Hands-On: Flash MX 2004 ActionScripting

Exercise 34: Place Actions on a Movie Clip Instance

You've just placed Actions in key frames; now let's see how they work with Movie Clips.

Actions on Movie Clips are powerful, you'll have to fully study this feature to really learn it, but you can get a taste of it in a practice session on this page.

There are books written only for ActionScripts, so you can expect to spend some time learning how to use them in the future.

1. Use the file: MX2004_ActionScripting-Loops.fla to put ActionScripts on a Movie Clip.
2. Choose Window > Scene or [Shift] + [F2], and then click the Plus Mark + to add a new scene.
3. Create a Movie Clip inside the Scene 2 that contains several frames with some kind of animation inside the clip (so we can see whether it's playing or not). The simple animation could be a filled circle that you animate as a bouncing ball. To make this Movie Clip begin by choosing Insert > New Symbol or pressing [Control] + [F8]. Name the symbol myAnimation.

4. Don’t forget, when you build your animation, select the circle, press [F8] and turn it into a graphic, I called mine ball. You won’t be able to animate your ball without doing this.
5. Click on Scene 2, there should only be one keyframe in this scene. Open the Library to find the myAnimation Movie Clip.
6. Drag this Movie Clip onstage and test the scene, not the movie (to verify it is animating). Remember your main timeline should have only one frame.
7. Back on the Flash MX 2004 main stage, select the instance of the Movie Clip myAnimation onstage and open the Actions panel [F9]. Notice that all the Global Functions from Timeline Control and Movie Clip Control are available (that is, they're not grayed out).
8. From the plus button select Actions > Global Functions > Movie Clip Control > onClipEvent. Type load inside of the parentheses(load).
9. This time select Actions > Global Functions > Timeline Control > Stop
   So at this time your code looks like this:
        onClipEvent (load) {
        stop ();
        }
10. Repeat step 8 and type mouseUp inside of the parentheses (mouseUp) and then repeat step9 again. So at this time your code now looks like this:
         onClipEvent (load) {
         stop ();
         }
         onClipEvent (mouseUp) {
         stop ();
         }
11. Repeat step 8 and type mouseUp inside of the parentheses (mouseUp) and then repeat step9 again but choose Play instead of Stop. So at this time your code now looks like this:
         onClipEvent (load) {
         stop ();
         }

     onClipEvent (mouseUp) {
     stop ();
      }

    onClipEvent (mouseDown) {
      play ();
      }


12. Test Scene 2 now and, when the Movie Clip loads, it stops. Click the mouse anywhere and it starts playing let go of the mouse and it stops again.

Another way to create the same effect is to put a stop Action on the first keyframe inside the master Movie Clip.

There is nothing really wrong with the above technique, but a stop inside the master Movie Clip means every instance will exhibit this behavior. Placing the Action on one instance affects just that one instance.

TIP : If the line currently selected in your script is within the curly braces, you won't be adding another clip event, because you can't put an event inside an event. Remember: Every time you add an Action, Flash will try to put the Action right below the line currently selected in your script.

13. Save your file for additional exercises.

There are a few important things to note about this session.

• First, the clip events mouse down and mouse uprespond toany mouse click—not just clicks on the clip itself. If you want something that responds to clicks right on a graphic, using a regular button is easiest.
• The basic things to remember are that just like buttons, Actions on clip instances are wrapped inside events.
• Buttons respond to the on event while Movie Clips respond to the onClipEvent.
• Finally, Actions attached to clip instances affect only the particular instance to which they're attached.