I was recently asked to create some full screen video ads for Yahoo’s login page. The constraints were: 1440×1024, must loop seamlessly, no HTML5 blend-mode effects, no plugins and 500k maximum file size. I managed to create a few videos, such as the one below, all within these constraints, using After Effects and the amazing WEBM format:
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package { // Piclens type thing in 30 lines (FP10+) Liam O'Donnell - spikything.com import flash.display.Sprite; import flash.events.Event; public class Main extends Sprite { private var container :Sprite; private var imageGrid :Sprite; private var images :Array = []; public function Main():void { container = addChild(new Sprite()) as Sprite; imageGrid = container.addChild(new Sprite()) as Sprite; for (var i:uint = 0; i < 200; i++) images.push(getItem(i)); images.sortOn("z", Array.NUMERIC | Array.DESCENDING); for each (var item:Sprite in images) imageGrid.addChild(item); addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, update); } private function getItem(index:uint):Sprite { var item:Sprite = new Sprite(); item.x = -(200 / 3) * 210 / 2 + (index / 3) * 210; item.y = (index % 3) * 160 - 40; item.z = 100 + Math.random() * 2000; item.graphics.beginFill(Math.random() * 0xffffff); item.graphics.drawRect(0, 0, 200, 150); return item; } private function update(e:Event):void { imageGrid.x += ((stage.stageWidth / 2) - mouseX) * .2; container.rotationY = ((stage.stageWidth / 2) - mouseX) * .2; } } } |
I played around some more with my webcam today and knocked this out. I also found my webcam already has the IR filter missing (cheap webcam), so it can already see infrared… which will come in handy:
What I love even more than doing animation, is doing challenging code-driven animation.
This banner actually won some awards apparently, including NMA Campaign of the Month and was shortlisted for Cannes Lions.The line dynamics itself is just Hooke’s law stuff – basic physics. Took some experimentation to get a smooth curve drawn through a series of points (basicaly, the control points of your previous and next points need to be in line).
If you can’t see the demo above because you’re on mobile, or don’t have Flash enabled on your browser, you can see the banner in action below:
The cars follow one of the line’s points with differing elasticity and damping, but the real pain in the backside was drawing the dashed line via code, in crummy ActionScript. Luckily, I’m a persistent bastard 🙂 Read more about it on Bannerblog.
I’ve been playing with animating perlin noise and using it at a displacement map. Here’s a little example of what I mean (source).
