The google maps flash api has been updated to 1.6.  Some of the new features in the update include:

• driving directions
• custom info windows
• custom overlays
• and number of bug fixes

Even more exciting is a new flash component created by yuletide from the google group which is available as an mxp. For other versions visit - http://groups.google.com/group/google-maps-api-for-flash/files

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/08/04/sports/olympics/20080804_MEDALCOUNT_MAP.html

I love this. Its simple and brilliant and so easy to digest all the information without have to read loads and loads of tabula data.

Its great to see NYTimes push visualization and use the medium to the best of its ability. I don't understand why more news sites dont' push for this approach with thier stories.

Scalenine's skin to win challenge is now open and great prizes are available including the new mac book air with SSD.  Deadline is October 10 2008 and all you have to do to enter is create a theme for flex.

For people wanting to enter but don't have any experience with flex as yet, there are a couple of video tutorials available on the site http://www.scalenine.com/contest/tutorials.php showing how to create skins and also links to templates to create the skin in either flash, photoshop, and illustrator.

I was excited at first when I heard the news that google had released an googlemaps api for flash/flex, but found out it was a little misleading since the flash sdk is only supported through flex. Problem for me is,  all of my projects as purely flash based without the need of the flex framework.

After and hour or so of searching, I finally found a version through the “google maps api for flash” google groups at http://groups.google.com/group/google-maps-api-for-flash/files (grab the latest file, at the moment its 1.5) that can be used in the flash development environment.

Before it can be used, you need to copy it to the “Adobe Flash CS3 - en - Configuration - Components” directory under the flash cs3 folder on your hard drive.

To use it, open the components panel in flash and drag the googlemaps component to the library and not the stage. From there, just import the classes and methods you need as outlined in the google maps  documentation. http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/flash/reference.html

Also remember in order to get it working, you need to Sign up for a Google Maps API Key and replace the apiKey variable in the example below.

Google maps example in flash - Here’s a very simple example of how to embed googlemaps using the method above.

http://www.dncompute.com/blog/2008/07/17/graphicsutil-a-utility-class-for-drawing-arrows.html

A handy little actionscript class from doesnotcompute to, well, draw lines and arrows. The great thing about this article is that it takes you through the process of how to use the arrow class efficiently and also provides an editor to experiment with arrow style.

Finally got visualmax.com.au up and running for a client of mine.

Everything is dynamic and runs off an xml file to generate all the content. I'm hoping, when i have time,  to integrate a mySQL db to generate the xml feed so it will be easier to update.

If you spot any bugs, please let us know.

Just made some small updates to the gallery class, including:

• moving some of the settings to the XML so its easier to edit
• class now extends MovieClip to make it easier integrate into existing projects
• XMLSA instead of xpath for XML parsing
• Fixed the f5 reload bug in ie were it would load into 1 column
• the amount of columns and rows increase/decrease on browser resize

I would just like to thank everyone for the feedback received on the class so far. Hopefully this will make it easier to work with. Ill also continue to develop it further, adding in extra features where possible so if you have any suggestions, please send them through.

Fullscreen gallery version 2.3

Fullscreen gallery version 2.3a with alternative aspect ratio

Demo: http://www.ideaography.net/fGallery/

Version 2.3a update 11/08/2008. Updates include:

• Altered the resize function to allow for aspect ratio as requested in on the comments below (don't know which version i like better...)

http://gskinner.com/talks/as3workshop/

Here's a great tutorial/presentation just found of theflashblog.com linking to Grant Skinner's slide deck: Introduction to AS3. There's about 165  slides all up with useful tips and code snippets making the information easy to follow. If your in the process of learning AS3 or making the conversion from AS2 like me, this is a very handy presentation to bookmark.

You know when you look at a great design or idea and think "shit, i wish i would have thought of that first!". Well this just happened to me now when i visited viget.com for the first time.

I just love the water colour style of the landscape on the site. It would have worked brilliantly for the concept of exploration for this blog, but oh well what can you do apart from just admire the work. On another note,  not only is the design brilliant but the articles are decent read so make sure you bookmark it and check our the posts when you can.

http://designreviver.com/tutorials/actionscript-3-jpeg-encoder-revealed-saving-images-from-flash

This tute from design reviver is pretty self explanitory. It instructs on how you can use the JPEG encoder class from Adobe ActionScript 3 Core Library to save jpegs from flash.

If your into textures, also check out thier freebies: 300+ Vintage Style Textures and Photoshop Brushes

In case you haven't noticed, GreenSock have now released TweenMax, a new version of in the series of their tween class.

Taking up only 8k in file size, TweenMax has some great new features including:

• Bezier tweening
• Bezier "through" tweening (define points to hit instead of just control points)
• Automatically orient an object's rotation to a Bezier path
• Pause/Resume capability
• Easier sequencing
• Tween multiple objects with a single call, including a special "delayIncrement" property that staggers the starting time of each tween
• isTweening() function for easily determining if an object is currently tweening
• Jump to any point in the tween using the "progress" property
• Tween any number of hex color properties
• Get an array of all TweenMax (and TweenLite and TweenFilterLite) instances that are currently affecting a particular target object
• autoAlpha (toggles visibility of an object off when the alpha hits zero)

I'm interested in seeing if this new version can be used to animate vertices/points of a shape the same fuse has been used (used fuse for one of my latest projects to build a photoflow type navigation, but would have preferred something lighter).

Download as2 or as3 versions here.

http://a.viary.com/blog/posts/pattern-generator-peacock-tease

Peakcock is a computer algorithm-based pattern generator thats apart of the Aviary too suit. Incase you havent heard about Aviary, its a suite of web-based design apps.

In this example, Peacock is used to create "microplanets," which are then laid out and blended into a peaceful sky seen in Phoenix, Aviary's flash image editor. If you can stand the music, the teaser is quite amazing and looks fairly easy to use. Hopefully it wont be a sluggish as most online flash apps are these days.

Always love computer aided art, not actually talking about creating stuff in photoshop but art generated from code. Computerarts have a nice tutorial on how to use AS3 to generate some random art.

Creating_generative_art_with_flash

If you also have time, have a look at processing.

This might be old news, but I hadn't realised that ._visible = false and _alpha=0 are not really the same thing.

Sure they both make the clip invisible, but while _alpha only sets the transparency level to 0, _visible removes it from the render list and also disables any associated mouse interaction.

So if you ever want to disable a clip once its faded out, or find your project slowing down, set the _visible property to false and feel the power...

Great online app which allows you to make changes via wysiwyg to text in an input field, have the CSS generated for the style on the fly in another column.

It would have been great to be able to edit the generated CSS and have that affect the display text, but its still not a bad lil app considering its free.

enjoy!