Ghost Hunt: Near Completion

Done, but i screwed it up somehow.

Almost completely revamped. Increased difficulty level, and added a second level that mirrors the trend in classic games of presenting a huge challenge to the gamer. I also added a background as well. Everything is a go, except that i have somehow produced a logic error that prevents users from advancing to level 2. I think it is just something i am over-looking, but at the moment after countless rereads and revisions, i am stumped. Any ideas?

Here is my code for advancing to level 2.

var score = 0; scorebox.text = score; function scoreIncrease() { scorebox.text = ++score; }

var scoreb = 0;
scorebox.text = scoreb;
function scoreIncrease() {
scorebox.text = ++scoreb;
}
/* This creates a variable called "score". It sets it's default value to 0 when the game
starts. The dynamic text box "scorebox" gets assigned the value, "score".
NOTE: this means that variables when asked to show up as text (.text) appears as such.

A function, "scoreIncrease()" has been created. When called, it will take the score, and
add 1 to its value. (++score.))
*/

var miss = 0;
missCount.text = miss;
function missPlus() {
missCount.text = ++miss;
scorebox.text = scoreb + 0;
}

bkg.onDragOver = function() {
msgbox.text = "(c) 2008, Napalm Justice Productions"
}

onEnterFrame = function(){ if (score >= 2){ gotoAndStop(4); } }
bkg.onRelease = function() {
missCount.text = ++miss;
}

onEnterFrame = function(){
if (miss >= 3){
gotoAndStop(5);
}
}

/* Advances game to next level, or game over screen. Here,
the game over screen is set to frame 2 of the main timeline,
and set only to show if the score is higher than 20.*/

It is set up exactly like my miss variable, but it still will not work, although you can die without problem. Any ideas on what i am doing wrong?

Actionscript Demo; Tweaked

Round 2.

I have done a bit of tinkering to my demo from before. All bugs fixed. It has virtually the same look, but elements have been added to the interface. First of all, now there's a HUD showing your score via a dynamic text box. (1 point per kill.) I also have it set to show a tiny bit of copyright info when you click and drag from the background to a ghost. I also have implemented a slash feature. (Left click, hold, and drag.) Currently, you do not get any points for slashing, but the game does give you props via an animated message.

Quiz 2; 9/23/2008

What is the difference between an event handler and a frame event?

Frame events are events that occur within frames on the timeline.  They are written in the actions panel and are set to occur once that particular frame is reached in the timeline.

Example: symbol.gotoAndPlay(12);

Event handlers are events that are triggered upon user interaction.  Usually written in the first frame in a timeline they apply to every frame of the animation unless otherwise noted.

Example: symbol.onRollOver = *action*

Revamped Digiscape and Actionscript Demo

With the 4th week of school comes the ever shortening deadlines in each class. Especially when you're taking two animation classes and a flash class such as myself. Oh well, better finishing late than finishing too late...

....Anyways, here is my remixed digiscape, and actionscript demo.

I took in all the considerations of my classmates and professor and made my digiscape more chaotic. Initially, it was a bit difficult, turning my intricately choreographed ballet into an exhibition of freestyle b-boy battling, but i ended up manipulating and adding animations that aided in my former idea, while expanding even further. This iteration of the digiscape has added the idea of "internet imperfection" into my work. The files act at different speeds, some zipping along with into and out of the background while others crawl forward, sometimes dismantling into their basic file format for easy transferring. Data stalls, shifts, and can get sent to the wrong address. Some reach their destination in parts, waiting to be fully compiled at the end, and others stay in one spot; bad files that are damaged in one way or another.


The Digiscape, now with 50% more action!

My demo on the other hand, is an entirely different story. I got the idea for what i wanted to do over the weekend, and have been working on it since. Long story short, i'm a big fan of old-school light gun shooters like Time Crisis and Duck Hunt, so i wanted to make a tech demo of sorts in the style of those old games.


The ghosts fly into the view with ever-changing patterns. There is no end to them, or is there?

Shoot with the left mouse button. There are no bullets shown on screen or sound heard due to my current skills in flash, but you are treated to a quick death animation while your cross hair rotates as if it was reloading itself. Did i mention that the ghosts try to hide by turning slightly translucent when you mouse over them? Click away. Fight for everlasting peace!

In all seriousness, i have come to remember the kicker that is a logic error. You spend hours reworking your code, writing it, rewriting it, printing, making check marks, and retyping it, wanting to quit bur refusing so because you love what you are making. You want it to be perfect so you search and search for that1 little mistake undetectable by your compiler. When you find it, it is always the simplest fix ever. 4 seconds at the most.

But oh well. I had fun making them.

Final Digiscape

Click the picture to play.

It is done! It is finally done!

Here is my final digiscape. Changes include adding shape tweening elements, tightening the animations of the rows of data, a massive increase in the amount of objects moving from plane to plane (from zero to many) fbf tightening of previous movements, and a bit of finetuning everything else. Nested animations are becoming my best friend, and they are becoming very easy to use.

I will say, however, that much of my success with them are because of the notes i took while animating. It is a big help to plan out what I want to do first, while leaving enough room for experimentation. Thinking about timing and spacing of objects helped as well.

In regards to the data that transfers in between planes, I found my original idea of the squares transferring into shapes to appear more forced than the rest of my work. (too much of the trick showed, not enough magic... if that makes any sense.) So instead of doing that, i went an entirely different route and shape tweened masks for the changed shapes, putting webbed patterns that changed color at different times into my animation. These i think would be a nice contrast to the square data clusters. They represent the inner framework that is used for each piece of data. The programming and coding that goes into digital information. It is, however, not one solid line. The little splits on the sides represent fragmented, imperfect data. The internet is man made, and from time to time, traces of humane programming can be found upon examination.

(Assignment Write Up:) Animated Digiscape; Iteration 1.

The Digiscape:  A work in progress.

In the first iteration of my digiscape I have animated each row of "land and air locations" on the screen. Each row is animated to scroll at different speeds, simulating the constant movement of information across an infinite sea of data.  To animate the data, I have incorporated different techniques , including motion tweens, nested animations, easing in and out, timing, and motion tracking. Scale, color, and rotation tweens were used when working on the grid.

I had a moment where i was wondering how i wanted the rows of information to spawn.  I played with masks, scale and constrain tweens, but none gave the effect of the creation of information across both planes as well as nested alpha tweens.  I saved a copy of my animation "labeled: backup" just in case i had such a moment of indecisiveness so i could go back, and work a different method out.  This weekend, i will need to animate the red data that moves between each plane.  It will move vertically, tweening from green to red to blue.  I will use alpha blending so the shapes spawn out of the rows of data, fading in and out.

Quiz 1: 9/11/2008

1: What is difference between a symbol and a instance?

A symbol is a vector shape that is stored in your library.  It is editable by double clicking it on your stage or in your library.  They are small in file size and stored as part of your movie.  An instance is a symbol, customized in the properties menu with a distinct "instance name." Editing it will only affect that instance.  In any other scenario, editing any other instance of the symbol (with the same name) will affect all other instances of that symbol, making it easy to make big changes (like color, size, etc) to every iteration of your symbol in you flash movie.

2: What is difference between a frame that has an empty circle and a frame with filled in black circle?

A frame with an empty circle is an empty keyframe.  A frame with a filled in black circle is a keyframe.

3: What are 2 of the main reasons people use flash?

a: Vector-based images do not get damaged in flash when magnified or reduced.  They do not have pixels that show up when zoomed in.

b: File sizes can be optimized due to the low file size of vector graphics, speeding up the process of rendering.  Flash can also import from a wide range of media sources.

4: You can only motion tween a _________?

Symbol

5: How can you tell if an object is a shape or a symbol?

A shape, when clicked has a dotted overlay over it.  A symbol, when clicked, has a blue outline over it, and its registration point in the upper left corner (unless otherwise denoted by the user.)

Digiscape Update

Update:

• Finished tutorials.
• Project imported to flash with all layers indicated.
• All symbols and extra materials created.
  

Update to Digiscape

...So I went home and experimented with a bunch of different methods and possibilities in regards to animating my data clusters. I tried different sizes, different shapes. I found that the most visually appealing and effective shapes to use were of even sides; mainly hexagons, circles and octagons. I think it would be interesting to animate the data clusters moving at different speeds, and transforming into different shapes as they pass between locations. Everything has been moved to its distinct layer and category, allowing me to manipulate, transform, and copy objects in flash as i please.

I also tried combining my original idea with my final digiscape, which produced a very interesting result:

Digiscape Version 2. New shapes, and a tweaked environment.

I can incorporate the grid in my digiscape as the pathways which electric signals move inbetween. I could animate a current moving along the grid, although it would be harder to do horizontal scrolling with the grid.

...The way i see it, I could either use my original idea, or incorporate some facets of my alternate digiscape, such as the shapes, or grid. Each have their pros and cons to the final composition. I will admit i do appreciate the uniformity of the all-square layout. I can simulate elongated shapes and lines and whatnot by changing the speeds of the squares. I can also keep the grid and the alternate shapes, although animating the grid may be a bit more difficult.

Both iterations of the digiscape are saved in illustrator and elements of each can be mixed and mismatched. Is there one layout that anyone prefers from another?

My Digiscape Completed (Write Up and Documentation)

Proccess: The Digiscape: “Data Sea”

First Sketch.

My digital landscape is partially inspired by the coordinate plane. I originally toyed with the idea of points that move through space, into and out of the background. I would simulate the idea of moving along Z coordinates by changing the size of the units as they move between points. My sketch for my idea utilized one point perspective, with all points moving from two surfaces, surface A at the top, and surface B below. Units of information would be transported between points, from top to bottom, and vice versa, indicated by lines drawn between the points.

In progress.

This method however proved a bit troublesome when I began working on the final version of my digiscape. For a while this weekend I would try multiple ideas to indicate movement between the two areas while keeping the entire piece visually interesting. I experimented with portals that would open up and transfer particles between each other, with a cell phone tower that would absorb select particles for processing.

One idea for showing transportation of data.

This was a decent idea, but I did not feel that it would accurately define what i wanted to express as my digital landscape. I did however combine this idea with my first to produce my final digiscape.

My final iteration of my digiscape took a more earthly feel, as I decided to create a distinct digital sky and land, composed of lots and lots of data clusters. Each cluster would move from the sky to the land, or vice versa. As it moves between the two, its hue changes to a transparent red, indicating the data being processed before it reaches its destination. Upon reaching its destination, it blends in with the data clusters around it, awaiting transfer again if ever needed. For every starting point, from the top or bottom, there is a destination created on the other end, even if that destination is the same as the starting point. (Have you ever sent an email to yourself before flash drives became prominent?)

I would like to have more red clusters moving between the planes in the animated version.

I am planning a little ahead in this piece and hope to animate each row of clusters, as well as the bits of data moving from one surface to another. Within each in-progress cluster I want to be able to click it, producing an entirely new digiscape, generating a whole new set of transferred clusters that would demonstrate a potentially infinite creation of information.

Labor Day Weekend Assignment: The Digiscape (in progress)

Over the past few days i have done quite a bit or research on the concept of landscape and how it has evolved through history. Through my research, i have created a list of notes for myself that is helping me create my personal digiscape:

Researching the landscape:

• Definition: "(1) all the visible features of an area of countryside or land, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal. (2) the genre of landscape painting. (3) the distinctive features of a particular situation or intellectual activity."
• What determines those features?
• Aesthetics (color, form, space)
• meaning, relations to current social or political climate.
• personal imagination
  
• Natural Landscape vs. Pre-Meditated (Man Made) Landscape
• (Man Made) Base reference: "Spiral Jetty" by Robert Smithson
• Characterized by a desire to go and manipulate the landscape to suit personal interests, whatever they may be.
• American Landscape by Charles Sheeler
• More of a photographic reference. Style: "Precisionism." Based around desire to creat exact replication of what is seen.
• Asks interesting question: "When does the man made landscape for one becomes the natural landscape for another?"
• Representation of the landscape in alternate media
  
• What digital mediums are used to represent landscapes in this era?
• Video Games and Simulations
• Grand Theft Auto IV
• here, here, here, and here,
• highly detailed render of New York, adapted and slightly modified for the game's setting, "Liberty City."
• Super Mario Galaxy
• here, here, (video)here,
• exact opposite ethic to creating an environment. Purely imaginative, utilizing shifts in gravity and having environments created of many smaller systems networked together.
  
• Satellite Projections
• Google Earth
• here
• Used not only for mapping locations from any point in the world, but also as a tool for displaying the connections between one point of the world to another.
• Supports web 2.0 ideas with user creation.
• Google Sketchup
• here
• Allows user to create environments found on our earth and import them into google earth to help support a fully realized 3-D model of our earth, from landmass to building, etc.
• CAN create unique environments as well, serving as a tool for the creation of personalized environments.

Our digiscapes are left up to our imagination. The information researched has helped guide my thinking to consider the functions and aesthetics of landscapes created in the past. My latter examples may be commercial in nature but demonstrate the sheer possibility the digital realm gives us to express the landscapes we want to portray. Some of these environments are network-oriented and serve as spaces that we use to interact with other people for various reasons. Their landscapes can be (but are not limited by being) represented by lists of the individuals involved (i.e. youtube, facebook,) or by fully realized environments (World of Warcraft, Second Life.) Every new creation of digital content further expands the landscape we as a civilization has already established. Although it is not readily tangible, save a few keyboard or button presses, it is as much alive as anything we walk around in.

My finished digiscape will support some of the ideas i have expressed. I am still working on it as we speak, but i figured i would post what i have been thinking about as of late in regards to the assignment.

9/2/08 Question

In response to "Web Work: A History of Internet Art,"

Net.art over the last 12 years has had a rich past that seems to have not only expressed social concerns in regards to new media in the world around us, but have also reflected social developments in countries across the globe. These social expressions have given rise to new web technologies that have helped further the development of the internet itself. Is it possible that the next great revolution in net.art will be jump-started by the products of sites like youtube or myspace? What if the cache of these sites will one day be utilized as content (much like the "infamous" copying of the "Documenta X" website) for the sake of expression, detailing the lives of everyone and everything around us?