Archive for category ActionScript

Thanks Bruce!

May 2011 MeetingEveryone had a great time at the May Meeting!  Bruce Van Horn did an excellent job unravelling the mysteries of ActionScript and programming. Thanks Bruce!

Attached are Bruce’s notes and the sample files for the helicopter project. So feel free to put that new ActionScript knowledge to use and practice!

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May 21st Meeting – Object Oriented ActionScript: The Basics

Bruce Van HornJoin us at our May meeting to learn the basics of Object Oriented ActionScript from Bruce Van Horn! If you’ve been wondering where to start and what to do in ActionScript here is your chance to find out.

Bruce Van Horn is an Adjunct Instructor with Richland College in Dallas where he has taught in the multimedia and game development departments for the last 14 years.  He teaches animation and scripting courses from beginner level to expert topics in ActionScript 3.  Over the years Bruce has completed high profile multimedia simulation and training projects for clients such as the United States Marine Corps, The Boy Scouts of America, Electronic Data Systems, IBM, John Deere, Frito Lay, and the United States Department of Homeland Security.   He currently works as a software developer for One Network Enterprises in Dallas.

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Trillix – Eltima’s Excellent Flash Decompiler

A small departure from my usual Photoshop/Lightroom/Photography posts but I have to tell you about Trillix!

The latest version of Eltima Software's Flash Decompiler, dubbed Trillix 3.0, is a powerful and useful tool to have in your Flash arsenal! If you are a Flash developer you may shy away from decompilers. Perhaps you see them as the tool nefarious people use to steal your designs. But wait! Here is a tool that you can really sink your teeth into!

All it takes is a lost computer or a forgotten backup and you will be glad you have this tool. If you can get to your SWF file you can save yourself hours (or days) of work.

The interface is elegant and very reminiscent of Microsoft's Office 2007 interface. You can set this up the way you like to work. If you like to see all of the information at all times the various panels can be locked in place. If they are unlocked then they will gracefully glide in and out of sight as you hover your mouse allowing you to see more of your player area.

There are five main tabs that lead you to the five major working areas of the program:

  • Manage: allows you to manage Flash files, preview them, see their properties, add/remove them from My tasks list, etc.
  • Extract: to export every single type of objects which the selected SWF/EXE files consist of into a separate file for further analysis.
  • Convert: to convert your SWF files back into FLA.
  • Edit: allows you to change the way Flash files are created and edit them on the go without the need to recompile into FLA.
  • Search: gives you the unique ability to search the necessary information in ActionScripts used in SWF/EXE files.

In each of these areas you can set a multitude of parameters to yield the result you want. On top of that you can set up batch decompilations!

All in all, Trillix is an excellent tool! Eltima says they are still working on version 3.0 to resolve some minor bugs and glitches. Compared to it's next best competitor SoThink from SourceTec Software it shines! You can download a free trial at Eltima's site.

Who needs Microsoft Surface when you have ActionScript 3?

Mike Potter at RIA pedia has posted an entry on his blog about an ActionScript multitouch table which will be shown at Adobe MAX in Chicago at the end of this month. As Mike points out, "The key differences between this and what Microsoft is building are that the AS 3 library will be open source…" He also mentions that you can get involved and learn more at nuigroup.com. Check out the post when you get a minute and be sure to check out some of the videos on nuigroup.com as well.