AlexSilverman
asked on
Problem w/ SWF Library Import
Hey,
Having a problem importing a SWF into another Flash file. When I get the file into the library it is flickering and appears to only be showing the first frame. Imported SWF's before with no problem, including ones with all of the aspects that this has (motion guide, masks, etc...), so no idea what is wrong with this one.
When the SWF is just opened on its own it works fine, or when I use loadMovieNum to get it into a file, but I want to have it in the Library to bring into the movie and make operations on, rather than giving every instance a level or whatever.
Any thoughts on why a SWF import would suddenly go bad?
Thanks.
Having a problem importing a SWF into another Flash file. When I get the file into the library it is flickering and appears to only be showing the first frame. Imported SWF's before with no problem, including ones with all of the aspects that this has (motion guide, masks, etc...), so no idea what is wrong with this one.
When the SWF is just opened on its own it works fine, or when I use loadMovieNum to get it into a file, but I want to have it in the Library to bring into the movie and make operations on, rather than giving every instance a level or whatever.
Any thoughts on why a SWF import would suddenly go bad?
Thanks.
ASKER
Well, my main problem is that I'm trying to throw a mask on top of the Motion Guide Tween, the area has to be see-through in the eventual SWF this is going into... so that is what I was trying to do when it broke on the import.
The thing is sorta like a speedometer, and the idea being to eventually control it with gotoAndStop(frame) when it is all said and done... There will be four instances in the eventual thing. I'm away from work at the moment, so can't play with it until monday.
The thing is sorta like a speedometer, and the idea being to eventually control it with gotoAndStop(frame) when it is all said and done... There will be four instances in the eventual thing. I'm away from work at the moment, so can't play with it until monday.
I think I don't understand.. You have to load your swf in a motion guided clip behind a mask?
I do not really understand what you are after here either - but I would agree with negatyve in the fact that if it is not working properly, try loadMovie instead.
The thing is, in a loaded swf with loadMovieNum, some paths in AS will need to be redefined to the level of the loaded swf (like _level1 for example) for them to work, because things with the _root alias will refer to the root of the main swf in some cases, not to the root of the loaded swf.
But in loadMovie, this does not happen, because you are loading to depths in the main swf, not levels.
This may help you, but it is hard to tell if this is the direct problem...
Can you explain further?
Billystyx
The thing is, in a loaded swf with loadMovieNum, some paths in AS will need to be redefined to the level of the loaded swf (like _level1 for example) for them to work, because things with the _root alias will refer to the root of the main swf in some cases, not to the root of the loaded swf.
But in loadMovie, this does not happen, because you are loading to depths in the main swf, not levels.
This may help you, but it is hard to tell if this is the direct problem...
Can you explain further?
Billystyx
ASKER
part of the motion guided animation needs to be masked... and can't seem to drop a mask on top of that... maybe i'm just doing this wrong, but it didn't seem to accept it in the timeline of the SWF where the motion guide was being done. as currently constructed the motion guide needs a mask to knock out some of what is going on beneath what i want visible to the user, so trying to do that...
the next step being taking it into the "master" swf, and controlling the frame it is on.
the next step being taking it into the "master" swf, and controlling the frame it is on.
Is the masking and animation in the loaded swf or is it that you want the masking and motion guiding to be done from the main on the loaded swf. If the latter I would suggest reworking the loaded swf to incorporate the motion and masking inside it.
Or post us a linkto the swf/fla so we can better understand.
Billystyx
Or post us a linkto the swf/fla so we can better understand.
Billystyx
ASKER
i'm at home, so don't have access to it right now.
i want the masking done prior to incorporating it into the swf that the user will actually interact with, at least this is what i was trying to accomplish yesterday prior to loading the thing into another swf to layer it behind a mask. is it possible to drop the motion guide layer setup behind a mask in the timeline? it wasn't letting me do this when i was trying to do it yesterday, obviously that would be the easiest way to deal with the masking issue.
so that led to me trying to drop it into a second swf in order to mask it before getting it to the "final" swf... where i noticed that the stupid thing wouldn't import to the library properly... causing these problems.
as far as what is visually trying to be accomplished:
it's a speedometer, so what needs to get masked is the bottom edge of the the "visible area" so that the bottom of the needle is hidden when it shouldn't be visible to the user. the needle is on a bit of a radial move so when at the far left and far right of the speedometer less of it is visible than when it is in the middle... that is what the mask is trying to take care of.
so basically what i got is an arcing display, which the needle is tracking across and i don't want anything beneath the bottom of the display visible, and by necessity the needle needs to have rooom beneath this line.
i want the masking done prior to incorporating it into the swf that the user will actually interact with, at least this is what i was trying to accomplish yesterday prior to loading the thing into another swf to layer it behind a mask. is it possible to drop the motion guide layer setup behind a mask in the timeline? it wasn't letting me do this when i was trying to do it yesterday, obviously that would be the easiest way to deal with the masking issue.
so that led to me trying to drop it into a second swf in order to mask it before getting it to the "final" swf... where i noticed that the stupid thing wouldn't import to the library properly... causing these problems.
as far as what is visually trying to be accomplished:
it's a speedometer, so what needs to get masked is the bottom edge of the the "visible area" so that the bottom of the needle is hidden when it shouldn't be visible to the user. the needle is on a bit of a radial move so when at the far left and far right of the speedometer less of it is visible than when it is in the middle... that is what the mask is trying to take care of.
so basically what i got is an arcing display, which the needle is tracking across and i don't want anything beneath the bottom of the display visible, and by necessity the needle needs to have rooom beneath this line.
Do you even need a mask?
You could add a layer over the needle on the bottom edge, the same colour/pattern as the bg colour underneath it and this, it seems would solve your problem..
O/W on Monday when you do have access to the file, please post a link to the swf so we can see what you mean, or upload the fla and we can take a look.
Billystyx
You could add a layer over the needle on the bottom edge, the same colour/pattern as the bg colour underneath it and this, it seems would solve your problem..
O/W on Monday when you do have access to the file, please post a link to the swf so we can see what you mean, or upload the fla and we can take a look.
Billystyx
ASKER
certainly...
yeah, just throwing a layer on top would be the way to go, the problem is that the background isn't a consistent color. not a huge problem, would just need to finagle some stuff to get the different instances looking right. this is a workable solution, just not a clean one.
i've never played with a loadedmovie directly, can you do "gotoAndStop" to it, i imagine they would let you....
yeah, just throwing a layer on top would be the way to go, the problem is that the background isn't a consistent color. not a huge problem, would just need to finagle some stuff to get the different instances looking right. this is a workable solution, just not a clean one.
i've never played with a loadedmovie directly, can you do "gotoAndStop" to it, i imagine they would let you....
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how did you go? Are you still having problems with it?
Billystyx
Billystyx
It depends on how the external swf is done. Usually with import you lose any nested animations, and any animation created with actionscript. Are you sure that there's nothing you can do using loadMovie? Actually, you could play your swf, stop it, preload it, hide and show, and so on: you do not need to import it, if you don't have to modify it..