This holding page built for Polydor artist, singer / songwriter Leona Naess features an animated logo with random fades and glows. The flash random timing actionscript is something I have utilised in the past to create similar effects (see: Flash mousetrails with random flashes!).

The holding page also features a streaming mp3 (using flash), mailing list signup form with javascript validation embedded youtube video and google analytics.

Check it out:

www.leonanaess.com

This website for media production company Toba Film is a Flash microsite with html as a backup for users without the flash plugin and for search engines. It features a scrolling thumnail bar from which you can select a video to watch, each thumbnail is a slideshow featuring images from the video. The videos are encoded as flv (Flash Video). The video playlist is fully dynamic so that new videos can be added easily.

Check it out: www.tobafilm.com

Heathcote Bailey is a creatively led events services company specialising in bespoke party production. The site is built in a combination of PHP, JavaScript and HTML. It features a large scrolling background image which is very cool.

Check it out: www.heathcotebailey.co.uk

I have updated my site with my new 76 digital remix theme for WordPress.

The new theme is built on a model I have created for a highly configurable, versatile set of premium themes which I will be releasing this summer. The premium themes will each come in three different versions – Editorial, Media and Ultimate (which combines the features of both editorial and media versions). The themes features will include:

I will also release a free 'light' version of the theme set, so watch this space!

This WordPress plugin allows you to display your post titles in any font, colour and size you want using Flash. It will also retain your original html styling of your titles and display that to users who don't have Flash installed. It is fully customisable via the Options tab in wordpress. It is search engine friendly and easy to implement.

Update:

Version 2.0 includes 2 basic changes.

1. The way the options are saved has been changed to address the problems some users were having with this.
2. More pre-installed fonts.

Example:

I am happy with my WordPress theme as it is, so I have set up this example page for you to see the Flash Titles in action: WP Flash Titles Example Page

Installation:

1. Upload the wp_flash_titles folder to your wp-content/plugins folder.
2. Activate the plugin from the Plugins page.

Usage:

1. Go to Options -> WP Flash Titles to choose your font, size and colour scheme for your titles.
2. You need to modify your template file slightly. First you need to locate the code that relates to the post title. This will typically be something like:
   <h3 class="storytitle" id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
   <a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark">
   <?php the_title(); ?>
   </a>
   </h3>
3. You then need to add two lines of code. First paste this line in directly before the page title code:
   <?php if(function_exists('wp_flash_titles')){wp_flash_titles($post->ID,'start')} ?>
4. Then this line directly after:
   <?php if(function_exists('wp_flash_titles')){wp_flash_titles($post->ID,'end')} ?>
5. To embed any font you want you must have Flash CS3. Open the source file 'wp_flash_title.fla' which is located in the 'Source' folder of the plugin. In flash simply change the font of the text area to any font you wish. Do a 'Save As' and then publish the swf. Once you have created the swf you must upload it to the folder: wp-content/plugins/wp_flash_titles/flash
   It will now appear in the list of fonts in the Options -> WP Flash Titles page!!

Download Plugin:

This WordPress plugin adds the Lightbox feature to image links and to the new WordPress 2.5 gallery feature too. It uses the jQuery Lightbox Plugin by Benjamin Arthur Lupton to create the lightbox effect, and adds rel="lightbox" to image links in posts, pages and galleries as demonstrated in the example below:

Updates:

25/4/2008 - Minor update to version 1.1
- updated jquery version to 1.2.3 to fix IE7 bug.

28/4/2008 - Minor update to version 1.2
- added priority of 12 to add_filter to bring in line with 2.5.1 shortcode priority.
- moved style elements to the head of the page so that the gallery XHTML code validates! (<style> tags are not allowed in the body of the page)

29/4/2008 - No version update
- minor bug fix - changed the modifier of the first preg_replace statement to U (ungreedy)

2/5/2008
Minor update to version 1.3
- css bugfix for safari 3.1.1

Installation:

1. Download the plugin using the link below and unzip it.
2. Upload the folder 'wp_gallery_lightbox' to your 'wp-content/plugins' folder
3. Activate the plugin from the plugins page

I built the game Artanoid for the 76 Creative website. It is a remake of the arcade classic Arkanoid with a 76 creative twist. The game has 5 levels, various 'power-ups' andalso saves and updates a score table using server side php. I recommend turning the music on to get the full effect, with a different soundtrack for each level.

Back again, my pet tadpoles (they still haven't grown into frogs yet!). This time I am going to explain the actionscript that makes them move, turn and run from the mouse. Firstly, heres an example of what they do (move your mouse over them and watch 'em swim away):

The first thing is to create 2 movie clips, one which is the tadpole itself the other is the movie that the mouse drags with it, in my example it is a transparent square 20 pixels height / width. Drag them to the stage. Give the mouse movie an instance name, for example 'mouse_mc', and on the first frame of your flash project include the following actionscript:

var mouseListener:Object = new Object();

mouseListener.onMouseMove = function() {
mouse_mc._x = _xmouse;
mouse_mc._y = _ymouse;
}
Mouse.addListener(mouseListener);

This script basically attaches the movie to the mouse, so the mouse drags it around. This is used later for the hitTest which causes the tadpole to swim away when the mouse_mc touches it. OK, now for the tadpole. Open the tadpole movie and on it's first frame enter this actionscript:

acceleration = 20; // speed of the tadpole

newpos = function ()

{

ranx = random(600); // width of the area you want your tadpole to stay within

rany = random(400); // height of the area

};

newpos();

this.onEnterFrame = function()

{

// figure direction of movement, relative to current position

var dx = ranx-this._x;

var dy = rany-this._y;

// figure angle in radians

var ar = Math.atan2(dy,dx);

// convert to rotation in degrees

this._rotation = ar*180/Math.PI;

this._x += dx/acceleration;

this._y += dy/acceleration;

if (Math.abs(dx) < 1 || Math.abs(dy) < 1) {

newpos(); // move the tadpole

}

// if the mouse movie colides with it move in a different direction
if(this.hitTest(_root.mouse_mc)){ this.newpos();}
}

Once you have done this you can duplicate the tadpole movie clip as many times as you want, to create a whole swarm of tadpoles! Be sure to give each duplicate a unique instance name eg. t1, t2, t3 etc.

Q. How can I make an image or swf file load after a specified number of seconds?

A. Use the simple but effective flash_timer.swf file by Sam Burdge. Whoopeee!

Ever wanted a particular Flash movie or image to load up / start playing after the rest of your page has loaded, or after a set amount of time? This tutorial, and the support files provided with it will make it very easy indeed. The flash_timer.swf file will load a swf or image into your page after a number of seconds that you specify.

Example:

Check out this basic example to see a swf (called test.swf) load after a 10 second delay: Example 1
You can view the source code of the example to see how it works.

Usage:

1. Download the source files using the link below, and unzip the archive.
2. Embed the swf file 'flash_timer.swf' into your webpage. In my example I have used the swfObject method to embed the file, but you can use whichever method you prefer. For more information about this you can check this useful tutorial by Jeroen Wijering.
3. Set the height, width & background colour of the swf according to those of the file you want to load in.
4. Pass the two variables that the file requires to work: myswf – the file that will be loaded & mysecs – the number of seconds delay before the file is loaded. You can pass the variables in the url string, for example:

flash_timer.swf?myswf=my_movie.swf&mysecs=5

(This will load the movie 'my_movie.swf' after a 5 second delay.)

You can also pass the variables as flashvars, for example:

flashvars="myswf=example.jpg&mysecs=10"

(This will load the image 'example.jpg' after a 10 second delay.)

I hope you find this useful, if you do or if you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment on this page (no emails please, I won't reply unless you are offering me hard cash!!). The flash_timer.swf file is only 1kb, so it will not effect the overall loading time of your page, it can be embedded at any height/width dimensions and works from flash player 7 upwards.

Download Source:

The download contains the all important flash_timer.swf plus a working example (index.html). The size of the zip is 6kb. Enjoy!!