After my first four semesters as an art major using mostly digital media, it was pretty apparent that I was going to be a web designer when I grew up but I wanted more, I wanted to program, I wanted to learn… Actionscript! While trying to come up with an idea for a senior semester project Flash MX was released. One of the major changes in this release was the ‘Settings…’ menu (found by right clicking [PC] or control clicking [MAC] inside a Flash movie). 
This menu selection brings up a Flash player settings window that includes the camera and microphone permissions settings. The user can allow their computer connected camera and/or microphone to be accessed via Flash player. What does this mean? Flash Communication Server was not released at first and the camera and microphone features were not listed in any Flash manuals when MX debuted, so I wandered bookstores for weeks looking through Flash books and trying to find the hidden camera and microphone setting meaning.
Then inside the Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Actionscript Bible the Camera() object was finally defined. This object allows Flash to access and control a user’s camera in order to facilitate teleconferencing using Flash Communication Server, plus it can even detect motion. The only thing the Camera() object doesn’t seem to do is take ‘still’ photos.
Still photos could allow the developer to add their user to an animation or game and thereby enhance the user experience. But how? First you acquire the camera using the Camera.get() method. This allows the Flash file to access the camera directly.
This method with return null if the user has disabled access via the settings menu. If the user has not ever set the access settings for the specific Flash file or web site, they will be prompted on load of the file to either give access to their camera or not. I recommend warning the user way ahead of time that their camera will be accessed. Now you can attach the accessed camera to a Movie Clip in your Flash movie and then animate and adjust the movie clip via Actionscript.
Now you are ready to access an undocumented feature via a camera disconnection. Setting the attached camera null leaves a residual image of the last frame grabbed. Why is the feature undocumented? We can only wonder at Macromedia’s ways, but never question…
Click through for a sample photo movie (remember to enable your camera) and a code snippet of what you will need to enable the still photo capability. I do not have Flash communication server and do not say any image associated with the movie.
If you use this in one of your Flash projects please link to my site and give credit where it is due, thanks.
Continue reading ‘How to Photograph your user’
Archive for the 'Camera' Category
The return of artistic posts… Today an interesting sunset scene of a couple trees in the park that were leaveless and filled with clumped birds’ nests. The work is successful because it combines the subtile gradation from blue to orange of sky with the dark cracked effect of the tree branches superimposed into the foreground. The strangest thing about this work is the fact that a little cropping and rotation could tranform the piece into a neat Photoshop project. The photo was taken March 13, 2005. Click through to see a larger version of the work.
Continue reading ‘Nested Branches and a return to artistic posts’
I’m sure all already know this but, it was announced today that Adobe is going to aquire Macromedia for 3.4 billion dollars in stock. This is a huge deal as to most used web design and animation products are put out by either of these companies. Plus the fact that the default standard for easy animation is Flash and the most open standard for document creation is the PDF. This can only be good for the world, but bad for the small developer. It is already impossible for a student to afford photoshop, does this acquisition mean the cost of macromedia studio is going to skyrocket?! Hopefully Adobe keeps the macromedia product costs down and developes a better pricing system as the over 1000 it costs to buy any of their products right now is just way to much!
Now some links to stories on the aquisition around the web:
themacobserver | macworld | gizmodo | Macromedia blog | theregister | newsday | dmn newswire
Mmm, mmm. Gotta love that tasty homemade apple pie. In this case you also gotta love the painterly effects added to make the taste drip off the work. The piece was made using an original photograph taken of my wife’s wonderous apple pie immediately after placement in our oven. The work was created March 14, 2005, using Photoshop. Click though to see a larger version of the piece.
Continue reading ‘Homemade, painterly apple pie’
This images was taken from a multistory parking lot above an overly expensive mall underneath a really nice hotel on the Mississippi River’s edge of the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana. Boy that sentence was a monthful. The work is successful because you get a sense of the mysteriousness of the Quarter from the late night haze made of fog, smoke and booze. I really enjoy the way the light plays of the buildings and the glow that is creates down the street. The photo was taken in January 2005. Click through to see a larger version of the work.
Continue reading ‘Edge of a Quarter’
We have liftoff. This work was taken at the exact moment of liftoff for a just scared bird. The background of the image is unfocused in such a way as to be almost painterly, which contributes to the overall effect of the piece and helps to transport the viewer to a place frozen in time. Because the subject of the photograph seems stuck at the moment before flight but after rest the work is filled with a tension that is extremely visible. Feel free to draw your own conclusions as to the subject of the piece. The photo was taken January 16, 2005. Click through to see a larger version of the work.
Continue reading ‘In three, two, one…’
This sleeping tree was found in the park and set into the scene to border the clear blue and green. I think the angled shadow on the bottom of the photo helps to keep the viewer involved in the scene. As usual, feel free to comment on the work and give suggestions for future work. The photo was taken January 16, 2005. Click through to see a larger version of the work.
Continue reading ‘The lone branch’
