Flash :: Managing Multiple Movies On The Main Stage

Managing Multiple Movies On Main Timeline
Hello,
i just started using actionscript. i don't understand how to write or organize the coding for this:

first, i have 3 movie clips on the main timeline. the first movie clip is a series of buttons (the main navigation) within a movie clip that when rolled over, will jump to specific frame labels to change its look. no down or hit states. i got this to work.

secondly, i'd like for this rollover function to display the 2nd movie clip, which contains 8 different movie clips (thumbnails).

thirdly, i'd i'm trying to make the movie clip thumbnails act as buttons that when the onRelease occurs, it activates the final movie clip, (a Container movie clip), which will show about 15 different movie clips, each containing about 3 frames to display once clicked.

i know this is kind of drawn out, but if anyone can get me started it would be a big help. the only actions i currenly have are stop(); actions. Other than that i'm lost.

How-to Control Movies From Main Stage?
Hi, I’m trying to control a movie on my main stage with a button in the main stage. The main stage has a stop(); so that the movie that is on that frame can play. Inside the movie is a button with only play() as its code. The movie is a basic fold out menu and the button simply plays that move and folds out the sub nav until it get to a stop. Clicking it again tell it to play and fold the menu back up.

The problem I’m having is getting the external button that is on the main stage to play this move. The reason I have this external button is to indicate to the user which section they are currently in, the button is a different color to the one in the movie. The movie has an instance name of hp and the code on the button that is on the main stage is: _root.hp.play();, But for some reason it is not working.

Can anyone please help me with this.

Loading And Unloading Movies On Main Stage?
i'm trying to discern which of the two commands is better at unloading/loading movies

currently i have a set of buttons that links to movieclips. when clicked i want a movie loaded into the main movie. i've been able to accomplish that with telltarget, but the problem is, when clicking another button to load a different movie onto the stage, the movie clips loads on top of the existing one. how do i 'unload' the previous movie when loading another one?

Playing Multiple MovieClips On The Main Stage
Initially when I added them each to their own frame, they all started playing at once. I need mc_Two to start when mc_One is over, mc_Three to start when mc_Two is over, and so forth.

Thanks for your help!

Loading Multiple Movies As Main Movie Plays
This is probably a easy solution, but I'm missing it. I have 9 separate swf files that are rather large. They all link from the main movie. I need to see about having the lot of movies load as the main site opens and plays. The additional movies do not play within the main site, they are stand alone files that don't require anything from the main movie.

Is there a simple way to designate these movies to start to load in the background? Basically, as soon as the site opens, I'm wanting everything to start loading...

Thanks

Question About Inserting Multiple Flash Movies Into A Main One
i am having trouble with something. since the size of my site is getting bigger and bigger, i'd like to make the animated background on it a seperate .swf file so that it saves loading times. How is it possible to insert and position a seperate swf movie clip into the main timeline without pressing anything? i hope someone will be able to help me. if my question is unclear, i'd be glad to rewrite it ;-)

and the second thing is making text readable. i know that this is a big issue of flash but by making the text dynamic, it becomes clear. though i'm experiencing something strange: this method works in the first of 2 scenes in my movie (www) but in the second one, when i do the same, it doesn't even display the text at all. not even "unreadable"... can anyone help me?
thanx a lot

lnovotny.com

Managing Between Movies
I'm making a flash website. I've created a "Scene 1" who is the main movie. In that movie i have created a movieclip called Menyår7 in the mainmovie. This is a movieclip with menus and my question is. Why can't i use mouseevent on the submenu to jump to a specific label in the main movie.

i have used the script for the subbuton in my menu

on (press) {
gotoAndPlay ("Scen 1", "Matte7");
}

I am using Flash 5

/Gamiz

Managing Loaded Movies
Hi, I have a movie that loads external movies, into empty movieclips, using a movieclippreloader in different frames of the main movie.

My question is: Is it recommended to unload the movies previously loaded once the user changes to a new section/frame/loaded movie?

If so, any advice on how to make a smooth transition between these two movies (the one that will be unloaded and the one to load)?

Thanks a lot for your help.

Managing Multiple .swfs
I'm creating a system that will load multiple (up to 30) .swf files depending on what buttons/actions are triggered. For a project like this, would it be better to switch to Macromedia Director or some other Flash-creation platform?

My Flash Authoring environment (the one from Macromedia) seems to slow to a crawl when it tries to juggle this many swf files.

Managing Multiple External .swf Loads
Let's say I have 5 .swfs that I am loading into one movie. Am I better off having each .swf load one after the other? Let's say once the first one is 50% complete, the second one starts etc. This will help bring the individual .swfs on faster but it will probably cause the overall load to take longer. Is this a correct assumption?

Managing Multiple External Classes
Hi,

I'm having some trouble getting mulitple external classes to work simultaneously. I have a little game that is running off the document class. I'd like to add a background scroller. I have an external class for the scroller but I don't know how to make the FLA see this additional AS file. If I make the scroller the doc class, it works fine but of course the game doesn't work. If the game is the doc class, the scroller doesnt work. I've been looking for a good (clear) tutorial on how to manage multiple external classes but have not found anything that tells me the steps how to do it. Can anyone help? Thanks!

M

Multiple Movie Clips Keep Looping On Main Stage When I Have A "Stop" Action In MC?
I've created a movie clip that has eight frames with a "stop" via actionscript in the last frame. In my main movie I have placed 11 instances to come in one "after" the other by varying each instance to it's own layer (11 layers) and placing each instance in the appropriate frame.
Example: instance one in frame one - layer one, instance two on layer two - frame two, instance three on layer three - frame three.

Problem: When I publish the file and open up the .swf the first instance comes in and stops. All the other instances come in but they all keep looping except the first instance in layer one frame one. When I move all the instances into frame one at the beginning of their layers the published swf file plays all instances at once and then stops just like I want.

Question: Why is it that the instances keep looping in different frames and not when they are in the first frame of their prospective layers? I want the instances to start one after the other and not all at once and then I want them to stop. I placed a "stop" action at the end of the MC?

All instances have not had any of their properties altered and are movie clips on the main scene. There is no added actionscripts anywhere else. I have attached the fla file which is really small of what I am trying to accomplish. Thanks in advance for all your help.

Managing Multiple Actionscript Animation Actions
I'm used to use movieclip controllers to animate programatically elements on stage.

The common structure I use is to create a movieclip with 4 frames:
- frame 1 (name = stop):
stop();
- frame 2 (name = start):
play();
- frame 3
(no keyframe/no action)
- frame 4
c++;
if (c<=loop_size) { // loopsize can be set outside the movieclip
// evaluate some action on each frame of the movie
gotoAndPlay(_currentframe-1);
} else {
// evaluate some action on the end of the movie
gotoAndStop("stop");
}

I've been used it to change change object properties (_x, _y, _scale, _alpha, etc) or to call different kind of actions.

Normally I have a different controller movie clip for each animation I want to control with actionscript.
I wonder if there is a way to dinamically set the controller actions with action script instead of having several similar controllers on the same movie.
(perhaps there is a more smart solution to this kind of situations)

tks for any help

Conflict Between Main Preloader And Load Movies Inside The Main.
Greetings.
I am able to make preloaders for my individual .swf files and have them loadmovie into target into my main movie, however if I also want to preload my main movie (the parent that contains all the swf files) I get conflict. Essentially I want to preload the main movie, once there the viewer upon clicking certain buttons can view other swf movies each of which have there own preloader. It appears that the preloaders I have tried are "either one or the other" choice i.e. preload main or preload the swf files inside main.
I am sure it's in the coding....anyone have a preloader or a tut' for preload main (with % be nice) and then still able to have preloaded swf inside.
Thanks!

Movies In Movies And Multiple Scenes...grrrr HELP
Hi all!

loadMovieNum ("events.swf", 8);
level8.gotoAndPlay("DIRECT3");
stop ();

ok, i have just done a few flash movies, but I am openning swf files in my movie, however these movie have a preloader and a 2nd scene before the main scene.

The problem I have is that I need play from a frame in my main scene (called Direct3).

I used the above AS to load my movie, but I have a feeling that its not going to my requested frame label...

I am sure this is possible, please could someone point me in the right direction...

Thanx in Advance....

WolfFang

Main Stage?
Im trying to do this tutoral here: http://www.flashkit.com/tutorials/In...-532/more6.php

Everythings going fine then it says "Now go back to the main stage and drag an Instance of the window Movie Clip"

What the heck is the main stage and what does dragging an Instance of something mean?

Loading Swf On Main Stage
I have my menu in a mc. I want it to load a swf into the main stage area. Also I would need it to unload the previous swf everytime a new button is pressed. How owuld I go about doing that.

Loading In A Swf- And The Main Stage
Hello, I have a swf loading into my main movie. In the swf I have movie and at the last key frame I have it tell target / go to frame a and stop. The swf alone works fine, but when I load it into the movie it does not work. I am assuming that / goes to the main movie stage rather then the main stage of the swf. How can I get it to go to the main stage of the swf. thanks in advance- Dave

Main Stage Slooooows Down.
I created a main stage with all the buttons an crap.
When I load an external .swf file onto it, the tweens on the main stage slow waaaaaaaay down. Here, check it out.

http://jrhame.anycities.com/Tnike/tnike.html

Notice the glow around the logo pulsing, and click on the "Audio" button and notice the pace of the pop out.
Now click on the "Mission button", after its loaded, the tween around the logo slows down, as well as the audio pop out.

My guess is because the tween of the moving clouds is at 300 frames.

Both the main stage and mission.swf's are not big in size.
The main stage is 68k and the mission is 64k.
So its not a memory thing.
Any ideas?

Josh

Loading SWF To Main Stage?
I have 3 seperate swf files one is the main movie and the other are a audio file saved as a swf and another is a image with animations. So I want to load the main movie first then load the audio and next the image with animations one right after another but not at the same time. How would I go about doing this best?

Running Exe From Main Stage
Hi!
Why will a separate program not run from the button on my stage with this command on it?

on (release) {
fscommand("EXEC", "secrets.exe");
}

It did in flash 5 but now that I have upgraded to flash mx professional 2004, it won't run the program. Has the coding changed in the newer version?!

Cheers
Chris

Calling MC On Main Stage From A MC
Hi,

I have few MC's on the main stage (Scene 1). When i click on a link (from the main stage), a different MC plays (which is not in the main stage) - i need to have a button on the playing mc so that when i click on it, it should play the MC on the main stage. Can someone pls let me know how to do this?

thanks.

Variables On The Main Stage
I have a text variable on the main stage that I want to use in a MC on a new level but can't get it to show up.

popit = function(){
this.attachMovie("popTheCorkMC", "pop1", this.getNextHighestDepth());
};

I'm loading an MC onto the next highest depth and want to display the text variable I have set on the main stage. Is this possible?

Jump From MC To Main Stage
I have a mc, "Transition", on my main stage. It does an animation. At the end of the animation I would like it to gotoAndPlay("music"). The problem is that "music" is on on my main stage. Is there any way possible to jump from a frame of a movie clip to a specific frame on the main stage?

Plese say yes and please tell me how.

What Preloader To Put On Main Stage?
I am loading external swf into main movie and external swf also loads some content externally.

so i have 2 ProgressEvents, one in my main movie for loading external swf, and other in my external swf for loading its content:

PHP Code:

swfLoader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(ProgressEvent.PROGRESS, onProgress);function onProgress(e:ProgressEvent):void {}

so which preloader should i put on main stage?
how can i know what is going to take longer, loading external swf or external swf loading its content?

Print Only The Main Stage
How can I only print the main stage without printing stuff which is larger than the main stage ? Using this

PHP Code:

on (press) { print("", "bmax");}

it prints everything, even those stuff which is not visual since it's larger than the main stage. Anyway using this it prints 50 copies, how can that come ?

So what would I need to do to print the main stage only ?

Thanks for help

Targeting The Main Stage
Hi all - how do I target a key frame on the main stage from a movie clip on that stage. Have a small animation ( on frame1 ) that when it ends I would like the main timeline to move to frame no.2 on that main stage. Have a short intro that I want to playout and then the main nav to appear. Any help would be great....thanks in advance.

[CS3] A Question About Using Multiple Scenes Or Multiple Movies...
If I wanted to creat a personal site, with say my BIO, Resume, etc, and I wanted to use a format similar to what 2advanced.com uses. Would it be best to use multiple scenes or multiple .fla documents.

The idea is, that when I have a user click a button, or a menu item or whatever, it takes them to a different section of my site, but I want a seemless transistion between pages.

Does that make sense?

HELP Multiple Buttons Controlling Multiple Movies
I hope someone can either help, or point me in the right direction!

I am trying to do a little program for kids, where there make their own plants. They are to pick from several buttons; the petal, leaf size and stem size. Once they have done that, they have to then click sun and water. Only then does flash fetch the correct movie case that matches with the buttons pressed, and plays it.

My problem is this...i am a total newbie, and have no idea where to start! Any tips would be very appreciated, or if anyone has stumbled across any tutorials that might help, i would be very grateful!

thanks

Controlling Multiple Movies With Multiple Buttons
I am trying to use variables to control mulitple movies with multiple buttons (I think). I can get one button to control all the movies the way i want, but not ALL the buttons to control ALL the movies.

Take a look at the main menu on exopolis.com and you'll see the effect I'm going for

http://www.exopolis.com

I am also using the code from joshua davis' flash to the core (tutorial #8). I'm try to apply this same concept, but with mulitple movies and mulitple buttons.

http://flashtothecore.praystation.com

I have four movies named:

home_mc
work_mc
play_mc
contact_mc

Each movie has a button within them that declares a variable that will be true or false depending on the rollver state. (fade01,fade02,etc.)

In the root, first frame I have the following:

//handle the onEnterFrame event
_root.bt_home_mc.onEnterFrame=function(){
if(_root.fade01){
_root.bt_work_mc.nextFrame();
_root.bt_play_mc.nextFrame();
_root.bt_contact_mc.nextFrame();
}else{
_root.bt_work_mc.prevFrame();
_root.bt_play_mc.prevFrame();
_root.bt_contact_mc.prevFrame();
}
};

//handle the onEnterFrame event
_root.bt_work_mc.onEnterFrame=function(){
if(_root.fade02){
_root.bt_home_mc.nextFrame();
_root.bt_play_mc.nextFrame();
_root.bt_contact_mc.nextFrame();
}else{
_root.bt_home_mc.prevFrame();
_root.bt_play_mc.prevFrame();
_root.bt_contact_mc.prevFrame();
}
};

//handle the onEnterFrame event
_root.bt_play_mc.onEnterFrame=function(){
if(_root.nav_mc.fade03_mc.fade03){
_root.bt_home_mc.nextFrame();
_root.bt_work_mc.nextFrame();
_root.bt_contact_mc.nextFrame();
}else{
_root.bt_home_mc.prevFrame();
_root.bt_work_mc.prevFrame();
_root.bt_contact_mc.prevFrame();
}
};

//handle the onEnterFrame event
_root.bt_contact_mc.onEnterFrame=function(){
if(fade04){
_root.bt_home_mc.nextFrame();
_root.bt_work_mc.nextFrame();
_root.bt_play_mc.nextFrame();
}else{
_root.bt_home_mc.prevFrame();
_root.bt_work_mc.prevFrame();
_root.bt_play_mc.prevFrame();
}
};

On each button I have the following (except the variable is unique....fade01, fade02, etc)

on(rollOver){
_root.fade01=true;
}
on(rollOut, dragOut){
_root.fade01=false;
}

Please help. This is for a personal project. If you need my fla file, i can send it to you. Thanks

Exact Placement On Main Stage And In MCs
When I am working on a movie, I often have a hard time making sure objects and movie clips are in the same exact position.
For example, I have this control panel that appears on everyscreen of the movie, but as you watch the movie and navigate through, the panel jumps around a little bit. I try to use the info panel for the x and y positioning, but if the panel is inside a MC the x ans y info won't be the same if this object is placed on the main timeline. Does this make sense?
It happens to me all the time...even when I have objects, buttons, and MCs in a movie clip, then I want to start a new scene with these same objects, but not exactly the same objects so dublcating the entire scene doesn't work.

I guess my question boils down to: if you are working in a MC and then you have to take some of the same objects in that movie clip and position them in the exact same place on the main timeline, how do you make sure they are exactly the same. Or vice versa working from the main timeline into a movie clip?

Hope this isn't too general of a question. Thanks,
Christine

How Do You Tell One Movoec Lip To Play Another Mc On The Main Stage?
I have a movie were I made several movieclips, what I wan to do is put them all on the main stage but I want that after the first movieclip is done playing to start the next one and then the next one and so on and on.

How can I do this??

Thanks in advance for any hel you may be able to provide

Furnart

How To Link From A Movieclip To The Main Stage?
I have a menu that is a movieclip that contains buttons. I want a button to link to a frame on the main stage area that is up a level. the "gotoandplay (??)" doesn't work because it's not funtioning on the same level...it just plays a part of the menu. Any ideas how I can make my link reference a level above itself (the movieclip)?

Set Variable On Main Stage - Should Be Easy
Probably really easy this one but I just cant get it to work.

I have a text field on the main stage which I want to populate by using set variable when a button is clicked. The button though is in a movieclip, within another movieclip, on the stage.

Do I have to use tell target, if so how do I target the main stage?

Thanks

Button On MC Not Going To Next Frame On Main Stage
Hey... I would have searched for this in the forum, but the search functionality is down. Here is what i need.

I have a button inside a movie clip.

The movie clip resides on the main scene named Scene 1.

I want the button to take me to frame 2 on Scene 1 when I hit it.

Here is the code i have for the button.

on (release) {
gotoAndPlay ("Scene 1", 2);
}

For some reason this is not working.

Additionally, I have a Stop action on the first frame of scene 1 where all of this is taking place...

Thanks.

MX: Main Stage Timeline Access
OK.. I found my problem. I've been telling the clip that contained the script to gotoAndPlay(2) when I need to be telling the main timeline to jump to another scene... the MC containing the script is a child of the main movie and I want it to tell the main stage to jump to another scene.. or just another frame on the main timeline if another scene is not possible. Here is what it looks like now.

Code:
onClipEvent(load) {
defaultX = this._x;
defaultY = this._y;
}

onClipEvent(mouseDown) {
if (this.hitTest(_root._xmouse, _root._ymouse)) {
startDrag(this);
this.swapDepths(100);
}
}

onClipEvent(mouseUp) {
if (this.hitTest(_root._xmouse, _root._ymouse)) {
stopDrag();
if (this._droptarget=="/target1") {
setProperty(this, _x, _root.target1._x);
setProperty(this, _y, _root.target1._y);
_root.whereTo = "house";
trace("I should be going to " add _root.whereTo);
/*--------->*/_root.gotoAndPlay(2);
} else {
_x = defaultX;
_y = defaultY;
}
}
}
this seems to be telling the MC that contains this script to jump to frame 2 instead of the main timeline... any ideas?

Thanks,
Carl Gibson - rkitecsure@hotmail.com

Loading External SWF Into Main Stage
I am having multiple swf which I am loading with MC buttons placed on my main stage, everything works fine except it reloads the swf file everytime you press one of the buttons again instead of just displaying it since it loaded the swf file already the first time.
the loadmovie command ist is done in the MC where the button was made.

www.vicomsystems.com/site

thanks for any help

Want To Move A Graphic Into The Main Stage
ok iv got a graphic in the library and when i put it on the stage it goes, but I want to put all the layers in that graphic on the main stage. but i dont know how to do it. is it possible?

Control A Movie From The Main Stage
Ihave a mc on my main stage however when a button is pressed on the main stage i wish the mc to return to a certain frame of the mc.
I have seen people post about this before so know it can be done and no doubt its relatively easy coding, however it avaids my knowledge..

Any Help Gratefully appreciated

Resizing Main Stage Dynamically
I've seen this before and haven't found it by searching. The main stage or movie clip changes it's x/y coordinates when a navigation button is clicked. For example, when the "News" section is clicked, the main stage changes to 300x100.

There are a few sites that i've seen do this. Any places I can look or any code out there?

Reposition External Swf On Main Stage
my external swf loaded into level on main stage.
is it possible to reposition it using actionscript on main stage.

since i do not want to load my external swf into empty mc.

Positioning A MC With A Button On The Main Stage
Hello and thanks in advanced! I have a MC within a MC(slider). I need to move (slider) using a button that is on the main stsage.

I have a button on the main stage button called buttonName, a Movie Clip named parentmc.
Inside parentmc I have a mc clip slider.

This is my script that is not working. I have this script in the first frame of movie clip called parentmc.

Code:
_root.buttonName.onRelease = function() {
_root.parentmc.slider.tx = 300;
_root.parentmc.slider.ty = 345;
_root.parentmc.slider.onEnterFrame = function() {
this._x += (this.tx-this._x)/2;
this._y += (this.ty-this._y)/2;
};
};

Any help would be nice!

[MX04] Scaling The Main Stage
Hey Gang,

Working on a project that is essentially one large stage (16:9 ratio) that will play 2 movies (4:3 ratio) side by side. These movies are loaded externally by two separate XML files that act as play lists. Everything works great, and I've worked out the kinks except for one.

This flash file is going to be played on large plasma screens and plays at a rather large resolution. The difficulty comes in when an end user is changing the xml files and wants to double check that everything works correctly. Currently, the demo runs at fullscreen with allowscale set to false. Because most of these end users are going to be viewing this on laptops and monitors set to a much lower resolution than the final output, I'm trying to set up a key listener that will upon hit, scale the WHOLE stage of the flash down to say 30% or so, and then back up to 100% when it's hit again, or another key is pressed. Similar to what happens when you toggle allowscale on or off in fullscreen mode, but with a target size that's smaller than the normal stage size. I can't shrink the stage size on the fla because one of the screens requires playback at exactly 100% or I get artifacts all over the place. So during normal playback allowscale is already off, and the movie is playing at 100% size.

Can anyone help me out here or point me in the right direction? I've seen Stage.scale.[string] but that seems to only allow for scale versus no scale and it's dependant upon the window dimensions it's being viewed inside. This is a fullscreen presentation, and I wanted to avoid going into a windowed mode.

So to recap: I'm looking for a key listener function that will change the entire scale of the stage rather than just a particular movieclip.

Any thoughts?

[CS3] Drag From ScrollPane To Main Stage
Hi, I was just wondering if any of you knew of a way to be able to drag a drag button from a ScrollPane onto the main stage (Scene 1, Frame 1.) I can put the button in the ScrollPane, but can only drag it around within the Pane itself and I would like to get it out (so to speak). If this is not possible, is there any other way to do somthing similar to this? Thanks.

Referancing A Textfield On The Main Stage
I have a document class that extends sprite. Then inside the document class I create a new instance of another class that extends sprite. From that class I'm trying to do a quick reference to a textfield on the root level to do a simple trace out text.

from the document class I can call it like this.

Code:
TextField(tracer).text = 'HELLO';
But from my other class I tried many different variations of this but no luck.
Some of the variations

Code:
trace("vvv = "+TextField(parent.tracer));
trace("vvv = "+TextField(parent.parent.tracer));
Any ideas how to reference the textfield from my second class.

X Position Of MC Within Another MC Relative To The Main Stage?
ok, here's my problem

I'm tryiing to determine the X or Y value of a movie clip that's with another movie clip relative to the main stage. I don't want the value related to the parent clip.

can someone please tell me the syntax? thanks

Empty Movieclip On Main Stage
Here is a tutorial I followed online.
http://www.cbtcafe.com/flash/menusbuttons.html

Above is the fly out animated menus I used to create my main navigation. However, I created 6 buttons not 1 one. Each button has its own movieclip in 1 flash project called main.flv. Bascially, I created an empty movie clip on the main stage with an instance name: "emptymc".

The loadmovie actions will work for me only only in its own (button)timeline.

I DO NOT WANT TO USE ANY LEVELS if possible.
I created each PAGE as a separate flash movie.

example: "about1.swf","program.swf","multimedia.swf","video 1.swf","contact.swf",etc.. So far this was how far I got in my project:

button actionscript used:

on (release) {
emptymc.loadMovie ("about1.swf");
}

Works if the movieclip is in the same time but not the main stage timeline.

Actionscripts for emptymc;

onClipEvent (load) {
play();
}

I attach a snap shot just in case. You can use the about section for testing.
I did not see any flv upload options.
Thank you.

Specs:
Flash 8
OS X 10.4.9
4 x 2.5 GHz Power PC G5
6 GB RAM

---
salvarado
salvarado@sva.edu
212-592-2023