On Halloween Branden Hall and Joshua Davis released the HYPE framework into the wild. As they describe it, the Hype framework is:

… a creative coding framework built on top of ActionScript 3. A major goal of HYPE is to allow newcomers to Flash and ActionScript to creatively play and express themselves while they are learning how to program.

After seeing Joshua Davis give a talk at Adobe MAX I was excited to start playing around with the framework. Well, that and seeing how Degrafa AS3 and HYPE might work together.

Below is a basic example I put together that takes some of what Branden Hall walked through in a demo and some of what was demoed at 360|Flex Indy. The example uses one of Degrafa’s Gear AutoShapes, which is drawn to a MovieClip and manipulated with the HYPE framework.

As I have more time I’d like put together some more complex examples. In the mean time, if anyone else has an example of Degrafa + HYPE, we’d love to see it.

Download the Source

One of the most common things we get asked about in the community is if there’s a version of Degrafa for AS3-only projects, i.e. a way to use Degrafa without having to use Flex. This was definitely on our roadmap, but working on the actual framework itself was taking priority.

A few days ago, with the help of Ryan Campbell, we were able to demo using Degrafa in an AS3-only project created from Flash CS4 at 360|Flex. Things are still being ironed out, but people seemed interested in taking a look at the simple example. You can download the example below.

Our plans are to make 2 separate branches of Degrafa, one for Flex and one for AS3-only. Eventually, we hope to see the 2 branches become one. Hopefully this will allow even more people to take advantage of all the hard work that’s already been put into Degrafa.

Stay tuned for more details as things get a little more formalized around Degrafa in AS3-only projects.

Download the Degrafa AS3-only Flash Sample

When John and Tom called people out for being late with their slides, well, that was me. If you went to find the slides for the Degrafa presentation on your USB thumb drive they weren’t there. So, here they are.

In Degrafa Beta 3 we introduced a new text object called RasterText. This object allows you to add text to your graphics compositions just like any other geometry. You can also have multiple text objects inside something that normally allows for one. For example, you could use RasterText to create 2 text items in a Button skin, rather than relying on the default single label of a Button, kinda like the example below. Click here to view the source.

RasterText is like other Degrafa geometry objects in the way it can be composed using fills, transforms, etc. RasterText renders as bitmap data, so things like Decorators and strokes around letters won’t work because there is not path defined. That’s what VectorText will take care of in the future.

Below is an example of several Degrafa fill types being applied to RasterText objects. As you can see, you’ll no longer be limited to solid-colored text. Click here to view the source

The ability to add these kinds of fills will be coming soon in Degrafa Beta 3.1 along with some other really great updates. Now that the core feature set is defined we’ll be looking to push out smaller updates more regularly. In the meantime you can still do some neat stuff just composing RasterText object together, like the CS4 Icon Previewer below. Click here to view the source

For those of you interested in learning more about Degrafa and all the new features in Beta 3, you’ll have a chance at Adobe MAX Europe. Jason Hawryluk and I (Juan Sanchez) will be giving a presentation on Tuesday during lunch in the Community Lounge. There will be a board with the exact time in the Community Lounge, so keep an eye out for it.

Jason and I are super excited to be giving this presentation. We’ve been working on Degrafa from the beginning for almost two years. It’ll be the first time we’ve met face to face, so if you’re attending MAX Europe you’ll be getting a presentation from the founders of Degrafa.

Degrafa has become super powerful, flexible and extensible for creating graphics for pretty much anything you can imagine, like mapping, graphics editing, dynamic graphics, rich UIs, artistic explorations and more. People at MAX North America got some awesome insight into Degrafa Beta 3, but it’s been a week and we’ve got even more to show. I think people will be amazed at what they can do with such minimal code.

This presentation is not to be missed and if you’ve got an example of how you’ve used Degrafa we’d love to see it. Also, be sure to grab other people at lunch and bring ‘em over. We hope to see you there.

This screencast walks through a couple basic examples of using the new GeometryRepeater class introduced in Degrafa Beta 3. GeometryRepeaters are a revamped form of the Repeaters introduced in Beta 2, but much more powerful and flexible. Be sure to check it out in HD.

The GeometryRepeater class allows you to repeat any geometry you compose with Degrafa and alter properties for every time the geometry is repeated. With GeometryRepeaters you can create things like bar charts, tick marks for a gauge, artistic explorations and a lot more.

In future screencasts we’ll explore using GeometryRepeaters mixed with other features of Beta 3 as well as different use cases and more complex examples. You can grab the latest release of Degrafa on the Degrafa Code page.

We are very excited to announce that Jim Armstrong (aka the Algorithmist) will be joining the Degrafa team as a contributor. Jim’s strong math and development skills will help the Degrafa project push forward into un charted territories. Though we have a clear path mapped out for the future of Degrafa, there’s still much to do and Jim’s skill set will most certainly help us get there faster.

Jim’s initial involvement will be to work in collaboration with Jason, Greg and Tom to port the Singularity package to Degrafa and move that research up to a level (MXML) that is more accessible to the Degrafa community. Here are some of the types of things Jim’s work will accelerate.

• A Spline set of Geometric Primitives.
• Text on a path.
• Shape Strokes
• Points and Angles on a path.
• much more…

Working off of Jim’s existing research in combination with our own will allow us to innovate at a faster pace. Jim will also participate in coming optimization goals and work with us to prepare the core of the framework for the future.

Jim is Degrafa’s first real rocket scientist and we are all excited as to where this collaboration will take Degrafa and what it will enable for the Degrafa community.