governing it's behavior. In particular, I like the golden spiral and text space modules. Have a good time playing around and remember you can download the source code, although it probable won’t work in Actionscript 3.