Topic: Flash 8: Playing with pixels

I wanted to build a simple Flash app that used pixels, so here it is:

First version (built during a business meeting):
http://zavaboy.com/fla/draw01.html (100%)
http://zavaboy.com/fla/draw01.swf (scalable)

Second version:
http://zavaboy.com/fla/draw02.html (100%)
http://zavaboy.com/fla/draw02.swf (scalable)

Make sure you have the latest Flash player.
I'd like any C&C.

Looks pixelly. Also looks to be a clean piece of work... although an eraser tool would be nice.


Justice 4 Pat Richard

So far so good.
May I make some feature requests too

- several brushes
- displaying the borders of the current brush
- show/hide pixels grid
- export/save capability ( like in .ICO or at worst .BMP )

So far so good.
May I make some feature requests too

- several brushes
- displaying the borders of the current brush
- show/hide pixels grid
- export/save capability ( like in .ICO or at worst .BMP )

That's a fun project!

This from Grant Skinner might be useful for poi's save capability suggestion:
http://www.gskinner.com/blog/archives/2006/03/saving_bitmapda.html
Maybe?

Steve: thank you. I had forgotten about gskinner.com.
Sidenote : damn I HATE websites using Flash for navigation. The usability utterly suck. No middle click, no right click, nothing. Raaaaah. Hopefully gskinner.com has some interresting apps.

fun stuff here:
http://incomplet.gskinner.com/

So how do I get it to export? I'm lost on this one.

exporting might get a bit complicated, since you cant directly write to a file afaik.

what you can do is communicate with a server-side script to which you can send your pixels in a custom format. the script could then either write an image to a file on the server or send it to the user.

tell me if you are interested in this and need more information.

I sort of had that much of the idea. Is there an efficient way to do it without screwing too much with my head? I do want more information on this.

ok, i assume you already have some custom format in your flash movie where the pixels are stored. probably a two dimensional array with color values.

i suggest you create a php script, in which the gd library php->gd creates the image and with php->imagesetpixel you can set each pixel.

to get the pixeldata to the php file, you can just create one huge string and post them to the php-script using flash.
look up "loadVariables" in the flash help on how to post variables via HTTP.

for example if the image would be 400 by 300 and all red, the string could look like:

400|300|ff0000|ff0000|ff0000|.....

your php script can then php->explode this string and you will get an array where the first two values are width and height followed by the pixel colors in hex format.

I can't seem to get the colors of all the pixels...

I'm running off this as an example:
http://broadcast.artificialcolors.com/index.php?title=setpixel_getpixel_and_the_flash_8_beta_b

I have it figured out... but I can't get it to export to the PHP script... let me figure this out by myself, please!

... on the other hand you could give CANVAS and the 'Opera-2dgame' Canvas Context a go

You could easily manipulate the pixels, and export the whole thing as a PNG image using the toDataURL() method.

The 'Opera-2dgame' Canvas Context is a part of our embrace and extend the standards idea. I hope we'll submit a proposal to the WHATWG soon.