Anygood with Macromedia Flash MX?

[Weecutz]

Hey, is anyone here any good at Macromedia Flash MX.. I'm doing a project for Uni and need to find out how to do a few basic things and was wondering if anyone here could let me know or point me to a good source?

The main things I'd like to know are;

1. I'm putting a gallery in my site of small pics but instead of having several gallery pages I was hoping to make the gallery scroll, an example can be found here: http://www.topman.co.uk/promostores/topman/index.html?make_live=yes&promo=

This shows something similar where you scroll horizontally to view the clothes collection.

Can someone tell me how I can do this in Flash, do I need to create the gallery as a Movie??

2. How do I make my own personal pre-loader in Flash MX?

If anyone can give me a hand with this it would be great!!, my AIM is PixFixDerry and my email address is jp.c(at)ntlworld.com (replace "(at)" with @)

Thanks
JPC

[Thomas51471]

I have done something similar to the scroll thing you want by creating the items set up in a line in the order you want to view them. I then create a long motion tween on the timeline the art is on. At one end of the motion tween I put the art as it would appear at the "front" of the scroll and then at the other end of the tween I put the art as it would appear at the "end" of the scroll (of course you need to do this part on the timeline before you do the tween). Put a stop at the beginning and end of the tween and then on the buttons associated with the scroll (I am not sure how to do it with a scroll bar) allocate them to navigate through NextFrame command and PrevFrame command.

That was complicated as hell to type I am sure you are lost by now. Sorry, let me know if you need me to clarify it.

[Weecutz]

Hi Thomas, thanks for replying... mmm, sounds tricky, I'm just not used to using Flash at all...u think maybe you could come on AIM or MSN?

Thanks
JP

[Thomas51471]

Either later this evening or tomorrow evening I can upload a fla of one I have done and send ya a link to download it if that may help.

[Weecutz]

Hi Thomas yeah I think that might help.... I just know really basic stuff in flash you see so I'm always getting the timeline stuff messed up lol

Thanks!
JPC

[Thomas51471]

I hear ya. I don't know just a whole lot about the actionscript and what not, but I grasp the non-code stuff pretty well. Once you see the fla it will be a lot more clear to you and make sense. I just suck at explaining, I am more of a "show ya" kind of person.

:-)

[flutterby nut]

you could also do this using flash's scrollPane component...look under Development Panels>Components...there are also components for loaders and progress bars in there as well (i've not used these, however)...i wasn't able to come up with the specific tutorial i used for the scrollpane, but you can google 'flash mx scrollpane' and come up with many good ones...the one i used had pictures of different masks...it showed you how to use the scroller for thumbnails, but you could easily use the full size images...the scroller can be resized to fit...good luck!

[Weecutz]

Hey, I found a site called CBT Cafe: http://www.cbtcafe.com/flash/scrollpane/index.html

Really helpful!!!, Thanks... just need to figure out how to change the ScrollPane look to my own custom buttons and stuff

Thanks!!

any info on Custom Preloaders?

[flutterby nut]

google for the loader component or the progress bar component for flash mx...you might also find tutorials on those...i'm preloader impaired...-sigh-...if you turn up something good, post it, so i can advance my knowledge there as well...have fun!

[Weecutz]

Sorry but I've another question, does anyone know how to do working email Forms in Flash MX?, I know how to put them in and stuf but now to activate them

[lkw]

http://www.tutorialized.com/tutorials/PHP/Flash-and-PHP/1

[Weecutz]

Hey, ok I've got my scrolling gallery working, each thumbnail is a button, but now when I try to link each button within the scroller movie to go to a frame within the current scene it does nothing.... I think its because the buttons are inside the Movie Clip... does anyone know how I get this to work?

Thanks to everyone who has helped so far!

[Crimson]

Should this thread go in the adobe or macromedia section?

I too am in the early stages of learning Flash. Lynda.com is great. I read the w.o.w. book and got a good foundation in the basics. ActionScript is the shiznit to learn. I use www.flashkit.com. It lets you download the .fla source file and you can dissect things to make them work for you. Very good resource and a great program to learn.

In fact, my first paying Flash job was recent and it was building a preloader. I know there is stuff out there for it. I can send you a link or some files that helped me if you haven't figured that part out yet.

[Weecutz]

Sorry folks but I've got one more question, I'm trying to link a Word Document to a button in Flash, were the user clicks it and downloads or opens the document...

I've tried linking the button to GET URL and then the location of the document but it brings up page not found...

any ideas?