I have been working to understand more aspects of the Flash platform and how we are implementing it in our Full Sail curriculum and this XML basics article I just found was really helpful in explaining E4X syntax and how to traverse the XML node tree.

The article does mention implementing the Flash IDE for their code, but Flex Builder is a much nicer environment for building ActionScript projects. Plus, you can install a copy of ...

Along with Norm, I have been on this kick lately to drink more water... whether it's of the tap, iced or vitamin variety. For the most part it has been great ... you feel less thirsty, gives you something to put in your "I Heart Jim Halpert" coffee mug ... all that good stuff. Sadly, though, it also has the side-effect of forcing me need to visit the restroom like every 1/2 hour. And sometimes, ...

After a yummy Thanksgiving lunch and hanging with the co-workers, I spent some time updating a few graphics for the DFP course's Project 3 example.

Despite the fact that these pieces will end up in Flash as part of an AIR deployment, I still created the vectors in Illustrator and did a copy-import. Not because I am lazy, but because I still prefer working with AI's interface and color selectors over the Flash IDE.

And, of course, ...

The lovely geometric type icon I made during the DFP Lecture today. Simple and customizable, but after continually seeing all of the pretty things that James White keeps putting out, I really just wanted to make something colorful. The icon is entirely vector, which was really difficult to achieve with the color blending of the radial shape and the necessary drop shadow ... had to delve into that cumbersome Illustrator Transparency panel masking interface, which ...

With the currently progressing update to the Dra Studio and some recent client projects, I have been trying to find a decent Wordpress theme or framework that I could start from and build each future project on. After trying out quite a few nice and fully-featured ones, including Thematic, Hybrid, Starkers, The Buffet Framework, and Emptiness, I found myself more encumbered than enabled ... having to match up with their structure and layouts, working within ...

The last few days have been full of a lot o' work ... creating code and pre-pro examples for students, updating curriculum in the classroom, then keeping busy through the wee hours of the night and morning creating for some Illustrative clients.

Thanks to Norm reminding me about how easy it is to setup local databases with MAMP or XAMPP, I have been having an easier time working with Wordpress:http://wordpress.org lately. I will eventually need to ...

Sadly, one of my favorite lil' Mac tools, Validator, which is perfect for validating XML files against custom Document Type Declarations (DTDs), is currently not working with Snow Leopard, or more specifically, Snow Leopard's implementation of 64-bit Perl.

There is an easy way have 10.6 load the 32-bit version of Perl, but unfortunately, even after doing so, it looks like Validator is still having some other issues.

There is no contact information on Robert Crews' website, so ...

While creating an example AS3 file for our Deployment of Flash Projects class just now in Flex Builder, I almost found myself in an absurd "the-files-are-missing" predicament that we hear about every now and then from our students. Turns out some of it may not be so absurd ...

While Flex Builder allows for multiple Undos in several areas of its interface, it also has a subtle way of not indicating where those Undos are taking ...

Tonight's DFP icon experiment resulted in a pretty 2 for 1 tag special. It is not much of an easter egg, but I thought my name choice on the Christmas tag was a fun one. :) As always, these should be available for purchase soon on GraphicRiver and as always, I'll update this with the link when they are.

Thanks to the built-in screen capturing feature of Snow Leopard's new Quicktime X, I actually managed to ...

I happend to be testing one of the current Illustrative projects locally and notice the following PHP error on my date('y') function:

Warning: date(): It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are required to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EDT/-4.0/DST' instead in ...

One of the problems Norm and I have found with our DFP students building ActionScript 3 projects in Flex Builder is that any AIR-specific code that is implemented lacks code-completion and error-resolving. A really simple solution, though, is including the Global AIR SWC in the project's Library. You can follow along with the video for a demonstration on how.

It is time again for the monthly DFP discussion on icons. My über example today ended up being this lovely tribute to Kodak's belated Kodachrome plastic slide mounts. It's kinda crazy that these were still being widely used just back in the 1990s.

The icon should be available soon from the nice GraphicRiver folks, in both the hinged and notch variety.

**Update: It is! Buy it here, kiddies.

If you use Keynote as much as I do and still haven't tried out Apple's Keynote Remote for the iPhone, you're missing out on a pretty decent control interface. Even with the $0.99 price tag (one might think buying a copy of iWork at $79 would be enough to warrant a free companion app), it is worth downloading and giving it a test run. I do have a couple of notes, though.

Another icon I worked up as an advanced example for my DFP students. Like the others, this one should be available from GraphicRiver within a few days.** Update: The icon has been approved and is now available for purchase

While I was in Building 2 at Full Sail today, waiting for IT to install the complete Adobe Web Premium Collection on my MBP, I had a chance to submit an entry for this week's Illustration Friday:http://illustrationfriday.com theme of "idle".

If my ears look big, I'm going to blame it on the fact that I haven't draw dailies in a while and not on the possible fact that they are big ;)

The overall scan is pretty ...

I have been get a crazy ton of things done at work today. Managed to resolve the "double contacts" issue I was seeing on my iPhone after the 3.0 upgrade, thanks in great part to this helpful article. I also used Terminal to enable the old skool but nifty "hot corner" indicators for a machine at work ... making it plenty easier to remember which corner of the display will start the screen saver.

Then I ...

Another instructor on the Web team at Full Sail (Michael Smotherman) put out this handy little jQuery Cheat Sheet that I thought you all might find helpful when working with that wonderful client-side library. He also worked up this great little MooTools add-on, for creating slide animations between areas of HTML content. Enjoy!

During the DFP lab session yesterday, Norm and my students were having issues validating their XML data files using a couple of the services we normally recommend. Namely, their XML files were showing no errors, despite adding intentional mal-formed tags and whatnot.
It just so happened that Norm was reading through one of FlashTuts newer posts about different methods for setting up a Flash Development Sandbox and discovered a great Eclipse plugin for writing and validating ...

Here is another piece in the portrait series … thanks to my dad’s love for John Wayne. Such a great part of my childhood. The Alamo, The Green Berets, McLintock!, Hellfighters and so many more …If you want, you can see the original image here. I did this piece on the deliciously sweet Wacom Cintiq 21UX that I am still borrowing from Full Sail. Every brush stroke is like variable-weight vanilla frosting.

Here is my vector entry for this friday’s Illustration Friday theme of “subtract”.We were talking a bit about division and algebra in the DFP class the other night, so I had math on the brain … apparently.I even sized it to a perfect 320 by 480 pixels for your iPhone usage. Enjoy.

I really been working hard to get back on track with the Bible reading I normally do in the morning, but have been slack on for a few months now. And even though it means that I have been needing to go to bed earlier (or actually at normal hours for most people) and wake up in the dark morning hours, it has already begun to feel beneficial.
Near the end of class on Thursday, I ...

I was working on an example of something for a student and decided to offer this simple, yet textured Polaroid-ish photo frame icon (512 by 512 pixels) for anyone that might need it.You should be able to pick it up on GraphicRiver really soon:graphicriver.net/user/DraStudioAs a bonus, it includes a font I made of my quick-fast handwriting style … called "Thin Oscar".If for some reason, they don’t like it, I’ll just offer it for free from ...

Tuesday was a really easy-going, since our DFP (Deployment of Flash Projects) students had already finished their work and were just presenting their projects. We discussed some of the cool things that the Happy Cog guys are doing with the Redesign Mozilla.org campaign and how important it is to not only be able to defend design choices, but also be able to offer an intelligent and informed exposition on them.After the students presented their projects, ...

The BackgroundDuring a recent lecture in my Deployment of Flash Projects class, while discussing Adobe AIR and trying to summarize the essential parts of desktop User Interface design, I found myself lacking in a over-arching term and general category to which I could attach many of the nit-picky and minute ideas that collectively make for superb deployments (or at the very least, improve poor deployments to acceptable).I mean, there was definitely plenty of discussion about ...

This pretty “Call for Entries” poster, promoting Adobe’s Design Achievement Awards, has been popping up all over campus and it is such a simple, yet fun design. If you’d like, visit Adobe’s site to find out more about this event and even download the poster PDF. Enjoy!