illustration of master topiarist from days past
i love the outfit and cigarette… likely sweltering in an English garden somewhere. from this little historical article on topiary: http://willowbrookpark.blogspot.com/2011/03/topiary.html
lonelyfreelancer15
Base humor for intelligent people coupled with some Flash, ActionScript, & web-related reflections of a freelance designer/developer living in the neighborhood of Greenpoint, borough of Brooklyn, city of New York.
July 9, 2011
November 5, 2010
Sparrow - Open Source Framework for iPhone Game Development
2 years ago
September 15, 2010
A song I sang with Adam
Peel Me, Tangerine (Gina Mix) by Wishlessness
Download now or listen on posterous
Peel Me, Tangerine (Gina Mix).mp3 (878 KB) Download now or listen on posterous
This is probably my favorite collaboration with my friend Adam.
Stumbled upon it again, thought I’d share with the world.
July 18, 2010
Fun with Curves and Box2D
(download)
So I finally got around to learning Box2D to help me prototype a skeeball game. It sucks there is barely any info on version 2.1, so I’ll probably have to learn both versions for now. There’s a surprising lack of info on drawing arcs/curves in general, so I thought I should share what I’ve figured out for v2.1 even though no one will ever read this :). There is an SVG parser for 2.0, which looks awesome, but for basic curves you can just loop through some points and apply it to a b2EdgeChainDef. First, I grabbed an arc drawing function from this wonderfully altruistic person. Second, I pushed the x and y coordinates into the b2EdgeChainDef.vertices array. Somehow I figured out to use the SetAsArray method on the b2PolgyonShape passing in those coordinates and set everything else as normally. You get nice curves in the debug draw, though the bigger the radius, the more dot-like the arc will be, but it doesn’t seem to matter.
In the movie above (refresh to watch the ball motion), I needed 3 arcs: a big bottom rim, a smaller rim, and an outer facing rim. Seriously, if there is an easier way to create an empty shape, please tell me. As far as I know, there’s no easy way to create an ellipse, so I overlap the 2 top arcs to simulate one. I’ll keep the curved sprite in there so you can see it looking prettier than the debug draw output.In the constructor:
_curve = new Sprite();
addChild(_curve);
_curve.graphics.lineStyle(10,0xFFFFFF,1);
drawArc(_curve,125,160,125,20,160,1); //big bottom arc
drawArc(_curve,125,130,70,20,160,1); //middle bottom arc
drawArc(_curve,125,157,65,180,360,1); //top arc
In the body:
public function drawArc(sprite:Sprite, center_x:Number, center_y:Number, radius:Number, angle_from:Number, angle_to:Number, precision:Number):void {
var angle_diff:Number=angle_to-angle_from;
var steps:Number=Math.round(angle_diff*precision);
var angle:Number=angle_from;
var px:Number=center_x+radius*Math.cos(angle* Math.PI/180);
var py:Number=center_y+radius*Math.sin(angle* Math.PI/180);
sprite.graphics.moveTo(px,py);
var chainDef:b2EdgeChainDef=new b2EdgeChainDef;
chainDef.isALoop=false;
chainDef.vertices.length=0;
var chainShape:b2PolygonShape = new b2PolygonShape();
var chainBodyDef:b2BodyDef = new b2BodyDef();
var my_fixture:b2FixtureDef = new b2FixtureDef();
my_fixture.friction = 0.5;
my_fixture.restitution = 0.0;
my_fixture.density = 0.0;
my_fixture.userData = "vertex";
var chainBody:b2Body;
var vertexList:Array;
for (var i:int=1; i<=steps; i++) {
angle=angle_from+angle_diff/steps*i;
px=center_x+radius*Math.cos(angle* Math.PI/180);
py=center_y+radius*Math.sin(angle* Math.PI/180);
sprite.graphics.lineTo(px,py); //non-box2D curve is drawn here
vertexList=[{x:px,y:py}, {x:px+1,y:py-1}]; /// not sure the best way to handle the second b2Vec2, but you get interesting shapes when you play with the numbers
for (var j:int=0; j < vertexList.length; j++) {
chainDef.vertices.push(new b2Vec2(vertexList[j].x / 30,vertexList[j].y / 30));
}
chainDef.vertexCount=chainDef.vertices.length;
chainShape.SetAsArray(chainDef.vertices, chainDef.vertexCount);
my_fixture.shape = chainShape;
chainBody = world.CreateBody(chainBodyDef);
chainBody.CreateFixture(my_fixture);
//clear the arrays
vertexList.splice(0);
chainDef.vertices.splice(0);
}
}
May 11, 2010
A Couple Things That Make Flash Cranky
I’m mostly posting this for my own benefit, but maybe this will helpsomeone else.
1. If you end up with an inexplicable memory leak in an
animation-heavy Flash file, check your vector objects. Flash doesn’t
seem to like moving pngs on top of vectors (especially for extended
time periods like on EnterFrame or Timer events). I just exported my
vectors as pngs, pulled them back in, and the movie usurps 1/3 of what
having all vectors did to the processor. Dang.
2. I often have to write CSS classes for dynamic text that I pull in
as CDATA from xml and have no problems. This time I was styling some
hyperlink states and everything was peachy except the links wouldn’t
click through with a normal <a href=”http://www.fart.com> around the
text. I tried listening for a TextEvent.LINK event and using
“event:http://www.fart.com”, which I never do, but my brain was
malfunctioning. It didn’t work, but you know what did?? Putting the
goddamn TextField inside a MovieClip. I forgot that text can misbehave
if it’s not inside a MovieClip. Oddly, setting the mouseEnabled
property to true didn’t solve this.
In sum, Flash is weird.
Posted via email from Madam Marmalade’s Marvelous Melting Moustache | Comment »
3 years ago
April 23, 2010
February 6, 2010
Arts and farts and crafts: day 5: Kitten Head Carnage Game, Stage 1
(download)
3 years ago
I’ve recently been hired to create a car game in Flash. I decided to set up the most basic functionality while awaiting all the details. Those kitten heads will actually be enemies, but I thought it was funnier to hit them.
UPDATE: I just took a few minutes to add the Z-sort and a start button, so i’m not counting this as my thing today, it’s my thing-a-yesterday that i’m reposting.
Posted via email from Madam Marmalade’s Marvelous Melting Moustache | Comment »
February 5, 2010
Arts and farts and crafts: day 4: Vocal Exercise with Guitar
Energy Of Light (Demo) by Madam Marmelade And The Marvelous Melting Moustache (2747 KB)
Listen on posterous
Sometimes I like to quickly layer some vocals with no direction or real words and get a feel for the combination of notes I like. This was a quick one-take with my 1978 Martin D-35 today, a Samson condenser mic, and GarageBand. This sounds decent on these Grado SR-60 headphones, but I’m not sober, so everything sounds pretty good to me right now. Apologies in advance.
—Madam Marmalade and the Marvelous Melting Moustache.
February 4, 2010
Arts and farts and crafts: day 3: Wine Reviews
Spring Mountain, 2006, Syrah. This wine is an explosion of cacao-covered craisins baked in an oven made of leather softer than a baby’s ass. Ever wonder what sex jumping out of an airplane tastes like? This is it.
Spring Mountain, 2004, Elivette. This wine is subtle, mature, and unexpected. Ever wonder what your best friend’s mother giving you a slow massage after dusting herself in rose-scented parfum and hand-feeding you fresh-picked blueberries in an oak forest tastes like? This is it.
February 2, 2010
