Feb 5, 2010
MadeByPi Goes Mobile
Now, if you check out our website on your mobile phone, you will noticed how it's gone all mobile-ified (we made that up).
Archive for the ‘MadeByPi™ Labs’ Category
Jan 13, 2010
JPEGlitch update…
Posted by Mikea | Filed under Cool stuff, MadeByPi™ Labs
Just a quick update on some new features and improvements to my JPEG glitching code for AS3.
Check out a little demo of newly added 'decode glitching' here and see some test images saved from the Flash, here.
It should work with most JPEGs - I've implemented and tested parsing for progressive/baseline/optimised etc. But if you find one that won't load, let me know and I'll see if I can add support for it.
This is still a work in progress, so all the user control of glitching and the source code will come at a later date.
Enjoy.
Jan 7, 2010
HTML5, CSS3 Demo
We've recently been looking into HTML5 and CSS3 and in-turn ended up making a demo page which, both shows off some of the things you can do with HTML5/CSS3 but also informs you (or tries to) of some of the things you could come to expect from it.
Nov 19, 2009
JPEGlitch
I've been experimenting with glitched JPEG encoding in Flash and have created a version of Thibault Imbert's optimised JPEG encoder that gives control over various glitch parameters.
JPEGlitch Example
A simple test suite that lets you control parameters, experiment with the JPEGlitch class, and load/save images locally. This example uses the minimalcomps ui component library from bit-101.
JPEGlitchRhythm for HYPE
I also made a rhythm for the HYPE framework using the JPEGlitch encoder.
This example is an audio visualiser based on a HYPE sound analyser example and plays 2 short tunes endlessly. The rhythm encodes and re-encodes a bitmap, adding the freshly rendered oscillator canvas on top each time.
This is also my entry to the HYPE 'Friday 13th' competition.
All source
Feed your code-eyes 
Update 14/01/10 - JPEGlitch get's an honorable mention in the HYPE competition
(more...)
Nov 9, 2009
AS3 WOFF Parser
Posted by Mikea | Filed under MadeByPi™ Labs, Typography
I recently stumbled upon the Web Open Font Format (WOFF) when trying out the Firefox 3.6 beta, and thanks to the well documented WOFF file format, made this AS3 WOFF parser for Flash.
Initially the parser was just an experimental project that would let me get my teeth into a bit of ByteArray manipulation. After all, parsing a WOFF file lets us read the original font tables and any metadata or private data contained - but the font tables aren't much use in Flash without further parsing.
Then I remembered reading about Thibault Imbert's research into converting TTF fonts to AFM (Adobe Font Metrics) at runtime using a c library compiled to AVM bytecode with Alchemy - and realised this parser class could probably be used in conjunction with something like that. So it may end up having uses after all.
I'm making the WOFFParser class available here with an open source licence, along with a FlashDevelop project and a WOFF file to test it with. I created the WOFF for my test with a command-line tool (included) and embedded a test metadata xml file in it. The WOFF file specification also allows vendors to include a chunk of unspecified private data - the class will also allow access to those bytes if present. I included a PNG image as the private data in the test WOFF file, which you will see if you build the project.
For further WOFF resources; I used the command line tool sfnt2woff to create the WOFF file for this project and font squirrel support the WOFF format with lots of resources in their @font-face sections.
AS3 WOFF parser source
Nov 4, 2009
Reducing the drudgery of embedding fonts in AS3
Using and managing embedded fonts in Flash is a lot easier than it was a few years ago, but I still find myself repeating tedious steps of set-up each time I need to create a new font-asset swf.
So, I created an Air application to do it for me 
Skip to the end to download the app and source, or read on for all the juicy details...
Oct 30, 2009
Something in the air…
Posted by Mikea | Filed under Cool stuff, MadeByPi™ Labs
Yes, it's close to that time of year again. So here comes the snow...
This requires Flash Player 9.0.124 or greater get it here
The example above (mouse-over to activate) is a Flash 9 example with 1000 blurry snow particles continually falling on random paths. There is also a slightly tweaked version targeting Flash Player 10 (no noticeable performance gains here I'm afraid, just replaced a few Arrays with strictly typed Vectors), and an AS2, Flash 8 version.
The AS2 version can't handle as much snowfall, but the 300 particle example in the source download gives (me) the same processor load as 1000 particles in the AS3 versions (~30% on an old 2GHz pentium, and ~2% on a 2.83GHz Core2Quad)
For speed, I've implemented a linked-list for the particles and there are no transformations on them in motion, except for x/y translation. I'm also pre-drawing and blurring each particle bitmap when the class initialises, then re-cycling them when they leave the snow bounds.
The compiled size of the Snow class is about 4KB for the AS3 versions, and 5KB for the AS2. I've embedded the winter trees image in the examples, so the end file sizes are about 36KB larger than they would be with just the snow.
Feel free to use the code as you want, any feedback or details of how and where you've used it would be great
Snow (includes all source files and the example above)
Sep 20, 2009
Away3D
There have been a fair few updates recently at Away3D - a real-time 3D engine for Flash.
Most recently, a lovely new collection of Pixel Bender shaders for the Flash Player 10 version of the engine - be sure to check out the demos on their site.
Not only that, but there's the scene design and export tool - PreFab, an Air app for "creating top quality 3D content in Away3D". A must try.
Then, not too long ago, Away3D lite was released, a streamlined version of Away3D (25K) for Flash Player 10. Perfect for high-performance, small footprint projects.
As you've probably worked out you, can find out more on the Away3D site.
