I have just added a new ‘stuff‘ page to this blog (see main menu above) where i will be adding assorted bits and pieces that will hopefully be useful to some of you flashers out there.
To get things started, i have added 5 PixelBender filters (when i went through my library of filters i realised that many of them were quite similar or very specific, so once i have discarded the waste i will post some more).
If you’re not familar with PixelBender, i have posted some truly amazing/totally fantastic/incredibly awesome tutorials on the subject, so there’s no excuse not to take my free stuff…
Firstly, as i realise that i haven’t actually mentioned it yet and it’s a rather important point, PixelBender filters are quick! Much quicker than ActionScript and they can also run asynchronously in a separate thread. So bear that in mind when you find out further down the page that you can’t even loop in PixelBender!
If you’ve read part one and part two, it’s time to look at what we can do in a PixelBender kernel (filter).
Read more…
The built-in filters provided by the BitmapFilters API (blur, glow, dropshadow, bevel etc) are very useful but sometimes our imagination exceeds their capabilities. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could create our own? Yes it would, and it is; we can build our own filters with a free bit of software called PixelBender and use a ShaderFilter filter to implement them.
Before i go any further, here’s a simple example to show you how much further we can go with custom filters:
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