Re: FLASH: clock metaphor

[Chris Burke]

John,


thanks very much for the detailed response. I will get to it tonight and

let you know how I fare.


One quick question re: Flash 4-


>In Flash 4 if you are a programmer (or get one to help), you could

>create one instance of the object (the hand) with no tween. You would

>then control its rotation totally with actionscript (reverse is easy)

>using the rotate property to turn the hand.


Does this mean that Flash 4 is sufficiently more complicated to author in

that I would need a programmer? Or is it just actionscripts that required

programming knowledge?


Thanks,


/Chris


>Hi Chris,

>

>> My current project is based on a clock metaphor. There is only one hand

>> which begins on the "12" postion. When the user clicks on the "1", the hand

>> animates to the "1" and stops. My 1st question is how to program a move

>> from "12" to (for instance) "7". Do I

>> a) have a different set of frames for each possible moves 'from/to', and

>> write in a button action to jump to the first frame of the corresponding

>> set and play?

>Not a good idea.

>

>> b) have one big animation that circles the clock face and stops via some

>>other

>> logic? What could I use to stop the animation at a point determined by

>> which number the user clicks to start the animation?

>Yes use a nested mvie clip to allow or disallow continued motion.

>

>> c) have a different scene for each possible move 'from/to', and write in a

>> button action to play the corresponding scene?

>Very VERY bad idea

>

>> My second question is can Flash be instructed to play an animation in

>> reverse? This would come in handy when the hand is on "12" and the user

>> clicks "11" (so the hand doesn't have to go all the way around).

>Generally the best way (smallest file size0 to do reverse is a copy of

>the frames in reverse.

>

>The basic continuous nested animation.

>

>Create your animation as single or multiple tween as needed to rotate

>continuously (or just to the end in other projects).

>

>Create a new control layer.

>At each point that would stop place a 2 frame movie clip.

>

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

>frame 1 Label: On

>

>Stop

>Begin Tell Target     Target:  ..

>   Play

>End Tell Target

>

>frame 2: Label: Off

>

>Stop

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

>

>Before adding any actions to stop you neeed to get the animation to run

>continuously. After that is done you need to add the buttons each button

>would set all the control movie clip to ON except the one you want it to

>stop at. And you also need a Play action.

>

>Give each Movie clip a name with a number following it such as hour1,

>hour2, hour3 etc. This makes it easy to keep track of the tell targets

>and makes creating a loop in Flash 4 to control all the frames very

>easy. If you don't have Flash 4 even if you are going to export to Flash

>3, the copy and paste and/or duplicate features will pay for Flash 4 in

>time savings in a project such as this.

>

>In Flash 4 if you are a programmer (or get one to help), you could

>create one instance of the object (the hand) with no tween. You would

>then control its rotation totally with actionscript (reverse is easy)

>using the rotate property to turn the hand.

>

>We may have a plug and play for this routine in the future, but don't

>have one now.

>

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

>

John Croteau croteauerols [dot] com (mailto:croteauerols [dot] com)

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


-----------------------------

Bong + Dern, Inc.

Sound and Music for New Media

http://www.bongdern.com

(212) 563-7925




------------------------------------------------------------------------

To UNSUBSCRIBE send: unsubscribe flasher in the body of an

email to

list-managershocker [dot] com

.  Problems to:

ownershocker [dot] com

N.B. Email address must be the same as the one you used to subscribe.

For info on digest mode send: info flasher to

list-managershocker [dot] com