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Hands-On: Flash MX 2004 Movie Clips

Exercise 25: Build a Movie Clip Symbol

You just made a graphic do a little tween animation; however, it is not a Movie Clip at this time so in the next few steps you will create another version from the above exercise. Follow these steps to create a Movie Clip:

  1. Click to the right of the Outline layer name and then shift-click to the right of the colorFill name to select all of the frames that make up the Timeline.

The Movie Clip Timeline

  1. Choose Edit > Timeline > Cut Frames. It is IMPORTANT that you choose Cut Frames and not Cut; you will need all of the frames to make this work.
  2. Choose Insert > New Symbol and type the following for the name, LCVoutlineFillMC. Make sure you choose Movie Clip Behavior, and then click OK. (I try to make up names to help me recognize what the file might contain.)

Create a New Symbol dialog box

  1. Select the first keyframe and choose Edit > Timeline > Paste Frames.
  2. Click on the Scene 1 tab in the Information Bar to return to the Main Timeline.
  3. Double-click on the colorFill layer name and rename this layer movieClip. In the Timeline, click on Frame 42 and drag backwards to Frame 2. (There should be a black highlight now covering all the frames.) Right-click and choose Remove Frames. Note: When you use Cut Frames, it cuts the content of the layers and frames, but the Timeline still contains the frames. The only way to remove them is to use the Remove Frames command.
  4. Open the Library [F11] and notice the LCVoutlineFillMC Movie Clip symbol you created. Click on the first frame of the movieClip layer and then drag an instance of the Movie Clip onto the Stage. Use the Window > Design Panels > Align panel to center the symbol on the stage.
  5. Choose Control > Test Movie to preview the Movie Clip you just made. You didn’t see much right? Remove the extra frames in the outline layer to be able to view the movie on the Stage.
    Notice that the Movie Clip plays even though there is only one frame in the Main Timeline. Movie Clip Timelines are independent from the Main Timeline. Movie Clips only need one keyframe in the Main Timeline in order to play.
  6. Save your file and keep it open for the next part of this learning experience.

 

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