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MovieClip Exploder class

January 18th, 2012 | No Comments | Posted in Adobe Air, adobe flash, flash

I built a logo particle explosion class for a client. Unfortunately they decided not to take this route. It came out rather cool so I thought I’d share this with all of you. You can download the source code and use it anywhere you like. It would be cool if you would tell me where you used it tho.

Download MovieClipExploder source code

Usage:

1. Download the zip file
2. Copy the ‘com’ folder in there to your project directory
3. Make a ‘particle’ sprite/MovieCilp in your .fla file and  choose ‘Export for Actionscript’ when you make it as a MovieClip. Type: ‘particle’ in the ‘Class’ field. (you can use custom shapes if you want to).

Settings for Particle movie clip in flash

3. Particle creation Settings

4. Make the shape inside the particle movie clip as another movie clip and call it “gr”. No actionscript export necessary here. But you can now add effects to this asset. I added a little blur in the example.
5. Make sure your logo has an instance name and it’s on the stage. Then add the code:

import com.teemusk.ExplodeMovieClip;
var logoexploder:ExplodeMovieClip = new ExplodeMovieClip(logo);
addChild(logoexploder);
logoexploder.startEmitter();

6. Publish your movie and watch those particles fly.

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Passing variables to a function

January 11th, 2012 | No Comments | Posted in adobe flash, flash, Objective-C

My lingo is so Actionscript, but that is changing slowly. Variables are methods, and we’re actually passing properties in Objective-C. But ok. Yesterday I wrote about declaring and calling functions/methods in Objective-C. Now I’ll try to explain how to declare functions that accept variables and how to pass variables to them. Also I cover briefly how to get ‘trace’ statements in Objective C.

So let’s cut to the chase.

Trace Statements

Actionscript:

var string:String = "I AM STRING";
trace("I am getting traced in the console ");
trace("I am a variable: "+string);

Objective-C

NSString *string = @"I AM STRING";
NSLog(@"I am getting traced in the console");
NSLog(@"I am a variable %@",string);

Now note how variables work in NSLog statements. characters starting with % sign will get substituted by comma separated variables. Also all string defined have to have “@” in front of them.
They’re a bit to get used to. I will pass a cheatsheet of different variables

Actionscript

private function myFunction(foo:String){
trace("I got the variable "+foo);
}

 Passing a variable to a function

Passing a var to a function in Actionscript:

private firstFunction():void{
var str:String = "This is passed data";
anotherFunction(str);
}
private anotherFunction(s:String):void{
trace(s); //Output: This is passed data
}

Passing a variable to a function with Objective-C:


//First add this line to your header (.h) file;
- (void)anotherFunction:(NSString *)s;

//then in Class file (.m) you can call this function like so:
-(void)firstFunction{
NSString *str = @"This is passed data";
[self anotherFunction:str];
}
- (void)anotherFunction:(NSString *)s{
NSLog(@"%@",s); //Output This is passed data
}

Make sure ‘firstFunction’ is called. Try to use AppDelegate’s initWithOptions as your firstFunction.

Objective C NSLog cheatsheet:

%@     Object
%d, %i signed int
%u     unsigned int
%f     float/double
%x, %X hexadecimal int
%o     octal int
%zu    size_t
%p     pointer
%e     float/double (in scientific notation)
%g     float/double (as %f or %e, depending on value)
%s     C string (bytes)
%S     C string (unichar)
%.*s   Pascal string (requires two arguments, pass pstr[0] as the first, pstr+1 as the second)

%c     character
%C     unichar

%lld   long long
%llu   unsigned long long
%Lf    long double
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Objective-C Here I come

January 10th, 2012 | No Comments | Posted in adobe flash, Apple, flash, Objective-C

Okay. I’ve been learning Objective-C on and off for quite a while now. I’ve been doing it mostly using The Big Nerd Ranch books.

I can tell you it has not been easy. While all tutorials in these books are quite straightforward and work out just great when you follow a book, they still haven’t helped me to get my head around this language. I get the syntax, I get how the structure should work, but some of the concepts are so different coming from ECMA script language background such as Actionscript or Javascript. Painful.

Also I have googled around a lot. While there are some blogs that describe a bit about migrating from ECMA script to C based language, they haven’t helped me out too much.

Therefore I will try to add my 5 cents to the blogosphere about this subject. (And don’t judge me if I’m wrong in my theories presented here. I’m just a n00b.).

Declaring and calling a function

This is probably the first thing you want to do. In Actionscript 3 I would do this:

Defining a function:

private myFunction():void{
//Do something;
}

To call this function from another function I would just:

private anotherFunction():void{
myFunction();
}

In Objective C it’s not as straightforward. Defining a function like this won’t allow to call it from another function.

Defining a function:

First add the function description to an interface (yeah that’s the myClass.h file. Objective C calls them Headers).

- (void)myFunction;

Then in the class itself (myClass.m file) define this function completely:

-(void)myFunction{
//Do something
}

And then you can call it from another function:

-(void)anotherFunction{
[self myFunction];
}

 

I hope you get the idea how it works. I will try to add more examples soon.

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