In and out of focus
April 18, 2007
Hello friends and followers, I have finally uploaded all of my old tutorials so rest assure that you won’t be snowed in like that again. ^_^ From now on its back to how it should be, abeit with a few differences in style.
Now that the blog is at its prime(content wise) I decided that I should probably try and advertise the blog a little as the content is great, I just need readers. So thats what I’ve been doing. So far it seems to have paid off, my subscribers and hits have risen quite a way.
So the plan from now on is to make my blog much more interesting so that people will actually stick around. So you’ll notice the improvement of quality in entries from now on. So lets get started.
Holidays
The holidays have been fine although kinda different, I haven’t seen much of my friends but have been spending more time with the family. The first weekend we had easter which was great. Chris bought me one of those 100s and 1000s eggs. On Sunday night we had something down at Woonsy which was good fun. Although I think we need to move away from the PCs a bit and return to the consoles. We’ve also been doing some reno work out the back so I’ve had to help out there a bit too.
I had to go into Uni twice last week(which sucks as it takes 2hrs either way) to hand up an assignment. But it was worth it as I finally decided what to do with that excess money lying around. I bought my first digital SLR camera and what a bargin too.
I bought the Sony Alpha100 in the twin lens kit (18-70mm and 75-300mm) for $AUS1391(not including $100 cashback), I saved over $400 off the RRP and here’s how:
-the store had 13% for that day only
-their price was cheaper than the RRP
-Sony are offering $100 cashback for this month only
I also got to enter a competition to win more Sony gear as I bought the camera.
I am so thrilled with the purchase, I love the camera and especially that 300mm lens. I just need to figure out what settings are best for what conditions that is ISO, aperture, shutter speed etc.
On Friday we had rellies for Sydney come down, we also had a family BBQ on the Saturday night with them. One of them bought me a photography magazine which was very considerate.
For the rest of the week I’ve been working/studying/playing games and plugging my blog. I’ve got a few days of work up ahead which will keep me busy.
A few links
I just wanted to take a bit of time to link out to a few good blog entries(about blogging) that I’ve read this week.
Why you need to be a renaissance blogger
I really enjoyed reading these two entries, I hope you do too. 
The other plug that I wanted to do this week is one to an affiliate site of NRX domain, I was browsing thru their wares and noticed this page that has a small collection of old TV adverts from The Legend of Zelda series.
The first advert for the original Zelda is absolutely hillarious, so tragic, just sad, here’s the Youtube stream:
Well thats it for this exciting episode. You know, I’m pretty awful at this whole blogging gig, so if you have any advice be sure to drop me a line.
Tags: Life
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Timeline Control
April 17, 2007
Assumed Knowledge: Basic creation of symbols and general Flash interface
Concepts Covered: Controlling the movement in the Flash timeline through buttons
Open up Flash and make 2 buttons, one which is labeled Play and the other one Pause. On a new layer create some sort of animation that lasts for at least 10 frames. Extend the bottom layers length in the timeline so that it is the same as the animation.
Add the following code to the Play button:
on (release){
play();
}
And add this code to the Pause button.
on (release){
stop();
}
Let?’s look at some of the code. on (release) means that once the button is released. The { finishes the statement what follows it on the next line tells the program what will happen once the button is released. play() makes the program play the animation in the timeline and stop() stops the animation in the timeline. The ; ends the command. The final { closes off the code.
Now when you test your movie you can click Pause to Pause the animation and Play to continue it.
How would you make the program stop at the beginning therefore prompting the user to press Play to begin? Simple. Place
Stop();
in the first frame. This will stop the program automatically.
You don?’t need to use release to make the button do the code. You can use other conditions such as press.
This type of timeline control is probably the most important Flash code that you?’ll ever use. So make sure that you know how to use it. It also works well in animation pieces with a simple user interface.
Tags: Tutorials, timeline control, flash mx, source code
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Motion Guides in Flash MX
Concepts covered: Tweening with motion guidesEver wanted to amake a tween go in the direction that you want and not in a straight direction? I feel your pain. This tutorial will teach you the basics on how to tween movieclips in and direction that you want through motion guides.
To start first choose a picture of your choice and then convert it into a movieclip. Right click on the layer of the movieclip and select Add motion guide.
On the motion guide layer draw a line with the line tool or the pen tool if you want to be creative. Make sure that the line is all connected . On the movieclip layer right click several frames down the timeline(I chose 20 frames) and create a keyframe, then create a motion tween between the frames of the movieclip layer. Make sure that the guide layer lasts for the same time as the movieclip layer and has no keyframe at the end just a frame. With the movieclip move it over the end of one side of your line and it should snap to the end. Go to the end of your movielcip?’s motion tween and move the movieclip over to the other side of the line. View your animation by pressing Cntrl + Enter and see how it moves where you want it. See how you can?’t see the line of the motion guide in the movie? You can change that line anyway that you want to.
That is how you use motion guides to tween a movieclip into any direction that you want.
Tags: Tutorials, motion guide, flash mx, tutorial
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Inputting and Outputting variables
Concepts covered: Inputting variables, outputting variables and manipulating variablesBeing able to manage variables in Flash is a very important skill for people wanting to get into actionscript. This tutorial goes through basic inputting and outputting of variables and manipulating them.
Load up Flash and create 2 static texts field spaced apart one that says Input your name and the other that says Your name is. Underneath the Input your name text create a blank input text field that has a border around it. You do this by selecting the show border around text option.
Stick the words namebox in the instance name box just under the type of text.
Under the Your name is text create a new dynamic text box. Make sure that the font colour is black so that you see it when you are outputting. Stick the word name under the variable heading; var.
Create a new button somewhere on the stage and add the following code to it.
on (release){
name=namebox.text;
}
This code says that once the button is released the name variable will be the same as namebox which is in a text field.
Text the movie to see if it works. If everything is done correctly you should be able to input your name into the input text box and once you press the button your name appears as the dynamic text.
You could output your name properly if you want to. The trace function in Flash outputs data to the screen. Adding the trace function to the code ends up like this:
on (release){
name=namebox.text;
trace(name);
}
Notice how name is set before it is outputted to the screen? If it wasn?’t the variable would be shown as undefined.
Using the same style of programming you can make a calculator of sorts.
Create a new Flash file and add the an Input numbers to be multiplied,1st number, 2nd number and The result is static textboxes in the appropriate positions. Underneath the 1st and 2nd number titles make an input text field one which has the instance of no1 and the other with no2. Under the result title make a dynamic text field with the variable result. Create a well placed button and insert the following code into it:
on (release){
result=no1.text*no2.text;
}
The code is similar to the previous code. It sets the variable result to be what the result of multiplying the 2 inputted variables as on the buttons release. You can add trace to this one if you would like.
These basic examples can lead the way for some larger programs. You can create calculators with various buttons that change the inputted text or a form asking you to fill in your details and then showing a results page with your inputted values.
If you have any difficulty with creating these programs then I advise that you download my samples and see where you went wrong.
Tags: Tutorials, Inputting and Outputting variables, flash mx, tutorial
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