SPROUT OFFICIAL RELEASE

We would like to announce the official release of our web application prototype, Sprout! For the past twenty weeks we, the Xamlhouse team, have been hard at work exploring Microsoft Expression Studio software and the Microsoft Silverlight plug-in. Sprout, does not mark the end of our journey as interactive designers and developers, but rather the beginning to our careers.

Today we begin our real exploration, but we leave behind our knowledge via our blog, in hopes that it may help others who are designing for, developing for, or just enthusiastic about Silverlight.

Launch Sprout
Learn About Sprout

This is a simple trivia quiz that gets questions from XML. Each quiz has an attribute, determining whether or not the quiz you chose is active or not. If it is inactive it will just forward you towards the results page, which shows a graph of how many people vote for which option, and if you were wrong or not.

UPDATE #1:

Well, no longer is it using xml, it is now using mySQL, same functionality basically (with the trivia quiz) however now, what was added was an administrator section, where you can add, edit, delete topics, change topics, etc. I have a username and password, but I am not just going to post it here (internets are dangerous) sooo.. if you really want to see the functionality just email me: jessd21@gmail.com.

VIEW THE NEW PHP TRIVIA QUIZ

UPDATE #2:

Another update we have now is for non admin users, who can change the stylesheet of the page, and can also change which RSS feeds show up at the bottom. The rss feeds are done using a cron job and update twice daily (and only for the month of may (2008) so if you view this after may, the feeds won’t be up to date. Also added is a web service to get your local weather by an area code you enter. Along with that there is user sign-up capability.

VIEW THE NEW PHP TRIVIA QUIZ

I never new XML could look so pretty. Just think about it, basically in every language that I have worked with, I have accessed XML. Actionscript, javascript, C#, etc. So that is why I chose to do this course, a course solely on XML itself.

For my final senior project, a group of 3 developers (I being one of them) and 6 designers are working on a Silverlight project. During these 20 weeks we will be exploring Silverlight (2.0 version) and using C# …Our mission statement:

Together we represent the future of interactive media. We are the next generation of new media designers, new media developers, animators, 3D modelers, conceptualists, and directors. We are nine seniors from Rochester Institute of Technology who are looking for the next best thing.

For twenty-weeks we will be researching and experimenting with the Microsoft Expression Studio and the Microsoft Silverlight plug-in. You are invited to follow us, guide us, and interact with us, as interactivity is what we have grown to love.

Our goals are:

1) To explore and showcase the power, advantages, and disadvantages of Microsoft Expression Studio and the Microsoft Silverlight plug-in. We have been bred to be Adobe enthusiasts, but we realize there is more to life than CS3.How does Silverlight interact with Adobe products? How does Expression Studio compare to Adobe products? What can Silverlight do? Where are the boundaries? What rocks? What stinks?

2) To create an interactive application that rocks so hard that Microsoft welcomes us with open arms to their online gallery at www.Silverlight.net.

3) To document every step of our exploration, challenges and failures, successes and innovations via our blog. To craft this blog in such a way that it becomes not only our story, but also a resource for developers and designers alike.

So how can you help us on our voyage? E-mail us ideas. Help us through our problems. Critique us. Make comments and suggestions. Tell us how your experience with Expression Studio and Silverlight has been or how you hope it will be. Send us a project sample and show us what you are doing. Recommend our blog to a co-worker or friend. Or just drop us an e-mail with a ‘Hello.’

Please go check it out (xamlhouse.com) we have a lot of great blog posts, source code, and even comments from microsoft themselves.

• Idea:
  These are all mini-applications done in Silverlight. The first one is examples of tweening and simple button rollovers. The second one is for image manipulation where you can alter the opacity size and rotation of an image. The next four are accordions; a horizontal and vertical example, with color variations and some “filler” content. This is a mock-up of what the final project will be for my New Media Team Project class.
• How:
  XAML, Silverlight, C#, Microsoft Expression Blend, Visual Studio 2008
• Tweening Buttons
• Image Manipulation
• Horizontal Accordion
• Vertical Accordion
• Horizontal Accordion Colorful
• Vertical Accordion Colorful

NOTE: You will need to download Silverlight 2 Beta 1

• Idea:
  This was a project for my Web Client Side Programming class. It uses mootools and the Amazon Web Services API to search for DVD’s. You can choose if you want to search by title, actor, or keyword, then the DVD search results will animate in. Then drag and drop items into the right column to build your collection! (It saves your collection in a cookie)
• How:
  Ajax, CSS, XHTML, XML, JSON, OOP Javascript, Adobe CS3 Suite, Mootools Javascript Library
• View

The objective of this project was to organize many links into one website but make it easy to navigate and easy to understand. Another huge part of the website was to create a design document, and document the whole process. The final part was to make it so that it is visible on a mobile device (without the layout messing up) and is easily navigational.

View it

• Idea:
  This was a project for my Web Client Side Programming class. It uses Javascript to dynamically create select boxes based on an XML file. It then finds that location (using the google Maps API) to find the location on the map.Just for a proof of concept, it uses cookies to save information like Name and Email.
• How:
  CSS, XHTML, XML, Adobe CS3 Suite, Javascript, Google Maps API
• View

• Idea:
  A visually pleasing invitation / poster for an event called “Art Of Jazz”
• How:
  Adobe Illustrator

• Idea:
  A Project for my Multi User Media Spaces class. This is done all in director and Cinema 4D. It is a visual representation of cellular automata. You are a space ship, flying through space with all of these different representations of life forms.We set it up so that it can be viewed in a CollaboRITorium. We started working on making it controllable with the WiiMote, but it wasn’t part of the final project. This project was very fun and exciting to do, but unfortunately Director is old (2004) so it may crash browsers which is why I suggest you don’t download the exe, because it probably will freeze. WARNING: This Project is very very processor hungry, use at your own risk!
• How:
  Director, Lingo, Javascript, Cinema 4D, Lots of Computer Power
• Download

• Idea:
  I wanted to simulate the life of ants. Ants in general have an enemy: an ant eater. And the red ants and black ants don’t like each other. I was overall pretty happy about the design of it, as I think it looks pretty realistic. Also, to help figure out who is doing what, there are little emoticons on each ant/anteater stating whether they are angry, scared, bored, or happy.
• How:
  Adobe Flash, Actionscript
• View

• Idea:
  A Project for my Programming for Digital Media class. A multi-user game of Chinese Checkers, including a main chat room, with the ability to invite other users, along with an in-game chat room as well. Because Adobe Communications Server is no longer up, I cannot show you the multi-user version.
• How:
  Adobe Flash
• View

• Idea:
  Using Flash, it loads data from an XML file, including the URL of the picture, and the title.
• How:
  Flash, Actionscript, XML
• View

• Idea:
  A demonstration of bitmap data in Flash, also a start to learning steering algorithms developed by Craig Reynolds. It is a simple game of tag, without tag-backs.
• How:
  Flash, Actionscript
• View

• Idea:
  Done in Director and Cinema 4D. A ‘Toy Story’ like world, where all the objects are big. There is also collision avoidance. Use the arrow keys to control.
• How:
  Director, Cinema 4D
• View

• Idea:
  It is a simple “create your own snowman” application. However instead of the typical carrot, coal, stick, etc. that are used to dress up a snowman: I wanted to make it more humorous.Click on the snow icon to create a snowball, then use the sliders to manipulate its size, opacity and rotation. Do this until you have your desired size for your snowman. Next in the menu; cycle through and choose different objects to put on your snowman.
• How:
  Adobe Flash, Actionscript
• View

• Idea:
  A mini- portfolio that has an about me, resume, and all the different kinds of work that I have done. Loads everything through XML
• How:
  Flash, Actionscript, XML
• View

• Idea:
  To visually show a song. The song I chose was “The warmth” by Incubus.
• How:
  Adobe Illustrator

• Idea:
  To make the audience focus on different parts of the image using text.
• How:
  Adobe Illustrator

• Idea:
  To show a visual representation of an object in vector form, and in this case: a camera.
• How:
  Adobe Illustrator

• Idea:
  Logo ideas for my Dad’s software company,”Blu Ray Software”.
• How:
  Adobe Illustrator

• Idea:
  Using Actionscript, I recreated the classic game of Frogger.
• How:
  Flash, Actionscript
• View

• Idea:
  My First ever game made in Flash. It’s a pretty basic game, there is a water cannon that shoots water droplets. You can move the magnet around the stage, it bends the path of the water droplets as they pass by.
• How:
  Flash, Actionscript
• View