flash (macromedia): Hi all,

Apologies if this is in the wrong forum, but as a flash new beginner, it
seemed like the most appropriate place to post.

I've picked up some of the Training from the Source books and am looking to
spend some time with them this weekend but I'm currently in need of a hand
trying to replicatean affect I've seen.

Please take a look at this: -

http://www.final-exodus.net/testing/web.swf

I'm led to believe that this sort of thing is fairly easy to do but upon
opening Flash, I'm clueless. I've prepared my graphics files and have imported
them to their own layer (currently the only one in the fla file). So my
foundation is in place.

However, don't have a clue on what to do next. As such,any help is
appreciated...

Many thanks,
Steven

OK, this is fairly straight forward, you shouldn't have to much trouble. If
you have the 'background' images ready to go, good, they should have thier full
colors.

Now lock the first layer, make a new layer, draw a box in white that is three
times the length of the Stage or your images and the same as the images height.
select it, right click and select convert to symbol. give the new symbol a
name, and make sure 'movieclip' is selected, click ok. with the new symbol
selected, look in the properties panel, on the left enter an 'instance name'
into the field so that it can be pointed to with ActionScript (alway do this,
most important :) for the code below i have use the instance name of
'textBox_mc'

Now double click on the symbol to go 'into' it in symbol edit mode. type the
text you want and size it, place it in the center of the box laterally. when
you have it where you want it, select the text, first, select the box, and
under 'modify', 'break it apart' (or ctrl B or pwr B) to convert it to a
bitmap, now select the text and 'break it apart' twice, to do the same, now hit
'delete' and the text should have 'cut out' that area of the box.

Now got back to the main timeline, you should see the images 'though' the text
area of the box. Select the box, in the properties panel, select the 'color'
comboBox and select 'alpha' and drawg the slider to your desired transparency
effect, you will be able to see this happening on the stage.

OK, now the box is made, now you need to animate it. use a little
actionscript to do this. create a new layer, lock all layers. select the
first frame of the new layer and open the 'actions' panel, enter the code below
and save your movie. then run a testMovie and see it in action! Done deal :)



stop();

import mx.transitions.Tween;
import mx.transitions.easing.None;

var txtTween:Tween = new Tween(textBox_mc, '_x', None.easeNone,
0-textBox_mc._width, 0, 10, true);
txtTween.onMotionFinish = function() {
txtTween.start();
}

Hi cbeech,

Many thanks for the response. Can I ask if the layer with the second layer has to be above or below the images layer?

Great, thanks. I've placed that as needed but am not sure on the next part: -

Q]Now double click on the symbol to go 'into' it in symbol edit mode. type the
text you want and size it, place it in the center of the box laterally. when
you have it where you want it, first select the box, and under 'modify', 'break
it apart' (or ctrl B or pwr B) to convert it to a bitmap, now select the text
and 'break it apart' twice, now hit 'delete' and the text should have 'cut out'
that area of the box.[/Q]

The length of my image is 500 and the height is 181,so I've made it 1500x181
and positioned it at 0:0 I've placed the text as needed but the only item I
can select for the break it apart command is the text itself, rather then the
box. Doing so breaks these into seperate letters. From here, I select each
seperate letter then break that, and it 'appears to' cut it out of the box.

Am I on the right path?

I can tell I've done something wrong here because when I exit the symbol and go
back to the main timeline all I see is my box with the text in it, not a punch
through =(

Apologies for the low level handholding that this may take.

no, no, your doing fine. your close, you're on the right path, but here's the
thing you need to select the box and break it apart as well, BEFORE breaking
apart the text, because if the box is still an Drawing Object, when you break
it apart after the text, it will be in the front. select all in the symbol, so
that you have all the text, shift-click the box to drop it, select 'union' from
the 'modify>combined objects' menu, should make a bounding box around all the
text. now select the box, and break it apart, then select the text again and
break it apart again, now hit delete and it should cut it out.

Ok...nearly there..

I've published my results and gotten this: -

http://www.final-exodus.net/testing/wb_banner.html

good job, you're getting there. I think the 'white space' (if you're reffering
to the spot in the middle of the 'A' for instance) is that you may have changed
the alpha value of the box's color fill, rather than using the 'alpha' property
of the MovieClip itself. That's just a guess though ;)

I'd also guess that you either don't have an 'instance name' assigned to the
'textBox_mc' or that you'd used a different name and didn't change it in the
code sample. Again, just a guess ... :)

Could you Post the FLA file online? you just need to zip it up, and then put
it on your server, then post a link to the address.

Hi cbeech,

it can be found here: -

http://www.final-exodus.net/testing/wb_banner.zip