Click to Show Lecture Notes

Flash MX Movie Clips as Symbols

Creating Clips       Pr 1

It makes no difference whether you master symbol is a Graphic or a Movie Clip. This affects only the default behavior for instances dragged straight from the Library. You can always change the the behavior from the Properties panel once it's on the stage.

Do the Practice session below to get a better understanding of how the to items behave on stage. It will become evident when you should use one over the other when you finish the session.

Graphic Symbols Vs. Movie Clip SymbolsGraphic Symbols Vs. Movie Clip Symbols

Graphic Symbols Vs. Movie Clip Symbols

Just because a Movie Clip has an independent Timeline doesn't mean you can change the framerate. You get one framerate for the entire movie. But, there are some advanced tricks that you can learn to simulate changes in framerate.

  1. In a new file, select Insert > New Symbol, name it Numbers, select Movie Clip behavior, click OK.


  2. In frame 1 of Numbers, use the Text tool and type 1 near the center of the screen. Insert a keyframe in frame 2 and change the onscreen number to 2. Continue inserting keyframes and changing the contents to match the frame number all the way to frame 10.


  3. Get back to the main scene (make sure you're not still in Numbers) and drag an instance of Numbers onto the stage from the Library. Select Control > Text Movie (Ctrl+Enter). Remember, Test Movie is the only way to see Movie Clip animation.
    All 10 numbers appear in sequence, even though we used only 1 frame of the main Timeline.


  4. Back in the scene, insert a frame (not a keyframe) in frame 5 (click frame 5 and then select Insert > Frame or press F5), which really just extends the life of this Timeline. Test Movie again and you should see no change.


  5. Drag another instance of the Numbers Movie Clip onto the stage. For just this instance, change the behavior to Graphic by accessing the Properties panel while the instance onstage is selected. With the instance still selected, make sure the Options drop-down is set to Loop. now test the movie again.


  6. If it's playing too fast, try a lower framerate, (I used 3). The result is that only frames 1 through 5 of the Graphic instance are displayed while the Movie Clip continues to run. Back in the Timeline, try scrubbing back and forth in the main scene. Although the Graphic symbol shows only the first 5 frames (it has only 5 frames to live), it also gives you a good preview while scrubbing.


  7. One last thing to try while you're testing the movie is to select Control > Stop. That stops the red current frame marker from advancing, but notice that the Movie Clip keeps right on playing. The Graphic is locked to the Timeline into which it's places while the Movie Clip plays independently.


    8. Hide Practice Session 1

Here are a couple of points to think about. Movie Clips always loop. (there's no Play Once option.) Later you'll learn about Action Scripts to get around that so that it will stop at the last frame of the movie.

Graphics are locked to the Timeline, so Flash knows exactly how they'll play. Movie Clips play at their own rate, (and can be started or stopped any time through scripting). Therefore, Flash has no idea exactly how they'll play and can't give you a preview when you try to scrub from the Timeline. Bottom line, you should always test the movie to see what you created.

Creating Clips    Back to Contents    Top

Page Updated on March 2, 2003