Over the last couple of weeks while I have been on the road at MAX and a lightning tour of the Nordics, I have been working on an AIR app to make it easier for Flash users to get started with Pixel Bender.

I have just published version 1 which allows you to open .pbj files (Flash Pixel Bender Filters) and see and adjust all of its parameters. This is really handy if you have a .pbj file and don’t know what the parameters are. You can then copy the resulting ActionScript and simply paste it into your Flash file to apply it to any MovieClip.

Pixel Bender Browser

I am working on adding a whole bunch of other features and the AIR app is up-datable so when they are ready the AIR app will check for updates when you run it and update itself to add the new features.

A little more detail:

• supports (update) no input, single input and 2 input .pbj files (no input filters are Pixel Bender Fills)
• (update) no input and single input files are applied using Shader and ShaderFilter
• 2 input files are applied using blendShader
• I am using [Embed()] from the Flex swc to embed the .pbj file into the .swf so you need to test it once to have Flash add the .swc and then again to test.
• if the .pbj file has a property but no minimum, maximum and default values set, I am setting them as 0 and 1 with the default set to 1. (the same goes for float, float2 etc)
• the ActionScript is applied as a function using ‘apply’ and the name of the filter with ‘whichClip:MovieClip’ as a property of the function call (thanks to Chris Coudron for this idea)

Some features I am currently adding include:

• the ability to load your own image/swf/video files to test the filter
• the ability to lock parameters to the mouseX and mouseY to animate them based on mouse movement

I would love to get feedback on any bugs or features you would like added. If you have problems with a specific .pbj file, please send me the file and ideally the .pbk file. (Not all Pixel Bender filters are created equal!)

As always the app is ‘as is’ and I will fix and add features when I get time but no promises.

Tags: Pixel Bender

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 6:50 am and is filed under AIR, Creative Suite, Flash. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.