CN Tower Toronto

May 10, 2007 2:24 PM

Excellent flash photo The things that can be done with Flash. Amazing. Very slowly run your mouse over the entire photo and see the city from dawn to dusk to the city lit up at night. I like. :) ]It amazes me about what some people choose to complain about.]
posted by rasmusnor (57 comments total)

You're about to be amazed.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 2:26 PM on May 10, 2007 [4 favorites]

I refute "Excellent" and "Amazing" but it's at least not vomit inducing.
posted by Skorgu at 2:27 PM on May 10, 2007

That's pretty cool, but kinda choppy. Is there some way to smoothly make it function in order? I went from left to right, along the horizon, and it went from morning right to night then late night and back to day almost instantly as I moved.
posted by mathowie at 2:28 PM on May 10, 2007

With StumbleUpon I've seen a similar photo of Milan done in the same way but with more photos.
posted by darkripper at 2:30 PM on May 10, 2007

Needs more HDR. (Still, a nice idea)
posted by IronLizard at 2:31 PM on May 10, 2007

Needs more photos.
posted by bigmusic at 2:32 PM on May 10, 2007

That's an incredibly long exposure for a flash photo -- har, har!
posted by mazola at 2:33 PM on May 10, 2007 [1 favorite]

As someone who does a lot of (much better) Flash work, I can tell you that that was real beginner-level stuff. Six images and maybe three lines of Actionscript would just about do it.

They could at least have blended the images slightly to give an illusion of seamlessness.

Yours Sincerely
Underwhelmed
posted by popkinson at 2:34 PM on May 10, 2007

mathowie: It could be smooth. And I agree, that would be smooth.

Here's an example of smooth using shockwave circa 2002.

http://people.reed.edu/~cosmo/AC.html
(The blue links on the left give you different photos)
posted by nonmyopicdave at 2:36 PM on May 10, 2007 [4 favorites]

How do we know this isn't just a viral ad for Greyhound Buses?
posted by Flashman at 2:36 PM on May 10, 2007

It'd be cool if there were 60 frames rather than 6. It's also hardly an amazing application of Flash. Meh.
posted by 0xFCAF at 2:43 PM on May 10, 2007

was that bus out there all day?
posted by parmanparman at 2:43 PM on May 10, 2007

Yeah, it needs about 100 more photos, and some sort of seamless blending.

Also, I don't think that first picture was taken at dawn. I'm guessing this is actually from about 1 hour before sunset to night, rather than from "dawn to dusk". It covers a total of two hours, maybe less.

Also, I'm not a web guy at all, but do you even need flash to do something like this? It could be done pretty trivially with javascript, no?

OK, that's all I can think of to complain about!
posted by mr_roboto at 2:44 PM on May 10, 2007

If that's the pinnacle of Flash then I feel entirely justified in hating its indiscriminate use with a white hot passion. It has its purposes, to be sure, but the effect in this link could be cobbled together in a few minutes in Javascript. Imagine calculating opacity for three images (previous, this, next) based on relative position of the mouse and you could get the effect of images fading in to one another instead of the choppy mouseover effect here. Could be done in JS, likely could be done in AS as well...

Not trying to be snarky, just sayin'.
posted by Fezboy! at 2:48 PM on May 10, 2007

mr_roboto: my thoughts exactly. Could have done this since the dawn of javascript.
posted by rouftop at 2:53 PM on May 10, 2007

Nice photos, though.
posted by everichon at 2:54 PM on May 10, 2007

Further proof that defensive comments regarding response expectations merely increases negative commentary.

Well, defensive comments and making bold claims about items that turn out to be inferior.

Interestingly, the two often seem to occur simultaneously, which may be influencing the correlation.

Hopefully the poster won't get upset and will instead chalk this up as a learning opportunity.
posted by batmonkey at 2:58 PM on May 10, 2007 [1 favorite]

MEH! MEH!!!
posted by svenx at 3:03 PM on May 10, 2007 [1 favorite]

It's like Thomas Kincade, but with a photo.
posted by ORthey at 3:06 PM on May 10, 2007

Excellent flash animation. The things that can be done with Flash. Amazing. Sit back and be entertained like never before. I like. :) ]It amazes me about what some people choose to complain about.]
posted by mazola at 3:06 PM on May 10, 2007 [5 favorites]

meh.
posted by shmegegge at 3:07 PM on May 10, 2007

Grind, grind, grind.

Would have been a so-so post without the flash evangelizing. As it is, it sucks.

If this amazes you, you should see what you can do with plain 'ol HTML and Javascript!!! OMFG!!!
posted by chundo at 3:08 PM on May 10, 2007

This is Sam from Toronto's project. The guy is an amazing photographer. I'd recommend his daily dose of photography.

Also while I'm pinpin' out Toronto photographers (and why not), my friend Rannie has some great photos
posted by joelf at 3:09 PM on May 10, 2007

I choose to complain that the first square bracket in the parenthetical comment is facing in the wrong direction.
posted by Karmakaze at 3:11 PM on May 10, 2007 [2 favorites]

This thread was worth it just for mazola's link.
posted by chundo at 3:11 PM on May 10, 2007

There are so many nice photos at Daily Dose of Imagery. I'm sure the site has been linked here before.
posted by chunking express at 3:12 PM on May 10, 2007

I was really hoping this turned out to be a self-link so that someone would have to burn in a fire of ban-hammering.
posted by casconed at 3:17 PM on May 10, 2007

The flash that's linked is actually just part of a post, and not intended to be some "amazing" flash work.

The author/photographer was given something called "pclix," and was dabbling with doing some timelapse stuff. See here and here for a few other examples.

To clarify: the site itself (Daily Dose of Imagery) is primarily a photo blog, with some rare departures into Flash.

I'm a big fan of the site - it's one of my favorites, and a place I check daily. There are a ton of photos on there that simply take my breath away. I'd hate to see people miss out on the rest of the site because of an overemphasis on the Flash content.
posted by avoision at 3:23 PM on May 10, 2007

parmanparman : was that bus out there all day?

Amusingly, that is the exact same sentiment I came away from this with.

The photographs are nice, but in order for this effect to work, there needs to be many more.
posted by quin at 3:33 PM on May 10, 2007

Oh, yeah, the photos themselves are nice. Not nearly the best ones on the site, though. The photographer has a great sense for using natural light.
posted by mr_roboto at 3:35 PM on May 10, 2007

The bus on the lower right didn't move all day. Someone call Homeland Security!
posted by sourwookie at 3:35 PM on May 10, 2007

Further proof that defensive comments regarding response expectations merely increases negative commentary

I think you're confusing correlation with causation.
posted by 0xFCAF at 3:45 PM on May 10, 2007

The pinnacle of Flash.
posted by ryoshu at 3:47 PM on May 10, 2007 [2 favorites]

avoision writes "The flash that's linked is actually just part of a post, and not intended to be some 'amazing' flash work. "

And, oh yeah, just wanted to point out that the actual post totally validates the second point in my first comment. "Two hour time frame", not "dawn to dusk". So that bus is only parked for about two hours!
posted by mr_roboto at 3:48 PM on May 10, 2007

Where did you find this, razmusnor?
posted by IronLizard at 3:51 PM on May 10, 2007

svenx isn't "MEH!MemEH!!!" sort of an oxymoron, shouldn't "meh" be delivered in a sort of off-handed sort of- meh way?

Just saying.
posted by mattoxic at 3:55 PM on May 10, 2007

I liked it because I could pretend it was one of those cutscenes from Angel.
posted by Cyrano at 4:14 PM on May 10, 2007

OK, that's all I can think of to complain about!

I can think of more. So much more.

svenx isn't "MEH!MemEH!!!" sort of an oxymoron, shouldn't "meh" be delivered in a sort of off-handed sort of- meh way?

That was why it was FUNNY!!!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:16 PM on May 10, 2007

meh
posted by bshort at 4:18 PM on May 10, 2007

Take off! To the Great White North!
Take off! It's a beauty way to go.
posted by porn in the woods at 4:24 PM on May 10, 2007

This photo is useless incomplete without Martin Crane's recliner in the foreground.
posted by rob511 at 5:04 PM on May 10, 2007

jk
posted by rob511 at 5:06 PM on May 10, 2007

You could implement this in about 20 lines of Javascript even, without any Flash. There are some things that Flash can do really well, but this is about as far from demonstrating them as you can get.
posted by Rhomboid at 5:14 PM on May 10, 2007

Seriously, forget the Flash thing - go through the archives. This is a fantastic photoblog.
posted by davebush at 5:19 PM on May 10, 2007 [1 favorite]

0xFCAF: "I think you're confusing correlation with causation."

I don't normally do "LOL", but, hells, 0xFCAF, you earned it:

LOL.

Everyone who suggested looking at the main site: Thank you! Very much worth it.
posted by batmonkey at 5:22 PM on May 10, 2007 [1 favorite]

Sam is a _good_ photographer who carves out time to shoot, process and deliver consistently _good_ photographs. I wouldn't go so far as to say that he "is an amazing photographer", nor would I say that he takes amazing photographs. With the proliferation of so called 'photographers' we need to be more critical. I strongly feel that the true art of photography is being lost in technical details.
posted by spish at 6:03 PM on May 10, 2007 [1 favorite]

I don't think it's appropriate to put a pre-emptive whinge about complaints in an FPP.
posted by UbuRoivas at 6:07 PM on May 10, 2007

This post sucks so much that it's either some kind of indirect self-link or the set-up to a self-link. You're on the watch list, pal.
posted by puke & cry at 6:51 PM on May 10, 2007 [2 favorites]

THAT WAS FUCKING AMAZING I JUST CRAPPED MY PANTS DAMN AND I JUST DID THE LAUNDRY.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 6:55 PM on May 10, 2007

I don't think it's appropriate to beat up on the noob on his first ever post, unless, of course, it's either some kind of indirect self-link or the set-up to a self-link.

I'll set the ball rolling: Sam Javanrouh is the photographer in question, and rasmusnor just happens to be an anagram of "Sam runs or..." GETS BANHAMMERED!
posted by UbuRoivas at 7:20 PM on May 10, 2007

No flash animation can compare with the glory of HYPNOTOAD.
All hail the hypnotoad.
posted by closetphilosopher at 1:16 AM on May 11, 2007

Surely there's a prettier part of Toronto to shoot.
posted by chuckdarwin at 2:15 AM on May 11, 2007

Someone needs to do this with more frames, and have the camera facing west. Wherever you place the mouse the sun appears...it'd probably take a year to put together.
posted by samsara at 7:10 AM on May 11, 2007

Is it too early to call for a flameout?
posted by Alt F4 at 7:29 AM on May 11, 2007

I think the still image with the 6 blends and 'fold' kind of effect in the post is much neater that the flash, actually. It's a nice visual effect
posted by phearlez at 8:28 AM on May 11, 2007

Speaking as someone who as a n00b had their 1st post deleted, YOU SUCK RASMUSNOR! YOU ARE TEH GAY AND TEH FLASH IS SO EVILICIOUSLY STOOPID!

but seriously,


meh.
posted by Debaser626 at 8:53 AM on May 11, 2007

Here is some of the best Flash work being done today:

http://blog.papervision3d.org
posted by paulinsanjuan at 9:03 AM on May 11, 2007