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Humuhumu on Disney's websiteApr-10-06, 4:45 pm by Hanford | Read full postFile under: Disney, Misc.  Amazing website designer, intrepid tiki reporter, and my then-girlfriend Humuhumu has an incredible story that starts with her wearing a vintage Tiki Room dress to a Disneyland Fan convention in Anahiem, and ends with her modeling a reproduction of the dress for Dinsey's online retail website.
While we were at the NFFC convention to help with a presentation, I snapped a photo of Humuhumu wearing a vintage Tiki Room dress that was on loan to her from Disney artist Kevin Kidney. That photo got posted to my Tiki website, where some other Dinsey artists discovered it and mistook it for a vintage photo. Inspired by the photo, Disney decided to reproduce the dress design and sell it online as a limited edition item. The reproduction dress is a different color than the vintage one because the fabric was reproduced first for another Tiki Room hawaiian shirt. When the reproduction dress was ready to be photographed for their website, Kevin contacted Humuhumu to be the model! Disney had us drive down to LA for the photoshoot, where I got to see a lot of the cool stuff they make for the Disney catalog and website while Humuhumu modeled the dress. The rest, as they say, is history! Links:Humuhumu on the Disney siteHumuhumu's retelling of the story with all the details Director: Compressing Lists from storage in text membersApr-1-06, 9:48 pm by Hanford | Read full postFile under: Lingo, Shockwave, Adobe, Director, Macromedia Something I do a lot in my Macromedia Director projects is save a proplist or a linear list to a text member in order to recall it later. It has some advantages over using external text files. I use it a lot for game levels where the levels are saved to text members during authoring and read back during playback. While working on my next game I thought of a simple technique to compress these lists a bit while still making them human readable and easy/fast to convert back into lists when I need them. My compression rouinte is getting my game levels down to about 75% of their original size. Continued Awkward WordingMar-30-06, 5:35 pm by Hanford | Read full postFile under: Bad User Interface, Misc. This bit of awkward wording on the Netflix website was pointed out to me by a friend. This is a headline on their recommendations page (you need to be logged in and have some movies rated for it to show up). It's just too weird to not share: 
GDC2006: All fun and gamesMar-27-06, 2:49 pm by Hanford | Read full postFile under: Adobe, Macromedia, Google, consoles, Video games I just got back from Game Developer's Conference (it was along drive from San Jose to Mountain View) and boy are my legs tired. I've been going to GDC for about 6 or 7 years now, and I mainly go to meet up with video game friends old and new (from both LucasArts and from the Indie Game scene). I'm going to post a quick list of highlights:
The Secret HandshakeMar-26-06, 12:48 am by Hanford | Read full postFile under: User Interface, Misc. I came up with an idea that I call the secret handshake. The secret handshake is a property on a user's online account for services that want to send me email. Here's how it would work:
Now, I didn't think of this for secure services like Paypal, but at first glance it seems like something that could reduce phishing scams. Flash 8 / Director Authoring tools now availableMar-21-06, 1:39 pm by Hanford | Read full postFile under: Lingo, Shockwave, Adobe, Director, Macromedia  On the heals of releasing the Shockwave update, Tom Higgins has published the Director Authoring tools for implementing Flash 8 content in Director (and Shockwave). It includes many new features for Flash and Director to communicate and share data. Most interesting to me is the ability to pass images from Director to Flash, have Flash apply it's new filter effects to it, and pass it back to Director. This includes things like blurs, glows, and more.
Make sure you get the PDF posted there as well, since it explains how to implement the new features. http://www.macromedia.com/support/director/downloads.html Shockwave 10.1.1r16 now availableMar-14-06, 4:50 pm by Hanford | Read full postFile under: Shockwave, Adobe, Director, Macromedia  Get it here. Read Tom's announcement over at his blog. Sounds like it's got some neato stuff.
An Old HunchMar-13-06, 4:19 am by Hanford | Read full postFile under: Adobe, User Interface, Photoshop The hunch engine mentioned in Wired News today sounds just like Variations in Photoshop, which has been included in the program for, oh, at least ten years: 
To try it in Photoshop just open and image and choose Image > Adjustments > Variations. It's not really new, but perhaps this kind of results-oriented UI may finally catch on. Taking meeting notes with a laptopMar-13-06, 3:04 am by Hanford | Read full postFile under: Bad User Interface, Misc. I was in a mildly annoying meeting last week. When I'm talking in a meeting and someone is using a laptop, I can't help but wonder if they're listening to me and taking notes, or if they're not paying attention and instead browsing Craigslist or playing Tetris. It can be difficult. And after this meeting, it hit me -- if I'm wondering about them, its likely that they are wondering the same thing about me when I'm using my laptop. This is a simply a perception issue, so I'm going to try and make my note-taking a bit more transparent. I've decided to take notes with pen and paper and avoid using my laptop during meetings whenever possible. I think it will improve communication. And it should be easy since I completed Tetris a few years ago. Sketchbook Pro: Tablet PC's Killer AppMar-9-06, 9:16 pm by Hanford | Read full postFile under: TabletPC, Sketchbook Pro, User Interface, design, Photoshop With all the hype from the Origami Project, I thought I'd share a bit about my favorite app for tablets and what makes it so great (and one of the only things that makes a TabletPC worth owning, in my opinion).  Alias Sketchbook Pro is a freehand pixel-based paint program specifically designed for pen-based input. it's designers have perfected the drawing experience for a pen-on-screen device. And on top of it they've given it a very clever UI that seamlessly promotes the user from using menus to using gestures. It's amazing. As a UI designer I carry with me my laptop and a sketchbook, and the new Origami tablets look like a great size to duplicate a sketchbook experience.
So, what makes Alias Sketchbook Pro so good? I can break it down into a few different bits:
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I make things. From consumer electronics, to video games, to theme park attractions. Perhaps I can make things for you! Check out my portfolio. When I'm not making things for other people, I'm usually experimenting.
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