A snippet of code from FriiSpray
FriiSpray relies on two pieces of software. The first is Johnny Chung Lee’s Wiimote Whiteboard software that links the WiiMote to the computer and the second is a very simple painting application that I created.
The application needed to allow the user to paint on the screen with various colours, use several brushes and be able to save the pictures created. It’s hardly photoshop, but it’ll meet the needs for this project and we can always add new functionality later.
I decided to use Adobe AIR and Flash to create the program because it would be quick to develop and work on Windows and Mac. Flash has a nice collection of drawing functions that made the initial development very straight forward.
Creating different brushes was more difficult. Flash’s graphical library is based mainly around drawing lines. I’ve currently made different brushes by combining groups of lines with different widths, opacity and position offsets to create spray and caligraphy brushes. The affect is pretty good, but not perfect. I think if I want to improve it, I will have to do something smarter with bitmaps. Although, any other ideas would be welcome.
Saving the pictures was made very easy by using the ActionScript 3 Core Library. There’s a function for turning the screen’s content to a PNG, and then you’re pretty much done. There’s also a function for creating JPEGs, but this was much slower.
In the future I’d like to add a feature to automatically upload the pictures to an Internet gallery as soon as they were saved. We’ve also talked about making it so two people in different places can work on the same graffiti painting via the Internet. If I had a lot more time to play with this I’d like to make it so that more than one spray can could be used at once, but I think that would involve a lot more work.
Installing the software
FriiSpray is an OpenSource piece of software. It’s free to download, but you need to install some other stuff first. FriiSpray is licenced under GPL, with the extra conditions that you must attribute it to us and check with us if you want to use if for commercial purposes.
To install the software, follow these steps:
- Get Johnny Chung Lee’s Wiimote Whiteboard software.
- If you haven’t already, install Adobe AIR.
- Install the FriiSpray AIR App. [Version 0.89 updated 13 September 2010]
The source code
As it’s Open Source that means you can look at how it works and we’d welcome people improving and building upon it.
- Download the source code.
- Read the source documentation.
Adaptation by Patricio Brito
We are pleased to be able to share a variation on the FriiSpray software package that was submitted to us by Patricio Brito. A FriiSpray user from Portugal, he has taken the Flash source code and made his own version for use with some digital graffiti workshops.
You can download both the source code and compiled package – for more information about his work check out his website: http://dznpuro.com
Nice work Patricio, we like the sliding menu and your cool DG logo.
We welcome adaptations of and contributions to the FriiSpray code from anybody – please get in touch with your ideas and work.
Is the source code free?
Where can I download it?
It will be. I just have a few things to tidy up and one small bug to fix. Then it will be released. Watch this space.
Just uploaded the program and source code. It’s my first Open Source project, so please be kind.
The Source code and documentation seems to have vanished
I Just found this…
http://www.nocircleno.com/graffiti/
What is it?
The Graffiti AS3 Bitmap Drawing Library is designed for ActionScript developers to easily integrate drawing functionality into a Flash, Flex or Air project. It is free to use and modify for noncommercial projects.
Their are some great bits in there that could help with the friispray application – the code is there to be freely used. I’m not a coder – or I’d jump in and play with it myself!
I’ve just found a nice app that lets you change the mouse button to right click instead of left – might be useful for future reference? Its http://www.swapmousebuttons.com/
Hey I can’t help helping!
@Ulfilas all source code is back on line and also at the latest version.
The graffiti library looks interesting. I probably won’t use it directly, but I will look how they’re doing bitmap drawing. FriiSpray uses vectors and this is limiting the brush effects we can get.
Extra functions for future that would be nice
it would be really nice if the paint could drip if the spray has been concentrated in an area for a set time
simple colour picker for more colour options
ability to use custom background as basis for drawing on top of – or restrict user to a shape area (transparent png?) – this would be loaded form admin panel – not user controlled
Logo placement to brand wall for events(corner)
Mailto: Email picture to an address (onscreen keyboard for typing address)
Stencils – loaded from admin panel (could transparent pngs work) user clicks on stencil button moves in place – rotates if needed – sprays – then closes.. (might need more explanation – but stencil would have to have buttons on it for this to work)
Record the painting so can be played back as animation and exported – not for user but for admin
All great ideas.
You can already do logo placement.
Cntrl + o opens a background image that can have a logo on.
Cntrl + m loads an image that goes in the foreground. This needs to be a png with a transparent background. It then acts as a watermark.
In both cases the image gets scaled to fill the full screen so add extra blank image to get the scale you want.
not quite the same sort of thing as friispray – but nice and the source is available too http://www.nastypixel.com/prototype/workshops/diffiti
Commercial licesnse for graffit library is $25 in case you’re interested
http://www.quasimondo.com/archives/000572.php
this any help?
hy!!
m a final year student from India, doing my bachelors in Information and Communication Technology, i just came across your project and it sounds grt. I have downloaded it and will chk it out pretty soon..:)
m in my final year, and I am making a project, also inspired by Johnny Chung Lee, m using the Wii and Whiteboard to make a remotely accessible drawing board, so that people located at different parts of the world can join in, and so the collaborative work..based on a server client model. what do you think about it?? presently m looking for a simple whiteboard kind of display, with only single kind f brush and its brush size..
Can you help me..?? can i use your source code and use it??
Plzz reply..thanks..n keep up d gud wrk..:)
Hi Rachit,
You’re welcome to use our source code and modify as you see fit.
The code is licenced under GPL, which means that any code based on it must also be licenced under GPL. We also ask that you credit us.
I hope your project goes well.
I want to share with you my software to be used
with the wiimote to make a whiteboard
This is free and distributed under gpl, you can see the screenshoot on
http://code.google.com/p/ardesia/
I think that a lot of designer can be interested
to write with a pen too
Ardesia enables you to make colored free-hand annotations on your computer screen, record it and share on the network.
This is especially useful when making presentations, to highlight things or point out things of interest.
The tool facilitates the online presentations and demos showing in real time your computer screen to anyone in the network.
Ardesia is XInput-Aware, so if you have a mouse, a graphic tablet, a touch screen, a wiimote whiteboard or a commercial whiteboard; you can draw lines with different strength, select color, erase things and draw arrows.
You can free-hand draw geometrical shapes using the shape recognizer, insert text with the keyboard and highlight screen areas. You can draw upon the desktop or select an image as background.
Ardesia 0.4 is out!
http://code.google.com/p/ardesia/
Ardesia allows to draw and sketchup everywhere
The binary package is released for Ubuntu Lucid and Windows 7
you can use Ardesia with all the linux flavours, the source code
is free and released under the GPL terms
You can use it with a wiimote whiteboard or a graphic tablet;
in this way the lines are writing lighter or darker depending on
the pen pressure
You can export your work in the pdf format to create simple presentation, tutorial or document
Ardesia allow to record and the stream on icecast streaming server
thanks to the vlc media player and streamer
…Ardesia is free and simple as you are; Try it now!
Currently working on our own Flash based application – which also has stencils