Jackson Pollock – From AS2 to AS3

I found a Jackson Pollock style painting example written in AS2 called ‘Splatter’ over at stamen.com. I wanted to include a Pollock style brush in my painting application so I converted it into AS3. Just copy and past the following code into a new AS3 document in Flash.

[kml_flashembed publishmethod=”static” fversion=”9.0.0″ movie=”https://www.purplesquirrels.com.au/blogstuff/pollock/pollockfla.swf” width=”650″ height=”500″ targetclass=”alignnone”]

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[/kml_flashembed]

[cc lang=”actionscript3″]
import flash.events.MouseEvent;
import flash.display.MovieClip;

//set up some vars
var new_size_influence:Number = 0.5;
var mid_point_push:Number = 0.75;
var max_line_width:Number = (Math.random() * 50) + 50;

//vars for line colour and alpha
var _colour:uint = 0x000000;
var _alpha:Number = 1;

//create var to hold all mouse position data
var obj:Object = new Object();
obj.x = 0;
obj.y = 0;
obj.start_x = obj.mid_x = obj.end_x = (stage.stageWidth / 2);
obj.start_y = obj.mid_y = obj.end_y = (stage.stageHeight / 2);
obj.size = 0;

//add mouse down event listener
stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, onDown);

function onDown(e:MouseEvent):void
{
//create random colour
_colour = Math.random()*0xFFFFFF;

//set all line data to current mouse position
obj.start_x = obj.mid_x = obj.end_x = mouseX;
obj.start_y = obj.mid_y = obj.end_y = mouseY;

//add mouse up and mouse move event listeners
stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_MOVE, onMove);
stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP, onUp);
}

function onUp(e:MouseEvent):void
{
//remove mouse up and mouse move event listeners
stage.removeEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_MOVE, onMove);
stage.removeEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP, onUp);
}

function onMove(e:MouseEvent):void
{
//find the mid point between current and last mouse position
obj.mid_x = ((obj.end_x – obj.start_x) * (1 + mid_point_push)) + obj.start_x;
obj.mid_y = ((obj.end_y – obj.start_y) * (1 + mid_point_push)) + obj.start_y;

//set start to last point
obj.start_x = obj.end_x;
obj.start_y = obj.end_y;

//set end to current point
obj.end_x = mouseX;
obj.end_y = mouseY;

//get distance between start and end point
var distance:Number = Math.sqrt(Math.pow((obj.end_x – obj.start_x), 2) + Math.pow((obj.end_y – obj.start_y), 2));

//set size depending on distance
var new_size:Number = max_line_width / distance;
obj.size = (new_size_influence * new_size) + ((1 – new_size_influence) * obj.size);

//draw the line
graphics.lineStyle(obj.size,_colour,_alpha);
graphics.moveTo(obj.start_x, obj.start_y);
graphics.curveTo(obj.mid_x, obj.mid_y, obj.end_x, obj.end_y);

// splotch
var dd:Number = Math.sqrt(Math.pow((obj.end_x – obj.start_x), 2) + Math.pow((obj.end_y – obj.start_y), 2));

for (var i:int = 0; i

Spray Paint stenciling in Flash

After seeing the Wii Spray demo videos a year or so ago I have since been wondering how they did the stencils. I couldn’t find any information on how to achieve an effect like paint stenciling so today I decided to give it a shot myself. Below is a small demo where you can have a go and spraying some stencils. Instructions are in the bottom left corner. Here is how it works:

Layers (top to bottom):

  1. Draw Layer Bitmap – contains BitmapData where the spray paint is drawn
  2. Stencil MovieClip – the stencil you see on screen containing artwork with transparency
  3. Stencil BitmapData – stencil is drawn to this bitmap data (not added to display list)
  4. Canvas Bitmap – where final artwork is drawn to

The process

  1. when stencil is moved and placed somewhere, the Stencil BitmapData is filled with red, then the Stencil MovieClip is drawn on top.
  2. you then paint with the mouse – paint is drawn to Draw Layer Bitmap
  3. on mouse up a Temporary BitmapData is created
  4. it then loops through all pixels in Stencil BitmapData – if pixel is Red: copy corresponding pixel from Draw Layer Bitmap to Temporary BitmapData
  5. when the loop is complete draw the Temporary BitmapData to the Canvas BitmapData
  6. Draw Layer Bitmap is then cleared

[kml_flashembed publishmethod=”static” fversion=”10.0.0″ useexpressinstall=”true” movie=”https://www.purplesquirrels.com.au/blogstuff/stencil/as3stencil.swf” width=”650″ height=”500″ targetclass=”alignnone”]

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[/kml_flashembed]