by Grant Skinner

Flash 8: Webcam Fire

I’ve been building out some new demos for upcoming conference sessions and workshops, and really like this one, which generates fire onscreen based on webcam motion. It basically turns you into the Human Torch. I think it’s a nice counterpoint to my Webcam Snowstorm experiment – fire and ice.

Another thing I find really cool about this is that it’s only a 1kb swf. Good work Flash engineering team!

Check it out, Flash 8 Player and a webcam is required:


Shameless plug: If you’d like to learn how to build this (and not just dissemble the code, but really understand the underlying logic), check out my Flash 8 Bootcamps coming up in Toronto (Nov 11-12) and Los Angeles (Dec 2-3).

Here’s a couple of screenshots for readers without a webcam, though they don’t really do it justice:

Grant Skinner

The "g" in gskinner. Also the "skinner".

@gskinner

If you enjoyed this, you might like these articles…

Flash 8: Webcam Snowstorm, Webcam Fluid Dynamics, Fire Effect Component & Source Code, Saving BitmapData to Server in Flash 8

119 Comments

  1. jg November 4, 2005 at 10:09am

    grant, this is totally awesome.

    great job-

  2. hal2k November 4, 2005 at 11:09am

    Wonderfull Grant!

  3. jeanphilippe November 4, 2005 at 12:07pm

    i like it !!!!

    very good effect !

  4. jeanphilippe November 4, 2005 at 12:09pm

    and thanks for source……

  5. GRID8400 November 4, 2005 at 2:04pm

    awesome effect!!!

    thank you for sharing!

  6. Firdosh Tangri November 4, 2005 at 2:23pm

    I could not find the source file ??

  7. James November 4, 2005 at 5:01pm

    Flipping the image (like a mirror, MSN video chat style) would make it a lot easier to act coordinated infront of the camera!

  8. Kirill November 5, 2005 at 3:55am

    Asolutely amazing!

  9. GRID8400 November 5, 2005 at 12:48pm

    this is some awesome stuff man!

    great!

    Is the source open?? Is it shared ??

  10. jeanphilippe November 6, 2005 at 12:21pm

    Grant,

    your sample is genious

    i’ve tried to do the same with my poor code but the result is extavagantless : http://jeanphiblog.media-box.net/dotclear/index.php?2005/11/06/174-flash-8-thresholdlight-my-fire

  11. Adam November 7, 2005 at 7:55am

    Awesome work grant!

    Just wondering, do you plan on releasing a dvd of any of these workshops? I’m in sydney, I’d love for you to come down under and do a bootcamp here for us, but otherwise a dvd I could buy would be the next best thing 😉

  12. anymarc November 8, 2005 at 1:59am

    Thank you to give us hope!

    Terrific!

  14. manuel vidarte November 12, 2005 at 5:15am

    wow! it’s very cool effect! congratulations!!! how did you do?

  15. efishocean November 14, 2005 at 6:48pm

    i borrowed a webcam just to see this cool effect!

  16. Justin November 16, 2005 at 7:18pm

    Toooooooo awesome!!! I’ve been standing in front of the camera for like 2 hours loll

  17. ryanrobot November 25, 2005 at 11:21pm

    Lots of fun! Great work!

    Always enjoy creative limits being pushed with flash.

    keep it up!

    a co-worker and I had some fun with it, check it out:

    http://www.jimmygordon.net/flaming_robot.avi

  18. kyle November 27, 2005 at 8:05pm

    🙁 i can’t fiind the source file Èather

  19. Oil4 December 17, 2005 at 9:40am

    Can I download this somewhere or something?

    so i can use this online 😛 xD

  20. FlashyFrannie December 21, 2005 at 1:37pm

    This is very interesting… Truly allows me to live up to my onscreen moniker… Flashy Frannie…

  21. SugarGrafiks December 26, 2005 at 3:47pm

    pas mal du tout!

    Tres surprenant…merci de rentrer chez moi a l improviste!

  22. Nicocolas January 5, 2006 at 2:15am

    Trop bien excellent !!!

    =)

  23. Rafael A. Tsuchiya January 13, 2006 at 11:27am

    Very nice work! there’s any chance to download or recive the code? Thanks from your brazilian friends!

  24. gabriel January 15, 2006 at 12:10pm

    can i use this as a plugin for ymessenger or other other broadcasts from my web cam?… if so could you please tell me where can i get it?

    thank you

  26. subramanian February 17, 2006 at 2:03am

    can you please explain me how this effects is working i am new to flash development i came to your site by checking the varicose-g project in macromedia site i am very much eager to know the technology behind this

  27. seAn March 1, 2006 at 9:38pm

    Wicked, wicked effect. Keep up the top notch work!

  28. freddy March 28, 2006 at 9:59am

    great affect man

    keep up the amazing work

  29. Mr.Ernst April 9, 2006 at 1:59am

    Cool! Check this link, this will help ye! If you’d use the movement detection as a alpha key for a fire animation, and animate the aplha key to move up a bit, you get something like this fire effect.

  30. mike April 28, 2006 at 8:03am

    Is there any source for this yet ?

  31. remi June 7, 2006 at 8:01am

    it’ s incroyable!!!

    you are very stronger^^!!

    pls let us your code or then of fluiddynamis in your galery incomplete pls!!!

    let us you code

    pls pls pls

  32. carlo June 20, 2006 at 3:09pm

    Hey guys check this out. Somehow it bypassed my webcam and displayed channels from my tv tuner! Check out TLC’s Take Home Chef on FIRE!

    http://www.alducente.com/takeHomeChef.jpg

  33. Jukka June 30, 2006 at 1:50am

    bello!

    it would be nice to be able to change color of flame.

    Was the source code available?

  34. Adam July 9, 2006 at 4:17am

    Amazing! is there a file you could share? please? it would be amazing to follow the code and see how this thing functions!

  35. FGS July 27, 2006 at 9:22am

    That is a nice effect especially for the small file size!

  36. Wheres the code? September 4, 2006 at 1:20pm

    Where do you get the code!!!

  37. Alex bong October 1, 2006 at 9:37am

    cool man , it this an open source!

  38. Tom November 1, 2006 at 2:06pm

    Wow this is an nice effect, but i would b nice if it was released as open source.

    But loving this 🙂

  39. riki November 20, 2006 at 4:31pm

    could sum1 plz tell me if u can dwnload dis sumwhere for msn fnk yooh x

  40. Alex Milligan November 23, 2006 at 3:14am

    Effect is amazing, keep it up!

    Great work.

  42. Sergio March 7, 2007 at 2:45pm

    Hello I’m Italin.

    I could not find the source file ?

    You Are post me?

    Thanks

  43. kash March 10, 2007 at 2:49am

    where can i get he sourse for this/….this is awesome…good work thanks

  44. ANNA March 20, 2007 at 7:32am

    wow…it’s COOL

  45. denis March 20, 2007 at 10:05pm

    Excelent et super genial

    Note sur 100 = 100,et c’est clair et net ! ! !

    Denis le 21/03/2007.

  46. ivaline March 27, 2007 at 6:53am

    i can’t find the source…

    can i get the source???

  47. alain March 28, 2007 at 1:32pm

    bonjour ,je ne sais pas comment activer ce gadjet sur mon blog et si c’est pobile mais c’est trop cool!

  48. jassica April 20, 2007 at 11:57am

    Well! this is my first comment on that site and I must say it looks very pretty, and the fonts are particularly well chosen. its good to see the source file nice work keep going.I am glad to post my views and points in this blog.

  49. Mordren Everdark April 27, 2007 at 10:20am

    How do i download it or do wotever i have 2 do 2 use in on my pc???

  50. adel May 16, 2007 at 11:07am

    c’est genial ce petit programme

  51. maxe May 17, 2007 at 4:49am

    c cool sa

  52. eric Lim June 30, 2007 at 4:19am

    it doesnt work on the new imac & isight

  53. jacques July 5, 2007 at 4:15am

    WOW!! this is nothing short of amazing! is there any way i’d be able to view the source code? cos well…it’s a awesome effect and i like it…and i’d love to know how this thing works…never seen this work before…well..i have, but not this well! it’d be cool if you could point me in the right direction so i could find the source.

    thanx alot!

    …thats so cool…wow…

  54. Peter August 10, 2007 at 6:28pm

    Try this cool one! http://ugly.balooba.se

    You’ll ned a mac of course, but probably you’ve already got one.

  55. Ryanb58 August 19, 2007 at 7:24pm

    cool need source please

  56. zakaria August 22, 2007 at 3:03pm

    jz vais la nere a moi

  58. Mig September 13, 2007 at 12:47pm

    congratulations , u made a really amazing effect in this video many thnx and thnx at the people have written you , cuz i’m italian and i had a very interesting english lesson , thnk u !!!!

  59. Jude Fernando September 25, 2007 at 8:57pm

    Max… Really a great work man..

  60. Indo Ed October 13, 2007 at 12:16am

    Hi,

    super WoW!!!! is the source code available for commercial purposes? Can you develop other effects like Coke-Bubble, Cigarrette, Do-Re-Mi etc. We are very interested in such kind of effect

  61. Paulo October 23, 2007 at 6:43pm

    Nice work! there’s any chance to download or recive the code? Thanks from your brazilian friends!

  62. fartface November 8, 2007 at 11:26am

    how can i download it for msn?

  63. roadking5 November 13, 2007 at 12:38pm

    how can I get the source????

  64. dias February 2, 2008 at 11:38am

    on prendre des photo avec ce truc

  65. Joey February 27, 2008 at 1:19pm

    Is there anyway I can use this with MSN?

  66. truc much March 18, 2008 at 12:03pm

    j’adore c’est trop bien

    PS :faite bouger les choses otour de vous elle prencron feu !!!!!!!!!!!

  67. mattéo March 21, 2008 at 10:30am

    sa péte moi je fat de la tectonique devant et je l’envoi a plain de gens et méme dans mon pays natal

  68. g March 29, 2008 at 12:33pm

    kes ki dise ??? lol

  69. laura June 2, 2008 at 5:23am

    je comprend pas langlais je sui francaises

  70. David June 25, 2008 at 9:29am

    where can i get the source code???

  71. Claudio August 2, 2008 at 12:02pm

    Hello I’m chilean.

    I could not find the source file ?

  72. brett McCarron August 8, 2008 at 1:38am

    wheres the source file or how can i get it?

  73. Matt August 29, 2008 at 12:41am

    Amazing effect, wondering if I can get the source, am actually trying to right applications to detect colour and movement to detect animals moving around farms etc.

  74. chris October 15, 2008 at 10:51pm

    There is one kind question.

    Will see the flash CS3 technical document and will be able to establish only the webcam in one. In same type establishes the webcam in 2 and the screen where the respectively camera is different receives and is the stereo webcam production impossible?

    Uses the flash and tries to produce the holography which is simple wants.

  75. Dspagnu366 December 1, 2008 at 8:45pm

    is there a way i can download this but make it my default filter so when i do video chats on AIM messenger that my image will look like this? thnx :0 cool btw

  76. Rayan December 21, 2008 at 4:42pm

    :))please send me source code: miczel11@gmail.com

  77. G February 20, 2009 at 12:09pm

    Rayan, you such an idiot

  78. robert March 28, 2009 at 6:48pm

    can u plez send me the source link my email is bert111591@yahoo.com

  79. blakee April 18, 2009 at 9:29pm

    can u plez send me the source.

    my email is iamblakee@sina.com

  80. G_2 June 10, 2009 at 11:08am

    Hey! I now your not going to send us the code that easy, and I don’t now if there is someone in the Earth who thinks that, but thats not me. What can I do to get that damn source code?

  81. carlos June 11, 2009 at 7:21pm

    how can i download it for msn?send for my email: carloswieser@hotmail.com

  83. xzcvsv June 21, 2009 at 6:31am

    idiot!!! doom!

  84. wwefan June 25, 2009 at 3:19pm

    perfect! incredible!

  85. Felipe Sylar June 29, 2009 at 4:30pm

    Hole Shit! I am two hours in front of the PC see myself burning.

    Say Hello to Brazil!

  86. eric moreira July 1, 2009 at 4:06pm

    Otimoooo !!!! very good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  87. chris July 11, 2009 at 8:56pm

    How can I download that?

  88. samuel September 4, 2009 at 3:13pm

    I love you technologie

  89. Killua Zoaldick September 5, 2009 at 7:11pm

    O programa é muito bom eu particularmente gostei muito, as chamas, as labaredas, show de bola

  91. Niraj October 2, 2009 at 3:29am

    Hi, it’s really love it…

    bro when i am trying to make the preview or the screen size bigger 600 x 800 pix it is pixelating, how do we change the size so that we can view on full screen.

  92. salim December 2, 2009 at 8:02am

    trop demant le jeu

  94. ado December 16, 2009 at 10:13am

    ptin trop frai ce jeu

  95. milly January 23, 2010 at 3:12pm

    C trp cool !!!!!!! vou devrez y jouer

  96. sibrah January 28, 2010 at 5:17am

    sibrah le boss de kalliste

  97. Lizardthe April 1, 2010 at 3:01am

    I don’t find where the link how to download it. Someone help :S?

  98. Niels Beekes (Aniforce.nl) May 5, 2010 at 10:47am

    Try screaming this at your webcam: FLAME ON!

  99. Chris September 9, 2010 at 12:13am

    Sauce?

    Absolutely excellent work. Love it.

  100. alex January 12, 2011 at 2:52pm

    j’adore sa parait vrai(I like this like reals!)

  102. Jessica March 21, 2011 at 6:06pm

    ses génial(it is genial !!)

  104. badis April 23, 2011 at 2:37am

    ses trop trop genial mais putin de merde

  105. corneil June 13, 2011 at 2:56am

    je suis un homme j ‘ai un fire

  106. Marlon June 19, 2011 at 12:55pm

    Can you please send me the program to use this in msn/skype?

  107. Taylor June 21, 2011 at 10:55pm

    Awesome stuff Grant! Please send me the source!

  108. musawar July 16, 2011 at 5:51am

    there are more cool effect in faceto8.blogspot.com
    there is also fire effect batter than this

  109. taarek August 9, 2011 at 7:08am

    c trop cool mais comment on fait pour enregister la video?????

  110. lucie et logan January 21, 2012 at 3:08am

    cooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooll!!!!

  111. max February 25, 2012 at 9:15am

    trop cool on dirait qu’ on n est firemon

  112. nikolla February 27, 2012 at 10:46am

    trop coooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooolje suis fireman et fireboy.

  113. feudu93 March 1, 2012 at 11:17am

    c trop bien a chaque fois je bouge sa me brule c trop nul en meme temp c bien

  114. StyleFire August 1, 2012 at 6:56am

    lol c domage kil est pas d otre comme de la glace du sable …

  117. latek August 14, 2013 at 12:31pm

    wow it is Awesome

  118. arun September 25, 2013 at 4:55pm

    this is so awesome and very cool i like it

  119. oceane April 26, 2014 at 8:22am

    j’adore et c’est super original !

Comments are closed.