I'm using the Flex 3 SDK and the free FlashDevelop IDE.
As I don't have FlexBuilder or Flash CS4 Professional I cannot make MovieClips graphically.
So instead I want to create a simple MovieClip using code or MXML. For example, lets say I want to create a MovieClip with 3 frames, and load a bitmap into each frame to create a simple animation.
Is this possible? I've had a good google around and the only examples I can find are of loading existing MovieClips and adding them to a stage.
You can create a movieclip with this simple code:
var mc:MovieClip = new MovieClip();
stage.addChild(mc);
That is of cause just and empty movieclip, you can draw on it with graphics property (see here).
As far as I know there is no way to create frame with actionscript. Though there might be some undocumented methods. There are some functions that do not appear in the documentation (like the addFrameScript method).
I would say the best way (if you absolutly can not use the Flash CS4), would be to have a series of Loader objects, and the hide and show them on every in sequence.
Just put them in an array and listen for the enterFrame event.
You can load in the bitmaps in the Loader objects.
If you use the links and checkout the examples in the documentation, I think you should be able to figure it out.
As far as I've seen, there is no easy way to create a MovieClip in Flex which behaves in a way one might see as comparable to Flash's implementation MovieClip. But I don't think you really want a MovieClip to begin with. Flex does not really play well with non-flex objects. Yes, it is possible to add something to a UIComponent, but you are much better off working withing the Flex framework than doing workarounds.
I would use the mx:Image tag to load your images. It is generally the cleanest way to load an image into Flex. It will let you embed the object into the SWF at compile time, which means that you will not have to point to an outside file. I will caution about having too many embedded graphics -- that will kill your download time and possibly your performance.
If you are only interested in having an animation move or re-size, then I would use the Move and Resize objects which are native Flex Tweens.
Your best option might be to extend the UIComponent class, add a MovieClip as a child-component, and apply the settings from MXML via proxy. e.g.,
public function set movieFrames(value:Array):void {
for each(var b:Bitmap in value) {
//add bitmap to _movieclip object.
}
}
You want a Sprite not a MovieClip. And use time instead of frames. There's a Timer class and a getTimer() function. Use them.
create a class that extends/implements Sprite.
Add a Loader class.
Google it exactly how it's done. (flashtuts.com or sth like that).
Related
I have searched a lot lately, I found that I can load an external swf file to my haxe project at compile time, and use the movieClips via their IDs as Classes types ..
That's cool& nice, but how it would work when I instantiate a MovieClip that has layers?
What I have is MovieClips with layers, layer of image, and a layer of text over the image layer.
So, is this achievable? will I be seeing instances of movieClips (images& texts over them) ?
Let's first dissect the flash terms in terms of code,
Layers :
Consider the layers as grouped z indexes. A single layer with multiple objects will also assign sub z indexes to each clip (see the send to back option in context menu)
The flash IDE provides you a nice interface to group & lock a few instances of objects, while working on the other. Each such group is a layer.
At runtime, every layer (with it's objects) will be concatenated into one single list (the display list) and the objects placed onto the stage in order of their position in the list.
Frames :
Frames are slices of time controlled by the fps property of the flash player. So if you have 12 fps, it means that whatever code you put in that frame of time will receive attention for 1/12th of a second.
Of course there is code being written for anything you do inside a frame or layer. The code, for example that you put in manually in IDE is added in by calling the addframescript internally.
MovieClip
The MovieClip class itself is actually an IDE related thing. The split being Sprite Class plus a timeline (collection of frames) plus associated properties & methods.
The Movieclip class thus provides you with properties like currentFrame, totalFrames, etc & methods like gotoAndPlay(), stop(), etc to interact with the flash controlled class.
Considering all of the above together, you should expect to see different images/text/objects at different intervals of time as defined in the frames when you access the movieclip.
I haven't spent a lot of time in flash, but the answer to your question comes from having a better understanding of how Flash/AS3 works, and not so much to do with Haxe.
Quoting this answer:
Layers only exist in the Flash IDE. They are not part of Flash Player's display list system. So you can't specify what layer a child goes into. Use addChild() or addChildAt() to add children to containers.
So that means Haxe will not have any concept which object is in which layer, nor would AS3 for that matter. The correct approach seems to be to use containers with IDs, which are recognised by AS3 or Haxe, and then add children to the containers.
TLDR: use containers movie clips, not layers.
I'm a total AS3 / Starling newbie, but I'm trying to (programmatically) add an FLV video file to the 'background' of what is essentially a splash screen.
Example code I have found online basically distills to...
var v:Video = new Video(100, 100);
this.addChild(v);
This works in the top-level class that extends flash.display.Sprite, however my Game class (that extends starling.display.Spite) fails, complaining of an "Implicit coercion of a value of type Video to an unrelated type DisplayObject."
Strangely enough, the signature of the addChild function on the Starling Sprite class is the same as that of the Flash Sprite class.
So basically the question is: why do I seem to be unable to add a Video object as a child to a Starling Sprite class (but successfully to a Flash Sprite class)?
I'm sure the answer is ridiculously simple... please let me know if I need to add more code or anything. Or if what I'm doing is totally the wrong way.
Or you could add the video to the Flash layer which sits above Starling:
Starling.current.nativeOverlay.addChild(v);
and
Starling.current.nativeOverlay.removeChild(v);
Bare in mind you are not using Starling GPU drawing with this though.
This is because the Starling framework was designed to mimic the regular Flash DisplayList (not completely recreating all the features though). Concretely, you are trying to pass a reference to an object of type starling.display.DisplayObject instead of flash.display.DisplayObject, which gives the appropriate error.
In order to play a video with Starling, you could upload each frame of the movie to a texture. Have a look at this topic on Starling's forum.
There was many discussions about this problem, but I want to pay attention on the situations that IMHO seems not so clear:
Yes the general rules are:
Remove chachedAsBitmap
Stop movieClip if playing
Remove events
Delete references
etc.
But let's look:
First Example:
I have nested sprite (ex: mainSprite), it contains other sprites with dynamic textFields in it (and are chached as bitmaps), just textFileds and MovieClips with event listeners on it (with weak reference).
When I need to remove this sprite I need first to remove all it's nested content via loops or just
removeChild(mainSprite);
mainSprite=null;
is just enough?
Second Example:
I have some sprite in which I'm loading bitmap and manipulating with bitmapData, later I'm just replacing content of this sprite with another bitmap, is allocated memory for older bitmap automatically erases and is overwritten or it still exists?
Third example:
I have some "graphics template" MovieClip (in library with Export for Actionscript property set on it) which I'm adding on the stage and filling with dynamic data (and adding event listeners), let's say that it's one scene of the app, on another scene I need same MovieClip with other dynamic data, but inbetween need to clear my stage (need something like transition animation which is also library MovieClip), what's the best way: to set this MovieClip visible property to false (while transition animation is plays) and then reuse it, or just remove it with removeChild and then add when add with addChild once more?
All I wrote is more about Air Mobile, cause in most cases for the desktop these situations aren't so problematic, but in case of mobile development they are.
You can visually monitor memory usage along with fps etc using this lib: http://code.google.com/p/flash-console/
hope that helps.
P.S. gc in flash is always a weird thing :)
First example: removing mainSprite from display list is enough if there are only weak listeners on its children.
Second example: I'd advice reusing the same object with visible = false. Recreating the same object is more resource expensive plus you get another instance of the same thing being in memory before it gets gc'ed.
For my project I need to copy the graphics of a Movieclip with all of its children without copying anything else into a second Movieclip. I cannot use the Bitmap classes because I need the graphics to be displayed as a vector and I cannot use a method that simply copies the clip by calling the instructor ie:
var copy:MovieClip = clip.constructor
Is there any way to copy only the display portions of a clip into another Movieclip without turning it into a bitmap?
Thanks
Cloning display objects out of the box in as3 is no easy task. Here is a tutorial explaining the several approaches that have been attempted over the years and what works and what does not:
http://www.dannyburbol.com/2009/01/movieclip-clone-flash-as3/
I'm working on a small project in AS3, and I need to make some interface buttons. I had them as separate classes at first, but then realized that it was probably overkill, and on top of that, figured out a way to simplify the event calls by making them buttons and assigning the event dispatches to their parent.
ANYWAY,
I tried remaking them using the SimpleButton class, but I can't figure out how to give the buttons any sort of design. Every tutorial on the web uses SimpleButton to make only the most bare-bones Actionscript graphics by actually drawing them with the code (why anybody would want to do that is beyond me), and my attempt at assigning a library item to the upState:
_deletebutton = new SimpleButton();
_deletebutton.upState = mc_deleteButtonUp; <--- exists in my library
doesn't do anything.
The Adobe docs say that the various states take DisplayObjects, which mean they take Sprites and MovieClips, so you should be able to do this. Does anyone know how?
THANK YOU
+1 weltraumpirat
the example in the doc generates the states by code but you can assign whatever displayObject to the different states of the button.
var btn:SimpleButton = new SimpleButton();
btn.downState = new clipFromLibDown();
btn.overState = new clipFromLibOver();
btn.upState = new clipFromLibUp();
btn.hitTestState = new clipFromLibHit();
btn.useHandCursor = true;
addChild( btn );
assuming you have 4 states called : clipFromLibDown, clipFromLibOver ... in your library, this works
You have to instantiate an item from your library in order to use it with ActionScript. To do this, click "Export for ActionScript" and assign a class or base class to mc_deleteButtonUp in the properties panel. Then use the new operator with the assigned class to instantiate it. You can start your button by using the example from Adobe's documentation, then change things to fit your own program.
You're probably not setting the hitTestState property of your SimpleButton instances. This property is a DisplayObject that defines where the user has to move the mouse to get mouse events on the SimpleButton. You will never see the DisplayObject that you set this to. I would suggest just using one of the DisplayObjects you are already using for another state.
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FlashPlatform/reference/actionscript/3/flash/display/SimpleButton.html#hitTestState
Also you will need to use the new operator as weltraumpirat and nicoptere have already said.