Monthly Archives: May 2007

BMW Pursuit Across Europe

A game used in advertising for BMW, I think it was related also to a banner that worked asa teaser. I’ts an interesting use of Flash as a game, also it brings a new visual approach for this kind of race games (in my humble opinion!). The only weak point is that the visuals have little to do with the real places they claim to be racing in!

BMW PACE – Pursuit Across Europe

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Essential ActionScript 3.0 by Colin Moock

Colin Moock has been writing excelent ActionScript books for O’Reilly, and Essential ActionScript 3.0, coming out in June, should also be worth buying:

http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596526948/

Colin Moock links:

http://moock.org/
http://www.moock.org/blog/

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Course ended… thank you

Thank you to all that participated in the 2nd part of the Multimedia Authoring course.

We managed to cover all the topics that were in the course programme. Some more deeply than others. I hope that the blog, and the course files uploaded, can be useful, not only as reminders but also as paths for further explorations.

Feedback and constructive criticism on the course are welcome. Feel free to do that by: posting comments to this entry; talking to me personally; or by e-mail to ncorreia [at] uiah.fi.

I am also curious to see the projects that will be developed as part of the course. If you need any help with those, let me know.

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John Maeda

I’m sure that if you are visiting a blog called “media+code”, you already know the work of John Maeda.

Anyway, it might be useful to collect some links to his work in a entry.

About John Maeda:

John Maeda is a world-renowned graphic designer, artist, and computer scientist at the MIT Media Laboratory. He has pioneered the use of the computer for people of all ages and skills to create art, and is a pioneering voice for “simplicity” in the digital age. Maeda (…) is Associate Director of Research at the MIT Media Laboratory.

Maeda’s early work redefined the use of electronic media as a tool for expression by combining skilled computer programming with a sensitivity to traditional artistic concerns. This work helped to pioneer the interactive motion graphics that are prevalent on the Internet today. He also initiated the Design By Numbers project, a global initiative to teach computer programming to visual artists through a freely available, custom software system that he designed. He has displayed his work at numerous exhibitions, lectured extensively worldwide, and has published several books featuring his graphic designs.

(from http://www.media.mit.edu/people/bio_maeda.html)

Maeda Studio site:
http://www.maedastudio.com/

MIT Physical Language Workshop site:
http://plw.media.mit.edu/people/maeda/

MIT Aesthetics + Computation Group site:
http://acg.media.mit.edu/

MIT Simplicity (experimental research program) site:
http://simplicity.media.mit.edu/

Simplicity blog:
http://weblogs.media.mit.edu/SIMPLICITY/

Laws of Simplicity blog:
http://lawsofsimplicity.com/

Design by Numbers software site:
http://dbn.media.mit.edu/

Flickr web page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maeda/

Maeda

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Flash Video Encoder

One powerful tool for working with video in Flash is the Flash Video Encoder.

Adobe Flash CS3 Video Encoder is a stand-alone video encoding application that lets you encode video in Adobe Flash video (FLV) format. (…) You can batch-process multiple video clips when you use Flash Video Encoder on a dedicated computer for video encoding.

You can learn more about this tool here:

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/quickstart/video_encoder/

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Flash books

Recommended books for Flash and ActionScript:

Macromedia Flash 8 ActionScript: Training from the Source
by Derek Franklin, Jobe Maker, Erik Bianchi
Macromedia Publishing

(let’s hope the Adobe CS3 version comes out soon)

Flash CS3 Professional Advanced: Visual Quickpro Guide
by Russell Chun
Peachpit Press

(edition delayed to 30/June)

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Flash Security

About the security panel in Flash:

Global Security Settings panel

Global security settings for content creators

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Marius Watz

Marius Watz has been developing an impressive work, mainly involving generative visuals. He gave a memorable presantation on this year’s edition of PixelAche Festival.

From Rhizome.org:

Marius Watz works with computational form, writing custom software to create visual systems for installation, video and realtime performance. Recent works focus on drawing machines as well as visual performances for music.

Some links to Marius’s work:

http://www.unlekker.net/
http://evolutionzone.com/
http://workshop.evolutionzone.com/
http://www.generatorx.no/
http://flickr.com/photos/watz/

Marius Watz

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Flash and Mobile Devices

Here is a list of links on the Adobe website about Flash and mobile devices:

Flash lite product page:
http://www.adobe.com/products/flashlite/

Mobile page:
http://www.adobe.com/mobile/

Mobile and devices development center:
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/devices/

Flash lite development center:
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/devices/flashlite.html

Flash lite documentation:
http://www.adobe.com/support/documentation/en/flashlite/

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Flash and RSS

A tutorial for creating a blog reader (from an RSS feed) in Flash (using XML):

http://www.thegoldenmean.com/technique/rssReader01.html

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