Flash :: Continuity Of Instances Across Key Frames

Linking Movie Clip Instances To Frames
Hi,

This is my first post here although I've been a frequent site visitor for some time. I'm having a problem and I'm hoping someone can help. I have a movie with movie clip instances that float by on the screen and I want to link these instances so when they are clicked on they go and play a frame in the second scene. THey float across teh screen just fine but they won't link up. I placed actionscript code to send them to the frame in scene 2 when clicked but instead they just restart their own clip from the start. So if the instance is halfway across the screen and you click on it it just returns to where it started starts again. I can't figure out why I can't get this to work. I'm using Flash MX. Anyhelp would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
Chris

[CS3] Any Way To Name Multiple Instances Of A Movie Clip Across Frames?
I have an FLA where I have to assign the same instance name to multiple movie clips (actually the same symbol) on a layer across many frames. Is there a way to name this movie clip across the whole timeline without going into each frame individually and naming it? I tried all the onion skinning modes hoping that if I named the first instance it would carry over to the others but it didn't. Any thoughts before I go through a hundred frames to name the same instance, hoping that I don't miss one?! There are several layers where I have to do this, some with multiple symbols so I have to click on each movie clip to select it before I name it

Accessing Instances On Other Frames Than The Current Frame
Hi all

I am writing Flex app where I am loading an swf file containing an animation using instances of movie clip symbols.

For simplicity lets say that the animation uses instances of the symbols A, B and C:

On frame 1 an instance of A named "a", and an instance of B named "b" are used. On frame 2 an instance of B named "b", and an instance of C named "c" are used.

Now I want to show some red dots on top of all three instances "a", "b" and "c". I do this by attaching a new instance of the movieclip symbol "RedDot" as a child on each of the instances "a", "b" and "c".

I want to achive the effect that a red dot is shown on "a", "b" and "c" in both frame 1 and 2.

However, if I do this when the current frame is 1, then I cannot access "c", and on frame 2 I cannot access "a".

It seems as if instances are declared on the frames where they are shown, but I would to access all my instances in all frames.

The funny thing is that if I attach a red dot to "b" in frame 1, then the "b" instance in frame 2 will also have the red dot.

So I am unsure about the "liftetime" of symbol instances. When I use an instance named "b" on both frame 1 and frame 2, then it seems to be the same instance, but "c" is not used/declared on frame 1, and therefore I cannot access it on frame 1.

So my question is, how can I access instances that re only used/shown/declared on other frames than the current frame ?

Hopes this makes sense...

best regards Stig

Help With Continuity (or Whatever)
ActionScript Code:
on(release) {
gotoAndStop(_currentframe+1);
}

This is the code iam using. Im also using the same code but with (_currentframe-1) aswell.

it is attached to a button. it pushes the movie along a frame at a time with each button click.

What i want to know is HOW can i do it so that if you HOLD down the mouse button it continuosly repeats the above code, therefore, making it look like the movie is playing frame by frame.

hope that explaination is understandable

Cheers

Suikoden

Scene Continuity
Hello All!

Im working on a banner in flash that's basically a slideshow of features on my website. This banner is on several pages on my website. How can I make it so that if I go to another page, the slides keep going instead of (what I currently have now) the banner just starting over every time I go to a new page. Im looking for a continuous slideshow throughout the site. Thanks for your time and help.

Continuity Issue In Animation..
Hi there!

I've got problems with an animation stoping after the text disappears.

Take a look at it, and you will understand.

Actually I have managed to get the animation to continue when I delete the tags in frame 33. However, this cause some problems with the words not vanishing.

Regards:

David.
Here is the file.

Intermittent Continuity Query
Hello all, this is my first posting to this site. It's a really good and informative site, and I'm having difficulty with Flash actionscript. I'm an intermediate level user, but I've seen some great posts in this forum, and I know there's some brainy types that read this. Here goes...

I'm working for a client that wants me to create an interactive map, which I can zoom in/out, move the map around, have a minimap guide, and other goodies. I've got the bulk of it created, but I got stuck trying to create a gamepad type controller which the user can click on, and it will move the map.

What I'm trying to do is this: The gamepad graphic I created is like a typical Playstation/X-box style thumbpad controller. There are an up, down, left, and right arrows graphic which the user can click to make the map go up, down, etc. (I have created code to let the users use the keyboards, in case they don't want to use the graphics)

Is it possible to create a continous movement when the mouse is pressed, or will my poor user be stuck clicking the mouse ad-nauseum?

Any help/suggestions offered will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Loop Loses Continuity On Each Key Frame - Help?
I have a 30-frame loop of a walking man, but at each keyframe the loop starts over, so his walking loop doesn't flow correctly... For example, his arm will by on the upswing, but once the keyframe comes his arm will suddenly be on the downswing. How can I fix this so that you won't even be able to tell when theres a new keyframe? Thanks.

Continuity Of Flash Files In Series
I have a series of Flash files that need to play in series and keep variables till next file loads, but the Flash files will be on separate CDs. Is there a way to make a file wait till the next one loads? Even if the file came from a CD which will need to be switched out with the one with the next file?

Any suggestions you have will be appreciated.
Thanks,
Denise

Quick Question About "continuity"
first i show the code:

ActionScript Code:
//the MovieClipLoader object and other variables are cropped
//---------------------------------------
all.onRelease = function() {
changingImg();
};
//-----loading methods
stickerLi_2.onLoadComplete = function(holder) {//if image is loaded
holder.onEnterFrame = fadeIn; //fade in
if (currentImg == 1) {
currentImg = 2;
} else if (currentImg == 2) {
currentImg = 1;
} else {
currentImg = 1;
}
};

//-----Functions
function changingImg() {
image = all.stick1.image;
image.onEnterFrame = fadeOut; //fade out image
if (image._alpha<1) { //if faded out, load image
if (currentImg == 1) {
stickerMCL_2.loadClip(sub+images[0],image);
} else if (currentImg == 2) {
stickerMCL_2.loadClip(sub+images[1],image);
} else {
trace("Error");
}
}
}
function fadeIn() {
this.onEnterFrame = function() {
this._alpha += 20;
if (this._alpha>99) {
delete this.onEnterFrame;
}
};
}
function fadeOut() {
this.onEnterFrame = function() {
this._alpha -= 20;
if (this._alpha<1) {
delete this.onEnterFrame;
}
};
}
ok, what i am hoping to achieve is, when i click, the image fades out, then load in another image, then fade in again. It is working, but I have to click again to fade the image in. I want it to be continuous. What's wrong here? Shouldn't the onLoadComplete method be called automatically after the image is loaded?

Quick Question About "continuity"
first i show the code:

ActionScript Code:
//the MovieClipLoader object and other variables are cropped//---------------------------------------all.onRelease = function() { changingImg();};//-----loading methodsstickerLi_2.onLoadComplete = function(holder) {//if image is loaded holder.onEnterFrame = fadeIn; //fade in if (currentImg == 1) { currentImg = 2; } else if (currentImg == 2) { currentImg = 1; } else { currentImg = 1; }};//-----Functionsfunction changingImg() { image = all.stick1.image; image.onEnterFrame = fadeOut; //fade out image if (image._alpha<1) { //if faded out, load image if (currentImg == 1) { stickerMCL_2.loadClip(sub+images[0],image); } else if (currentImg == 2) { stickerMCL_2.loadClip(sub+images[1],image); } else { trace("Error"); } }}function fadeIn() { this.onEnterFrame = function() { this._alpha += 20; if (this._alpha>99) { delete this.onEnterFrame; } };}function fadeOut() { this.onEnterFrame = function() { this._alpha -= 20; if (this._alpha<1) { delete this.onEnterFrame; } };}

ok, what i am hoping to achieve is, when i click, the image fades out, then load in another image, then fade in again. It is working, but I have to click again to fade the image in. I want it to be continuous. What's wrong here? Shouldn't the onLoadComplete method be called automatically after the image is loaded?

How To Have Frames In Flash (frames That Are Like HTML Frames)?
hi
Does anyone know how i can have frames (frames that are like html frames) in my movie?
Like say:
I want movie 1 to load into frame 1 of my main movie.
Movie 2 to load into frame 2 of my main movie.
Thanks for your help.
Metal Fusion

Can Instances Be Attached To Instances ?
can instances be attached to instances using attach movie??

what i am doing is creating an instance of a movie by dragging and dropping and attaching a movie to a symbol and then i want to attach my new movie instance that i just created to another instance... can i do that...??

thanks

Puzzled On Frames Loaded And Total Frames Calculation Issue
The Goal:
I am trying to find out if the last frame of a loaded swf has been completed so I can then unload that swf and replace it with another swf.

The Process:
I have on the main time line a MC called movie1. (The main time line is only one frame long)

In the first frame on the main time line I have the following code:
---- start code ----
loadMovie("test/test_movie.swf", "movie1");
if (_root.movie1.framesloaded=_root.movie1.totalframe s) {
getURL("javascript:alert("Frames Fully Loaded")");
} else {
gotoAndPlay("Scene 1", 1);
getURL("javascript:alert("Frames Not Loaded")");
}

---- end code ----

This code will load and play the movie into the MC and gives me an alert that the "Frames Not Loaded". Thats great because it means I am loading the movie correctly and testing the total frames correctly. But I need to know when the last frame of the loaded swf has played so I can then load another. Even if I take out the else statment in my testing code I still can't get it to tell me when all the frames are loaded.

Any help would be great.

Thanks

Looping Frames X-y For 'z' Amount Of Times Then Proceeding To Frames After Loop
Hi,

I'm relatively new to Flash and have not done much work with the AS. I was hoping someone here could enlighten me on an area which has been stumping me.

I need to know how to loop (for example) frames 1 to 5, 4 times then continue to frame 6 until the last frame, then go back to frame 1, thus re-entering the loop, etc. I do believe it would involve something like this... but then again I'm a newbie to this so... what do I know (which is why I wanna learn)

Frame 1:
i=0

Frame 5:
i=i+1
if (i>4) {
gotoAndPlay(6);
} else if (i<4) {
gotoAndPlay(1);
}

Thanks so much

Looping First 38 Frames 7 Times, Then Playing The Whole 76 Frames And Stopping
Hi Guys, I have a movieclip that the first half has one set of movements, but the second half changes. I want to be able to loop this movieclip (instance on the root), so that it plays the first 38 frames 7 times...i.e., loops 7 times, and the 8th time, it plays the whole clip, then stips...the movie is 76 frames long.

I know it's going to be...make i=1 first time...add 1 to i each time...and if i=7, then play past frame 38...and put a stop(); at the end of the movie, but i don't know how that code would look, if I could please ask for more...basic (ugh...) help...
In other words, how do I write this (pseudocode) in AS:

i=1
play frames 1-38
i=i+1
if i is less than 8, play frames 1-38
if i is more than 7, play the whole movieclip, all 76 frames

Shawn

How To Repeat A Group Of Frames Without Adding A Million Frames?
Hello,

I have made a small flash intro using Flash MX 2004 Professional. The intro is about 3 seconds long. Here's what I want to do:

I want to add a few frames to the intro where I add things shooting through randomly, and I need these few frames to repeat themselves while keeping the main intro sort of paused in the background... How would I do this? How would I "pause" the background without adding a million frames? And is there some way that I can loop a group of frames? Please respond as "newbish" as possible so I can understand

Thank you!

Copy Frames Paste Frames... File Size.
Sooo I have a bunch of vector art I imported from swift3d and than I want to reverse the animation later on in the project so I copy the frames and than I paste them then I use the reverse frames option.... When I compile it doubles the size when I compile.... I know that maybe I should expect this. But if the symbols are already in the library why doesnt flash just use those symbols again and not increase in size?'

I hope this makes sense thanks in advance

Film Frames To Flash Frames
I want to make some small animations and in order to capture movement and forms 'correctly' I want to use digital video.

I would then turn up the contrast to define the form and shapes and then trace in flash or freehand. Hereby creating a frame by frame animation.

OK that's an idea, how do I do that the best way? (and quick?)

Move All Clips For 30 Frames ? Can't Use "copy Frames" Why ?
Hi
I have a animation with masks, movieclips loads of keyframes...all in all about 25 layers.
How can I insert at the beginning in every layer for example 30 emty frames ?
Another thing:
I tried to make a movieclip out of this animation because I don't want to handle all these layers but it doesn't work. The option "copy frames" is not active. Why ?
Thanks a lot for help.
cheers
Stefan

Replacing Frames With Other Frames
I would like to know if it's possible to replace existing frames with other frames. In my case I have made an animation of a talking guy with text appearing over him, but at some point he stops talking and I forgot to insert the frames where his mouth is closed, so I'm stuck with no text but a mouth that is moving anyway. I would like to replace the sequence of 'moving mouth frames' with a sequence of 'closed mouth' of the same length.

Thanks in advance guys.

How Do U Name Instances?
how do u name instances?

Getting Name Of Instances?
Yo, can movieclips or instances get their name?
And can they get name of SWF they are in?

Example: i have 01.swf that has MC named 05a

Can i get name 01 or 05a?

Instances
I have a music player setup. There is a button that tell something in a instance called song to go to a certain frame. THIS DOES NOT WORK. what is wrong with it..

on (release) {
tellTarget ("song") {
}
gotoAndPlay (1);
}

No Instances In
Hello All,

I'm doing the tutorials in this book, Sams Teach Yourself Macromedia Flash 5 in 24hrs and am doing the rotating wheels/car animation exercise where I am learning how to put actions in button instances, but, after adding the "stop" action/method and then adding the "with" action and clicking the cross-hairs to bring up the dialogue box I only see an instance called "this". Doesn't seem to be a + to open the tree of instances. What am I missing here..?

Instances
Well i have several windows all with the background as a black graphic from the library.
Everytime i make a txt box on one of the backgrounds it appears on all the backgrounds of the other windows.
I know this is something to do with the instances of the graphic in the library but i dont have a clue how to change the instances so they dont affect all the others by changing the symbol in the library.
Sorry if any of this is confusing but i've been learning flash for 11 days and am finding it hard going unlike SwiSH so any help would be much appreciated.

Mc Instances
How can I refer to all instances of an mc together in one statement

setProperty(one,two,three,_alpha, 0);

How could I change this illegal statement to something that will work?

PHP And Instances
Hi peeps,

Does php read UI Component Instances as variables ?

Need to place data from a combo box into a var for php to use.

Thanks,

Instances
hey does anyone know how after making a movie clikc of a lind in flash MX i drag the instances of the line onto a stage>?

Instances
Supid question....but I'm having trouble assigning actions to one of my buttons. When I click the button and go to actions, it tells me "no instance name assigned", however I have already named the instance "Play" in the property inspector. The button is a play button for a playback control bar and I want to do an "onclick, play frame 1 of current scence.

Haven't used Flash in a while and have never had this problem before. Probably a minor error, but I'd appreciate some help.

MC's Instances
I'm trying to make a personal site wit just pics. I have about 20 pics. For every picture I have a movieclip/button overlapping the picture, so when the mouse rolls over theres a fade of the picture. Now I have TONS of code controlling these instances of the fade MC, so I want to know if there's a quicker way of tellin all these instances that when thres a mouseover to gotoandplay the movieclip/button.

Thx .. if dat seemed unclear .. take a look at the site ..
http://scorpius.spaceports.com/~agt

Instances
what I've done is created a panoramic viewer that moves using bt's. What I want to do s creat a "pop up video" effect. So I thought the best way of doing this is to have hot spots in the panoramic shot that run through a target window on the main timeline to active a movieclip from the library. So I did this:

if (mainMovie.singleStrip.drag1 == "target1") {
_root.insert.attachMovie("pop_up1", "california", 10);
}

drag1 is the hot spot in the panoramic shot and target1 is the target that it hits to pop up "pop_up1" from the library.

what am I doing wrong. I think I'm calling on drag1 wrong. am I?

Instances Within Instances
How do I write script for an MC which is in the over state of a button.

I want the MC to play when the mouse rolls over the button but not before it does. I've tried doing this with:

_root.abcabc.play

where abcabc is the instance name of the movie clip. This method, which has worked when the MC is in the root, but I don't know how to identify the instance of abcabc when it's within the button.

Any help is much appreciated.

Instances...
hi buddies,
I tried to make a flash animated button for a movie, and I create a MC, and locate the button into it. The movie clip has an animation bla bla bla and the button has code for control the mc (this) and some MC out that MC, on the main movie timeline.

The problem is that, I can use instances of the MC, but the button into the MC is only one, and when I change the code of the button, the whole MC changes the code, so I can't use instances...

is there a good way to create animated buttons for using like instances in a movie (avoioding duplicate the original MC in the library)?
How can I organize that?

thanks a lot in advance pals...

Instances
I have a main page with 4 buttons that "on release" will "goto and play" an animated subscene then return to the main menu. I have the 1st subscene exactly the way I want it and I want the other 3 subscenes to be exactly the same but with swapped images and links. I duplicated the 1st subscene to become the 2nd subscene but when I swapped the images and links in the 2nd subscene, it changed all the images and links to the 1st scene too. How do I copy a scene and make changes to it without affecting the original scene?????

please help!

thanks

How To Name Instances
Hi,

I've got 6 instances of a symbol in my anim and I'm trying to name each one individually. However I can't find out how, there is nothing in the properties inspector to type the name into... Am I missing something obvious or is it not possible. I need to be able to address each instance seperately as I intend to turn them on and off using AS independent of each other. If it's not possible to name them what is the best way to reference them in my script?

Also is there any way of finding out the full name (ie _root.submovie.button) of an object? I can get a list of everything using ctrl-l but is there any way to click an object to find out about just that object.

Thanks
Alex

Instances
This must be one of the most frequently asked questions and you're probably all very bored with it But I tried the board's search option and it timed out again and again... so, sorry, but I really have to ask

-> I know one can create a single instance of a movieclip in a timeline and duplicate that as many times as one likes, but is there really no way to create an instance of an existing movie clip without manually adding at least one to the 'stage' during design time?

I know instancename = new movieclipname() doesn't work... but what does?

Thx

Instances Within Instances?
Hi,

I am trying to do something that weirdly is not working. I say "weirdly" because there's no reason to not work, once it's logical!!!

I created two mc and one button:

MC1: empty mc called "theEmpty"
MC2: mc containing a image called "theImageA" (exported to AS)
Button: called "theButton"

Then, I instantiated mc "theEmpty" within first frame of "theButton" and call its instance as "TheEmpty1".
Then, I instantiated theButton in the first frame of the timeline and call its instance as "TheButton1".
Then, I coded:

theButton1.theEmpty1.attachMovie("theImageA","theI mageA1",2);

But nothing happens, when I guess that the image should appear!!!

The weird part is that, if I instantiate "theEmpty" in the timeline as "theEmpty1" and code:

theEmpty1.attachMovie("theImageA","theImageA1",2);

it works...

What's going on?

Using Instances......
when i use an instance of a button or a graphic and try to change the color it changes the color of the original button or graphic as well....if i have circle buttons and want each to have a different color do i have to recreate the circles and make seperate versions for every color i want????? whats the point of instances then????

How To Name MC Instances?
Wud gr8ly appreciate if some1 can advise me about a better way to refer to newly created instances in the function 'Move' below:

PHP Code:

interval = setInterval(CreateBullet, maxTime*Math.random());
function CreateBullet() {
    clearInterval(interval);
    bulletName = "car"+bulletCount;
    newBullet_mc = _root.attachMovie("car", bulletName, bulletCount);
    newBullet_mc._x = startX;
    newBullet_mc._y = startY;
    newBullet_mc.onEnterFrame = Move;
    bulletCount++;
    interval = setInterval(CreateBullet, maxTime*Math.random());
}

function Move() {
        if (this._y >= 318){this._y -= 1;}
}

My problem arises since all newly created instances of 'car' are referred to as 'this.'. So if I want, for example, instances whose y-position is >= 318 to move in a certain way, every other instance, whether or not >= 318, also starts moving!!: (

So...can I use "car"+bulletCount, for instance, in 'Move' in a 'for' loop to deal with only the instances I want to??

lk forward in anticipation!

HELP With Instances...
Help! I am starting to use actions scripting, and I am still confused as to what an "instance name" is for? I haven't been able to find any info, on what it's applications are. I tried using it on a button, "gotoAndPlay ("instance name here"); so it would play a movie, and nothing works. However it works fine if I name the frame that the movie in.

Any help would be GREAT!!

Thanks in advanced...

Stephen =]

Help With Mc Instances In AS3
Does anyone know if it's possible to use AS3 to give created movie clips instance names? And if it is possible, is it then possible to change the instance names of the movie clips within the created movie clip?

The reason I ask is because I have to create dynamic movie clips that have different colored circles based on RGNs. I want to do it this way so that I don't have to create 120+ movie clips for all the possible combinations.

If anyone has any good ideas on other ways to handle my problem that would be great.

Instances On Nav Bar?
ok i am trying to make a navigatio bar that has pretty much the same setup as the http://f-source.com/ website where when u roll over the actual button a secon bar pops up saying something like "welcome to our site"

i have on the following script on the button its self

Quote:

on (rollOver) {
_root.targetwelcomey = 90;
}
on (rollOut) {
_root.targetwelcomy = 150;
}

then i have the following script on the object that the button makes move

Quote:

onClipEvent (load) {
_root.targety = 150;
// Startposition
}
onClipEvent (enterFrame) {
diff = _root.targety-this._y;
this._y += diff/10;
}

the issue come when i put it on more then one button and object. what would be a script i would use to set up an instance? for each button because even though i have each script on a different layer when i test it and roll over the button the first one works then the rest of them will just bring the first one back up and is realy messed up.

also how do u set up a fla document to where when its ina website u don't have to click it to activate?

Instances Help
on (release)
{
gumball_1.play();
gumball_2.play();
}

This may be simple to you guys, but I want to separate the plays. So, when I click the first time, gumball_1 plays, but the 2nd time, gumball_2 plays, etc. Help? And thanks in advance.

Instances
Hi anyone,
I've become stuck with a problem! I've created a drop down menu as a MC. I would like to use instances of this to create my gallery menu.The problem is that as soon as I drag the MC on stage and try to change the text which is in the button in the MC
it changes all the instances! eg: I have one gallery menu called destinations, on rollover the sub menus(england,India,south america) fly out.The second instance of this MC I would like to have with the text "sport" with sub menus-climbing,skiing ect.
What am I doing wrong :-(.Any advice would be most welcome.
Ivan

Instances From Swf To The Other?
I have a blank moive clip in my "Play.swf" which I've loaded my "Play_game.swf" into. The game allows the user to drag the differnt text pieces into differnt areas which are allowed by the "instance". However I can not get the target areas to be reconized by the main swf?

Here is the source code for the object to be dragged into the target.

on (press) {
startDrag ("_root.blank.pest");
}
on (release) {
stopDrag ();
if (_root.blank.pest._droptarget == "/save") {
_root.blank.blank.gotoandStop("correct");
_root.blank.score = (_root.blank.score) + 1;
setProperty ("_root.blank.pest", _alpha, "100");
setProperty ("_root.blank.pest", _x, "-200");
}
else _root.blank.blank.gotoandStop("wrong");
}

The name of the instance of the target is save? What do I need to do to get this to work in my main swft file?