Selling Preloaders

[ZekeyLizard]

I dunno how many of you make Flash cartoons but I do.
I suggested this once before but I beleive Weebl could make some cash by selling his ingenious preloaders.

What sayeth thee?

[Fanta]

what ingenious preloaders?

[ZekeyLizard]

You know when you click on a cartoon
and there's a percent meter and a spinning bullseye thing?

Those are testicle-explodingly hard to program with Flash and Weebl pulls them off perfectly and majestically.

I gave up trying to make my own long ago and am forced to use the stinky Newgrounds one.

[Mr. Moo]

That's not hard to program. It's basic actionscript.

[ZekeyLizard]

Then leave me instructions Mr. Moo
Leave some actionscript for me to copy or something?

Cuz the online guides usually have 100 steps and I find myself typing 'PARAGRAPHS OF GIBBERISH'.....that of course end up not working.

[Mr. Moo]

Fine. I'm not much of a flash programmer myself but I can figure it out in about an hour.
What exactly do you want? Something much the same as weebl's ones?

[davidh]

If you wanna make a dead simple preloader in Flash 5, tho' it should be pretty similar in MX, all you've gotta do is:

Make your funny cartoon, (this cartoon exists in a scene, eg scene 1)

Create a new scene (eg scene 2) of about 10 frames in length

In frame 1 of scene 2, double click this in the timeline and you'll get up the 'frame actions' box.

Find 'basic actions' and select the 'if frame is loaded' function.

At the bottom of the 'frame actions' box, it says 'scene' 'type' 'frame'.

Click 'scene' and select the scene in which your cartoon appears. In this case 'scene 1'.

Leave 'type' alone. In 'frame' stick in a frame number from 'scene 1'. When picking a frame number, find the frame on which your cartoon ends (i.e frame number 1010) and type that number into 'frame' in the 'frame actions' box.

Once you've done this, then close the 'frame actions' box. (Click on close)

Next go to the 8th frame in 'scene 2' and insert a keyframe. Double click this in the timeline. This should bring up the 'frame actions' box again. Find 'basic actions' and select the 'go to'function.

Once you've done this, close the 'frame actions' box (click on close)

Next create a symbol, make sure you give it 'movie clip' properties. Make a funky little loading graphic for example.

Once you've done this, put this symbol in 'scene 2', frame 1 and place it on a different layer to the layer we were working on above.

Select 'Test movie' and the 'show streaming' function in flash to see whether everything is working okay.

Hope this helps and works! And yes, there are miles better ways of doing it, but this is the way that I first learnt to do it.


David
http://david.stuarthomfray.co.uk/playback_BadAssBonfireSong.html

[Andromeda]

Originally posted by davidh
In frame 1 of scene 2, double click this in the timeline and you'll get up the 'frame actions' box.

Find 'basic actions' and select the 'if frame is loaded' function.

At the bottom of the 'frame actions' box, it says 'scene' 'type' 'frame'.

Leave 'type' alone. In 'frame' stick in a frame number from 'scene 1'. When picking a frame number, find the frame on which your cartoon ends (i.e frame number 1010) and type that number into 'frame' in the 'frame actions' box.


Yup. It's Official: My head has now exploded. have a Nice Day.

Rommie
...22,000 Days. It's not alot, it's all you got...

[ZekeyLizard]

My head has exploded as well....
And it didnt work and my toon was blammed...
I hate F^&*%$g Actionscript....

Seriously, someone please shoot me. Please.

[Fanta]

ok

[davidh]

Are you both using MX?

I still make my cartoons on Flash 5

I'll try and check the code on MX tomorrow OR it could simply be that I fucked up my instructions. I'll get back to you on the code tomorrow.

David
http://david.stuarthomfray.co.uk/playback_BadAssBonfireSong.html

[Mr. Moo]

Since zekeylizard failed to answer my question, I made this very simple preloader for you all.
http://www33.brinkster.com/frogland/preloader.fla
Now quit your whining.

[davidh]

Originally posted by davidh
Are you both using MX?

I still make my cartoons on Flash 5

I'll try and check the code on MX tomorrow OR it could simply be that I fucked up my instructions. I'll get back to you on the code tomorrow.

David
http://david.stuarthomfray.co.uk/playback_BadAssBonfireSong.html

I AM A TWAT!

Not only were my instructions missing a bit of actionscript (which I've now sorted out), but my new instructions don't tie up with MX very well. Apologies to everyone who followed my instructions - use that chaps preloader .fla file instead. Goodbye, I'm going to jump into the canal now!