Dekaf is listed there as an entry along with everyone else’s. Some great work up there. I really, really like the PostACard app. Very nice work indeed to everyone who submitted.

And of course thanks to the entire Degrafa team. Awesome work on an excellent framework!

I was inspired by a post on the Degrafa blog about generative compositions being made with Degrafa and saw they were running a “Degrafa Derby” contest… So, I decided to tie Degrafa to Kuler and produce a mashup similar to my CoolerKreator app. It’s called Dekaf. It’s lacking a couple features that CoolerKreator has, animation, filters etc… mainly cuz I’m totally new to Degrafa.

The source is a bit of a mess (available via right click in the app), i haven’t deleted a number of traces, etc… I have to admit, I had a heck of a time getting the “removeChild” type methods to work in Degrafa. I ended up using “pop()” on the items arrays instead. Oh well. I hope to add in filters and animation in the next few days/weeks as time allows.

Much thanks to Erno on the DeGrafa Gogle Group and of course to Mark Tovey, my coworker who gave me a bit of help with the ciricle removal code troubleshooting.

Enjoy!

I received correspondence from some folks at Adobe… I suppose that the name my little app had been using wasn’t really something that they had approved. So, in the interest of being courteous and such… I have a new name for everyone’s favorite Kuler powered generative art composition tool. CoolerKreator.

The site does use a 301 redirect to help prevent 404 errors, but for future reference, update your bookmarks.

A couple months ago, I was approached by the people from Computer Arts to write a tutorial explaining how KulerCreator was made. They had an upcoming issue that was going to feature a number of leading generative artists, like fellow Peorian Erik Natzke, among others, and wanted a tutorial that would show the readers a relatively simple generative project to get them started in creating their own compositions. I gladly obliged.

The tutorial is published in Computer Arts Issue 145, so if you are interested in seeing how the colorful orbs came to be, and learn a bit about the Kuler API and some simple AS3 drawing, along with E4X, go pick up an issue. I think the tutorial is a bit out of the norm for the magazine, as KulerCreator contains no illustration or traditional “art” at all. It truly is completely code driven, so the path to completing the project is somewhat different than the usual pieces in the magazine. I hope that the readers are finding value in it and can use some of the ideas presented in the piece to create their own generative pieces or web service powered art.

I know I felt honored to placed in such a great magazine. While I am not a subscriber to Computer Arts, I do read it from time to time, so it was a real pleasure to be chosen as a contributor. When you consider the other designers in the issue like Go Media, Edvard Scott, etc… It really is something to have my work featured next to theirs.

Thanks to the admins at programable web for making Kuler Creator mashup of the day for December 7th, 2007… very cool indeed! have I have a few additions planned for the Kuler api, so stay tuned… Keep making compositions… I love seeing what people are getting out of the system. If you are a PW member… go there and vote.

A piece as simple as Kuler Creator relies on it’s source material for its success… The code behind it is trivial, so it truly is about the small elements that comprise the finished compositions. The strong source material in this case, the themes, are what really makes the compositions interesting. The previous version of Kuler Creator didn’t mention the Kuler theme creators directly in the composition, but that has been changed. The designer who created the original palette is now credited in the title area of the finished work. Enjoy.

Hope everyone had some great family time for the holiday. Here is a Thanksgiving themed KulerCreator theme desktop for you to use while doing your online Black Friday shopping… Enjoy.

So I made a couple improvements to the KulerCreator application. It now randomizes themes from within a search (A search for “Blue” returns a composition based on one theme one time, and a completely different theme the next). It also allows the user to choose the number of circles to draw and lets you choose what color of background to draw the composition on.

I have noticed a little flakiness on repeated composition creation, as I’m still learning the AS3 DisplayObject stuff (AddChild/RemoveChild is certainly a step up from the createEmptyMovieClip I was so used to using, but it’s taking a bit to get my head around it). So if it wonks out after a couple drawings, just refresh, things should go back to normal… I plan on fixing that soon, but I think I may need to implement a Timer to do so, as a simple loop isn’t doing a perfect job on cleanup.

This project has brought me a few cool learning experiences though:

1. My first real Flash based project in AS3.
2. My first chance to use new AS3 specific things like the Shape Drawing, AddChild/RemoveChild, E4X, Timer, etc. in Flash (I had previously only used them in Flex.)
3. A chance to play with yet another API – the Kuler API. – I have a plan to implement the Kuler API with another API to make a really cool mashup soon, more on the way with that.
4. How to use the new Fullscreen mode in Flash.
5. Implemented the AS3 Tweener class in Flash – I was a long time user of McTween by Zeh in AS2 and now had a reason to use his new class. All animation in KulerCreator is made with this library.

So, continue playing with the application, and again, if you make cool stuff… post it on your sie or flickr and drop me a line. So far the response I gotten has been great. It’s cool to see that people are liking it.

Starlit Web has created and posted a large set of images created with my KulerCreator app at Flickr. Very cool! Just some notes… any work created by KulerCreator is actually bound by this Creative Commons copyright:


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

That said, please continue to use and enjoy KulerCreator.

I created a series of generative pieces using some simple AS3 last weekend and kind of liked the look… So, I decided to abstract the functionality just a bit and allow a site visitor to create some similar pieces using Kuler color themes using the Kuler API. It’s pretty easy to use and works fairly well, so I’m putting it out there to play around with. Simply visit the page, type in a tag you want to see a piece based off of and click the the “create” button. It will be generated fullscreen, allowing you to take a screen shot of it. If you want to start over and try again, simply rollover the title area on the screen and click the button that appears.

If you like it, drop me a line. I have a fair amount of error trapping in it, but if you do get some sort of flakiness, let me know what happened (please tell me what you searched for too.) If you use it and make something great, post it or send it to me! ‘ll add it to my Flickr.

I may add a bit more randomness eventually… right now, it just creates based on the first theme in the results returned, so “berry” always brings back the same palette. I’d like to mix that up a bit.

An AIR version of this definitely in order… I’d also like to export high res PNGs straight out of it. Enjoy…