Actions: banging my head against the wall

[autumn_whispers2me]

Okay. I'm winging it and using an older version of Flash (5). I've looked through tutorials online and in the program, but I haven't really seen anything that addresses what I want to do (I have SO far to go).

What I'm trying to do is create a rollover effect where a smaller image (made a button) is invisible until mouse rollover, but I want that image when rolled over to be clickable to a url, and I'd like the image to play a brief sound event on rollover as well.

I don't want much, do I? lol

If I'm asking way too much, I completely understand. But, I have to give it a shot.

Thanks.

[Webforumz Staff]

Well, everything but the sound is just normal button stuff. When you create the button make a new keyframe in the Over frame (F6), then delete the art from the Up frame. For the action on the button you'll use
<code>on (release) {
getURL("something.html");
}</code>

For the sound you'll want to put the sound in a movieclip, then use the onMouseover button event to play the movieclip.

That's just the basic ideas, if you need more details ask back.

[Webforumz Staff]

Errm... do you want all of the things you descibed (sound effect, and clickable url) to be on the original button or the one that appears when you activate it using another button?

If it's the second option then this is a little more tricky! The best way (I think) to do this would be to have your on (release) method on your main button to you a gotoAndPlay() method which moves the timeline on a few frames where your new button exists.

If you place the new button inside of the first button then you run the risk of losing the new button or having it invisible, but when you mouseover that invisible spot it appears!

[autumn_whispers2me]

thanks everyone. I'm still trying to digest all of this (MAN, but I need a book to study! lol). Okay, the best way I can explain this is: I'd like a typical mouseover where the image goes from invisible to visible when the cursor is placed over the image. THAT all by itself I'm having trouble understanding what to do (mouse event, movie clip??), but Sirkent has the right idea, though I've no idea how to put a button 'inside' of another button. Do you mean inside the same layer, Sirkent?

The sounds I guess I'll have to wait on so I can do this one step at a time. I'm a stark newbie, literally clunking my way along like a fool at this point. 2wks ago I had no idea what to do with Flash but open the probgram and stare gape-mouthed at it while drooling, and I've had the program for a while and was very intimidated by the whole thing... until a couple weeks ago when I got ticked off because I'm sick of designing and building my sites "the old way."

To give you an idea of how much I know (or DON'T know), here's where two little (lame) movies are that I made:

http://www.thecorridors.com/phase2.html (the one I'd like to build to replace my 'static' site)

and http://www.autumnwhisperstome.com which the only movie (lame again) is on the index page.

Other than what these movies can do I have no knowledge or experience.

Thanks everyone.

[Webforumz Staff]

Ok the idea that I thought would work best was like this.
- Have two layers on your timeline.
- The first has your main button (that shows the other button).
- A frame after (on the other layer) have your second button that you want to be revealed. (but ensure that it isn't in the first frame).
- Make sure that a stop() action is applied to the frame containing the first button.
- On the button itself, set the action for on (release) to nextframe(); (all of these actions should be available from the library of actions on the left hand side).
- That should be it... Assuming that your main button is still visible on the second frame, when you press the main button, the whole movie jumps forward a frame to where the new button exists... thus it appears.

On another note... you can indeed have buttons within buttons. You'll notice that when you edit a button it has four main frames. over, up, down and another one that I've forgotton for now :P.

The first frame is the initial state of your button. The second is what the button will look like when you mouseover it. The third is what the button will look like when you click it and the last is a bit of a strange one: If you place an object in the last one then no matter where that object is on your screen, it will not be visible but it will act as an extension of the button. That is, if you mouseover the area of that object then the button will react accordingly.
You can put ANYTHING in those frames... graphics, more buttons (although it's fairly pointless) or movieclips. Movieclips are very useful and can make your button animations more interesting. Eg: You could have it so that when you mouseoever your button it slowly changes colour, or jumps up and down, or shines, or whatever. You can place a similiar movieclip back on your first frame so that when someone mouses off of the button, the image returns to normal. Of course, it's in your interests to not make these animations too long.

[autumn_whispers2me]

I may be compiling this movie all wrong, for all I know, but I have several layers right now. The phrases I have fading in and out are on all different layers.. is that okay? As far as too long, I don't know. I guess I'm maybe thinking that it's not a good idea to have a 'totally Flash' site where most of the navigation is from one place? Is it better to have just an intro page with a GoTo that leads to a corresponding page where menus ect are, with maybe a small Flash movie set as a header??

[Webforumz Staff]

Of course it's ok to have different layers, that's a major player in the power of Flash, I simply meant that in order to do what I mentioned above, the easiest way is to have the two buttons (the main one and the one you want to appear) on different layers so that you can have one appear after the other.

As for making a totally Flash site... I don't see any problem with that. I think you're getting a little confused with the concepts.

Let's get back to a real basic! lol. Why do you want a button to reveal another button when clicked?

[autumn_whispers2me]

You know, I gave up one idea with this and started another... and ended up stuck in the same place. lol So, I want to ask: HOW much of the site should I leave up to Flash, and how much should I build 'below.' By that I mean, past the entrance point should I just make a Flash header for the top of the page and build the rest via html, css, etc.???? I made a header with a glowing door (kind of an icon of the site I'm rebuilding), but it would be nice to make that glowing door with a mouseover so a sound plays when the cursor moves over it. Problem is, when I convert the image of the door to an 'image' or 'button,' the mouseover option in the actions panel is 'light,' and not useable. Why would this be do you think?

[Webforumz Staff]

Ok, the answer to your first question is, it depends, I'm afraid. It depends on the site you want to create. From a pure Search Engine and usability angle then Flash graphics with HTML content and navigation (or both of them used as navigation) is a good combination and can be as good as any other normal HTML design out there if designed properly. However, sometimes you want more interactivity, a different interface, etc, etc and making a page entirely in Flash seems more appropriate.
I would say that, sites offering a service should always be HTML unless they can get people to the site through other promotions. Flash sites are usually less serious, so either for the big companies, minisites, strange sites, designers sites, etc.
I would classify your site under "strange site" :razz: and it could definetly benefit from Flash, but then you have to assume that people can't actually find your content... unless you make a HTML version with just the content for the search engines, that forwards real users to your Flash? It's a difficult decision and one that you should make based on how many visitors you get from the search engines themselves and how many of those are to specific pages and not your root / .

Second question: In order to manipulate anything in Flash to a decent degree, you need to convert it to a symbol. If you click on an object, like an image and press F8 then you get to choose between movieclip, button and graphic. In this case you could use movieclip or button. A button would be easier.
so make it a button and then right-click on your new button and choose edit. Select the 'over' frame and press F5 to insert a frame there (which means that your first frame now lasts for two frames). For the button, that means that whatever is in frame 1 will show by default. Frame 2 will show when you mouseoever.

Make a new layer, select the over frame for that layer and press F6 to make a new keyframe in that layer. If you now go down to the 'properties' panel (at the bottom) or if you don't have it, go to windows > properties and always have it on screen as it's extremely useful. Select your sound from the drop down list and leave 'Effect' as event. If you don't have any sounds in the list then go to File > Import and import one!

If you then press CTRL and ENTER at the same time, you'll get a preview of the movie... Just bear in mind that if you mouseoever the button several times then you get the sound played for each time, overlapping any others. There are ways to prevent that, but they are more complicated, so if your sound is short, this first method should be ok..!

And all of that without any actions? Not bad, eh?

[autumn_whispers2me]

Hey. You say "weird" like it's a 'bad' thing! Thanks for the help. I love this forum. Okay, when you say to convert to a symbol, I have to ask: what about the large main image in the movie? I have a jpg as the main image.... it basically just sits there. Does that also need to be converted to a symbol and why? What happens if it's not converted?

[Webforumz Staff]

Symbols are an extremely useful feature of Flash. If you convert something into a symbol, then it can be re-used over and over again without having to be downloaded again! You can see all your symbols, images and sounds in your library (F11). By default, images and sounds are not symbols but can be re-used and therefore are in your library. In order to apply actions or motion tween them (animate them) they will need to be symbols.

[autumn_whispers2me]

Okay. I knew about having to convert them in order to do certain things with them, but I wasn't sure about the other reasons why an image should be converted to a symbol.

This is definitely some work, but hopefully it will pay off in the long run. Right now it seems as though the harder I try to redesign this site, the worse things look! No joke. I'm losing my vision on this. I hate that! Does that ever happen to you? I mean, I'm having problems with images, etc. being too big, looking 'clunky,' and the site is beginning to look 'boxy' which I definitely hate. The first try wasn't too bad, but now that I'm trying to redesign the rest of the site.... I keep missing the mark and getting farther away from my goal. Very frustrating. I'm not used to that happening.

For instance: the first try was this: http://www.thecorridors.com/phase2.html Then today I tried and tried and tried to come up with something that was fresh, but still kept with the new look. Ugh. Fell flat on my face: http://www.thecorridors.com/phase_2_main.html A last minute decision on the background color threw everything off in a huge way, too, although a friend of mine said it looks fine with the entrance/splash in black and the main page in the other color. I don't know. I think I'm having a brain bleed or something. lol

[Webforumz Staff]

I'm not really sure what to suggest, but it looks like you've made some more progress than when you posted... just keep at it - it isn't easy learning and trying to design a site at the same time, so maybe play around some more, check out some other sites out there and try to recreate them in Flash, or just make something different to learn something new?

[autumn_whispers2me]

Oh, yeah... I ended up taking another route once I got a little sleep (amazing what a break from something can refresh the mind). As for the symbols: I tried to "open as shared library" with the first little movie but couldn't figure out how to get the sounds, etc. I wanted into the layer I needed them on. I could've sworn I read in the tutorial in the program that if it's a 'shared' library from another movie you can use the sounds, etc. Did I missunderstand that?

And NOW I'm trying to figure out how to put a semi-transparent layer of solid color over the main image for text. Is there a way to do that, say, where the text doesn't overflow past the bottom of the main image, kind of like when you work with frames? I've never used frames so I can't even compare the two really.

OH, and one more important thing I almost forgot: Is it possible to keep ONE layer animated (repeating) while the rest of the movie stops (except the music, which I want looping)? The little door that opens and closes in the second movie http://www.thecorridors.com/phase_2_main.html opens, closes, then stops because I have the movie set to stop looping after the text settles to the lower right bottom of the main image (for obvious reasons). But I'd really like the little door to loop. It's a tiny animation so it shouldn't be too annoying, I don't think.

??:

[autumn_whispers2me]

Hey, Sirkent: I just posted on another thread, but I tried using the same symbol in the movie I'm working on and I've tried to associate a mouseover event with them, using them as buttons. Anyway, aparently associating the on mouse event "get url" globally changes all the instances of that symbol, so I have several buttons with the same link url. ??: I've explained it in a wee bit better detail in the other thread, though... under 'flash should come with a free helmet...' lol