Flash :: Play Movie In Timeline But Keep Main Timeline In Place

Movie Clip Symbol Won't Play On Main Timeline
Hi everyone,

I've created a movie clip symbol with it's own animation on its timeline. I've placed this symbol onto the first frame of the main timeline but when I test it, it doesn't play. There's no stop actions or anything on either timelines so I'm not sure why this is happening. I thought that the animation in a movie clip symbol will automatically play (i.e. if you test in a browser) once it's on the main timeline - is this right? Or am I doing something wrong. Maybe I need to tell it to play?

Appreciate any advice.

Tell Movie Clip To Play/stop From Main Timeline?
I have a main timeline that has a movieclip called "Clock". At one point in the main timeline I want the movieclip to play and at another point I want it to stop. I can't get script to control the movieclip.

Any tips?

Thank you so much for your time.

Controlling A Movie Clip's Timeline Separately From Main Timeline
I've got a problem here that I've been trying to figure out for a while now, and it seems like it should be way easier than this. Here's what I've got:

I'm trying to make a neato little flash swf with lots of buttons that you can push and another little movie clip will show some little animation.

I thought I could get this done pretty simply by making a bunch of buttons, giving them an over, down, hit, sound, etc. and then having one single movie clip do all of the animations, but cleverly use stop(); and gotoandplay();

I have tried a few different ways, searched through the help & tutorials, looked all over forums on the internets, and I still can't get this to work. The main timeline is really just 1 frame, and its only purpose is to just hold all of the buttons. I have given all of the buttons instance names (ending with _btn). There is a separate layer in the main timeline for the actionscript alone, and was hoping to put all of the gotoandplay commands there. The code that I am trying to use in that frame is:

Code:
this.WV_btn.onRelease = function(){this.productzmovie_mc.gotoAndPlay(2);
};
The productzmovie_mc has a command to stop(); in the first frame, and I am trying to get a button to skip to the next frame to get it going. I put a stop(); on the last frame of that animation so that it won't run through the whole thing on the first button press. If I remove that stop(); on the first frame, the whole animation just runs whenever I test it and the button has no effect.

I thought this would be way simpler than making 25 separate movie clips and hiding them or spawning them. Does anyone know what I could be doing wrong here? This seems like a pretty simple operation, and I am probably screwing up some mundane detail (I always do that). Be gentle, I am trying to learn Flash and I am a bigtime n00b. I can post the .fla if you need to see it, but it's pretty simple so far, just lots of buttons.

Thanks!

Please Help First Website Movie Clip Placed On Main Timeline Wont Play
Hi! if any one could please help me it would be greatly appreciated!

So im trying to make my first website in flash and ive ran into a problem. I have the main movie, my main time line. I have a few animations going on in this that were all created in that main time line. those work fine. however, i created two new movie clips (still inside the same .fla file) and animated them with thier own time line. I then thought you could just drag and drop these movie clips onto your main time line and they would play inside the movie. but when i press ctrl + enter, the dont play!

here are some points of intrest.

my main movie (the main time line) is 130 frames.

the movie clips i made inside the same .fla file are between 400 and 600 frames.

i placed both new movie clips on the 130th frame in the time line with their own layers.

also there is a layer for actions on the 130th that has stop();

i thought that maybe the time line had to be as long as those movie clips i created and so i extended it but they still didnt play.

im thinking action script is involved? please help me im getting pretty frustrated and im sure there is something simple to achieve this.

here is a link where you can download the source files im using. if you open the file the two movie clips i created are called front two and front one and are layers with the same name.

this board wont let me fully post my link cause the last word in it is s*h*i*t* so youll have to type it in your browser. its http://public.me.com/matts*h*i*t* (just remove the asterisks)

also i noticed that my file is huge. i used photoshop to create everything and them imported it into flash. is there a way i can reduce this size?

thank you sooo much! please help!

-Matt

Telling Main Timeline To Play Backwards From Movie Clip
Hi,

I am trying to tell flash from within a movieclip to start playing a specific frame within the main timeline only after it has finished playing the movieclip backwards. I can get the movieclip to play backwards fine but it's getting the main timeline to start from frame 1 which doesn't work. I have the following code on the first frame of the movieclip (which is called video) but it doesn't seem to do anything

onClipEvent (enterFrame) {
if prevFrame == 2 {
_root.gotoAndPlay(1);
}
else if {
_root.video.gotoAndPlay(2);

any suggestions?

ActionScript Differences Between Main Timeline And Movie Timeline?
Hello,

Could someone explain the difference if Action Script is on the main timeline or in a movie clips time line which is on the main timeline?

I guess I mean is with regards to referring to other items or movie clips or external scripts etc.

To try and clarify what i'm going on about....

I have a form that uses a php script. The form.swf is brought into my main movie with 'loadmovie' action script.

When the form.swf is run on its own it works. When someone enters the info and hits 'send' the form gets what it needs from the php script and then goes to a 'sucsess' frame. Great.

But..

When the form.swf is run from within my main movie and someone hits 'send' the form goes to my 'fail' frame (even though it is sending the email), the php script is returning a 'fail - invalid email entered' message to the flash form (the email was valid though!!).

Because the form.swf works on its own I'm guessing that, when loaded into the main movie, i need to add something to make it talk to the php properly.

The odd thing is that it must be talking to the php as it is sending the email!!! So why is the php sending back a 'fail' and not a 'success'.

It could be that the form.swf is just not getting a response from the php and so it going to the fail frame. In which case, if my form movie is within my main movie what do i add to the php (or action script) to receive the info to the nested movie.

I cant work it out.

Thanks soooo much for your help.

Julian

Where To Place Preloading Script On Main Timeline?
Dear all,

I am experiencing problems with an external .swf loaded into a movie clip on the main timeline. The .swf loads fine, but because it is rather large, there is a lag in the time it starts loading and the time it starts playing. I have built a preloader on the main timeline to address the problem, but the script refuses to work. It has been real frustrating especially since I have gone over it multiple times.

You can see my problem at http://www.cambridge-union.org Click on 'about' and then on 'facilities' . Before the image slider(the external .swf) comes on, one can see a glimpse of the 'loading' graphic at the bottom right corner of the screen. After that there is just a blank before the .swf loads. How can this be corrected?

my preload script goes like this:

Frame 86:

Actions Layer:
loadedBytes=movieHolder.getBytesLoaded
totalBytes=movieHolder.getBytesTotal

Content Layer:
loadmovie(facility.swf,movieHolder)
(target movieClip is also on this layer)

Frame 87:
Preloader Animation

Frame 90:
if (totalBytes>loadedBytes) gotoandPlay (87)

Please Help! This is really making me tear my hair out!

Making The Main Timeline Play From A Button Embedded In A Movie Clip
How does one make the main timeline play from a button embedded in a movieclip that is on the main timeline?

Control The Play On The Main Timeline From Within A Loaded Movie (not A Movie Clip)?
Question... I have a movie (main movie) that loads another movie (movie 2) automatically. Movie 2 contains a button that loads yet another movie (movie3). Now I’m having trouble with this next part... When movie3 loads I want "main movie" to stop where it’s at in the timeline and stop all other loaded movies until the user clicks another button where upon movie 3 will go away and "main movie" will resume. Movie 2 is like the paper clip guy in Word and movie 3 is my help movie. Therefore, it can be accessed at any point during the main movie and I don’t want to use a goTo command to jump to a frame label or scene. Does anyone have any idea how to control the play on the main timeline from within a loaded movie (not a movie clip)?

Movie Clip Timeline Vs. Main Timeline
Ok, i have made a movie clip in Swift 3d and have imported it into Flash MX. Now it is in the first frame as flash will place it there and what i would like to have happen is to tell frame 1 that when the movie clip's timeline ends and stops(frame 90) to then move the parent timeline to continue with stuff
If any one reads this please help or refer me to a MX book that is worth the valuble time we think we have!
Mike

Movie Symbol Timeline & The Main Timeline
Hi guys,

There is the frame in my main timeline which has a movie symbol and when the timeline heads reaches & stops at this frame & start playing the movie symbol timeline, i want that when the timeline head reaches at the end frame of the movie symbol timeline, it should take me to the any frame number/label of the main timeline i want.

I tried adding the action to the end frame of the movie symbol to take me to a different frame of the main timeline but it doesn't do anything. It remains at the same frame of the main timeline.

Is there any way out?

Regards, Rohit

Editing Symbols In Place,larger Window Than Main Timeline
When editing a symbol in place, the document size or canvas is much larger than that of the main timeline's stage. This results in an inaccurate proportion size of the symbol when dragged out onto the stage. At first I thought it was that the zoom views were different from each other, but this isn't the case. I was playing with the x and y coordinates in the Info Window prior to this, could that possibly have anything to do with anything?

I could reinstall Flash, but want to know if it is a glich or just something that I did, so I don't do it again. How do I get out of this?

How Do I Play The Main Timeline From Inside A MC?
I have a button inside a movieclip on my main timeline. When I click it, I need to advance to the next scene in the movie..

How Do I Play One Frame From The Main Timeline From An MC ?
as the title sais , i am in a movie clip and when i click on this button i wanna gotoandstop a frame that is on my main timeline. I cant put this

on (release) {
_root.gotoAndStop (framenumber);
}

because i want it to go to the main timeline in the second scene , but when i put _root... it goes to the root of the whole prject i want it to go to the root of the second scene

Button To Play Main Timeline?
Hi, I have a button that I want to continue playing the main timeline and I cant seem to get it to work From my understanding it should be pretty simple.

Play Main Timeline From Inside Mc
how do i play the main timeline from inside mc when it reaches the last frame?

thanks
austin

Unload Mc And Play Main Timeline?
I have a main movie "main.swf" and in an empty movie clip (instance name "empty") on that timeline, I have it loading another movie ("continue.swf") that takes you to the end of the presentation...

This is the action on frame 1 of "empty":

loadMovie("continue.swf", 1);

I need the entire presentation to loop. I have a frame labeled "startsite" where I need the movie to start over from on "main.swf"

So at the end of "continue.swf" I need an action that tells it to go to "main.swf" and play frame labeled "startsite," right?

I've tried:

_parent.gotoAndPlay("startsite");

I've tried:

_root.gotoAndPlay("startsite");

I've tried unloading the movie clip "empty" from the main.swf with:

this.removeMovieClip()

but everything I try only loops the "continue.swf"???

Can someone please help?

[F8] At The End Of An Flv I Want It To Play A Movieclip Off The Main Timeline Which Should
At the end of an flv I want it to play a movieclip off the main timeline which should be:
_root.mp3player.gotoAndPlay(2);

How do I make the flv make that actionscript happen after it's done playing? the flv is 22 seconds long.

Thanks ahead,
-Line

Play/Stop Flv From Main Timeline?
http://studio34design.net/aleks/aleks_chem3.html

about 30 seconds into this flash, there is an FLV of a computer screen. The problem is, when I pause the swf, the flv keeps going. How do I get around this?

1. Is it possible to convert the flv to swf?
OR
2. Is it possible to control the flv from the main timeline?

thanks people!

Should Be Easy. How Do I Get A Frame In A Movie To Go&play A Frame In Main Timeline?
Hi,

I trying to get a frame in a movie clip (that's 1 level down the hierachy) to gotoAndPlay a frame that's on the main timeline that's labeled "Fade1".

How do I do it?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

I'm using Flash 5.

Dan

Cant Get Frame In Main Timeline To Play Frame In Movie Clip
Hi all,

Ok, I want a section of a movieclip to play up until a certain frame on the main, or _root timeline. Then I want a different section of the same movie clip to play. Now I have the movie clip all set up all fine and dandy, yet I cant get it to the frames or 'section' it is playing when it reaches the apropriate frame. I have the following code on the _root timeline frame.

Code:
gotoAndPlay("stop");
(I have a frame label "stop" where it should be) Is this the right code I should be using? It has worked in the past, but it has been in between an on (something) event/action (not quite sure of the correct termanology there)

Please help.

Action On MC To Play A Frame On Main Timeline
Flash 8
I'm trying to get a Movie Clip (in the 1st frame of the main timeline) to end by going back to frame 10 of the main timeline in Scene 1. I put an action in the MC's last frame
gotoAndPlay("_parent", 10); but nothing happens
I also tried "scene 1" " _root1" "_level1

Is there a way to navigate from the Movie Clip to the main timeline of Scene 1??

Thanks

Loadmovie On Main Timeline, Play, Then Continue...
Work on my Flash site is going great, but like most newbies it feels like I'm literally pounding this thing into shape with a sledgehammer.

I've got a simple question (aren't they all), and I swear I've searched the forum but to no avail. The answer is out there, but for some unGodly reason I can't find it.

I've got a main timeline with, say, 55 frames. There's a brief animation tween in the first 10 frames. At frame 11 I'd like to stop the main timeline, load a movieclip called mcPort (SWF would be fine as well) and have it play AUTOMATICALLY, and then restart my main timeline at frame 12 once mcPort is finished.

mcPort is basically a long slideshow type movieclip. I plan on adding 1 or two others of this type into my main timeline. I realize that I could just do all of this slideshow animation stuff within my main timeline, but it just gets unmanageable.

I gotta think this is possible. My search reveals people wanting to do the same thing, but always with a button action. My hunch is that a container is used, but I've not used one yet.

Thanks much

Play A Movieclip Once, Then Go To The Next Frame On The Main Timeline
Hello, I'm sorry for the long topic's title.

I have an animation I'd like to use as an INTRO in my flash movie. I will joint it inside a movieclip, giving it the istance name "INTRO". And I position it in the first frame of the main timeline.

How can I make possible that played once my intro (my movieclip) the player jumps to the second frame of the timeline, named by the istance "HOME".

Is it possible?

Thankyou very much for your help,
and great things.

Stebianchi

Making Main Timeline Play From Inside Mc In AS3
Hi

I'm primarily a motion graphics guy but am helping out a friend with some Flash web work. I have CS3 now but haven't touched the app since MX so Actionscript 3 is taking me some time to get to grips with - not that I was any more than a dabbler anyway.

I am simply trying to make the main timeline play when an MC on the stage reaches the end of its animation. I have tried variations of root.play("menu") or parent.play("menu") in the last frame of the MC but I get:

"1061: Call to a possibly undefined method play through a reference with static type flash.display:DisplayObjectContainer."

Also it breaks the previously ok code and the 'stop' on the 2 frames of the main timeline are now ignored.

Then I see stuff like this -

MC Instance On Main Timeline Play In Order
I don't know if my title is clear enough, but I'll try to clarify.
I have one MC on the main timeline, and duplicates of the same MC one after another. So basically 8 of the same MC lined up beside eachother.
Now the tricky part. I want halfway through the original MC, to jump to the second MC instance and start from frame1. Now the dilema is, that if I make an actionscrpit on the MC, it affects all the MC lined up together, because they are an instance of the original.
Could I use the duplicateMovieClip command, and how?

HOW TO MAKE INDIVIDUAL MOVIECLIPS PLAY ON MAIN TIMELINE
I have been making individual movieclips for my flash website intro so as not to have long framelengths on the main time line. But, how do I make them play one after the other? I am trying to get familiar with onClipEvent and use frame labels, but just cant make it work. Please Help!!

Pause/Play Button Referring To Main Timeline...
I'm working on a site that includes a button that says "pause" - when the viewer clicks it, it switches to say "play." Right now, it's a two-frame movie clip that has one button on each frame. I know I need to specify that the Pause/Play action refers to the main timeline (possibly using "_root"?) but I have no idea where to place that. Here's the script for both frames:

Frame 1:

on (release) {
stop ();
}
on (release) {
this.nextFrame();
}

Frame 2:

on (release) {
play ();
}
on (release) {
this.lastFrame();
}

Am I on the right track? Would _root go before or after the command? It's switching from "Pause" to "Play" and back perfectly....

Thanks for your help....

Julia

Button To Play MC & Goto Point On Main Timeline
Hi

I have a button on my scene. When clicked on, I would like to play a MC and go to a specific point on the main timeline.

However, the MC it will play will depend which frame the movie is on, when the button is pressed. I have the script, which will help to explain my question: -
on (release) {
if (frame = 10) {
_root.About.play();
_root.gotoAndPlay("Overview");
}

if (frame = 20) {
_root.Client.play();
_root.gotoAndPlay("Overview");
}

The script doesn't work! Can anybody advise?

Thanks

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Making Main Timeline Play From Button Inside MC
Hello,

i think the title says it all.
I have done this a million times, but for some reason I seemed to have missed something.

My button is inside a movie clip, the AC on the button is this...

on (release) {
gotoAndStop(6);
_root.play();
}

_root.play(); isnt working....

Pause And Play Buttons To Control Main Timeline?
i have multiple "scenes" with no movie clips in them. i would like to add 2 buttons (one to pause and one to play) to control the timeline throughout the piece. how do you create buttons that control a timeline that is not a movieclip???

Loading A Movie From A Movie On Main Timeline, To A Specific Frame On Main Time Line
I need help loading a movie from a button in a movie on the main timeline. To a specific frame on the main timeline.
i.e. I have a navigation movie, in it is a load of buttons. I want to load separate movies to a blank movie on a specific frame on the main timeline.
I guess I am having target problems, I can load the movie in the main timeline, but not the frame i want it or the the blank movie in that frame.

Go To Different Place In Timeline Movie On Rollover
I'm using Flash MX and the project I have, loops continuously and I need the viewer to be able to rollover the swf and have it go to a specific point in the timeline and stop there. Once the viewer moves off of the swf I need it to continue the loop where it left off. However if the viewer rolls over then clicks it would stay at that point in the timeline instead of going to the loop. Right now I have it working with (on release) but that isn't the ideal way we would like it to work. I have attached the .fla so people can view what I've done to this point. Thans

How To Reference Subbottons In A Drop Down Menu To Play Content On The Main Timeline?
Hi,

I have created a drop down menu placed in a movie clip with an instance name "how_menu".

The are 4 sub buttons which should play the content placed on the main timeline, referenced by frame labels, e.g. 2.01.0, in scene called 'names'.

How do tell the subbuttons in the movie clip to play the content on the main timeline, in scene 'names', from frame labelled 2.01.0?

I am using Flash MX 2004.

Thanks!

gayeta

How To Sequentially Play/Load External Video Clips (in SWF Format) In Main Timeline?
Hi,

Does anyone know how to sequentially play external SWFs loaded into the main timeline?

I have several SWF files with short videos embedded in them. I wish to load these external SWF files into my main timeline as follows:

User Presses Button -> Play Video Clip in External SWF#1 -> Once Video Clip in External SWF#1 has Finished -> Play Video Clip in External SWF#2.

I tried achieving this by adding: “var endmovie:Boolean = true;” to the end of each video clip inside the external SWF’s (e.g. “1.swf”) then cycling through an if statement in the main timeline to see when this condition was meet:

ActionScript In Main Timeline:

Code:
var mc_Loader = new MovieClipLoader();
mc_Loader.addListener(this);

this.createEmptyMovieClip("Container", this.getNextHighestDepth())
Container._x = 0
Container._y = 0

button_mc.onRelease = function () {

mc_Loader.loadClip("1.swf",Container);

function onLoadInit(target_mc:MovieClip) {

myInterval = setInterval(cycle,30);
function cycle() {

if (Container.endmovie == true){
mc_Loader.loadClip("2.swf",Container);
}

}

}

}

To my surprise, this code does actually work - until you add the "button_mc.onRelease = function () {" part!

How is the best way to go about achieving this? Am I on the right track? (By the way, using .FLV files or one long external SWF file is not really an option due to long loading times...I think...)

Please Please Help!

Control Main Timeline With Movie Clip In Main Movie,,
I could really need your help on this.

http://www.flashkit.com/board/showth...hreadid=465355

How To Control The Main Timeline From An MC Timeline?
May an action in a movie clip's timeline or within an OnClipEvent target the scene's main timeline, say, forcing the swf to go to its third frame, for example? Thanks for any idea.
P.S. Actionscript 1.0

Main Timeline Vs Mc Timeline Smackdown
I've made a little animation in a mc several instances of which sit looping on the main timeline.
I want these mcs to load at intervals on the main timeline, frame 1, 5, 10 etc. (a kind of twinkling stars thing if you must know.)
The problem is the main timeline overrides the mc's timeline.
I was able to sort of fix this by shortening the main timeline, but I can see this solution is not satisfactory for any number of reasons, and even at the most basic level it seems erratic.
Obviously my understanding of this issue is too theoretical and not practical enough, or the other way around.
How can I force the main timeline to really accept the mc timeline instead of just pretending to?

A Value From The Main-timeline To A Moviclips Timeline
Hi!
I have a movieclip on the scene. I also have a button on the scene and when I press the button I want to send a variable-value to the movieclip. I have a variable set in the actual frame on the main-timeline but the movieclip doesn´t catch that, when traced I get undefined. Can I send a value from the main-timeline to a moviclips timeline?

Control Of Main Timeline From Another Timeline
Working in Flash Pro 8 (on a Mac), I've got a movie clip on the main timeline. Within the movie clip is a button which, upon pressing, reveals a series of three more buttons.

My objective here is that when you press any one of those given buttons that are within the single button that is within the movie clip an instance of which is on the main timeline that it will take you back to a specific frame on the main timeline.

I am having a devil of an unsuccessful time with the concept of connecting back to the main parent timeline from a child timeline.

Any words of direction on how this is accomplished would be, as usual, appreciated.

Christian Seaborn
seaborn.christian@gmail.com

Controlling Movie From Main Timeline
okay, here's the plot:

I've got a movieclip of an airplane.
The whole clip is the plane retracting and putting out the landing. Now The first part until frame 10 is retract.
I need to make the movie play the 1st 10 frames and then stop. The gear is up then. If the gear has to go down, It needs to play frame 11 till 20 and stop on 20.
This has to be done from the main stage, or another object like a button.

I tried tell target, but that wont work or maybe I didnt get it right.

(or should I go to the newbies forum)

Placing A Movie On The Main Timeline
I'm creating an interface with a video screen and scrolling buttons to choose what movie you want to play.
What I can't figure out is how to make the buttons load the movie in the main timeline. When it pops up, it's loaded into the timeline of the movie clip I created for the scrolling buttons.

This is the code I placed on my button:

on (press) {
this.createEmptyMovieClip("mc",1);
mc.loadMovie("movie.swf");
this.onLoad = function() {
setProperty("mc", _x, -137.8);
setProperty("mc", _y, -6.3);
};
stop();
_root.onEnterFrame = function() {
if (_root.mc._currentframe == mc._totalframes) {
mc.unloadMovie();
}
};
}
Any help would be appreciated.
[Edited by willi-jay on 09-04-2002 at 07:33 AM]

Movie Clips And Main Timeline
When scrolling through the main timeline, I am only able to view the
first frame of each movie clip I've inserted (my layers are made up of
movie clips with no other objects in the main timeline). These views
change with each keyframe, but leave me with an inaccurate
representation of what is happening as I drag the slider across the timeline. I am able to view the outline of
the shape in the movie by clicking the view outline box next to the
lock, but this still does not show me what is going on in the movie
frame by frame. Is this normal, and can it be
changed?

Also, if I want to export only part of the movie for test, is this
possible?

Any help would be most appreciated.

Linking From Movie To Main Timeline
I have just assembled a complex dropdown menu and turned it into a movie clip so I can drop it onto my main timeline of which consists of webpages assigned to individual frames.

What do I need to do to link from a button in my menu/movie to individual frames on the main timeline?

Thanks.

Interaction Between A Movie And The Main-timeline
Hi! This is for Flash MX 2004: Can anyone figure out the actionscripting that could apply to the following example?:

I've got two frames in the main-timeline.
The first one is labelled "ONE", the second one "TWO".
The first frame contains a movieclip (instance name: "MC"); the second one contains a simple Bitmap. I've got one button inside "MC" (instance name: "BTN").

THE ULTIMATE QUESTION:
How can I tell "BTN" to go to frame two in the main-timeline "on release"?