Desktop Animation?

[J. Baker]

Hi J.
Thanks for your help on this topic. A question on Swish. Will a projector created from Flash files in Swish, like your invisible bicycle exe, play on all operating systems including a Mac?

D.K

Nope, not with swish, windows only. 2000 or XP for transparency. MDM Zinc exports to windows and has a plug in for mac. Although MDM does seem to have an export for mac already installed which may be just a standard projector or maybe it's a trial.

[mooncaine]

I asked a coworker of mine, who is experimenting with those for use in online teaching. We both work for a university. Her needs are different so these might not suit you, but she had these suggestions:

To get a character to appear on the Windows desktop, you might want to use Microsoft Agent characters. Look that up. That, she says, may involve some coding or scripting; she's not sure.

Look up "vox proxy talking animated character", & check out voxproxy.com .... that one works in PowerPoint presentations. It might have something you can use.

noahex.com was mentioned by another coworker recently, so she says you can look there. We don't recall the details of that one at all.

She adds that there are many little animated characters you can install that float around your screen in Windows, but:

"Watch out for those little animated characters you can download, because they often come packaged like a Trojan Horse, with spyware and monitor what you're doing, or turn your machine into a spambot."
She also pointed out that you can get Widgets for Windows now [ever hear of Konfabulator, or Mac OSX's Dashboard widgets?]. Widgets, too, can be trojan horses, so she says you should be careful, and try to look for "safe widgets".

I hope that helps you.

Oh, she had one last suggestion: you might find something through EDUCAUSE [I think she means http://www.educause.edu/ ... at that site I hear there's tons of stuff that teachers share with each other for online teaching, like Flash projects, but I haven't seen it in years, myself].

[human]

you can get Widgets for Windows now [ever hear of Konfabulator, or Mac OSX's Dashboard widgets?]

Oh, yeah!

Konfabulator was purchased by Yahoo and turned into Yahoo Widgets.

http://widgets.yahoo.com/workshop/

As long as your users are willing to install the Yahoo Widget Engine (which somewhat eats up CPU power) this would definitely accomplish what you want. For instance:

http://widgets.yahoo.com/gallery/view.php?widget=41027

(I don't think this product is likely to be a source of spyware)

[human]

UPDATE:

After you install Yahoo Widgets, search for the Hula Girl widget and install her.

Then search for the Widget Converter and install that.

Drop the Hula Girl Widget onto the Widget Converter and spill her cute lil' parts into a folder.

Then rifle through the parts until you find enlightenment.

[DK]

Well...here's what's happened so far.....I've checked out all of the above, thanks to all. Mooncaine, re: Widgets, it seems it is very difficult to find any tutorials on creating an animated character widget. It appears the terminology has widespread applications. As far as the other options go, they seem to require a major installation of some 3rd party software. I am trying to create a desktop character that could work on most desktops with minimum fuss. J, I have tried the demos of Zinc and Swish. This seems to be the best option available so far as they both create exe's that carry the standalone player.... but....both apps do not create an exe that will work properly on my system. I am trying to clear this up with the developers but they themselves are stumped. For some reason the swf's are not picking up my actionscripting properly and it is as basic as I can get it!!! So I'm pretty much at a standstill

Thanks for all the help though

Cheers
D.K

[J. Baker]

What flash app did you use to make the swf with actionscript?

[DK]

Hi J. I used Zinc and Swish demos. Swish just replied to me and said there basically is a bug in Swish that won't allow the actionscript to work correctly if i compile my swf in Swish with a transparent background!!!! Man can you believe that!!! Zinc people just don't know what is going on. At least the Swish techs have discovered and realized the problem. I have just emailed them back to see if there could be a workaround but I don't hold up much hope. If there is a solution I would be interested in your copy btw.

Cheers
D.K

[human]

As far as the other options go, they seem to require a major installation of some 3rd party software.

Well, this is definitely your call and I certainly have no vested interest in how you do or do not proceed, but for the record I don't see how the installation of Yahoo Widgets should be a showstopper.

Even the performance issues which I complained about do not strike me as significant under the prevailing version 4.

For what it's worth, the fundamental engineering design of the Konfabulator technology looks like the work of someone who really "gets" how a modern widget technology ought to work, and as I said, it clearly delivers the animation functionality you asked for (cross-platform I might add). (I would add that the framework goes way beyond animation to include a lot of practical functionality, so the animation doesn't have to be mere decor.)

What's more, it's really very easy to make a floating animated character using the method I described, if you have a PNG sequence.

Perhaps ultimately this is all about your application and your audience. Do they want your character enough to do a one-minute install of the widget framework?

Only you know how to make that judgment call.

[DK]

Hi Human. Thanks for the reply. I am after a very simple self executable style character that requires no installation like Swift and Zinc offer. The projectors are all self contained with a flash player so basically just run when they are executed. I just tried to download one of the widgets you pointed me to and there seemed to be an installation process involved which I'm trying to avoid. I wonder if you can create a widget that is self executable?

Cheers
D.K

[human]

I wonder if you can create a widget that is self executable?

Oh, sorry, no. The framework doesn't technically support that, and it wouldn't be in their business interest to do so, since ultimately the widgets are intended to tempt users to come under the Yahoo umbrella...

MOO AH HA HA! The evil genius of it all.

(Sorry, something just came over me.)

[J. Baker]

Hi J. I used Zinc and Swish demos. Swish just replied to me and said there basically is a bug in Swish that won't allow the actionscript to work correctly if i compile my swf in Swish with a transparent background!!!! Man can you believe that!!! Zinc people just don't know what is going on. At least the Swish techs have discovered and realized the problem. I have just emailed them back to see if there could be a workaround but I don't hold up much hope. If there is a solution I would be interested in your copy btw.

Cheers
D.K

I thought SwishMax or whatever it's called, doesn't use true actionscript. They have their own variation of it. That's just similar to actionscript. That may have been the problem and that's why I ask what app you used.

[DK]

Hi J. I used Swish Studio. I sent them my Flash files and they had the same problem as I did. I'm still waiting for the reply to second question.

Cheers
D.K

[J. Baker]

Hi J. I used Swish Studio. I sent them my Flash files and they had the same problem as I did. I'm still waiting for the reply to second question.

Cheers
D.K

Oh, I was wondering what app you used to create the swf file, not the projector?

[DK]

Oh....I used Flash 8 to make the swf.

D.K

[J. Baker]

Oh....I used Flash 8 to make the swf.

D.K

Hmmm, not sure why you would have an issue then. Hope you get it solved soon.