Throughout most of 2002 I'd been experimenting with numerous interface ideas. One became Chime-o-matic.

This online greeting card presented a lot of interesting challenges. It had to be Christmas-y. Traditional, but not hackneyed. The "player-piano" mechanism suggested a late nineteenth century feel.

Starting with a vaguely glockenspiel shape, the instrument evolved into a set of bell chimes suspended below a stylized sleigh. Decorated edges, red ribbon suspenders, holly and a shiny red lever completed the look.

The bell sounds were designed in a hardware sound module. I wanted something rich and resonant, with a convincing struck sound. The final sound is a mix of wooden blocks and glass bells. Each sound was created separately and imported into Flash.

The interface was the most fun. It had to be fully featured and non-linear to be flexible to the user's control, while simple to use. It was important that the user be able to jump from one song to another midstream or switch modes anytime.

This bit of flash is different from most of my others in that the preloader actually shows the progress of the download. Usually I just include a delay loop.

This movie has a fairly slow frame rate, 16fps, I think. This means that there were only sixteen points per second available to insert a note, so the timing is a bit too clean and doesn't allow for a more human rhythm. A typical midi sequencer would have at least 400 points per second.

In order to be able to play a wide selection of songs (beyond those included) the bells include an F# and an extra three notes above the scale. The notes are as follows:

C-D-E-F-F#-G-A-B-C-D-E-F

To play a major scale, hit the bells in order, skipping the fifth bell:

1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 and back down again.

The markings match the fingerings of the corresponding notes on a wooden flute. The lowest note has all the holes covered, and the highest note has all the holes exposed. Doing it this way allowed me to highlight the F# bell due to its skipped hole fingering.

All you, my friend.