No-Flash-required Html5 examples

There’s been a lot of talk about Html5 vs Flash lately, and you can read some points of view here, here and here.  It’s something that should be discussed and explored in detail as ultimately, it’s about using what works best for what purpose. Most of what we do is Flash, so here are some things to check out that can be done with Html5.

Html 3D Particles

Html5 Video player

Html Paining app

Html 5 canvas – Thome Yorke’s head in 3D

Glitch – online social game

Glitch is a 2D Flash-based social MMO developed by gaming startup Tiny Speck, (One of the founders is Flickr co-founder Steward Butterfield). It takes place inside the minds of 11 ancient giants, in which ‘players must try to grow a bright future through a series of puzzles, quests and social interactions’ (CNET). CNET has posted some nice screengrabs of the games concept development. Below is one of what’s called a locodeco or a location decorator application, an internal tool used for level design and decoration.

The game’s social and community building elements are particularly interesting and remind me of Sony’s Little Big Planet. The game is scheduled to go into private alpha testing starting today.

Milkyball – A 3D Flash Experiment

Nice exploration of Flash’s 3D capabilities from UNITZEROONE here and here.

Building iPhone applications using Flash CS5

Know Flash? Want to build an iPhone app? Here’s a tutorial

iPhone apps built using Flash CS5

From the Adobe labs blog:
‘Flash Professional CS5 will enable you to build applications for iPhone and iPod touch using ActionScript 3. These applications can be delivered to iPhone and iPod touch users through the Apple App Store.’

Adobe have posted some examples of iPhone apps built using the pre-release version of Flash CS5 here to check out.

P.S Flash not running on iPhone – Flash being compiled to run natively as apps on iPhone.

The evolution of the evolution of species.

This is an unabridged copy of Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species with additions, and edits color  coded for the editions. Highly interesting how since its penning, the book has nearly doubled. This Flash page shows the changes in a really new and interesting way.

More AR from Zugara

This just launched today. More fun and games involving AR + Motion Capture + Flash + FB CONNECT

http://www.cannonballzthegame.com/

Here’s more info on it:

It utilizes Augmented Reality (although this time there’s no need to print out a marker) along with the same proprietary Motion Capture technology you saw in our last prototype, the “Webcam Social Shopper”, to show how the technologies can be utilized within the casual gaming space to create entirely unique and immersive webcam based flash games.

The game we’ve created to showcase the coupling of these technologies is called “Cannonballz”.  By using motion capture, we are able to allow anyone with a webcam to physically engage with the game’s environment.  In short, they get to “appear” in the gameplay.  In this case, they are dodging cannonballs while trying desperately to save their friends (which are imported via a Facebook Connect integration) and accumulate points.  Once their game is over, people can quickly and easily share their scores and the game by easily uploading it to their Facebook stream (once again, this integration is made easy thanks to Facebook Connect).

Fun with Music and Flash

Just a few links to sites that allow you to play with, manipulate, and generate music.

The DFA Crap Remixer.  Easy and fun.

Turntable Scratcher.  Takes advantage of some advancements in sound manipulation in Flash 10.  Scratch and control the speed.  That’s it.

Two-Dimensional Audio Mixer.

Ball Drop.  An experiment for Google Chrome.

Orbs.  Requires more commitment and interaction than the other links here, but more room for customization and personalization.

Tone Matrix.  And of course, the creation by Andre Michelle that we’ve written about before.

One site that only lets you change the track, but the Papervision visual ripples according to the music.

UPDATE: 

An augmented reality version (we knew that was coming).

Interesting Data Visualization For NYC

Awesome amounts of data, interesting interface to view it. The New York Times has a web application up on their site that allows you to view homicide data, broken up by age, race, time of day, weapon used, ect.

I think this is a really novel use of flash for data visualization, and it reminds me of the Stamen digital inspiration talk, and their Oakland Crime Spotter. Click the image to check it out!

What Can Flash Actually Do?

New technology isn’t always necessary in order to create innovative work online.  Sometimes basic Flash can be innovative in itself.  

There are more engaging ways to interact on sites than just clicking buttons.  Flash simulating physics is much more reactive and malleable than a typical site experience. It can make the experience more immersive and playful, which in turn can make it more memorable.   

Once you’ve seen the building blocks for this kind of use of Flash it’s a little easier to understand.

Lots of simple examples can be found online, especially from the personal websites of developers, where a lot of innovative ideas seem to be germinated (including Papervision 3D and Flash Augmented Reality).

Some simple and not-so-simple examples:

Mathieu Badimon’s experimental Flash lab site

Andre Michelle’s experimental Flash examples (most famous recently for his Tone Matrix, a not-so-simple example of coded Flash)

A pretty example from Andre Michelle.

A site from Joshua Davis

Experimental ActionScript lab

Ty Lettau’s experimental Flash (click “experimental”)