Category Archives: motion

Flowing Leaves (optical illusion)

By Zevan | October 19, 2009


Saw this optical illusion today... figured I'd make a snippet to create a few variations on the illusion...

CLICK HERE TO COPY
Actionscript:
  1. [SWF( backgroundColor=0x2E7999, width=780, height = 600) ]
  2.  
  3. var leafNum:Number = 375;
  4. var spacing:Number = 12;
  5. var cols:Number = 25;
  6. var hh:Number = stage.stageHeight / 2;
  7. var hw:Number = stage.stageWidth / 2;
  8.  
  9. for (var i:Number = 0; i<leafNum; i++){
  10.     var leaf:Shape = makeLeaf();
  11.     leaf.scaleX = leaf.scaleY = 0.25;
  12.     leaf.rotation = 90;
  13.     leaf.x = 50 + (i % cols) * (leaf.width + spacing);
  14.     leaf.y = 40 + int(i / cols) * (leaf.height + spacing);
  15.     var dx:Number = leaf.x - hw;
  16.     var dy:Number = leaf.y - hh;
  17.     leaf.rotation = Math.sqrt(dx * dx + dy * dy);
  18. }
  19.  
  20. function makeLeaf():Shape{
  21.     var leaf:Shape = Shape(addChild(new Shape()));
  22.     leaf.graphics.beginFill(0x9DC4D4);
  23.     scaleYcircle(leaf.graphics, 50, .65, false);
  24.     leaf.graphics.endFill();
  25.     leaf.graphics.lineStyle(2, 0x003366, 1, false, "none", CapsStyle.SQUARE, JointStyle.MITER);
  26.     scaleYcircle(leaf.graphics, 50, .65);
  27.     leaf.graphics.lineStyle(2, 0xFFFFFF, 1, false, "none", CapsStyle.SQUARE, JointStyle.MITER);
  28.     scaleYcircle(leaf.graphics, -50, .65);
  29.     return leaf;
  30. }
  31.  
  32.  
  33. // original circle function by senocular (www.senocular.com) from here http://www.actionscript.org/forums/showthread.php3?s=&threadid=30328
  34. // circle that can be scaled on the y axis
  35. function scaleYcircle(g:Graphics, r:Number, s:Number = 1, isHalf:Boolean=true):void {
  36.      
  37.     var c1:Number = r * (Math.SQRT2 - 1);
  38.     var c2:Number = r * Math.SQRT2 / 2;
  39.     var rs:Number = r * s, c1s:Number = c1 * s, c2s:Number = c2 * s;
  40.     var x_r:Number =  -r, y_r:Number = -rs, x_c2:Number =  -c2;
  41.     var y_c2:Number =  -c2s, x_c1:Number =  -c1, y_c1:Number =  -c1s
  42.     g.moveTo(r, 0), g.curveTo(r, c1s, c2, c2s);
  43.     g.curveTo(c1, rs, 0, rs), g.curveTo(x_c1,rs, x_c2, c2s);
  44.     g.curveTo(x_r, c1s, x_r, 0);
  45.     if (!isHalf){
  46.      g.curveTo(x_r,y_c1,x_c2,y_c2);
  47.      g.curveTo(x_c1,y_r,0,y_r), g.curveTo(c1,y_r,c2,y_c2);
  48.      g.curveTo(r,y_c1,r,0);
  49.     }
  50. }

Also posted in Graphics, Math, Vector, misc, pixel manipulation | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

QuickFRIM

By Zevan | September 30, 2009
CLICK HERE TO COPY
Actionscript:
  1. import com.actionsnippet.animation.*;
  2.  
  3. stage.frameRate = 60.0;
  4.  
  5. // args: main display object, Hz
  6. var frim:QuickFRIM = new QuickFRIM(this, 60.0);
  7.  
  8. // start QuickFRIM internal loop
  9. frim.start();
  10.  
  11. // listen for step and render
  12. frim.addEventListener(QuickFRIM.STEP, onStep);
  13. frim.addEventListener(QuickFRIM.RENDER, onRender);
  14.  
  15. // happes from 0 or more times per frame depending on your framerate and desired Hz
  16. function onStep(evt:Event):void {
  17.      //
  18. }
  19.  
  20. // happens once per frame after all STEP events have
  21. // been dispatched
  22. function onRender(evt:Event):void{
  23.      // number of times a step even was dispatched this frame
  24.      trace(frim.stepsPerFrame);
  25. }

I have been using this QuickFRIM class for the past few days and have been pretty happy with it. Being someone who still occasionally likes to roll their own AS animation... with Zeno's, Hooke's, Polar Coordinates etc... Having a simple solution for frame-rate independent motion is nice... especially for small games... I used to have a more complex technique for this that was significantly harder to maintain. The above is just the basic setup for using the class.

The most important part of the class is the Hz (Hertz) argument in the QuickFRIM constructor. This should be set to how many times you want your step event to be dispatched per second. Usually this would simply be set to your target fps... so if your swf fps is 30, you should probably pass 30 to the QuickFRIM constructor. If you were to have an fps of 30 and pass 60Hz to your constructor... the step event would consistently dispatch 2 times per frame. If you had an Hz of 10 and an fps of 30, your step even would only get triggered every three frames etc...

Here's a demo...

I should note that I spent some time looking at different FRIM implementations online and in the end I found this thread https://developer.playfirst.com/node/860 which my implementation is significantly based upon.

Here's the code for the class
Here you can download a zip of the class

... and here is some very quick documentation
QuickFRIM:

/*
@param main - the main timeline or other DisplayObject
@param hz - Hertz for he timeStep
*/
new QuickFRIM(main:DisplayObject, hz:Number = 60.0)

// dispatched every time a step even occurs
QuickFRIM.STEP

// dispatched after all step events have occurred at the end of the frame
QuickFRIM.RENDER

// start dispatching events
public function start();

// stop dispatching events
public function stop();

// 1.0 / Hertz
public var timeStep:Number;

// total number of time steps that have been dispatched
public var totalTimeSteps:Number=0;

// numer of step events dispatched this frame
public var stepsPerFrame:int=0;

// boolean to disable FRIM
public var disable:Boolean = false;

Posted in motion | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Timebased Animation Idea (FRIM & QuickBox2D)

By Zevan | September 23, 2009
CLICK HERE TO COPY
Actionscript:
  1. import com.actionsnippet.qbox.*;
  2.  
  3. // change the frame rate and test...
  4. stage.frameRate = 60;
  5.  
  6. [SWF(width = 800, height=600)]
  7.  
  8. var sim:QuickBox2D = new QuickBox2D(this);
  9.  
  10.  
  11. var circle:Shape = Shape(addChild(new Shape()));
  12. with(circle.graphics) beginFill(0), drawCircle(0,0,50);
  13. circle.x = 100, circle.y = 100;
  14.  
  15.  
  16. sim.start();
  17.  
  18. var startTime:Number;
  19. // delay the start a bit
  20. setTimeout(function():void {
  21.   startTime = getTimer();
  22.   sim.addEventListener(QuickBox2D.STEP, onTimeStep);
  23. }, 500);
  24.  
  25. function onTimeStep(evt:Event):void{
  26.    
  27.     circle.x += (600 - circle.x) / 12;
  28.    
  29.     if ((600 - circle.x) <1.5){
  30.         trace("frameRate: ", stage.frameRate);
  31.         trace("totalTime: ", getTimer() - startTime +" ms");
  32.         trace("totalTimeSteps: ", sim.totalTimeSteps);
  33.         sim.removeEventListener(QuickBox2D.STEP, onTimeStep);
  34.     }
  35. }

Note: This snippet requires QuickBox2D 1.0 or greater

Really not sure how I didn't think of doing this before last night... I realized that the simple FRIM code inside of QuickBox2D can be used to make any standard frame-based style ActionScript animation time-based. In this snippet I do a simple ease out one liner:

circle.x += (600 - circle.x) / 12;

Code like that on an enterFrame would run at different speeds depending on your framerate. However, if you run it on QuickBox2D's STEP event it runs independent of fram-erate. I'm obviously going to just wrap this up into it's own mini-library separate from QuickBox2D and do a more in depth post about it... but for now, this snippet just traces out the results. These are my results from my macbook pro dual 2.4 intel....

frameRate: 12
totalTime: 1165 ms
totalTimeSteps: 93

frameRate: 24
totalTime: 1162 ms
totalTimeSteps: 93

frameRate: 30
totalTime: 1166 ms
totalTimeSteps: 91

frameRate: 60
totalTime: 1167 ms
totalTimeSteps: 93

frameRate: 120
totalTime: 1168 ms
totalTimeSteps: 91

Anyway... will peel the FRIM code out of QuickBox2D and wrap it up in its own library sometime soon...

Posted in motion | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

drawTriangles() Cubes

By Zevan | September 13, 2009
CLICK HERE TO COPY
Actionscript:
  1. private function addCube(xp:Number, yp:Number, zp:Number, w:Number, h:Number, leng:Number):void{
  2.             var hw:Number = w * 0.5;
  3.             var hh:Number = h * 0.5;
  4.             var hl:Number = leng * 0.5;
  5.             var xA:Number = xp - hw;
  6.             var xB:Number = hw + xp;
  7.             var yA:Number = yp - hh;
  8.             var yB:Number = hh + yp;
  9.             var zA:Number = zp - hl;
  10.             var zB:Number = hl + zp;
  11.             _verts.push(xA, yA, zA,
  12.                         xB, yA, zA,
  13.                         xA, yB, zA,
  14.                         xB, yB, zA,
  15.                         xA, yA, zB,
  16.                         xB, yA, zB,
  17.                         xA, yB, zB,
  18.                         xB, yB, zB);
  19.            
  20.             var index:int = _boxIndex * 8;
  21.             var i0:int = index, i1:int = index + 1, i2:int = index + 2;
  22.             var i3:int = index + 3,  i4:int = index + 4, i5:int = index + 5;
  23.             var i6:int = index + 6, i7:int = index + 7;
  24.             _indices.push(i0, i1, i2,
  25.                           i1, i3, i2,
  26.                           i6, i7, i4,
  27.                           i7, i5, i4,
  28.                           i1, i5, i3,
  29.                           i7, i3, i5,
  30.                           i4, i5, i0,
  31.                           i1, i0, i5,
  32.                           i2, i6, i0,
  33.                           i0, i6, i4,
  34.                           i2, i3, i6,
  35.                           i3, i7, i6);
  36.                          
  37.             _faces.push(new Face(), new Face(), new Face(),
  38.                         new Face(),  new Face(), new Face(),
  39.                         new Face(), new Face(), new Face(),
  40.                         new Face(), new Face(), new Face());
  41.             _uvts.push(Math.random(), Math.random(), 0,
  42.                        Math.random(), Math.random(), 0,
  43.                        Math.random(), Math.random(), 0,
  44.                        Math.random(), Math.random(), 0,
  45.                        Math.random(), Math.random(), 0,
  46.                        Math.random(), Math.random(), 0,
  47.                        Math.random(), Math.random(), 0,
  48.                        Math.random(), Math.random(), 0);
  49.             _boxIndex++;
  50.         }

Lately I've been posting large code snippets... so today I'm highlighting part of a larger snippet - The above code is the heart of a small experiment I created this morning. It sets up a cube for use with drawTraingles().

The rest of the code can be read here:
Cubes3D.as

Have a look at the swf here...


I also put it on wonderfl...

Also posted in 3D, Graphics, Vector, matrix | Tagged , , | 6 Comments