Video Interview: Branden Hall on Spiking Methodics

February 26th, 2009

Updated: added mapSpike.swf for better explanation

During the FITC (Flash in The Can) Amsterdam 23rd February 2009 I’ve met with Branden Hall and done quick interview with him.

His session at FITC was about Spiking Greedy SWFs - which is a methodics for proofing concepts - in other words - doing little subprojects/subscripts in a big project - just to proof that certain ‘problematic’ functionality could work. For instance - to find out, if this Bitmap filter in a special setup could even work and then you implement it into bigger projects. Or if Flash Player can handle particular CPU demanding procedures. It’s like little sub-lab-projects - to find the right way. Once it works, you take this code and add it to complex project.

Watch the video to get it explained right way

Watch this video in HD

Spike example (mapSpike.swf):

As explained by Branden:
“This SWF is just a quick spike of an idea I had for solving a map-
based problem.

The client wanted me to place points on a map - and those points would
be specified by latitude and logitude. However, the map they provided
was drawn by an artist and wasn’t accurate. So, I had to create a
distortion grid that would let me specify how the artists map was
different from a real map. So, what I planned on doing was figuring
out which 4 points in the grid surrounded the point I was trying to
map. Then I could just use percentages to figure out where I should
place my point. This SWF is my test of the concept - you can drag
around the four points and then move the sliders to see where it would
map the point based on different percentages.”

Useful links:
Branden Hall - Spiking Greedy SWFs
http://www.automatastudios.com/2008/10/16/spiking-greedy-swfs/

Branden Hall - Understanding Adobe Alcheymy
http://www.automatastudios.com/2008/11/21/understanding-adobe-alchemy/

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