Shawn Olson Creative Arts Articles

Flash bgcolor and allowFullScreen Parameters Not Working?

Shawn Olson — 2009-07-01T00:50:22-05:00

I spent half a day trying to figure out why a Flash project suddenly stopped honoring bgcolor and allowFullScreen in IE but not other browsers.

Change CSS in JavaScript in multiple browsers

Shawn Olson — 2009-06-24T10:22:53-05:00

I have updated the popular changecss() JavaScript function to be compatible with most common browsers.

June 15, 2009 Newsletter

Shawn Olson — 2009-06-15T10:59:42-05:00

Newsletter including the retirement of Jack Buckingham. Discussion on teachers.

Strauss Shader bug in Render To Texture

Shawn Olson — 2009-06-08T22:43:52-05:00

You cannot use a material using the Strauss Shader when trying to output to the diffuse map with Render To Texture in 3DS Max 2010.

Jack Buckingham Retires after 31 Years in SWCS

Shawn Olson — 2009-05-31T13:27:08-05:00

Jack Buckingham was one of my teachers at Westland High School. This is a short feature on Buck.

SMD Collision Mesh Tool

Shawn Olson — 2009-05-13T19:17:30-05:00

Download the SMD Collision Mesh Prep Tool for 3D Studio Max and learn how to use it.

Viewport Canvas

Shawn Olson — 2009-04-21T15:59:41-05:00

A video tutorial on using the Viewport Canvas tool in 3D Studio Max 2010. The video demonstrates painting directly onto geometry as well as using 3rd party paint applications such as Photoshop and Corel PHOTO-PAINT.

Web Statistics

Shawn Olson — 2009-03-31T13:48:49-05:00

A brief introduction to understanding website statistics, including a discussion of visits, hits and other topics to be aware of.

March 28, 2009 Newsletter

Shawn Olson — 2009-03-28T16:07:21-05:00

Here are some updates about the work of Shawn Olson in the first quarter of 2009.

Animal House

Shawn Olson — 2009-03-28T15:17:01-05:00

Our home is the animal house. A golden retriever, a cat, a chinchilla, fish and several children roam the hallways of the house. And others live outside.

Mouse Navigation in Valve Hammer Editor

Shawn Olson — 2009-03-11T12:38:30-05:00

Using the mouse to navigate while in texture editing mode can still be accomplished in Valve's Hammer Editor.

Sleepy Baby

Shawn Olson — 2009-02-01T16:07:08-05:00

Photos of baby Hayden, tired from watching some Doctor Who and Backyardigans with Dad.

Dab Attributes

Shawn Olson — 2009-01-26T16:10:28-05:00

Video tutorial demonstrating the usage of dab attributes to control the look of brush strokes in Corel PHOTO-PAINT.

Link Updates

Shawn Olson — 2009-01-26T12:51:10-05:00

I have been updating many of the links / URLs and file addresses on the site.

Custom Nibs in Corel PHOTO-PAINT

Shawn Olson — 2009-01-26T16:12:09-05:00

This is a video tutorial on how to create custom nibs in Corel PHOTO-PAINT. This example uses Corel PHOTO-PAINT X4 but applies to older versions as well.

MP4 files in Flex VideoDisplay

Shawn Olson — 2009-07-01T00:50:22-05:00

Here is a solution to your problem if you are building an application in Flex 3 that uses the VideoDisplay component and the results fail to work in Internet Explorer and Chrome but mysteriously work in Firefox.

Dynamically change a form's action with JavaScript

Shawn Olson — 2009-02-24T08:06:07-05:00

JavaScript allows you to dynamically change a form's action. To make the function work in the new Google Chrome browser, you need to reference the action differently than you could in other browsers.

Design Updates

Shawn Olson — 2008-11-26T12:49:30-05:00

New updates to the site include heavier reliance on CSS, less JavaScript and a little Flash.

SwfObject JavaScript Error in IE7

Shawn Olson — 2008-11-26T14:29:36-05:00

IE7 has a JavaScript Error when using the swfobject.js method if you do not give the containing object element an ID.

Overly Dark Render Problem in 3DS Max 2009

Shawn Olson — 2008-11-22T11:28:23-05:00

Fix to dark render problem in 3D Studio Max 2009 where render looks fine in preview render window but not the final output file.