Topic: I'm new at Flash

Hey I just opened up Flash today(first time) and made this from a tutorial. Can someone tell me how to get rid of the background? I don't want it to take up a bunch of room...just enough for the ball to bounce. Please be specfic...remember I just opened up Flash today......thanks for your help and time......

Chad_711,

You REALLY picking up on the web tools, huh? (in my Easy-East LA accent)

1. Get "Foundation Flash" - The best 1st book on flash (around $20.00 at Borders)
2. Go to "Modify Movie" and trim that puppy down to size.

Then,
3. Put the Flash away, and post a web site for us to look at.



[This message has been edited by kevincar (edited 05-13-2001).]

Post a website?!... gotta walk before you can run man.

- Michael -

beginner huh? I'm not that great either
I found doing the Flash tutorials a good start...
I don't think you can make the background colour transparent....just change its colours....
right click on the movie...then goto movie properties or double click on where it says "12.0 fps"

Darkness is only the beginning

Like they said before i think you need to trim the size of the movie down. This will save file size and loading time.

As for transparency goes, there is a way to make the movies transparent but this only works in IE. A tutorial on it can be found Here.

good luck.

"Society, we all know that somethings wrong. And we've know it all along" -Pennywise-

hi there, another rookie signing in...
flash 5 is very tricky or is it just me?
i'm currently trying to make an interactive interface 4 my website...
it's hard work...
anyone know hot to link a button within a flash movie to a specified HTML file?
do i need javascripts?
and how do i make the movie pause so that a user can choose and click on a certin button?



http://www.chez.com/arlechinu/mysig.jpg

Hi arlechinu! Welcome to the neighborhood!

It's not you. Flash 5 *is* tricky. All the fun for me is in ActionScript. If you are handy with JavaScript it'll be a cinch for you. If not - it'll take some effort. Part of what's tricky about ActionScript is that bits of functionality can be placed in three places: in keyframes, buttons and movie clips. Your two questions are answered by bits of ActionScript in different places.

1) attach a little bit of ActionScript to the button. (After you have created the button symbol and placed an instance of it on the stage, select the button and open the ActionScript editor.) Buttons can react to mouse events, so you would probably want to use on(release){}, and then the action you want to have happen after the mouse is released would be a getURL. Look in the ActionScript reference for the proper syntax. Don't forget that the target of getURL can be specified: "_self" would replace the contents of the current window with the contents of the new page, while "_blank" would place the new page in a new window. Note that, unless you write a JavaScript function you won't be able to specify what features the new window has (such as dimensions, status/tool bar, scroll and so on), but it's still handy to open a new browser window..... sometimes. People around here generally take exception to having new windows opened for them, but I still do it when it seems appropriate.

2) ActionScript again. All you need to do is place the simple stop(); script in a keyframe. You'll then need a gotoAndStop("someFrameLabel"); or a gotoAndPlay("someFrameLabel"); script attached to a button or something in order to get the movie to advance to the next sequence or whatever.

Help any?



[This message has been edited by Steve (edited 06-04-2001).]

o_0 i really suck at actionscript :P

yet another thing i need to pick up this summer.. *sigh*

(im not a programmer, and i dont think i ever will be. i get too bored, hehe)

Two words: Foundation Actionscript. Buy the book, great stuff.

Chris

KAIROSinteractive

Thanx Fig

btw, your site is sweet, very nice on the eyes :]
What's the song on it? I like the beat

Thanks man, glad ya like it. To be honest, you're the second or third person to ask me and I really don't remember where we got the loop. If I can figure it out I'll let ya know...

Chris

KAIROSinteractive

thanx steve,
and sorry i answered so late
i'm kinda busy with the final exams
will try your tips and...
need a review 4 this site http://www.chez.com/arlechinu
so far in the site review forum only a couple of guys answered my call
and i need a pro -> you


Skinrust...

I just bought Foundation Actionscript today. Thx for the recommendation, Fig.

This book kicks booty :]

Cool, glad you're diggin' it. I just got Actionscript Studio in the mail, need to get into that one. I'll let y'all know how it is...

Chris

KAIROSinteractive

Actionscript Studio? in the mail?
where can i get that too?

Arlechinu's...

And then there's Colin Moock's ActionScript, the Definitive Guide.

I love this book. Problem is I can only read a few pages before glazing over. Forget about trying to read it at night!!!! I'm on the chapter that deals with working with strings. Now I know this will be useful to me some day, but it's hard to focus until you have a real purpose to apply it to. Foundation ActionScript sure is loads more entertaining, but Moock is one of my personal heros.

Programming definitly doesn't come easy for me :\

arlechinu - talk to your mailman. Or amazon.com And yes, I do have a connection or two...

Steve - is that the O'Reilly's Actionscript book? That's definitely one I want to get as a reference, can't say it's really a "reading" kinda book tho.

Chris

KAIROSinteractive

Yes: O'Reilly
No: not a "reading" book, but I'm trying it anyway, much as I can.

Colin leaves no stone unturned, makes it about as entertaining as such a book can be, and most important for me, is very "pure" in his code.

I picked up bad influences and a sort of "pigeon-English" ActionScript dialect from tutorials which were mostly either written in 4, or written by people with one foot still in 4. There are lots of them out there. I'm getting a lot from this book.

But it's slow going.

Hay wow, someone's actualy talking about Action script in here... Cool, so now's my time to ask....

Does action script go into how Flash can interact with JS and Server Side langauges like ASP, Perl ect ect... Or is it mainly just for increasing the functionality and interactivity of Flash itself???

Havent had much time to play with flash but I would like to use it more...

JS yes; CGI yes (does that address Perl for you?) xml sockets, bunches of stuff I don't know anything about yet.

ASP? dunno. Haven't heard it mentioned, but I haven't been particularly listening.

i started flash about 2 weeks ago and didn't find it too difficult to use at all. went through the lessons that came with the program. they were great, an excellent place to start if you're a beginner. i also picked up "Flash 5 cartooning" by mark clarkson. it's a great book, a little heavy on the wallet ($50) but goes through general flash techniques and not just flash for cartooning. also does a good job teaching basic techniques for animation for any medium. there's another book out, "flash 5 cartoons and games f/x and design" by bill turner. i didn't find that book as appealing.

jeez.. if only i had gotten this many responces when i was trying to figure out how to control flash variables through JS.. o_O maybe i'll figure it out some day..


» THOAN.net (..soon to come..I hope)

(edit) maybe some of us good flashers in here should talk to the gurus about getting some flash tutorials on the network.. >_> perhaps we would have less rookie problems then.. anyone? anyone?
Also, Dracusis: CGI:yes pearl:yes php:yes asp:yes Flash5 is also compatible with ColdFusion, XML, JS (to an extent), and SQL =)

[This message has been edited by Bmud (edited 07-05-2001).]