Tutorial Blog » Action Script

Render an MP3 Audio Spectrum in Flash With computeSpectrum()

Tutorial Photoshop — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:00:09 +0000

In this Tutorial, I’ll teach you how to create a visual representation of a sound file’s audio spectrum, using Flash’s SoundMixer.computeSpectrum method. We’ll use four classes for this effect: Sound, SoundChannel, SoundMixer, and ByteArray. I’ll explain each classes as we use them.

Quick Tip: How to Debug an AS3 Error #1203

Tutorial Photoshop — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:40:34 +0000

In this Quick Tip, we’ll discuss the confusing AS3 error 1203, “no constructor found”, which crops up without provocation and is rather unfortunately worded. We’ll examine the scenario in which it will appear, and how to fix it.

Building a Better Bitmap Button in AS3

Tutorial Blog — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 16:08:02 +0000

Building a button from a bitmap can be bothersome. If you’re using the Flash IDE, you can create a mask to determine which pixels are part of the button and which aren’t, but in any other workflow, the entire rectangle containing the bitmap – including any transparent pixels – will be clickable. In this Tutorial, you’ll learn how to automatically make all transparent pixels unclickable, with just a few lines of code.

Make a Tower Defense Game in AS3: Aim and Fire

Tutorial Blog — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:42:58 +0000

Hey Flash developers! In this Tutorial series we are going to go through the process of developing a very basic Tower Defense game. In this first part of the series, we’ll learn how to deploy turrets on the game field, give them the ability to aim at an object (in this case, the mouse) and make them fire particles.

Easy, Fluid Keyboard Movement in AS3 With the Input Class

Tutorial Photoshop — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:13:12 +0000

There are a lot of games out there with jerky, unrealistic movements and that can do only one thing to your product: make it unappealing to the audience. But smooth movement is not hard to achieve – let’s get to work!

Quick Tip: Collision Detection Between a Circle and a Line Segment

Tutorial Blog — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 14:35:28 +0000

We covered collision detection between an infinite line and circle in our previous Quick Tip. However, the issue that arose was that the line extends further than the visible line segment; in fact, it extends into a hyperplane. In this Quick Tip, we shall limit our collision detection to that of a line segment only.

How to Add Mouse Gesture Control to Your Flash Projects: Multi-Stroke Gestures

Tutorial Blog — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:36:32 +0000

In the first part of this series, I introduced a class to handle single mouse stroke detection: MGesture. This Tutorial takes it a step further, by detecting a sequence of strokes.

We’ll be using the class GManager for this, in tandem with MGesture. After briefing through GManager functionality, an application demonstrating its use will be developed.

Monitoring the Loading Process in Flash With the Loader Class

Tutorial Blog — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 14:53:56 +0000

In AS3 projects, you often need to load external assets like images and other SWFs. While loading these assets you have to keep track of several events for successful execution of your application. You might have been using some of these events like ProgressEvent, COMPLETE event. This Tutorial shows you how to get info about the assets you’re loading with Loader.load(), using its associated events, all in one place. So if you’re having difficulty loading such assets, or you have less time in hand to debug, take a look at this.

Squeezing More Juice Out of the Flash Player

Tutorial Blog — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 00:42:19 +0000

In this Tutorial you’ll build an extreme particle system whilst learning how to squeeze more efficient goodness out of the Flash Player than you ever thought possible!

Create a QR Code Generator in Flash Using AS3

Tutorial Blog — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 15:43:10 +0000

QR codes are everywhere these days: magazine advertisements, billboards, even TV commercials. Chances are you have a phone in your pocket that can read a QR code and decode the URL or message contained within. In this Tutorial, you’ll learn how to create a SWF that can reverse the process: create a QR code from a URL or message. Read on!