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July 27, 2005
Welcome to [the] joeZONE - Interactive Digital Photos
In my recent travels about cyberspace I've come across a few nifty applications created in Director that deal with the display of digital images, I'm referring to things like Aldo Hoeben's SPi-V (say it "spiffy") panoramic viewing engine, or DigitalStage's wonderful tool called LiFE with Photo Cinema (please also read my June 9th blog for more info on LiFE). On par with those in terms of how they piqued my interest is some work I was directed to in the "Joe Zone". All I know about the creator is that his name is Joe and that he's tinkering with some interesting ideas related to interactive digital photo displays.
It seems that Joe wants photos to be interactive such that they truly enhance the viewing experience, and it's not about neat ways to navigate through piles of photos, rather it's about neat ways to interact with the photos themselves to allow you to bring out different views of the same scene, to bring you into the image a bit more so you can see the same scene in multiple ways. Unfortunately for us web-viewers the content available is small compared to the total volume of work available on CD, but no matter, what's available for Shockwave viewing on-line was more than interesting enough to keep my attention for a while. Have a look for yourself, hopefully you'll find Joe's work as interesting as I did.
First step into [the] joeZONE:
[the] joeZONE
Then, have a look at these two projects in particular:
landscopes and collidoscopes
And for you cheaters wanting to jump straight to the projects that offer Shockwave content for on-line viewing here are some direc links:
"Here comes the sun" - Ayguesvives, Canal du Midi (landscope)
"Possession" - Jerusalem, Old City (landscope)
"umbrellas" ("parapluies") - Paris (collidoscope)
I definitely think it's some interesting work and we've already placed ourselves in the queue for a CD with a more complete body of work so we can take a deeper look into Joe's ideas about interactive digital photography.
Good stuff, enjoy.
Posted by thiggins at 09:50 AM
July 26, 2005
Watch Me Change
The Gap has released a new viral ad campaign called Watch Me Change that allows you to configure and dress a 3D character (in theory you configure and dress them to be you) which you then send along to a friend who can watch your character do a dance and a strip tease. Don't worry, there's no nudity folks, this is a Gap ad after all and they're not looking for that kind of press and attention. The content was developed by Crispin Porter + Bogusky in conjunction with Fuel Industries.
Anyway, just a heads up on another interesting ad campaign that makes use of the real-time 3D capabilities found inside Macromedia Director and the Shockwave Player. Enjoy!
Posted by thiggins at 09:49 AM
July 14, 2005
Aikido3D - Site of the Day for July 14th
Just a quick heads up that a piece developed in Director has been made site of the day today. Here is the link for the current site of the day as well as other showcase listings (so the content here updates daily):
And here is a link to the July archives page in specific:
Macromedia Showcase - July 2005 Archives
But for those wanting to get straight to it, have a look at the Aikido3D site as it uses both Flash and Director to help teach folks about the techniques used in the aikido fighting discipline:
Enjoy!
Posted by thiggins at 11:16 AM
July 13, 2005
Tree Views in Director MX 2004
Unfortunately the use of Flash Components in Director MX 2004 is a bumpy road at best, the Director documentation is light on its description of each component and the properties and methods that are to be used. As of late I've heard a few developers ask specifically how they are to go about using the Tree View component in Director. Instead of answering the question multiple times in multiple places I wrote up a quick little article that's been posted to my poppy website that includes a downloadable example file. Please have a look and enjoy:
Using the Tree Component in Director
Posted by thiggins at 03:22 PM