the FLASH technical support thread

[CaptainInsano]

I couldn't find a thread on already on this subject. We can ask each other questions for troubleshooting :teeth:

Okay, I'll start.

1. If I have a bat flapping it's wings ( 3 frame cycle) for 45 frames (all just key-frames), how do I constraint all the images to a path? When I make a path, it only constrains the first and last frames onto the path, not all 45 frames. How do make all of the frames constrain to the path?

Thanks

[figure2]

Parker,

If I understand your question correctly, you would put your 3-frame bat wing cycle into its own movie clip, then constrain the new movie clip to the path on the main timeline.

[CaptainInsano]

hey Thanks Figure2!

It worked! :teeth:

Another Question:
If I have an object that moves and tilts over a little bit, and blinks its eyes while doing so, what's the easiest way to do this? It's a fish under the sea just slighting swaying in the current, and blinking it's eyes.

I put the original object on it's own layer (the fish with it's eyes open), and just moved it around, tilted it, and created motiontweens. I put the same fish (with it's eyes closed) on a second layer and tried to position it exactly over the other object. When I wanted that moving object to blink it's eyes, I put the image of it' with it's eyes closed on the top layer for just one frame.

But it's hard to position two objects ontop of each other in the exact same position and place, especially when it's tilting at the same time. I tried doing this in Image Ready, but for it was actually harder to animate a tilting object. Flash was easier because I could just create a motion tween.

So what I tried to do next was animated the object in ImageReady JUST blinking it's eyes. Export as a swf. Import in the swf in Flash (of it just blinking it's eyes), converted to a MovieClip, and tried to just tilt and move the movie clip and use motiontween to animate it like that. But that didn't work either.
Thanks!

[cartoonfox]

hey parker,

best thing to do would be to make the fish as one mc (movieclip) and the eyes as another mc. then in a new mc, bring them both in onto the same layer (its easier in this instance than seperate layers) then just animate the fish moving (make sure that when you move the fish, you highlight the whole thing so that the eyes et included, so that the eyes are allways in position). then note the frames where you want the fish to blink, and then go into the eyes mc and just animate the blinks where you want them to. the mc will run in sync with the "fish-with-eyes" mc and blink in time.

hope that makes sense. theres loads of other ways but i thought this would be easiest for you

if you need any other help, feel free to ask here, or if you want you could email me





peace :7up:

[_Mario]

have you thought about posting flash problems on a desicated flash forum and not in the lounge of a Concept Art/Entertainmet Design forum.
That should give you a more (and much better) results ;).

[BlueMech]

Another cheap trick to do that would be to have two seperate movie clips, one blinked, one not. Have them on diff. layers, and tween them or whatever in the same spots. then when you want the blinking one or the non, changes it's alpha to 0 so you can't see it, but it's still there. That's more useful when you want to keep walk cycles in sync with your jump animes and whatnot.

[figure2]

Parker,

cartoonfox is correct. You can nest a bunch of different clips into a single movie clip and each one can run on its own timeline. If each clip left to its own devices, it will loop endlessly. If you want to set each timeline nested in the clip to stop after a specific number of cycles or run at an irregular or event-driven schedule, you will have to wade up to your neck into the magic & mystery of Actionscript.

[CaptainInsano]

have you thought about posting flash problems on a desicated flash forum and not in the lounge of a Concept Art/Entertainmet Design forum.
That should give you a more (and much better) results ;).

Yep. That was the first place I went to, infact.

But the best Flash-only forum I found didn't have a lot of members, and responses were very slow.

CA has much more members, and who are more responsive and helpful.

Thanks again CartoonFox,BlueMech,Figure2. I didn't know I could place an MC in an MC.!

[figure2]

Parker,

Since Flash is in some ways on the fringes of this forum, you may be better off going to a site where there are more Flash experts available for you to pick their brains.

2 site I go to are flashkit.com (http://http://board.flashkit.com/board/index.php) and actionscript.org (http://www.actionscript.org/forums/index.php3). While the 2nd one deals mostly with scripting, it's the best place to go for Actionscript advice and they also have a general Flash help forum.

[CaptainInsano]

:bashful: hey guys

Figure2, that first link (flashkit) didn't work :( So I'm posting another question here. Thanks for the help, though.

How do I customize the gradient fill colors? The default is black & white, but I want to change it to dark & light blue. It's not even in the help menu.

[Muircheartach]

:bashful: hey guys

Figure2, that first link (flashkit) didn't work :( So I'm posting another question here. Thanks for the help, though.

How do I customize the gradient fill colors? The default is black & white, but I want to change it to dark & light blue. It's not even in the help menu.

You do it in the "Color mixer" (shift+F9)
Select linear, click on those little black and white boxes and pick the color.
Make sure to adjust the brightness otherwise the color will stay black and white

[figure2]

Sorry about the bad flashkit.com link. Here is the correct link (http://www.flashkit.com/board/index.php).