RE: FLASH: my first flash....(it is slowly demystifying)

[Len Harrison]

Hi David,


My, such drama for a welcome message!


Anyway, here's a quickie on creating movie clips (nothing to it, really).

1) Let's do one from scratch. With nothing selected choose insert...Create

Symbol or press F8. You will now see a dialog asking for a name for this

symbol which defaults to "symbolN" and below that a set of radio buttons

specifying the kind of symbol you want to create. Choose movie clip and you

will find yourself in symbol edit mode. Do whatever you normally would do

here, adding keyframes and layers as needed. When finished, click on the up

arrow at the right side of the screen where the symbols in your movie are

listed and you will return to editing the main timeline. Click on

Window..Library and you will find your movie clip among the available

symbols. Drag it onto the timeline and then give it an instance name through

the Modify..Instance dialog if you want to be able to telltarget and control

its actions along the way. That's it.

2) Let's convert an animation sequence to a movie clip. Beginning with the

first frame of the animation you want to convert to a clip, select all

layers across all the frames you want using your mouse in the timeline

window. Select Edit..Copy Frames from the menu. Unselect everything. Press

F8 or select Insert..Create Symbol from the menu. Make the symbol a movie

clip. When you are in the symbol editor, select the first frame, and then

Edit..Paste Frames: voila.


Note that it is frequently useful to insert a single empty frame at the

front of a movie clip with the instruction "stop" attached to it. This

prevents the clip from running automatically when the frame that loads it is

reached. You then need to telltarget..instance name of movie clip and tell

it to play where you want it to. If you want it to play once, make the last

frame of the clip go back to frame 1.


hth,


len harrison

instructional designer

lenhabtcorp [dot] com

> -----Original Message-----

>

From: ownershocker [dot] com [ownershocker [dot] com]On">mailto:ownershocker [dot] com]On Behalf Of David

> Kerns

> Sent: Monday, November 30, 1998 10:31 AM

>

To: 'flashershocker [dot] com'

> Subject: FLASH: my first flash....(it is slowly demystifying)

>

>

> This is rudimentary, but I am learning flash and am sure to

> have many more

> questions of this nature before it is over.

>

> My first flash movie is a simple sequence which can be played

> over and over

> (more a result of lessons and tests than an actual project).

> http://nashville.citysearch.com/E/F/NASTN/0000/20/86/

> <http://nashville.citysearch.com/E/F/NASTN/0000/20/86/>

> I wanted to add a "loading..." buffer which I did, and it

> works except for

> the animation in this scene doesn't display. I found that a

> movie clip WOULD

> play in this scene but I could never create a movie clip. I

> have a book

> about flash which I could not really recommend to anyone, it

> has two pages

> on creating a movie clip...but I am so far unsuccessful.

> Moreover I can

> never seem to make a movie clip which I have created show up

> in the library

> (maybe because I am not making it correctly...grrr!).

>

> If anyone can run down these steps or point me to a tutorial

> or a good book

> (I don't; have the manual yet! I just ordered one) that would

> be great.

>

> Thanks

>

> david

>

>

> --------------------------------------------------------------

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