Free Flash Scale Menu v2

It's been a year now since Flanture published simple flash scale menu and recently file was rewritten and added few improvements. That's why this one is version 2. Source file is included with preview swf and detailed pdf help file.

In this version you can:

1. Change menu items alpha
2. Change menu items scale value
3. Add new menu item or edit existing ones




download : flanture scale menu v2.

[ if you want to stay updated, consider Flanture blog subscription ]

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Top 5 Flash CS4 Announcement Posts

Since the last thing I wanted to do is to repeat what everyone else already said or to list new features of Flash CS4, here is a list of top 5 Flash CS4 announcement posts:

- Flash CS4 Features,Video Tutorial by Lee Brimelow

- Flash CS4 photo tour of features by Flashthusiast

- Say Hello to Adobe Flash CS4 by FlashSpeaksActionScript

- I like Flash CS4 by Bit-101

- Adobe Flash CS4 Professional is out by swfGeek

enjoy reading.
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Flash XML Photographer Website Template

One of the better Flash Templates over at FlashDen is this one created by ZebraCreative. It has published size of only 88kb, it opens with Flash 8+ and ActionScript version is 2.0. Template is well documented, HTML is included, but no PSD.


Check more Flash Templates at FlashDen.
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Killer Templates Marketplace ThemeForest

After great success with AudioJungle and FlashDen, which is the best place for buying and selling Flash stock files, Envato Network has gone one step further with ThemeForest. This time it's all about templates.

For as little as $10 you can get all kind of website / blog templates. Complex ones are more expensive. If you think HTML/CSS is enough for you, no problem. If you are more of a Flash templates dude, sure, they got that too. For your blog: WordPress, Joomla, Typepad, even Blogger and many more. Every template belongs to some category so you can choose from creative, corporate template, technology, non-profit, entertainment or personal template. Whatever works for you.

Don't be surprised if you find some categories with no entry yet, they have just opened. If we compare this startup project with FlashDen, we shouldn't worry that it won't succeed. Also, this is great opportunity for authors to make some cash using their hard-earned-while-bleeding-on-the-keyboard template design skills. But first, make sure your design is above average or you just might be refused.

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Free Flash Tweened Horizontal Menu

Flanture Tweened Horizontal Menu is easy to use and customize for your own needs. Source file comes with empty movie clip which you can use to place your own menu items text. Tween speed for both alpha change and white line growth can be change in few seconds. If you wish to change graphics but to leave functionality as it is, this can be done in no time. You can get this horizontal tweened flash menu in two ways:

1. For FREE

This menu is available for free to all email subscribers to this blog. After you confirm your subscription, leave comment or email at flanture gmail com with tweened menu request. You will get source FLA file (opens with Flash 8+) with actionscript code explanation and fully featured PDF help file for quick start.

2. Customized Solution ($12)

If you don't have required Flash knowledge to customize this menu on your own, you can order customized solution to meet your needs. Just contact via email.

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Fastest Random Array Generator

While searching the net for fastest way to create random array of numbers I was surprised to see some very bad solutions. The idea behind algorithm I found was intuitive. Let’s say we want to create random array with numbers from 0 to 99. We will generate first one random number with:

var myRan:Number = Math.floor(Math.random()*100);

Then we will check if this number already exists in our array, which is empty at start. If it doesn’t exists we append this number with push(), if already exists we do nothing, code goes to next iteration and again it generate new random number. Seems like simple and good solution, but in fact this solution is very bad, very slow and it just might crush your application.

Let’s say we were very lucky and we populate first 99 places in our random array. All the code still have to do is to find one more. Let’s say we need just number 13. Algorithm will circle around the loop until it randomly generates number 13! This might be a problem if computer choose between 100 or even 1.000 numbers in every iteration. It might last seconds, which is eternity in web applications standard. And don’t forget that number 13 is not very lucky one!

I figured that in the end our random array will have all the numbers from 0 to 99, no more no less and that gave me the idea for fastest random array generator.

First, let’s name our function:

function createRandomArray(limit):Array {

limit will decide how many numbers we want from 0
At the beginning let’s have two empty arrays:

starter = [];
finale = [];

Now, we will push all needed numbers to starter:

for(i=0; i<limit; i++) {

starter.push(i);

}

The trick is to take one number from starter, add it to finale and delete that number from starter array in one iteration. To make things random, we will choose random starter INDEX, like this:

while(starter.length > 0) {

var choose = Math.floor(Math.random()*starter.length);

finale.push(starter[choose]);

starter.splice(choose, 1);

}

We do this until there are numbers inside starter array. At the end, we return result array:

return finale;}

I think this might be the candidate for fastest random array generator.
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Simple Text Field Skins

Not actually a skin, but a simple way to change the way how your text field looks in Flash. Text Field is dynamic with instance name set to 'tField'. First, we set text for our text field. You can put whatever you want. Use '\n' for new line.

tField.text = "your text goes here"

Next we will define few different formats for our text field.

format0 = new TextFormat();
format0.font = "Courier New";
format0.size = 16;
format0.color = 0x000000;

format1 = new TextFormat();
format1.font = "Courier New";
format1.size = 17;
format1.color = 0xFFFFFF;

format2 = new TextFormat();
format2.font = "Courier New";
format2.size = 18;
format2.color = 0x0000FF;

Ok, now we want to create an array and to push formats in it. We do this with next code:

fArray = new Array();
fArray.push(format0);
fArray.push(format1);
fArray.push(format2);

We can control currently displaying format with variable curr, so set:

curr = 0;

When formats will change is up to you. Simplest example is to change format when mouse is released on root movie clip. We need to define next function:

 
onMouseUp= function(){
 if(curr == fArray.length){
  curr = 0;
 }
       // when curr is equal to array's lenght, we set curr to 0, and cycle formats from the start.

 tfield.setTextFormat(fArray[curr]);

       // background change is here just for this example to look better.
 if(curr == 1){
  tfield.backgroundColor = 0x000000;
 }else{
  tfield.backgroundColor = 0xFFFFFF;
 }

 curr += 1; // next format

}

Click on text field below to see changes.
That's all. If you need fla source file, leave your e-mail.




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Flash Experimental Toolkit Power Cursor

If you ever asked yourself during lazy Sunday afternoon what ‘optically simulated haptic feedback’ is, you are probably one of two things:

A) insane
B) already familiar with Power Cursor

If you are not under B) please keep reading. You might discover things beyond your imagination and how touch sensations like stickiness, volume, roughness, pressure and mass can be experienced in a GUI. That graphical user interface can be your website because Power Cursor can be easily integrated in your existing Flash projects. Power Cursor Flash toolkit is (2.3Mb) free engine.

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