Flash :: Newbie Needing Some Site Building Guidance

Flash Newbie Needing Guidance
Hello!

My name is Mikkel and I'm building my first flash site on my own. The site is very simple with a menu and an area for the sections to load when the menu-buttons are clicked. Specifically, what I need help with is the actionscript.

What I've done so far is importing all my image files into the library and made a movie clip called "menu" which includes the buttons. I placed this on Layer 1 in the main scene. What I need now is each button to preload their section.

I haven't progressed more than this, if anyone know of a good guide how to structure a site with simple button + preloader, that'd be much appreciated!

Thank you!
Mikkel

Flash Site - Need Guidance
OK.

I want to make a flash site thats sexy looking but simple to make. I need help though!

Are most of the sites pieced together with different swfs or 1 big one?

See, I am not that great with flash but I want to make a great site for a club that is paying me. I can handle menus but otherwise I think I might be a little lost. Are sites mainly frames or AS?

If someone really has some time and wants to help I can be reached by the following. Otherwise just post what you can here please. Any good tutorials around on making WHOLE sites?

AIM: comuiri6
MSN: mailto:comuiri@hotmail.com
email: mailto:comuiri@hotmail.com

Needing A Simple MP3 Player For My Site
just wondering if i could pick up a "universal" MP3 player (one that can be played in both MX and Flash 5)

so could anyone help m or derict me to where i mght get one ???

peace
E1kO

Needing Help For A Site Effect (hillman Curtis)
Hey guys,

there are no stupid questions, hm?

I want to create a homepage with an effect like on this site:

http://www.juxtinteractive.com/

I don't know, how to make this appearing black lines or however you want to call those things.

ehm, a hint or link (if it's somewhere described) would be wonderful.

thx
Magus

Beginner Needing Guidance
Hi all,

I recently designed my own website using Front page and Photoshop CS2 to show off my photos. The site wasn't too bad (see www.pumaknight.co.uk) but I want more!!

Here's the question. I want to animate the galleries and use simple animation to make the site more appealing on areas such s selecct buttons etc. Would Flash enable me to do this?

I know I will need to learn alot - not an issue, always keen to learn - but I don't want to spend money if the product is not right.
Any help you can give would be very much appreciated.

Thanks,
Michael H

Site Structure
I am designing a flash site, using a lot of external swfs that load into empty mcs. It is a large enough site that I have a lot of folders and subfolders to keep it organized.

My problem is that using loadMovie is easy when everything is in the same folder, but it is extremely tedious when I have to figure out the path to everything with all of my subfolders. The question is:
should I be putting everything in the same folder for ease of writing?
should I quit whining and go through the tedium of figuring out all the paths?
or am I missing an easier way to do this?

In other words, how does everyone else do this?

Site Structure
Less of a question but more of an inquirey, would anyone have a good clue how a site like this. http://www.trevorjackson.org was put together.

In terms of site structure and the way it loads so quickly, was the timeline broken up with external loading movie clips etc.

appreciate any thoughts

Cheers

The Best Site Structure?
Hello everyone and Happy new year!!

Im not that new to flash but im not that experienced either.

Im currently designing a website that will host photographs in Flash.

i was wondering what would be the best way to develop the site? how should i structure the site??

im not sure which is the best way, because in the "work" page there is a number o different external slideshows i will be showing.

below is the site map of what im trying to achieve.

has anyone done anything like this before that can give me any advise please?

How To Structure Site?
I have a movie clip as a placeholder for content on my site. When different buttons are clicked it loads new movies into the placeholder. But for a split second whilst it loads there is nothing there. I don't want to use a preload sequence. I want the old image to display until the new one has loaded. How do I do this?

Or, how can I load a single frame on demand at a time?

Site Structure
OK, so I have my loader finished. It works well. Now, I want to know about a few things. So, first I'll put up my concept I'm pretty much finished up with in Photoshop.

OK, so I'm going to have my preloader, and then a bunch of animations till I get here When you click the buttons, a pop-up will come up within the document (an external Flash document I suppose). So, here's my questions:

1. Is there any easy way to send all this stuff from Photoshop to Flash or will I just have to redraw it in Flash?

2. Should I have the loader be the first few frames of the whole document (maybe make it Scene 1 or something) or should I have the loader separate and use loadMovieNum() from the main animation?

3. How do you position a loaded movie/movie clip, just with some Actionscript after the loadMovieNum() line?

4. I want to write some Actionscript so that it creates movie clips to load .jpg's into by looking in a specific directory relative to the movie and following a pattern; something like image1.jpg, image2.jpg, image3.jpg. And then when there was not another file following the pattern, it would just move on in the script. I guess I could do that with a conditional, but I'm not sure how exactly or which conditional I would use.

Help on these subjects would be much appreciated, but mostly the loader placement one first Just tell me how you include your loader and that should be fine. Thanks a lot.

Structure Site Tut Help?
Hi

I have looked at the "How to structure you site" tut

though I can't seem to extract the zip, it says "can not extract volume ID item"

any ideas?

thanks

Best Site Structure?
Hello everyone and Happy new year!!

Im currently designing a website that will host photographs in Flash.

i was wondering what would be the best way to develop the site? how should i structure the site??

im not sure which is the best way, because in the "work" page there is a number o different external slideshows i will be showing.

below is the site map of what im trying to achieve.

has anyone done anything like this before that can give me any advise please?

Still Needing Dynamic Input Guidance
Hiya

I need to get some information from external websites and put that information into variables inside my Flash movie. As an example, one of the things I am trying to do is get up to the minute currency exchange rates and manipulate them in the movie. Obviously I would need to get the rate from one of the financial sites. Is this possible? If so, a prod in the right direction would be very helpful.

Thanks in advance
Mick

Learner Needing A Little Guidance Re: Actions
Hi there!

I was a graphic designer specialising in branding and print focused artwork until I decided to go solo and start freelancing at which point more than half the work being offered to me was web design (which I used to do for a job some 7 years ago). So I've decided to re-train in web design/development software and techniques and have started learning Flash CS3 (Mac) using a tutorial book. The book is called "The Web Collection Revealed" and on the whole it's actually been pretty good, but there is one subject that seems not to work each time I follow the books instructions...

The problem is to do with a simple set of timeline control STOP and PLAY actions. I've got a flash movie made up of six layers which is a total of 79 frames in length. Four of the layers are in place to animate four separate objects on the stage. The other two layers are called "stopmovie" and "continue".

The stopmovie layer only has a keyframe inserted in frame 71 which has the action assigned to it: "Global Functions", "Timeline Control" and "Stop".

The "continue" layer also has a keyframe inserted in frame 71. It also has a text box which has been converted to a button symbol which displays on the stage from frame 71 to frame 79 and which reads "Click to Continue". After inserting the keyframe in the continue layer at frame 71 I selected the "Click to Continue" text (ensuring the "click to continue" button was displayed in the lower left portion of the actions window) and assigned the following action to it: "Global Functions", "Timeline Control" and "Play".

According to the book, when the movie is now played, the movie should stop at frame 71 at which time it displays the text "Click to Continue", and only goes on to finish the last 9 frames of the animation once that text has been clicked. Unfortunately, it doesn't. Instead, the text "Click to Continue" appears, but nothing happens once it has been clicked upon?

The text recognises it is a button, but when it is clicked, the movie does not move forward. This problem has happened twice now whilst reading this book and I am beginning to think that the author has described the process incorrectly!

I'm sure that this is really simple and boring to the vast majority of flash developers out there, but I'd be so grateful if someone could help me solve this niggly problem as I am sure I am going to come up against it numerous times in the future.

Thanks so much

Needing Some Xml + Actionscript Guidance/suggestions
Hey there!

I'm in the mist of a flash project and my client really liked how the (www.nike.com) navigation on this site works to get you into their multitude of sites. I don't care about the sliding and following the mouse. I only care about the showing of "submenus" they way they are doing it to the side with the easing and reveal effects.

I would like to create the navigation effect with XML and Actionscript 2.0.

Anyone have any suggestions or places I could go to learn how to do the above technique?

Thanks for any help in advance.

How To Structure A Flash Site?
I am creating a portfolio site which will contain the following sections

Homepage
Gallery
Coming Soon
Services
Contact Us

I am not sure what is the best way to structure the site i.e should I create one flash movie and load in the content of each section when the relevant button is clicked

OR would it be better to create a separate flash movie for each section?

I am concerned about bookmarking and also preventing users having to download content that they may not want to view.

Can anyone suggest the recommended way to structure such a site and the pros and cons of such an approach.

Many thanks

Paul
http://www.themediakitchen.co.uk

Site Structure...I'm Lost
I'm building a personal website. The idea was to have a main movie with background,logo,navigation bar and links, then a empty container into which loading different movies on the call of the nav bar buttons using On Release LoadMovie It was working fine until I realised that some features (such as scroll bar and drop down buttons) where not working anymore. I've been trying to do it with LoadMovieNum but 1.the movie doesn't load in the container but anywhere above the main movie 2.when pressing other buttons from the nav bar or ones which are in the submovie, the films load at the top of each other (did try to make the first film unload before loading the next but can't make it work). I don't know what to do. As this is my first website, i should need some clear explaination on how to make it work. I'm using FlashMX (not 2004 ed)
Thanks for any help.

Site Structure Question
I have a loader.swf that loads all my other SWF's that make up the site and that certainly seems like the only way to go, but my question is, what is the best way to communicate between the SWF's? The communication needs to occur between the loader.swf and the other "loaded" SWF's, as well as between each of the "loaded" SWF's.

Is LocalConnection the only way to go or is that a Pandora's box? Right now that is my approach and I'm crashing out the Flash Player & IE?
OR should I be doing this using "contentLoaderInfo" & "loaderInfo"? I don't really know how to use these yet!

Thx for your help!

Ideal Site Structure
Hi, im trying to make a site utilizing oop. Being new to oop in general and even after reading some books about it, I've been left with some uncertainties.

So far my structure is this:

Main.as - inits everything, defines settings
Content.as - contains everything that is seen, adds content
Data.as - used for xml loading of dynamic content, probably should extend content right?
Listeners.as - dispatches events (ie. nav button click)
Effects.as - defines anything that uses a tweening engine (ie.TweenLite) also should extend content?

So one of the first problems I came across is when I tried to extend the content class on the effects class so I could access the objects to be animated. Say I wanted to have my background sprite always be the same height of the stage. So I added a listener in listeners.as for the stage resize event, and when resized have it call an function in effects.as called backgroundResize() that sets the background height and stage height to be the same. Everything works up until when effect.as calls on the background instance. It does change the size of it as can be seen by a trace function, but Im not seeing it on my screen. So I tried this stage.getChildAt(0).height = stage.stageHeight, and that worked, but what a roundabout way to do that.

Sorry, Im bad at trying to explain these kind of problems, I lack the proper syntax. So what am I doing wrong, what should my site structure be? What do your sites look like? Please give me some advise, Ive been struggling with this for awhile now. Thankyou.

Best Flash Site Structure?
Hi all, I have been wondering about this for a while I would like some opinions on this. I did search for this, with no luck, so If there is another thread on this I apologise, please direct me to it!

What is the best way to structure a complete Flash site?

here's how I have been doing it:

Index.html - which holds holder.swf (blank holder - level0)

holder.swf then loads my main.swf to level50 (just so I have 49 levels to play with if needed) which has a blank layer where all content is placed and other lower levels will be seen.

all other sections are loaded into lower levels than level50

For smooth trasitions between each loaded level requires alot of checking actionscipt routines.

Another way is to load them into an empty movieclip like I have seen mentioned here before? if so what is the difference/benefits between using levels and empty MC's

This is why I ask is there another/better way? or am I doing it right!

Thanks

Best Flash Site Structure?
Hi all, I have been wondering about this for a while I would like some opinions on this. I did search for this, with no luck, so If there is another thread on this I apologise, please direct me to it!

What is the best way to structure a complete Flash site?

here's how I have been doing it:

Index.html - which holds holder.swf (blank holder - level0)

holder.swf then loads my main.swf to level50 (just so I have 49 levels to play with if needed) which has a blank layer where all content is placed and other lower levels will be seen.

all other sections are loaded into lower levels than level50

For smooth trasitions between each loaded level requires alot of checking actionscipt routines.

This is why I ask is there another/better way? or am I doing it right!

Thanks

The Best Structure For Your Flash Site
There was a tutorial posed on this website about "The Best Structure for your Flash Site"!

Is is possible for the author or anyone else to continue a bit on loading content pages to the site?

Thanks,
Jase

Best Flash Site Structure?
Hi all, I have been wondering about this for a while I would like some opinions on this. I did search for this, with no luck, so If there is another thread on this I apologise, please direct me to it!

What is the best way to structure a complete Flash site?

here's how I have been doing it:

Index.html - which holds holder.swf (blank holder - level0)

holder.swf then loads my main.swf to level50 (just so I have 49 levels to play with if needed) which has a blank layer where all content is placed and other lower levels will be seen.

all other sections are loaded into lower levels than level50

For smooth trasitions between each loaded level requires alot of checking actionscipt routines.

This is why I ask is there another/better way? or am I doing it right!

Thanks

The Best Structure For Your Flash Site
This is an article discussion thread for discussing the SitePoint article, "The Best Structure for your Flash Site"

Flash Site Structure
High ,

I was wondering what's the efficients way to build a Flash website. I always used this method :

* A main.fla that contains a menu structure
* For each subitem I use a seperate .fla , which I invoke in main.fla with Loadmovie.

Is this a good structure to work with ? How do the pro's do it ? Feel free to share your ideas.

What's The Structure Of A FLASH Site?
can anyone provide me a graphical structure map of a normal FLSAH site?? i don't quite get how flash link from one stage to the other. do you use one SWF file in your website with a lotta stages in it, or you use many SWF files and connect them together?

Help With Site Structure And Layout
I need some help with deciding how to structure my site. Basically, I have the design layout as below for the site (its very simple!)
Layoutlayout.png (2.4 KiB) Viewed 196 times

Best Structure For A Flash Site
I wanted to know what the more experienced flash programmers here think of this tutorial i found: http://www.kirupa.com/developer/flash8/ ... h_site.htm

This is the type of thing I'm trying to learn right now, how to best setup navigation etc. Any other recommended principles to use, or tutorials seen? Thank you.

Portfolio Site Structure Question
Hi all!

I am working on a portfolio site, and the obvious question here is : what is the best way to have numerous thumbnails that can load larger images without having a 2-hour pre-load.

I have 4 main sections, each with up to 6 case studies that include jpgs/gifs of the end results. In theory, these would be small enough to get an idea what they are, then present the option to load the big picture.

I would settle for a preload on each section, then individual loadmovie thingies that only activate when the user selects one case to dive into.

Any comments/suggestions/example code/abusive character assassination, etc. ??

Thanks!!!

LoadMovie Problem With Site Structure
Hi there

I have searched and searched and not found a definitive answer to my problem. I have found lots of interesting info which i either don't understand or have tried and it has not worked.

[working on a mac/ie5/fmx at the mo - but might change to work on a pc]

i'm creating a portfolio site in flash MX and have created a main flash file 'em2003' [embedded into an html page 'em2003.html'] that contains the main navigation and when clicking on certain buttons within this flash file, external swf files will be loading into a blank holder mc [called 'img_holder'].

the problem i am having is to do with the site structure. I want all my external swf files to sit within separate folders within my site structure.

when the external files sit withing the same folder as the main flash movie, when using:

Code:
on (release) {
_root.img_holder.loadMovie("f_int01.swf");
}
the external file 'f_int01.swf' loads fine into the 'img_holder'.

when i then put my external swf file elsewhere in the site structure, i can't get it to load with relative or absolute paths. eg

Code:
on (release) {
_root.img_holder.loadMovie("flash/interactive/f_int01.swf");
}
doesn't load the swf file and neither does :

Code:
on (release) {
_root.img_holder.loadMovie("http://www.eskymo.co.uk/em2003/flash/interactive/f_int01.swf");
}

i've read about something to do with 'System.security.allowDomain' - don't know whether i have to use this. don't know if this is a problem because i'm using a mac/ie5. or whether i'm being a complete numpty and my syntax is completely wrong.

please help it's driving me insane.

thanks

e

Site Structure And Pop Up Windows In Flash
right this is a bit complex to explain so bear with me.

i'm building a portfolio site in flash that is going to have a lot of content and so i want to build a site structure to categorise the content into understandable sizeable chunks [ie all the interactive flash files to go in an 'interactive' folder, all the ecards in an 'ecards' folder, etc etc]. for me this is an easier way to navigate around the site when building it and updating it - well this is how i work in html and i'm trying to impose this practice onto flash.

so i have a main flash movie containing the main navigation embedded into a html document. when clicking on a link within this flash movie you get thumbnails and text about the project as well as a link to 'launch the project' all in the main movie.

all the 'projects' are swf files embedded into html documents and i want these to appear as pop up windows sized accordingly when you click on a 'launch project' button in the main flash movie.

i am using the basis of tutorial 8 from actionscript.org from the tutorials page:

http://www.actionscript.org/tutoria...ash/index.shtml

this tutorial all works fine within a flat site when all the files are in one directory, but once i put a structure to the site ie put files in other folders etc. and use relative or absolute paths to the html pop up windows that are situated in another folder, all i get when i click on a button in the main movie is the pop up window opening with the correct dimensions but no flash file embedded, just an error saying the file could not be found.

does this tutorial thing not work with a site structure, or am i doing something wrong?

i can't really post my code as it's spread accross flash and html pages and it's the smae as in the tutorial [all i've changed is the path to the html popup window]- i just wondered if anyone else had come across this probelm and could advise me whether having a site structure is a no go and i should have all my files in one directory.

this would be a nightmare if i've got loads of different sections and loads of files. i would prefer to have a site structure so if any one could help me out that'd be great.

cheers

e

Advice On Movie Structure For My First Site
I'm in the middle of writing a flash 6 banner/nav bar for my site. I do a lot of Director projects but Flash is fairly new to me.

www.siliconpixel.com

(links don't exist yet apart from home page)

As you can see, I have an animated intro to the nav bar. I didn't want an intro to the whole site as I don't think it will add anything. As I got carried away with my design, I started thinking more and more that the intro (albeit short) would annoy viewers of the site if they have to watch it every time they navigate to a new section (page) - especially as the section buttons don't come in until part way through.

I want the intro animation (pixels moving to logo etc) to play the first time a viewer visits the site but when moving to other sections, just sees the nav bar with the looping squares background. The other sections are easy as I can just create a smaller flash file with the nav bar elements and animation in. The bits I'm not sure on are how to structure the movies so that the viewer only sees the first intro animation once (and not again when pressing back on the browser). Would I need to use some kind of server side session variables to keep track of visitors? Are there other ways of doing it?

I was thinking that I could break the movie into two parts - intro and nav. I guess I could call the nav bar section from the intro. Would this nav bar section then be cached in the viewers browser so that when it plays again on a new page, it's very quick to load? But if the viewer presses back on their browser, how would I stop the intro playing?

Any help and thoughts would be warmly welcomed (and any other thoughts on the movie)!

Thanks,

Digizz.

General Flash Site Structure
What is the best way to structure a Flash site...I've got one now that has a main movie and loads a bunch of other swfs into the main movie, but are there other approaches, what is the best practice for maintenance and reusability?

I could really use some help with this beyond just syntax. I'm talking about Flash site structure....thx in advance!

BASE:The Best Structure For Your Flash Site
Hi everyone!

I have a question regarding mentioned article!
I'm working on a project that will be structured as written, and if someone can give me some hints on how to apply a RollOver state on a button! I've attached another MovieClipLoader, and the output panel traces my rollOver .swf's.
The problem i'm having is at the end....how to make flash recognize which button needs the rollOver state and applys it in the right place!!

thanks for your time

Loading Swf's For Best Site Structure Tutorial
Hi there, I was trying to finish up Mark Angelleti's tutorial and actually have the button clicks load the external swf's but it took me a little while to do.

I think this is a great tutorial and a real must to newer flash developers like myself.

I started by creating a new MovieClipLoader object and corresponding listener in frame 1. Then at the final frame a little tweaking to the buttonClick function:

Code:
function buttonClick():Void {
_root.createEmptyMovieClip("holder",_root.getNextHighestDepth());
conHolder.loadClip(this.linkURL,_root.holder);
trace( this.linkURL );
}
So there you go, in case anyone's interested. That's how i got to load the swf's from the links array...

Any tips or improvements will be greatly appreciated!

Flash-site Structure (patterns)
Hey guys,

Would anyone on here be interested in sharing ideas and/or completed sites for the purposes of determining the best methods to solve structural design problems when building a site fully in Flash?

It would be great to come up with several "design patterns" to ease the development process of a Flash website. I think there are only a handful of types of Flash sites. Most share at least a few common elements and how those elements interact.

We could either do this in a thread or start some sort of blog orrrr...? Ideas?

Cheers,
Bern

Timeline Animation Site Structure
Hello All,

Im creating a new site and im thinking before i get myself into a mess (unsual i know).

The site im envisioning has about five pages, however each has their own complex in and out animation when you click on them. My question is how can I make it so the in and out animation plays evertime even when going from link to link. For example clicking about to contact I want the about to play its out animation and the contact to wait until its done (not long) then play the in animation for the new page. How can i do this? What is the best way to structure the timeline?

Thanks so much!
Dave

Flash Site Structure Guidence
Hello All,

Im creating a new site and im thinking before i get myself into a mess (unsual i know).

The site im envisioning has about five pages, however each has their own complex in and out animation when you click on them. My question is how can I make it so the in and out animation plays evertime even when going from link to link. For example clicking about to contact I want the about to play its out animation and the contact to wait until its done (not long) then play the in animation for the new page. How can i do this? What is the best way to structure the timeline?

Can i make an IF statement that says if any of the other pages are on a certain frame then they should play their out animation? How would i do this?

Thanks so much!
Dave

Site Building?
Hi all,

Im curious as to know if this site Im building is a good way to go about it.

http://www.media-power.co.uk/dande/

On this site,the pages are in different scenes all within the same swf file...the doors open...a button is clicked setting a variable name (e.g. About button sets variable to "about") and the scene plays on (doors close)...then last frame is an 'else if' scenario reading the variable set and therefore jumping to the right scene for the right page button clicked.

My question is...is this a good way to do it?...one whole swf could be a biggie to load....can I put preloaders before each scene?...should I be using the 'load movie' action instead for each page?..in which case, how do I get the buttons to know which page is open and which to load next after an outro of the page before has played?....should each page be a movie clip that loads when the buttons are clicked?

Basically whats the 'usual' way of building a flash site?

How are sites like http://www.estudio.com built?

Apologies for all the questions!

Thanks in advance

Andy

PS. My sites not finished yet!...only about and home are set up to work!

Help Building A Site (I'm New At This)
I was wondering if any of you experts can help me.

I am building a small site for my soccer team. It will be relatively simple with player pics & info and general team info and some links.

I have already made an intro movie (using some animations and music from flashkit).

Now HERE IS THE PROBLEM.

Unfortunately, I can't find the spare time to do this from scratch, and I do not know Flash well enough to be able to do it in the first place. What I am looking for is somewhere where I can download a FREE template and maybe edit it (change graphics etc...) and make it work for my particular site.

If anyone knows where I can find a template with a menu bar (preferably horizontal, but I'm not picky), and prehaps with some nice glide over or button click effects incorporated in it, I would really appreciate a link or two.

I would like the site to be an entirely in Flash, with the "frames" popping up within the "movie" once a button on the main menu is clicked (i.e. when "Player Bio" is clicked, it would load a pic with some text, which I will edit into the template).

So far, everywhere I've looked has only had templates for sale.

HELP PLEASE!!!

Thank you in advance...

P.S. I have MacroMedia Flash MX (Win 98SE)

Building Site
I was wondering if anyone could help me with something i see on all sites that i vist. So I'm thinking it cant be to hard to understand but then agian :P.

Heres what I'm trying to get when a flash site loads up for example ill use 2a agian http://www.2advanced.com/archive/v3/flashindex.htm in that site see how things load up i was wondering how they made it load up..... Im confused with the begging of the site. i have site made and done. I have screenshot of the layout :P

Another Thing that i was wondering is how to have the window in the middle thing load up without anything around it changing just that window loads up.
Any help or any sort of direction of were to start to learn this or anything i would really apperciate it.

Sounds confusing jsut re-reading what i wrote lol

Site Building
I wanna make a very simple site to practice and learn new skills.
I just made a button and a small movie of a ball thats taking different shapes (very basic stuff)
How do i make a couple of standard things into a standard site (standard is a top title banner, left a menu and middle the main window with text) ?
Can anyone tell me in a couple of steps how to do this??

thanks in advance

Building A Site.....
hi,
listen i'm about to start my very first site....in flash ...
and i was wondering if someone has any advice to give me before i start...
like using loadMovie or just _visibile or transitions... and etc.
since i don't have any expreience in this.
i'm sure the answers will help many other flashers in this forum....
i hope u could help me through the process of building the site....
thanks in advance!!!

[CS3] Site Building Help
Hey guys I wonder if someone can help me. I've been using swish for some years now and felt it was time I started using Flash so I thought I'd make a simple website for a online community. Trying to learn this on the fly, I find trial and error mixed in with the experience of others allows me to learn faster.

Anyway, I've essentially created 4 layers in Photoshop that I wanted to use as the base of the design.

The 4 elements

-background
-logo
-menu panel - the site navigation
-content panel - where page content would be displayed.

I've imported each object created and imported the images to "stage". I'm assuming the library lets me view everything within the document that's been important weather its displayed on the screen or not?

Next after some fiddling around I found the transition effect, specifically the ability to make my layers "fade in".

I've given the background 15 frames. Then the logo (with some text) fade in, followed by the menu and content panel 1 frame after each other. Which gives a nice flowing transition from left to right of the screen.

I've included a image to help demonstrate what I mean, here.

Now here's the bit I'm a bit puzzled by and where to go from here. What I now want to do is have the menu text pop up cascading down the menu panel with the fade in transition. So for example the text home, news, forums etc will pop up that i can convert to buttons.

Now, my logic would have me create a new layer with all the text needed for the menu/buttons. But if I did that how could I cascade the test through the fade in if its on the same layer?

I've briefly read into movie clips? Could I save what's currently done as a movie clip? Then create a new movie clip for the menu cascade? Or would it be easier to create a layer folder? Separating the "menu intro" to the text. I'd imagine that would allow me to replicate what I've done so far but with the text. i.e. a new layer for each button wanted with the transition effect?

cheers guys, any input would be welcome.

I'm guessing I'm doing this wrong, perhaps someone with msn messenger wouldn't mind pming me there details. I'll probably have more questions.

Building A Site?
I'm a tiny bit more familiar with the tools after a few days of toying with them. I think i'm finally ready to try and build a simple web page. Does anyone know any good sites?... besides this one.

Building My Site
Hi all,

I have a website that I've designed for myself that I'm in need of getting programmed. I have a basic understanding of basic flash, however, I don't know where to start, etc. when it comes to what I need to do. I'm a designer and my flash development skills aren't really well crafted since I don't use the program often.

I found this site which is a great example of what I need to accomplish, in terms of functionality:

http://www.republicademadras.com.br/

Although my design isn't the same, the sliding/scrolling effect with the cursor and by using the navigation at the bottom is very similar to what i'm trying to achieve.

I can't find any good online help tutorials to assist me and any other board I post on says "I can't do it because it's too complex" which I'm not saying isn't true. I'm looking at taking this step by step, with anticipation to have this up within the next month.

On that note, if you can offer any links to good lessons relating to this sort of build I'd be most appreciated. Furthermore, if you're interested in assisting me along in this project, let me know what that would involve and/or what design trade offs would be a possibility in return for your help.

Thanks!

Newbie Needing Some Site Building Guidance - How To Structure A Site?