Re: FLASH: Transitions

[Marc Hoffman]

At 09:54 AM 11/3/98 +0000, you wrote:

>Hi.

>I have a problem that seems quite simple but I can't find any way to solve

it.

>The thing is; I have some pages in my movie, like a web site, and a

>navigation bar at the bottom where you can jump to whatever page you want.

>When you leave a page the elements of the page fades and moves away, and

>then the elements of the next page becomes visible.

>Do I have to do a separate transition for each combination af pages or can

>I have one 'fade down' and one 'fade up' section for each page that plays

>when called?. Is there any way to 'play then goto'? If so, I could play the

>'fade up' section of page 1 and then play the 'fade up' section of whatever

>page the user wants to go to.

>Must be a common problem...

>

>Thanks.

>

>/John


Hi John.


There are several ways to do this.  I think your simplest bet is to put

each page in its own movie clip.  The first frame should be blank and

labeled "park," with a "stop" frame action. The second frame should loop

back to the first. Then there will be a fade-in, a stop action, and a

fade-out.  Label each of these these key frames.  Give each movie clip an

instance name (double-click it on stage and fill out the instance name box

[PC]). Use one set of navigation buttons on the main timeline, one button

per page.  Now, each button must tell EVERY instance to go to the next

frame.  If a clip is parked, it will loop back to park.  If a clip is

stopped between fade-in and fade-out, it will move ahead (put a "play"

action in the next frame) to fade-out (after fade-out there should be an

action to loop it back to Park).  Additionally, each page button should

TellTarget its specific page to go to the fade-in frame.  This button

action should be placed last in the list of actions.


I know this requires a lot of hand coding, but I think it will work fine.

My only uncertainty is whether there will be a conflict where the same

button action tells the clip being called to go to park and then to go to

fade-in.  The nice thing about this scheme is the buttons stay the same on

your whole timeline.  You can make copies of your first page movie clip and

just rename them, substitute the new page text, put it on stage and give it

an instance name.


An alternative is to put the navigation buttons in every clip.  This means

fewer tell-targets.


Tip: put each clip on its own layer.  Especially since the clips start out

empty, this will make it easier to select each one for editing (lock all

other layers and "select all").  Also remember a movie clip must exist

continuously on the timeline (even if it's parked invisibly); exiting the

frame(s) where it occurs, and then re-entering them, will cause it to reset

to the first frame.


You can also put every page in its own movie and load them in different

levels.  In that case you probably want your buttons replicated in every

movie.



Marc Hoffman

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