Active Window Blur

I was checking out a website yesterday when it suddenly reminded me of a Pixelfumes experiment I remembered seeing many moons ago. After finding it with a quick Google search, just for kicks, I decided to play around and update the idea to AS3. I didn’t bother with the constant updating to accomadate video as that seemed a tad processor hungry, but it wouldn’t be difficult to implement at all. What I would rather do with it is make it possible to open several windows at once all masking the same background image. Maybe later on tonight.

Anyway here’s the script for interested parties. An example follows below. Thank you to Pixelfumes for the original idea and AS2 script.

WindowBlur.as:

package com.onebyonedesign.extras { import flash.display.Bitmap; import flash.display.BitmapData; import flash.display.DisplayObjectContainer; import flash.display.Sprite; import flash.events.Event; import flash.filters.BlurFilter; import flash.geom.Point; import flash.geom.Rectangle; /** * Blurs a background (MovieClip or Sprite) behind a transparent window (MovieClip or Sprite). * Based on Pixelfumes AS2 class * * @author Devon O. */ public class WindowBlur { private var _background:DisplayObjectContainer; private var _window:DisplayObjectContainer; private var _blurredImageData:BitmapData; private var _blurredImage:Bitmap; private var _mask:DisplayObjectContainer; private var _blurAmount:int; private var _blur:BlurFilter; private var _point:Point = new Point(); /** * * @param background MovieClip or Sprite which will be blurred behind window. * @param window (Semi) transparent MovieClip or Sprite behind which will be a blurred background. * @param blurAmount The amount of blur to apply to background image. * * NOTE: background and window objects *must* be added to display list before instantiating an instance of this class. * TODO: allow multiple window instances with same background. * FLASH BUG: If window instance is created programatically, it cannot have filters applied. * If window instance is linked to MovieClip in library it CAN have filters applied. */ public function WindowBlur(background:DisplayObjectContainer, window:DisplayObjectContainer, blurAmount:int = 8 ):void { _background = background; _window = window; _blurAmount = (blurAmount >= 0 && blurAmount < = 255) ? blurAmount : 16; _blur = new BlurFilter(_blurAmount, _blurAmount, 3); initBlur(); initMask(); } private function initBlur():void { _blurredImageData = new BitmapData(_background.width, _background.height, false); _blurredImageData.draw(_background); _blurredImageData.applyFilter(_blurredImageData, _blurredImageData.rect, _point, _blur); _blurredImage = new Bitmap(_blurredImageData); _background.addChild(_blurredImage); } private function initMask():void { var MaskClass:Class = Object(_window).constructor; _mask = new MaskClass(); _mask.filters = _window.filters; _blurredImage.mask = _mask; _mask.visible = false; _window.addChildAt(_mask, 0); } private function update():void { _background.removeChild(_blurredImage); _blurredImageData.dispose(); initBlur(); _blurredImage.mask = _mask; } public function kill():void { _background.removeChild(_blurredImage); _window.removeChild(_mask); _blurredImageData.dispose(); _blurredImage = null; _blurredImageData = null; _mask = null; _blur = null; } public function get blurAmount():int { return _blurAmount; } public function set blurAmount(value:int):void { _blurAmount = value; _blur.blurX = _blur.blurY = _blurAmount; update(); } } }

Main.as (document class):

package { import flash.display.MovieClip; import flash.display.Sprite; import flash.events.MouseEvent; import flash.filters.DropShadowFilter; import com.onebyonedesign.extras.WindowBlur; import com.onebyonedesign.ui.OBO_ValueSlider; import com.onebyonedesign.ui.events.ValueSliderEvent; import flash.geom.Rectangle; import flash.text.AntiAliasType; import flash.text.TextField; import flash.text.TextFieldAutoSize; import flash.text.TextFormat; /** * Demonstrates WindowBlur Class * @author Devon O. */ public class Main extends Sprite { // GraphicWindow is MovieClip in .fla library private var _window:GraphicWindow; // Background is MovieClip in .fla library private var _bg:Background; private var _windowBlur:WindowBlur; private var _shadow:DropShadowFilter = new DropShadowFilter(2, 90, 0x000000, 1, 2, 2, 1, 3); private var _dragBounds:Rectangle; public function Main():void { // Background is MovieClip in .fla library _bg = new Background(); addChild(_bg); init(); } private function init():void { initWindow(); initBlur(); initControlPanel(); } private function initWindow():void { // GraphicWindow is MovieClip in library _window = new GraphicWindow(); _window.x = int(stage.stageWidth * .5 - _window.width * .5); _window.y = int(stage.stageHeight * .5 - _window.height * .5); _window.filters = [_shadow]; _dragBounds = new Rectangle(0, 0, stage.stageWidth - _window.width, stage.stageHeight - _window.height); addChild(_window); _window.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, pressHandler); } private function initBlur():void { _windowBlur = new WindowBlur(_bg, _window); } private function initControlPanel():void { var cp:Sprite = new Sprite(); cp.graphics.beginFill(0xEAEAEA); cp.graphics.drawRoundRect(0, 0, 150, 30, 10, 10); cp.graphics.endFill(); cp.filters = [_shadow]; cp.x = 10; cp.y = stage.stageHeight - cp.height - 10; var tf:TextField = new TextField(); var fmt:TextFormat = new TextFormat("_sans", 11); tf.defaultTextFormat = fmt; tf.autoSize = TextFieldAutoSize.LEFT; tf.selectable = false; tf.mouseEnabled = false; tf.antiAliasType = AntiAliasType.ADVANCED; tf.text = "Blur amount:"; tf.x = 5; tf.y = 5; cp.addChild(tf); var blurSlider:OBO_ValueSlider = new OBO_ValueSlider(tf.textWidth, 0, 64, _windowBlur.blurAmount); blurSlider.x = tf.x + tf.textWidth + 8; blurSlider.y = 13; blurSlider.addEventListener(ValueSliderEvent.DRAG, blurChangeHandler); cp.addChild(blurSlider); addChild(cp); } private function blurChangeHandler(event:ValueSliderEvent):void { _windowBlur.blurAmount = int(event.value); } private function pressHandler(event:MouseEvent):void { stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP, releaseHandler); _window.startDrag(false, _dragBounds); } private function releaseHandler(event:MouseEvent):void { stage.removeEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP, releaseHandler); _window.stopDrag(); } } }

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