TOKI WOKI. 

Hey! Another free AIR app! This time that ain’t no side project I made on my free time for some obscure users, but rather a big thingy for a big company. Namely Fotolia.

I did all of the coding part (ActionScript 3, Flex 4) and Steaw is responsible for the UI and all graphics. The app is basically a solution for power-users, providing most of the functionnalities of the website and adding some more (such as direct download and local library). Allowing you to search, browse preview and buy all types of medias, including video and vectors. You can also log into your account and store your favorites in a lightbox or create and fill galleries.

This is my first multi-lingual app: to this day it provides 13 translations including Japanese, Chinese and other funny looking languages!

Flex 4

This is also my first big real-life project with Flex 4 and I have to say it’s way better/easier than Flex 3. Really. What changed my life is the way it handles states and component customization via skins… Oh boy, this is easy!

AIR 2.0

Yep, using the brand new AIR 2.0.2, buddy. What for? Mainly for global error handling and the almighty openWithDefaultApplication (for both folder and medias). I’ve also heard this version of the runtime is faster and lighter, and we all like that.

OpenSource

As for every project I work on, I try to have some OpenSource bits so that anyone can benefit from the work and time I spent on it. I asked Fotolia if the AS3 API I was going to write could be OpenSource’d and guess what, they accepted. So here it is, based on the as3-rpclib and on the as3 Signals logic: fotolia-as3-api. I implemented most of (if not all) features of their official API so building an AS3 app off of that should be pretty easy, do so!

Go get it!

Yeah, go get it.

I’m still having a hard time believing what I’m about to write, but hopefully you will.

That was my intro, buddy.

A little bit of context

I listen to music, I try as hard as I can to be eclectic but let me confess that: I’ve always loved Hip-Hop. Of course my Hip-Hop heroes have changed through the years, but there’s one that never left my inner podium… He’s Canadian, he’s weird (proof: he’s worn a platypus shirt, once), he’s probably the most subtle writer I know (OK, with Yoni Wolf) and he’s evolving.

He’s Buck 65.

An ounce of Twitter

As in every web tale, it all starts with a Twitter status. Mine started with this one:

I kinda need a logo-thing made of the numbers 65 and 20. Anyone wanna take a crack? Who knows what might happen?!

I read this and thought “Well yes, but I’m kind of busy you know. And what the hell could I do with those damn numbers? Plus, lots of fans will answer that”.

Some friendly advice

A few days later as I was chatting with a good friend of mine (and discreetly sent him the link to that tweet) he reacted something like: “You bitch-ass cunt, you could try something and see! Stupid-ass jerk”. “Hum, well yeah, you know. Just sayin’…” I kind of replied.

So I fired Illustrator and tried a few things out. A “65”, a “20”, and 15 minutes later I had something.

Not quite ready for prime-time, but the concept was there. A few iterations later I was kind of happy with this:

So I tweeted back.

Who knows what might happen

And got an answer, a private one. Saying he was liking it… Oh boy.

A few days later I received another private message asking me if I could add a “th” to the logo, letting me know the mysterious logo was in fact for his “20 years as a rap weirdo”. Which I (of course) did.

We then e-mailed back and forth and “sorted out the details”, he “blew [the logo] up with dynamite and shot it with a gun a few times” and that was it.

Oh boy

I made Buck 65’s 20th “year in the game” logo, which is up on his new website.

Call me a happy fan. Yup.