Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Apps + Apps
Okay this lets you create QR codes in your browser:
http://flash.tarotaro.org/blog/2009/07/12/mgo2/
I'm very curious who tarotaro is. Thanks. I am stating to understand the hours it takes for these things to come together. I am a novice^2.
Also, after installing CS4 and flex I realise that I want be really want to be using a Beta Flash Builder located at Adobe Labs. Do I still need flex? Who knows.
huh.
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashbuilder4/
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Code Snippets
I bought flex builder. I'm in it to win it. Having professional tools makes things easier, creation faster.
Useful: code snippets. You can create hotkeys to do a lot of the coding for you instead of writing things over and over. I could delve into personal concerns about authorship and intimacy with code that this brings up, or I could use what the professionals use and actually get things done.
Helpful link, shout out to the gentleman who wrote it:
http://cookbooks.adobe.com/post_Handling_snippets_in_Flex_Builder-13507.html
Shortcuts != art?
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Red Ink / Red Tape
sourceforge.com
Monday, September 28, 2009
Assessing Other AR Works (While adobe emails me back)
Gearing up for ISMAR
Brendan Scully (why is microsoft word having difficulty importing text?)
Digital Humanities Study 09F
Professor Mary FlanaganDigital Practicum: Reality Manipulation
Concept:
In this course of study the student will explore new methods
in the creation of mixed reality media works by building a
music visualizer presentable to the public in the form of a
gallery exhibition. Three-dimensional sculptures laden
with data will be displayed to viewers using AR goggles.
As Augmented Reality is a fledgling technology, much of
the effort involved in the creation of this project will
involve research and experimentation with Flash and the
FLAR toolkit. The end result could thus range anywhere
from a series of three-dimensional sculptures to a fully
dynamic 3D visualizer tied to live musical data.
Project Schedule:
Week 1: September 20th – 27th
Concept fully realized, workflow established between within FlashDue: The production of one Papervision-> FLAR model.
Week 2: September 27th- October 3rd
Attempt to tie music data to Flash models (via socket
programming?)
Due: Log of attempts to establish socket server and/
or tie data together.
Week 3: October 3rd – October 10th:
Build out visualizer into floor-based experience that ties
music input to visual changes.
Due: One model column rising/fallingWeek 4: October 11th-October 17th
Skinning/Shading Objects in Papervision using Photoshop.Due: One test model fully skinned / shaded. (color)
Week 5: October 18th-October 24th
ISMAR 2009 Orlando Florida,
Present questions regarding sockets/FLAR data
to specialists.
Week 6: October 25th- October 31st
Refine Flash visualizer data input using methods
gained from ISMAR.
Week 7: November 1st- November 7th
Implement visualizer in FLAR/Papervison using QR code
and glasses obtained at ISMAR.
Due: Establish model to ascertain optimum viewing distance.
Produce large custom QR code for testing purposes.
Week 8: November 8th- November 14th
Refine visualizer to handle large amounts of sound data input
What is the upper limit?
Once established, continue work on sound design to make best
use of technology available.
Week 9: November 15th – November 21st
Aesthetic/Design work on visualizer with technology available.
Week 10: November 22nd – November 28th
Due: Performance/Exhibition using visualizer (Final Product)
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Philosophy != code?
So taking some time off was good for the soul, but did it help my Flash literacy? Maybe.
If it’s your first time, start the journey by observing augmented reality through my eyes with the Top 10 AR Demos post."If you’re into hardware – you’ll find solace with the Top 10 AR Devices, always a top post.
As a game developer, you’ll probably hang out in the Top 10 AR Engines area – a constantly evolving field."
Look at where things are! It's incredible already. So my post about programmers being succeptible to spiritual entropy inspired a response from a close friend in the field:
[her email]
... Also, what is this?
"It seems like every programmer I've met has let go of a certain degree of flexibility (spiritual?). I hope I don't lose touch. But I don't think I have to. Programming is the newest artform, and only a certain kind of person has been willing to engage with it."
explain, I want to talk about it!
--- end of quote ---
[My response]
I guess I have an irrational fear: by studying the way logical, digital, formal systems work and by bending them in intricate ways, programmers become affected by the systems. The mental processes of those who use code/ can think in it may or may not become somewhat logic-leaning. I don't believe rationality has anything to do with the phenomenon I'm trying to describe. It's just... something I experience in meeting people who program.
Some people get taken down by it, others don't (you) because they're stronger, have a stronger personality, something....
I guess I was afraid that programmers become "hard," inflexible to a certain degree because they know a logical decision when they see one and, understandably, might be more likely to act in unnecessarily efficient ways.
But so far... I remaind unaffected. Maybe a little, in that my mind is becoming more able to think in coding structures, literally beginning to think in a different language.
It's a similar effect I guess I'd pick up after meeting a series of people who had learned to speak russian after english late in their lives. Or arabic. Something. These people might develop a kind of alternate personality.
Or maybe not.
ps. I dont really like the name "Augmented Reality" maybe "Holodeck narratives" or "interactive movies" would be better.
[Her reply]
Hmm. I suspect that we do get a bit hidebound about things, because we spend so much time with the constrictions of current technology that we focus on what we can do, and what we can do easily. So when we see something that isn't going to be easy, we immediately think of the painful hours that are inevitably going to come. And part of it is probably the type of people who usually become programmers - people who really like logical systems. Because it's just easier for them to think that way, and it makes them happy.
If we're talking about programming seeping out into the rest of life and, if you want to view it like this, muddying the waters, I feel like logical decisions and efficiency and all that comes from having an analytical vs. non-analytical approach to life. To be a good programmer, you have to be comfortable approaching problems analytically, which again means that many programmers are naturally analytical - correlation does not imply causation.
A lot of programmers are incredibly literal-minded and think very logically, but it's not necessarily because of the programming. Granted, when I program I put on my logic hat and end up talking logic-speak. I also use computer metaphors a lot more than nonprogrammers (inevitably, I suppose), like the concept of conversation as a stack. But my mind isn't completely computer analogies (although there are many in there) - it's also stacks, and filing cabinets and doors and the occasional grassy field (or sloggy, dreary swamp, I suppose, depending on my mood).
I get extremely annoyed when I'm surrounded by non-analytical people because oftentimes straightforward logical argument doesn't work. But I get more frustrated with the analytical types, because only logical argument works (none of this "emotions" nonsense, now, that's just not the thing).
At the same time, working within all those constrictions, and learning to think within them, leads to creativity. (As we know all too well.) To use a metaphor my brother uses for constructing math proofs, writing programs or developing algorithms is like writing poetry in french. If you don't know french, you're screwed. But once you know it, and know it well, then it's a matter of choosing the perfect word and working within the constraints of a system, and being miserably creative, and hopefully ending up with something clever and beautiful and slightly ineffable.
Re: Also, you know I get a little creeped out by AR stuff, because I like my technology nicely compartmentalized
[my response]
Monday, July 27, 2009
The Solar System
So I used tweener to move mercury once around the sun, but Nick wasn't satisfied with the way it was working so he used a file downloaded from "FLARmanager" that did the same thing as our borrowed "simplecube" but did so by extending "sprite" instead. What the hell is sprite? We're figuring that out, its used to display graphics in flash somehow, but whats handy is it has a method called "moveobject." We discovered that each object that's displayed is held within a "container", and that by moving these containers ("basenode" in the original code for simplecube was itself a container), you can move the objects they "contain".