Painting with Physics (AS3, Box2D)

Looks like my Painting with Physics tutorial from god knows how long ago now is up on the Computer Arts site for all to download as a nice PDF.

Actually, I was looking for my 8-page “minimag” on buiding iOS apps with Flash CS5 from issue 181 back in…. November maybe? Can’t find it anywhere. I’ll stick it up here if I come across it.

12 touchscreens, 7 projectors, AIR, openFrameworks & me

Last month, I was whisked off down to London’s Earl’s Court 2 to look after what the agency I was working with had dubbed the “Wonderwall”, an interactive event stand we’d been working on for the preceding few weeks. Earl’s Court 2 is huge and very hard to photograph when carpeted in a sea of red as far as the eye could see.

Here’s the “Wonderwall”, almost set up and ready, while the blokes in hi-vis jackets have a shufty (it’s London, see?) at either side.

On the front, a 5m x 2m projection of an ever-changing openFrameworks piece. Six touchscreens running Adobe AIR fired delegates’ votes on four questions to a Mac running oF. We chucked them through a UDP socket and into an SQLLite database, whilst the votes streaked across the screen in light-writing paths reminiscent of the convention’s logo, to be added on the right. Here’s Stu hammering it:

To either side sat 3 touchscreens, where delegates could see and hear their Senior Leaders answer key questions. Again I used AIR, with each laptop feeding both an HD touchscreen and a 10K HD projector showing video of your chosen leader answering your chosen question. Again during set up…

…and on the day:

Oh, the red. Two days of that red. AIR’s fantastic though. It worked like a dream and hardly needed any babysitting throughout the 2 days, even with each setup constantly playing 1080p video. Here’s inside the “Wonderwall”, with all 7 monster projectors and the big front screen to the right. Needless to say, it got a bit warm in there (click for closeup).

And just one more check before the hordes descend:

palmerama Ltd

It’s been a long time coming, but I’m now making the big jump to being my own boss and the master of my own destiny. I really couldn’t be happier. Five years at magneticNorth and two-and-a-half at LOVE have been simply marvellous, but as of Monday November the 8th, I shall be freelance and proud – off into the big wide world as a one man band.

So hopefully someone out there will need some cool games making, some AS3 coding, some Flash designing (oh and coding on that link – just go with it), a spot of writing, an interactive installation or maybe just something nice for Xmas. I’ve made plenty of lovely interactive stuff for people like Diesel, Sony PS3, the BBC, Kellogg’s, Warburtons, Dr Martens, Vauxhall, Microsoft, Coca-Cola and Umbro, if that helps.

Please say hello on email, twitter or LinkedIn and you’re on my site now, in case you were wondering what this was.

Cheers. As you can see above, I’m visibly excited.

New CA Tut Sneak Peek

Just finished another Computer Arts tutorial, this time with physics in it. You know – Box2D and that. So here are a couple of (COMPLETELY ORIGINAL, honestly…) sneaky peeky pics:

Computer Arts Tutorial Online

Now it’s out of print, Computer Arts have stuck my first AS3 tutorial from Feb up online, so it’s all yours for free. You lucky people.

U+262E: Two Fingers To War

Oh look, I’ve made a little video showing some of the best pics from our interactive photo booth/wall thing at United Underground 2 the other week for Ctrl.Alt.Shift.

United Underground 2 was an event held on the theme of conflict, so we encouraged people to show their support for peace by giving two fingers to war with the classic “V” for victory gesture. Their poses were displayed on a huge screen behind the performers, in a constantly-changing demonstration of unity.

Here’s Dorothy’s video:

U+262E: Two Fingers to War from Dorothy on Vimeo.

Photo Wall AIR App!

Off down to That London tomorrow with our video camera, a brand new iMac and a lovely AIR app by Jamie. Will report back. Looks like it works!