tutorial smar movie

Hello, & welcome back to FIREWIRE, your friendly guide to the exciting world of web-design & web-solutions! In the previous newsletter of Flash 5 Tutorial Series we had discussed about Frame Panel, Motion Tween, Shape Hints and Edit Centre. Let’s continue with Symbol Properties, Effect Panel, Instance Panel, Sound Panel, Library, Common Library, Clip Parameters and Smart Clips.

A symbol is a graphic, button or movie clip, which can be reused once created. A symbol created is always available within the library of the movie. Symbols reduce the movie size and also speed up the movie. Symbols help us to share image and other elements. In symbol, there are three behavior. Graphic Graphic symbols are static images and to create reusable piece of animation and they depend on time line of main movie. Interaction is not possible with graphic symbol. They cannot involve controls and sounds. To create a graphic, select graphic behavior from symbol property and name them. In the graphic stage draw any shape in frame 1 and make same animation move to scene. To place the graphic on the scene, select graphic from library and place it on the scene. Now, the graphic won't work. Since graphic depends on the timeline of main movie, do the same animation in main movie and have a preview. To conclude, graphic is mainly used for creating static images and not used for interaction. Note : Default graphic symbol are available within common library and they undergo modifications. Button Button symbols are used to create interactive buttons in the movie. They respond to mouse clicks or roll over or other actions. Create graphics for button and provide action to them. Button timeline is entirely different timeline from original timeline. Button has four states. UP - when button is in normal state, it is said to be in UP state. OVER - This state appears when the mouse rolls over the button or passes through it. DOWN - This state appears when the user clicks the button with the mouse. HIT - Defines an area in which the mouse pointer is active and it is invisible to the user. Sound can also be added to each state of the button by simply importing the sound file to flash and drag them & drop them in each state. (Sound files after importing will be available in the library of the movie). Select the button from library & drop on the stage and in the preview, the three states are visible. To conclude, button gives greater way of interactivity for the users to navigate. Buttons can be designed for each individual state. Note : Default buttons are available on the common library and they are editable. Movie Clip Movie Clip is used to create reusable piece of animation. They have their own multiframe. They play independent of main movie's timeline. Movie can contain interactive control, sound and even other movie clips. Movie clips can also be placed within buttons. Select movie behavior from symbol properties and do any kind of animation with movie in the movie stage. To make them play on the scene, select them from the library of the movie and place it on the stage and preview the movie clip. Note: Default movie clips, smart clips are available with common library and they are editable.

Effects is used to make the objects or shapes to be more attractive. They are different types of effects. They are: Brightness - Using the adjustment bar, the brightness of the object can be increased or decreased. Tint - It will merge the object to the background color. Alpha - The visibility of the object or shape is maintained with the alpha value. If the value is 100, the visibility is true and if the value is 0, then visibility is false. Advanced - The RGB value and alpha values can be increased or adjusted for the entire object or shape. 100% of RGB value added to zero will provide the original color to the object or shape.

Instance properties are available for symbols (i.e. movie clips, buttons, and graphics). They are available only for the movie in the moment. It consists of behavior and options. The behavior varies for moiveclip, button and graphic. A. Movieclip : The name for the movieclip can be specified. Instance name is used for scripting and other actions, which will identify the movie clip. B. Button : The button has two options such as: 1. Track as Button: Helps us to track the object as a button. 2. Track as menu item: Helps to track the object in a menu format C. Graphic: For graphic behavior, there are three properties and they are: 1. Loop: The number of loop for the graphic to take place. How many times, the loop should occur can be specified in the text box. 2. Play once: This will play the graphic file only once. 3. Single Frame: This will make the animation to work only for single frame. In the instance palette, there are many icons. They are: 1. Swap symbol - Helps to create a duplicate copy of the symbol. 2. Edit symbol - Helps us to edit the symbol (Graphic, Movieclip, Button) 3. Duplicate Symbol - Create a duplicate of the symbol. 4. Edit Actions - Used to edit the action script. For buttons, graphics and movie clip, if there is any alteration with the action script, this icon can be used.

Sound panel helps to edit the sound, which is imported into the movie file. To edit the sound, select the sound and check its values.

In this panel, we have effect menu from which we can adjust how the channel should appear. For example, select the Fade In in which the sound will fade as it moves in. The options that are available are:

	Left channel
	Right Channel
	Fade Left to right
	Fade Right to Left
	Fade In
	Fade Out
	Custom

Using custom, the level can be adjusted. Synchronization helps us to synchronize the sounds with an event in the scene. To start the sound, specify start and stop it, select stop from the menu and to make the sound to appear in a slow format, stream is used. Loops allow to specify the number of times the sound should repeat or to stop. Edit button is used to edit the sound file levels.

Library is used to store the items of the movie. In library, symbols, graphics, buttons and imported images will appear. The items in the library can be dragged and dropped on the stage. The items of library of one movie can be used in another movie and it does not end up in error. The library is only for movies. To check the items within a movie file, the library is used. According to the movie the items in library will change. In the library, A new symbol (movie clip, button or symbol) can be created. A new folder within the library can be created and items can be placed to make them to appear in customized format. For example Symbols of Bag can be pushed into one folder. Property about the item in the library can be obtained by right-clicking the item. Deletion of a symbol is possible from the library , by simply dragging and dropping it in Dustbin Icon..

Common library is available with each movie. The default buttons, movie clips, smart clips, learning interaction, sounds are available. In every movie, the values or objects in common library are the same. The default buttons, graphics etc have been already developed and are available in common library of each movie. These items can be used into any movie. Once the item from common library is dropped into the stage, it will be available in the library of the existing movie.

Smart clips help us to hold the elements of form which involves in a web page. Clip parameter helps us to edit the default values for smart clips like radio, menu and checkbox. The smart clips properties can be altered by using clip parameters. Clip parameters hold values, style, name, labels for the elements of form. The values of smart clips can be edited through the values dialog box. The style, checked options, name, label can be altered for the smart clips.