Week 9 progress

Small update w Links to necessary files:

www.cfernandez.net/port_XML_small.html

www.cfernandez.net/port_XML.html

www.cfernandez.net/dev/port_XML.zip

www.cfernandez.net/dev/port_XML_small_wk8.zip

www.cfernandez.net/img/ill/lrg.zip

www.cfernandez.net/img/ill/sml_gif.zip

Have most of it working in my actual portfolio.  Couple issues, namely that if you scroll up or down it causes the buttons to stop loading pictures.  The trace still brings up the right img url from the XML file so that is something I need to resolve.  Secondly, the text does not load in this version.  Another bug I will have to work through.  Finally, the image preloader is experiencing a bout of difficulty, should be able to be fixed.  For the presentation next week I will have this working smoothly, and hope to incorporate it in the Multimedia section as well.

 As for the presentation, I will be giving a breif overview of my concept, a demo then proceed to break down the code in sections, starting w the XML call and moving on into individual function code.  The notes for my code is in the source files which are zipped.  I will expand upon these once my final issues have been resolved.
-c

Week 6 Progress

Short post for now.  It is late, but I will update this as I have more progress.

Progress:

www.cfernandez.net/caf_week6.zip

www.cfernandez.net/port_XML_small.html

Problems:

-c 

Week 5 Update

This is just a rehash of the week before.  This is the XML gallery from the tutorial I used from last week. 

http://cfernandez.net/xml_test/xml_photogallery_user.html

I have since gone through another one of the tutorials I posted for research (tutorio.com).  Here is the resulting example from that tutorial.

http://cfernandez.net/xml_test/xmlphoto/xmlphotogallery.html 

This second tutorial more closely matches my own because it is thumbnail driven.  However, it does not have the preloader and fade in scripted into the file.  Therefore I will have to combine elements of each into my own file to come up with the final product.

This is how I responded to the problems I had the previous week.

Problems I have to deal with:

• This demo loads up and then scrolls through with 'next' and 'previous' buttons.  My portfolio uses thumbnails to call the next image, so I have to work that into my file.  Also, my thumbnails are in the .fla file.  I need to load them in using XML.
  • Have begun experimenting with creating empty thumbnails through actionscripting and making them stack on top of each other based on how many thumbnails are in the XML doc.
• I also need to expand and contract my thumbnail scroll based on the number of thumbnails in the file…
  • Have not finished the thumbnail demo.  Will deal with this during class time.
• Finally, as is noticable by the nurse, some of my files have buttons attached to them in order to launch an associated animation in that same window.  It doesn't seem to work.  More on this as I try a couple of things.
  • No longer an issue.

-chris

Week 4- Progress Report

Here is a working demo of images pulled from XML.  Its using the tutorial demo, so they don't fit or anything, but the point is it works.  I've learned to create the appropriate XML file, add new images to that and also label them (something I plan on working into the site).  Second, I learned how to set up the file and what code is needed to run the file.

http://cfernandez.net/xml_test/xml_photogallery_user.html

Problems I have to deal with:

• This demo loads up and then scrolls through with 'next' and 'previous' buttons.  My portfolio uses thumbnails to call the next image, so I have to work that into my file.  Also, my thumbnails are in the .fla file.  I need to load them in using XML.
• I also need to expand and contract my thumbnail scroll based on the number of thumbnails in the file…
• Finally, as is noticable by the nurse, some of my files have buttons attached to them in order to launch an associated animation in that same window.  It doesn't seem to work.  More on this as I try a couple of things.

Finally, I have prepared my portfolio file to begin applying what I've learned to the actual final file.

-chris

Resources

Just posting resources as I find them… Tutorials:

http://www.actionscripts.org/tutorials/intermediate/load_images_via_XML/index.shtml

http://www.flashkit.com/tutorials/Dynamic_Content/Picture_-Ricardo_-1098/index.php

http://www.kirupa.com/developer/mx2004/xml_flash_photogallery.htm

http://www.tutorio.com/tutorial/simple-flash-xml-photogallery

Examples:

www.silverflamecommunications.com

http://www.flash-design-marketing.com/tutorials/free-fla-files/flash-portfolio.shtml 

(^ has a bunch of links to examples of 'template' sites using a dynamic picture loader)

Basic XML Usage in Flash (more Tutorials):

http://www.tutorialized.com/tutorial/Flash-and-XML/7660

http://www.purephotoshop.com/article/76

That is all for now -Chris   

Project Proposal

This is my website, www.cfernandez.net.  Mainly, for this Adv Flash class I would like to do something practical that would allow me to use in this portfolio.  As a result, I have a couple of ideas, and the combination of a few.

1. To have my Images in the ‘Models’ ‘Multimedia’ and ‘Illustrations’ sections get pulled in dynamically through a separate .as file.  At the moment, the large images in each of these sections is called in from a separate folder, however, I still have to edit the main .fla by adding a new thumbnail, thumbnail image, button and appropriate actionscript to call this file.  So, I would like to have the .as file (or xml if that’s how its more typically done) have fields for the image name (which would load the thumb and large images from appropriately named folders) and also a text field to add any needed description.example: www.silverflamecommunications.com – ‘creative’ section

2. The second idea was to have a ‘loader’ for the images in my portfolio.  Once again, I worked on something at my co-op that had a small beer as a loader.  We just put that in where the image should go, and then it would call the image in whenever it was loaded. example: www.ironhillbrewery.com

3. The third idea is fairly lame, just to learn to get better with animating through actionscripting.  This would force me to have all animations in my portfolio be driven by scripting.  The tweens, the alphas, everything.  The
   fla would just be movie clips inside each other without much or any timeline animation.  This doesn’t seem terribly taxing, and I wouldn’t be opposed to combining all three of these ideas into one and just churning it out.  Still, it may not even be enough. 

idears

-dynamically load images (thumbnails and large images) to my portfolio's illustration and multimedia pages. Load it by calling it through a seperate .as file which would also have dynamic text which would be used to load the description of each image. Basically help me update my portfolio quickly.

www.silverflamecommunications.com (creative section)

-have images pop up inside the flash file that can be moved around, 'tossed'.