The 2006 Battle of the Script: TextScript Injection is over and the results are in. Please forgive the delayed announcement, as we received nearly 300 submissions among 42 unique entrants (many people entered multiple scripts). In addition to the actual TextScript Inejections, we received about seven miscellaneous entries that were sort of related to TextScript in an ancillary way, but didn't qualify as an actual TextScript Injection.

For judging purposes, we took all of the submissions and gave them all the same Font and phrase, so that we could look at just the effect created with the particular script.

Submissions were judged by the following criteria:

• Innovation/Creativity
• Use of the Medium
• Visual Impact
• Code Efficiency (clear code and optimizing resources)
• Frame Rate
• Adding Functionality/Extending TextScript
• Wow Factor (show us something that we weren't expecting and didn't cover in the above criteria)

And the Winners are:

#5: Hammer Down - by Caspar Hernandez

We liked two things in particular about this effect. The physics were nice and creates an innovative effect. Also, Caspar is adjusting the registration point of all of the characters to create an effect not built into the existing TextScript class.

hammerDown = function() { this._x -= 50; this.field._x += 50; this.velocity = 0; this._rotation = -90; this._alpha = 0; this.onEnterFrame = function() { if(this.frameCount++ > this.delay) { this._visible = true; this.velocity++; this._rotation += this.velocity; if(this._alpha < 100) { this._alpha += 10; } if(this._rotation > 0) { this._rotation = 0; this.velocity = -(this.velocity) * 0.6; } } } }

#4 Slide In - by Rodney Harrington

Of all the submissions we received, this was the only effect that took advantage of the Flash 8 filters (BlurFilter) to create an effect. Use of the Medium is considered a large part of the contest and was a deciding factor in this submission.

slideIn = function() { this.xLoc = this._x; this._x = -this._width; this.onEnterFrame = function() { if(this.frameCount++ > this.delay) { this.filters = [new BlurFilter(Math.abs((this._x - this.xLoc) / 5), 0, 1)]; this._visible = true; this._x -= (this._x - this.xLoc) / 5; } } }

#3 Wave - by Rafeek Patel

This effect is a great example of spring dynamics in script based animation. It's a very nice effect that is efficiently implemented and produces a wonderful visual impact.

wave = function() { this.targ = this._y; this._y = -this._height; this.onEnterFrame = function() { if(this.frameCount++ > this.delay) { this._visible = true; this.v = 0; this.onEnterFrame=function() { this.v += (this.targ - this._y) / 30; this.v *= .90; this._y += this.v; } } } }

#2 Rotate Build - by Alex Svartz

Many people were asking in the previous articles about how you could adjust the registration point of the characters from the top left corner of the character to the center of the character (so that you could zoom/rotate around the center point). Rafeek made a great example of how to accomplish this by adjusting the registration point in his TextScript injection.

rotateBuild = function() { this._x += this.field._width/2; this._y += this.field._height/2; this.field._x = -this.field._width/2; this.field._y = -this.field._height/2; this.rs = 360; this.onEnterFrame=function() { if(this.frameCount++ > this.delay) { this._visible =true; this.rs -= 5; if(this.rs <= 0) { this.rs = 0; delete(this.onEnterFrame); } this._alpha = 100 - (100*(this.rs/360)); this._xscale = this._yscale = this.rs+100; this._rotation = this.rs; } } }

#1: Color Shift - by Daxita Daliwal

Measuring in at almost 100 lines of code for one injection effect, this color shift effect was certainly not the most efficient use of TextScript. But it was the most innovative that we received. Instead of creating a build effect, it uses the TextScript architecture to create a looping animation of color shifting text. For sheer creativity and "Wow Factor", this Color Shift effect won first place (even when losing points for inefficiency) in the 2006 Battle of the Script.

colorShift = function() { this.colorObject = new Color(this); this.colorObject.setRGB(0xFF0000); this.hsbtorgb = function(hue:Number, saturation:Number, brightness:Number):Object { var red:Number, green:Number, blue:Number; hue %= 360; if(brightness == 0) { return ({red:0, green:0, blue:0}); } saturation /= 100; brightness /= 100; hue /= 60; var i = Math.floor(hue); var f = hue - i; var p = brightness * (1 - saturation); var q = brightness * (1 - (saturation * f)); var t = brightness * (1 - (saturation * (1 - f))); switch(i) { case 0: red = brightness; green = t; blue = p; break; case 1: red = q; green = brightness; blue = p; break; case 2: red = p; green = brightness; blue = t; break; case 3: red = p; green = q; blue = brightness; break; case 4: red = t; green = p; blue = brightness; break; case 5: red = brightness; green = p; blue = q; break; } red = Math.round(red * 255); green = Math.round(green * 255); blue = Math.round(blue * 255); return ({red:red, green:green, blue:blue}); } this.rgbtohsb = function(red:Number, green:Number, blue:Number):Object { var min = Math.min(Math.min(red, green), blue); var brightness = Math.max(Math.max(red, green), blue); var delta = brightness - min; var saturation = (brightness == 0) ? 0 : delta / brightness; var hue; if(saturation == 0) { hue = 0; } else { if(red == brightness) { hue = (60 * (green - blue)) / delta; } else if(green == brightness) { hue = 120 + (60 * (blue - red)) / delta; } else { hue = 240 + (60 * (red - green)) / delta; } if(hue < 0) hue += 360; } saturation *= 100; brightness = (brightness / 255) * 100; return ({hue:hue, saturation:saturation, brightness:brightness}); } this.rgbtohex24 = function(red:Number, green:Number, blue:Number):Number { return (red << 16 | green << 8 | blue); } this.hex24torgb = function(color:Number):Object { var r = color >> 16 & 0xFF; var g = color >> 8 & 0xFF; var b = color & 0xFF; return ({red:r, green:g, blue:b}); } if(this.frameCount++ > this.delay) { this._visible = true; this.onEnterFrame=function() { var o:Object = this.hex24torgb(this.colorObject.getRGB()); o = this.rgbtohsb(o.red, o.green, o.blue); o.hue += 2; o = this.hsbtorgb(o.hue, o.saturation, o.brightness); this.colorObject.setRGB(this.rgbtohex24(o.red, o.green, o.blue)); } } }

Congratulations to our winners! All of our winners win registered copies of Sapien's Primal Script and the same top quality books from O'Reiley and friends of Ed that helped us to create TextScript in the first place. Our top three winners will also receive cash prizes from ActionScript.com. Prize packages will be shipping out shortly.

In particular, I want to thank Sapien, friends of Ed and O'Reiley for their support and contributions to our prize packages.

Thank you to everyone that participated in our contest. It was a lot of fun going through the submissions. If you didn't participate this year, we hope you'll consider a submission in the 2007 Battle of the Script…!