New Article on Additive Blending Effects

Now that Jorge at IsoInteractive has teased out how to use additive blending in Shockwave3D, I figured I'd put up a page in my Shockwave3D Developer's Center (sorry, I've taken the site down - do not use Adobe Director) showing how additive blending techniques can really enhance the look of a Shockwave3D piece.

Here's a screenshot of what the featured effect (called "FireJet") looks like:

Special Effects using Additive and Multiplicative Blending includes a discussion of what additive blending is, and includes exposition, details, and the source code to recreate the above FireJet effect.

It also has a demo that lets you click between several particle textures to see their effects in an additive context, which might give you some ideas for spell effects for your next Director-based RPG game. (Hint, hint!)

Frosty Demo Available

Okay, I've just uploaded the demo version of Frosty to the ImaginEERIEing site. Frosty is our new Christmas-themed digital puppet, for all you home haunters who start putting up animated reindeer and Santas after you tear down your animated zombies and witches.

The puppet is not for purchase yet, since I want to get some testing done on it before I start charging. I'd appreciate it if you'd try it out and let me know whether you experience any bugs or problems with him. Thanks, and enjoy!

Strange Eons adds Arkham Investigations support

For those of you that play Arkham Horror, Chris Jennings' excellent Strange Eons, a Java program for creating custom Arkham Horror material, has a new alpha build available which adds support for Arkham Investigations casebooks and foldable tomes. Ia! Ia! Chris Jennings fthagn!

Gordo for charity, other testimonials

I've put up some testimonials on the ImaginEERIEing site which tell some good stories.

One is the story of a home haunter who charmed everyone from toddlers to parents, including some college girls in between, with the Magic Mirror.

But even more gratifying was the story of Gordo being used for a charity event for children and adults with severe disabilities. When we first built the Magic Mirror and offered it as a free download, we hadn't anticipated its use outside of the context of a home haunt, or possibly a haunted house attraction. But this was a great use of the puppet, because it was engaging and spooky enough to connect with the kids, but (thanks to Gordo's "happy face") not so intimidating that it put them off. Having an adjustable level of friendliness with moods really does come in handy for managing your performance to be appropriate for your visitors, on the fly if need be.

As stories come in about people using our digital puppets, I have to say: it's really great to know that our creations have spread smiles all over the country and beyond. It's a great feeling.

Shockwave Additive & Subtractive Blending

Oh, happy day! Jorge Rodríguez at isointeractive has figured out how to do Additive and Subtractive Blending in Shockwave.

Video of the Madame Sarita Game for 2007

Okay, I got some video of kids playing the Madame Sarita game up on YouTube. Here it is:



All in all, it turned out pretty well - most of the kids seemed to really enjoy the custom controllers. The fact that they didn't have any wires, and that you didn't even touch them (except for the skull, which could be picked up off the table and still work), gave them a really mystical feel.

We did have a few technical difficulties during the night, but once we got through the first few sets of visitors, it ran smoothly for the remainder of the night.

Digital Puppet Fun for 2007

It looks like ImaginEERIEing's digital puppets really contributed to some fun for kids outside of our own little home haunt this year. There have been a lot more downloads of the puppets this year than in 2006, and the reports are starting to come in about how they worked for people.

Dez, who lives in a not-very-Halloween-oriented town up in Canada, decided to get the ball rolling in his community by using the Magic Mirror to get kids interested in a spooky, fun tradtiion. He's wwritten a really good blog post with his mirror implementation and response, complete with video and photos. The facade he built looks great, and he describes how he built it. He had some interesting ideas on keeping the cost low for it - it's worth a read.

And Brent used our Yorick puppet to greet his guests with a really big pirate skull. The facade he constructed carried the theme through, complete with a treasure chest and iron sconces. Very nice!

As for our own haunt, the Magic Mirror remained an audience favorite, with people lining up all down our sidewalk to have a chance to talk to it. My buddy Rich provided the entertaining and engaging voice for it, and parents were telling us nonstop all night how their kids wouldn't miss the mirror on Halloween.

If you used the Magic Mirror or one of our "pro" puppets in your haunt this year, be sure to send us a note!