Flash Site Design - movie in a movie

Author

movie in a movie

chombeaux

2006-08-17, 3:25 am

ok, here?s my problem. I am relatively new to flash. One of the techniques I?m
most interested is how you can make a movie with a navigation bar, and when you
click on the buttons, they activate another movie which loads into the first
one, so you can?t see any blinkin?or page change. Everything flows in the same
window, nicely. I?ve found lots of tutorials with explanations about how to
tweak a movie at a time, but none explains how to do that "movie in a movie"
effect.

Suggestions, anyone?

WebXperience

2006-08-17, 6:24 pm

Well, since every document that's published in Flash is a movie, any movie that
is created within that document would be considered a movie within a movie.

So first thing is to decide whether you want to draw/create the features of
your movie using the drawing tools within the Flash Workspace environment or
whether you are going to use ActionScript. Either way, the elements of your
movie will constructed in layers. Then stacked one layer upon another, with
your background on the bottom layer and your menu element will normally be on
the topmost layer so as not to be obstructed by any of the other elements of
the movie. All the other elements whould be loaded somewhere between the
background layer/level and the menu layer/level. Noticed that I threw the word
level in there. That's because each element could be in inserted in its own
layer on the same timeline or if defined as a movieClip could be loaded at
different levels. eg. _root, _level0, _level1, etc. I would suggest that you
explore the Flash Help content and also maybe purchase a good book. I
pursonally use actionscript which results in a smaller SWF or Flash movie file.
A book that I found extremely helpfyul in understanding the workflow of
building a website is [i]Flash MX 2004: Beyond the Basics[/i] by Shane
Renschied.

If you have any more questions let me know.

WebXperience

2006-08-17, 6:24 pm

Well, since every document that's published in Flash is a movie, any movie that
is created within that document would be considered a movie within a movie.

So first thing is to decide whether you want to draw/create the features of
your movie using the drawing tools within the Flash Workspace environment or
whether you are going to use ActionScript. Either way, the elements of your
movie will constructed in layers. Then stacked one layer upon another, with
your background on the bottom layer and your menu element will normally be on
the topmost layer so as not to be obstructed by any of the other elements of
the movie. All the other elements whould be loaded somewhere between the
background layer/level and the menu layer/level. Noticed that I threw the word
level in there. That's because each element could be in inserted in its own
layer on the same timeline or if defined as a movieClip could be loaded at
different levels. eg. _root, _level0, _level1, etc. I would suggest that you
explore the Flash Help content and also maybe purchase a good book. I
personally use actionscript which results in a smaller SWF or Flash movie file.
A book that I found extremely helpfyul in understanding the workflow of
building a website is [i]Flash MX 2004: Beyond the Basics[/i] by Shane
Renschied.

If you have any more questions let me know.

Blakice_iceman

2006-08-18, 10:23 pm

Hi! Until recently I had the same exact problem. Here is some code that I used,
which there is a tutorial that goes along with it at
http://www.gotoandlearn.com, called "External SWF Preloading".

var mcl:MovieClipLoader = new MovieClipLoader();

var mclL:Object = new Object();

mclL.onLoadProgress = function(target,loaded,total) {
loader.percent.text = Math.round((loaded/total) * 100) + "%";
}

mclL.onLoadInit = function() {
loader._visible = false;
loader.percent.text = "";
}

mcl.addListener(mclL);

mcl.loadClip("external_1.swf",holder);

chombeaux

2006-08-25, 10:23 pm

Cool! Both solutions worked! I found the DVD book and the above?s script
quite useful.

However, I still have a weird problem, and Im not sure if I?m doing something
wrong: I?m doing a website in which the main background movie contains the main
navigation bar (that?s why I asked above how to load a movie inside another
movie, get it?). The navigation bar loads the new content as movie clips inside
a target in the main page. That?s is solved thanks to you, guys.

My actual problem is, I?m doing a mainn flah page, which automatically will
load a couple of small clips, incluiding a navigation bar. When I test this
clips separately everything works fine, but when imported to the main movie as
movie clips, all the actions are lost. For example, this navigation bar calls a
portfolio movie clip into the stage and works perfectly when tested alone. But
when I import the navigation bar clip into my main?s movie library, all the
actionscript of the buttons it?s lost. It?s not a big deal, since I just need
to return to the original file and copy/paste the actions... but I wonder if
I?m missing something or if there?s an appropiate way to import thes clips with
it?s own script intact into my main movie.

Thanks in advance!