Portfolio
I'm Dan Searle, 39, English and a freelance internet and Flash developer based in Barcelona, Spain.
Whilst working with the UK agencies Bright Digital (previously Moonfish) and Ichameleon, I have built up many years' experience building web sites of diverse levels of complexity for clients such as Action Aid UK and International, Intel, Amnesty International, Lynx and Silent Night Beds. Since 2005 I've also been working with BBC Worldwide Interactive Learning on a large, XML powered Flash application. I have a solid base of web development knowledge which I now use to complement my Flash projects, such as by building content management applications.
Since 2006 I've been able to dedicate myself to working solely on Flash-based projects using AS2, AS3 and OOP, and continue to use my spare time to extend my knowledge of Flash.
This is a collection of links to websites and projects that demonstrate the Flash skills I've developed whilst working both for clients and on personal projects.
Projects
Photo Scatter
This is a simple XML driven photo viewer written in AS2. You enlarge the photos by clicking on them, or you can drag and throw them by clicking and dragging. In particular you can rotate them and give them a spin as you throw them. To add to the realism it uses the DropShadowFilter to add a shadow to each photo.
Leadership Pathways for the National College for School Leadership
The design team at BBC Worldwide Interactive Learning had a zetaclear equivalents
working application that presented the user with a series of interactive screens designed to help them assess their team leadership skills, and they asked me to get involved to help increase the data communication across the application. Previously the screens would simply capture and record their own data, I extended that so that they could now read in and use the data captured in other parts of the application.
I also developed certain specialised screens, such as a drag-and-drop card sorting interface and a 3D spinning carousel-type interface (see the prototype).
The screen shots you see included here represent a few of the screens that I developed.
As well as the project work itself, I devised new ways to help the team with their own development work: by helping to streamline the core application code; by adding a debug tool to the interface to give the developer feedback as the application runs; and creating a way for us to run the application in a development environment with full control over the parameters passed into the Flash by using HTML and Javascript.
This work was carried out for BBC Worldwide Interactive Learning and unfortunately I cannot provide a direct link to a live demo.
Flash 8, AS1
Page Flipping Catalogue
I was part of a team that created a dynamic, page-flipping catalogue Flash application that allowed the client to publish their own online interactive catalogues from PDF originals. I worked on all the Flash code, and contributed to the CMS. The catalogues include clickable hotspots that can link to other pages in the catalogue, or link to other websites; there is a bookmark and notes feature to allow the users to record their favourite pages or add notes to pages; send to friend; zoom in and search feature.
The page flipping technique is quite wide spread on the internet now, and there exist a number of free solutions already out there - but in this case I wrote all the code to create the page turning effect myself, including working out the technique and maths behind it.
I also developed a Flash interface as a part of the CMS to allow the admin to create the clickable hotspots - the admin would see a page image and be able to draw rectangles on it to mark the hotspots. They then fill out the details of what action to take when clicked.
I worked with the UK based agency Ichameleon to develop this for one of their clients, as such I cannot provide a direct link to a live demo.
Flash 8, AS2
Timed Multi-Choice Flash Exam
As part of a larger project, which I built in PHP and MySQL, I created a multiple choice, timed exam in Flash using OOP in AS2. The questions and answers were set up in the CMS and fed to Flash via XML from the database. The timing was controlled at the server to prevent cheating. The exam movie would communicate with the server to start and stop the clock, and also to submit the answers the user gave.
The interface was a simple, text based form using check boxes to capture the answers. Each question could have one or more right answers, and the number of answer choices was flexible too - all this controlled via the XML.
The screen shot shown is deliberately obscured to protect the client, but it shows part of the interface when the user is reviewing an exam they've taken previously, where their answers are compared to the correct answers, and further help is given to them so that they can continue their studies of the course material.
I worked with the UK based agency Moonfish to develop this for one of their clients, as such I cannot provide a direct link to the exam.
Flash 8, AS2
UltimaThrust: Multi-level Game
I wrote this single player, multi-level game at the end of 2003, in AS1 in Flash MX, it's based on the game Thrust from the 80s. You control a spaceship and the aim is to collect a pod and deposit it in a teleporter. On the way you are attacked by gun turrets, have to navigate through tunnels, doors and gravity generators.
Other features are editable keyboard controls that are remembered using cookies and a hiscore table built with PHP, MySQL and XML.
Small Games and Interactives
3D Spinning Carousel Menu
A 3D rotating menu. You can click on the black buttons, or on the menu items themselves, and they all rotate to position the one you selected at the front.
This was used as the basis for work on part of the NCSL project for the BBCW.
Flash MX, AS1
I can provide you the source for this demo, but cannot promise any support for it, although I will help if I can. Please contact me, and a donation would be very much appreciated!
Open University Christmas Card
Use your mouse to try to catch the falling snow flakes. I scripted the falling snow and how it interacts with the mouse, my brother designed and created the card.
Flash MX, AS1
Ball Game
Use your mouse to knock the ball around; the grass reacts to the ball and the wind.
Flash MX, AS1
Scrolling News Ticker
A vertically scrolling news ticker, powered by XML. The news item text is created dynamically, and due to a bug in Flash's text rendering code it was necessary to manually script the breaking of words across lines. Each news item is a link, the link destination is also defined in the XML.
At one time, this was used on the ActionAid.org.uk homepage.
Flash MX, AS1