Ryan Campbell » PlexiGlass

Plexiglass: 3D Components Made Easy at 360|Flex

Ryan Campbell — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 19:21:34 +0000

In the time since 360|Flex Atlanta, Ben and I have made a lot of progress on OpenFlux. The majority of my focus has been on what's called Plexiglass. It consists of an alternate view class, 3D layouts and cameras allowing you to create 3D components with as little as a couple lines of mxml or css.

We've still got a ways to go, OpenFlux is still in alpha release, but I'm really happy with what we've done so far and I can't wait to show it off. My session at 360|Flex will give you a great idea on what's currently possible, how to get started and future plans. Not to mention some sweet demos with full source code provided.

I'll also be looking to the crowd to drum up discussion on where to go next with the project. Although OpenFlux has been quoted as "Flex 4 Now", Plexiglass is definitely beyond the scope of the Flex 4 SDK. We've got a pretty solid core, I've experimented with Flex 4 compatibility and I think with the communities help this project can go a long way.

Below is a quick example (took 5 minutes) of a regular OpenFlux List component using the FlowLayout and an OpenFlux List using Plexiglass with the SpiralLayout. You can see by the source code, Plexiglass is really easy to get started with.

If you are interested in learning more come check out my session on Monday afternoon. On Sunday there is also free training on OpenFlux with Ben Stucki and I'll also be there to show you how to build a 3D component (e-mail info@360flex.com to RSVP).

Lastly: This will be my third time going to 360|Flex. The previous 2 (Seattle, Atlanta) I had a blast, learnt a lot, meet a bunch of great people and it sounds like this one is going to be even better. I look forward to seeing you all there and if you see me around please come say hi.

Updated: PlexiGlass (OpenFlux 3D) Example

Ryan Campbell — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 04:20:49 +0000

Since my previous entry I've made some major speed improvements, added back in the 52 cards and added 2 new 3d layouts similar to the ones in Pavan Podila's Element Flow.

We've still got some work ahead of us before this goes public but I definitely can't wait to see OpenFlux get used and see what new 3D layouts others contribute.

As we get closer to release I'll be posting more examples and howtos on getting started with OpenFlux.

Click the image below to try out the example.

PlexiGlass (OpenFlux 3D) Example

Ryan Campbell — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 17:52:00 +0000

I've ported over Doug McCune's CoverFlow component as 3D layouts in OpenFlux. You can switch between horizontal, vertical and carousel layout in the same List component along with a few other adjustable properties. It's highly likely there are a few bugs and I had to limit it to 20 cards (52 cards was crazy slow) but this should give you a great idea of where OpenFlux is going.

A regular OpenFlux layout class manages the the x/y positions of the item renderers. PlexiGlass layout classes goes a step further and manage z position, x/y rotations and the camera.

We've still got some cleaning up to do but the code for this example will be included once PlexiGlass goes public. Click the image below to try out the example.