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Flash particle tutorial in Computer Arts magazine

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I was thrilled to have been asked to produce this Flash particle tutorial for Computer Arts magazine this month. I’ve taken you through the process of making a particle class from scratch and using it to create basic particle effects such as sparks and smoke.

Computer Arts flash particle tutorial

The March edition is out now, and you can download the source files here.

15 replies on “Flash particle tutorial in Computer Arts magazine”

[…] I’ve finally found a tiny bit of time between several large projects I am working on at the moment to have a small play with a particle experiment in Flash (Actionscript 3.0). It was far simpler than I expected thanks to a great tutorial in the latest issue of Computer Arts magazine by Seb Lee-Delisle. […]

Hey, I heard about you through Lynda… Watched your FlashForward conference videos and was simply astounded. I’m guessing that Computer Arts just hasn’t published the tutorial that you created, on their website yet? I was hoping to sort of follow along with the tutorial while looking through the source files you’ve provided.

I could probably use these and also look at the Lynda videos and get an idea of what’s going on. Thanks man, you’re a genius!

hey greg! Thanks so much for your kind words 🙂

I think you’ll get a lot more out of the Lynda video than the CA article – it’s a lot more in depth. You’ll find the source code around here somewhere! The latest version is probably on my post for FITC amsterdam.

cheers!

Seb

Hey Seb!
Thanks a LOT!
Your class is brilliant. I managed to create some really cool effects without the tutorials. I have one question though.
I emitate particles on MOUSE_DOWN so my buttons are under the particles and the buttons aren’t triggered. How can i make particles invisible for mouse and trigger buttons through particles ?
It’s a bit out of scope of the subjce but it’s always worth to ask right? 🙂
Thanks in advance!

@ dElay I’m so glad you like it! Unfortunately I’m not sure what the question is… could you explain it again?

Sorry:)
My english isn’t tip-top especially when speaking about coding problems.
My problem was:
I create particles in loop on MOUSE_DOWN in mouseX and mouseY position
particle = new Particle(sth, this, mouseX, mouseY);

I have a button on the stage which is triggered by MouseEvent.CLICK

it occasionally happens that the particles are covering my button and the button isn’t fired.

I solved my problem by changing clip’s type from DisplayObject to MovieClip
public var clip : MovieClip;
and setting
clip.mouseEnabled=false;

thanks again!
i’ll let you know when the project is finished so you can see your class in action 🙂

[…] February I had my first article published in Computer Arts magazine, followed by my first conference of that year, FITC in Amsterdam, with possibly the last ever gig […]

[…] a little particle exploration I did based on Seb Ly-DeLisle Particle System Tutorial : The idea here is to move smoothly . […]

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