Export animation to movie - apache-flex

I am creating effects in my AIR application using actionscript like fadeIn and fadeOut. is there any way to export those animation to movie format like FLV or AVI using actionscript?
Thanks

I don't think there's going to be any way to do this on the web unless you stream the data to some sort of server like Red5 or Flash Media Server or something along those lines. If you're just looking to capture the effects and can build/run the app as an AIR app you can probably use the class found here http://www.zeropointnine.com/blog/assets_code/SimpleFlvWriter.as.txt to get it to save the data to a file. You can use (can't post multiple links damn stackoverflow for not linking my accounts correctly...) google "BitmapData draw flex reference"
in order to draw the stage to a bitmapdata object then you'd have to push that data into the SimpleFlvWriter.as (not as simple as it sounds :) ), sorry don't know of a boxed solution for this let me know if you're able to make anything of it and good luck! oh also as an aside you may be able to get away with just using something like SnagIt depending on the fidelity you're looking for.

Related

Streaming audio in A-frame

I am building a multi-user experience in A-frame using NAF, and I have some positional audio containing music tracks in different points of the scene. I'm trying to figure out if it's possible to make it that the music is listened simultaneously by all the connected users. It is very important that they are positional, since I need several audio sources in the scene. At the moment, the tracks start when you enter the experience, so each person hears them from the start when they access the scene. This is the file that I'm using right now: https://glitch.com/~indigo-roomy-supermarket
I tried with the broadcast-component, but didn't manage. I thought of trying a workaround using a stream of twitch and hiding the video, trying to project it to a primitive, but also doesn't work so far (just managed to attach it to a div over the scene, I can hide the video but the audio would never be positional). Here the file where I tried it (not networked, but it should be the same): https://glitch.com/~twitchtest-01 I know that there's the option of connecting vimeo to a-frame using this: https://github.com/vimeo/aframe-vimeo-component but the audio itself is not positional, so it doesn't really solve my problem (also, I don't know if it would work with vimeo live).
If somebody knows a way to do this, I would greatly appreciate if you can share your wisdom. Thanks a lot!
I don't think that's easy.
Assuming you have streaming audio servers at your disposal like this then the way I would approach this, is:
fetch an audio stream and once the download returns, get the source buffer
override the source buffer of your positional audio element (something like this.el.getObject3D('sound').children[0].source.buffer) with the newly created audio buffer.
This might work.
If it doesn't, then create you own audio element component by using positional ThreeJS sound directly with setMediaStreamSource.
My assessment would be that this takes several days just to prototype alone. Having said that, I am pretty sure it's doable.

Is there a wireframing tool for web apps that can re-use my own custom CSS?

I have been searching for and have not located (I fear it doesn't exist) a wire frame application that will use our current css for objects.
We have spent a lot of time perfecting our css to get the look we want, now I want to be able to use that css for new mockups without creating new objects each time we add something (as we would have to in photoshop).
In a perfect world, it would even handle the page layout so all that remains is the logic.
Has anyone heard of a tool that can do this?
I haven't used it, and I can't vouch for it, but https://alpha.easel.io/ might fit the bill. It's still in beta, but looks very interesting.
From their homepage: "Implement designs quickly using exact CSS properties rather than guessing from a mockup."
http://axure.com is a popular wireframing tool. There ways to make it use custom CSS: http://enterpriseux.tumblr.com/post/8972215862/an-axure-html-prototype-hack

JavaFX Datagrid

Im in the verge of starting a new RIA development. We've been using Flex/Flash for the last 2 years but we were considering using a more OS approach so we though giving JavaFX a try since it seams the only solid option available. However after a couple of days of research we found out that there is not such thing as a datagrid for it, at least not in the core API. For those unfamiliar with Flex, a Datagrid is a component that allows you to display a collection of data in column-row layout (much like a HTML Table on steroids). The beauty of it is that you only need to worry about the data itself as the component does pretty much the rest (sorting, column dragging, etc).
Im afraid to ask... but is there something slightly similar for JavaFX?
We require nothing as fancy as Flex Datagrids/AdvancedDatagrids, we only require a easy, straight forward way to display grids of data that are able to have a little of interaction like clicking, sorting and that are able to display images, buttons, etc. without having to download a ton of different jars.
If there isnĀ“t something out there... This would be a shot in the back of the head to the idea of giving javaFx the chance to compete with flash on our project (which is sad).
I really cant believe the SUN people didnt include something like this on the core API...
There is currently no datagrid you can use JTable for that. Such a thing should be available in the next release of JavaFX I think. See my answer here for more information about available JTable implementations. You mentioned the JFXtras project with that you are able to embed those Swing components into JavaFX.
There are external companies selling such a component. E.g. do a web search or look here
For apache pivot you should ask them directly for the pros and cons; they are very responsive and honest.

.NET : How to Create thumbnail from flash

Is there any way where i can create a thumbnail image from a flash movie file(flv /swf) [NOT FROM A VIDEO File ] in ASP.NET ? Any samples of implementation ?
you can use ffmpeg to create thumbnails of the flash video
For .flv you can use ffmpeg to convert parts of the video (e.g. one frame) into an image (sequence)
I've used it as command-line application by calling Process.Start(), but there is at least one wrapper for .NET (I haven't tested it myself):
http://www.codeplex.com/ffmpegdotnet
For .swf I don't know any way to achieve this without some Adobe tool.
for flv it can be done easily, as others mentioned ...
for swf, it depends HIGHLY on the swf ... if the swfs visual appearence is determined by code, there is no other way than to embed a flash player in you app and either let the flash player make the snapshots, encode them as JPEG/PNG, and send them somewhere using TCP or LocalConnection (a flash<->flash communication connection, which can be used with C# as well) or try to somehow grab its output buffer yourself ... the first possibility should be no more than 10-20 lines of actionscript code ... don't know about the latter ...
other than that, you might use an external command line converter ... there are a few floating around the web ...
greetz
back2dos
Take a look at this article, it should point you in the right direction. It uses SharpFFmpeg to extract thumbnail images from movie clips from a variety of formats.
the only way to get an image, is to use a full flash client that starts playing and allows you to capture the first frame.
I would take a close look at flirt (they actually have an example that renders pngs)
Maybe some of the other flash libraries may be of help ( swfdec gnash swift tools gplflash)
Gnash is probably the best choice since its the most mature project out there, but i do not know how easy it is to integrate into command line tools or into your own projects.
We have been working on this in my company, and we got a proof of concept working pretty fast (but the project we made it for is on hold right now). I am not able to share the code, but I can give you some pointers.
It is not pure ASP.NET, but maybe you can still use it. We made a windows service that can be called from ASP.NET.
Basicly you install the flash plugin on the server, the windows services can then simply open the swf through the swf ActiveX component and then you can grap a picture of the whole thing. It works pretty well, notice that you do not have to actually render the ActiveX component on screen to capture the picture.
Check out this post. It does not tell you everything but I guess it provides the ground work required for it. You probably have to figure out how to get the object tag out of the flash-html you are trying to download from a web page. After that you'd have to figure out when to capture the frames. Its a long ride however. You don't need the asp.net part. Just concentrate on the windows project part. Hope this helps. :)

how to design a game web app?

i know vb.net, but have had no experience at all with web programming. i need to make a web app that can run in a browser where there is a board game and pieces that you can move around. can someone help me get started? are there any examples in asp.net?
i need something like this:
http://www.hallofbrightcarvings.com/game/grid
i don't know what language this is built in, but i would much prefer vb.net. i would like the pieces to be pictures instead of text. please help get started.
I have a very basic example of moving pieces around a grid written in javascript.
You can see it in action here and if you take a look at the source you can see it's done with jquery mostly. Feel free to take a prod around, I haven't updated that version in a long time but hopefully you might find it useful.
I think ASP.NET can do very little for you according to what you described. What you need is either Flash or Javascript skills.
Let's decompose this, you need two things if you want to make the whole thing yourself
Client Side: Flash, SilverLight, JAVA
Server Side:PHP, ASP.net, Java
As you know vb.net and want to work with asp.net, so I recommand to use Silverlight.
How complex can this be?
Depends on what you want to build, if you want to build a Mafia war games, then you'll need to work the user interface and it'll be very hard. Also the server side will be important as you need to handle registration and relation between different players.
If you specify more your question, you could get better answers.
The example you cited above is fully client-side, which means the code all sits on the browser and the server doesn't do anything to enable the grid. So if you did a "Save As" of that page on your computer, you could run it offline.
You should use the view source functionality of your browser on the page you cited, and look at how it's built. It's done using HTML, CSS and javascript. Use w3schools to get yourself started on those three matters.
If you really need to code it using vb.net, I don't know of any way that allows drag-and-drop for web forms. I'd be interested to know though. Ajax and .net drag-and-drop should be keywords for you to look into.
To do this on the web, you'd probably want to divide the project into two components: Client-side and server-side.
On the server-side, you'll want to use language like PHP, Python or ASP.NET. I think ASP.NET has some way to use VB.NET, so that would be a good choice for you to minimize the number of new things you need to learn.
Client-side is going to be the big hurdle. There's basically two different approaches to take here:
HTML+CSS+Javascript, using HTTP callbacks (ie, AJAX) to communicate with the server.
Flash using Flex (I think HTTP calls is probably the easiest way to talk to your server here as well.)
For a game like that, I would think that Flash is probably the best way to go. It will be easier to do graphics and sounds, and it'll run the same in every browser that has Flash support.

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