How could I get an arrow to follow a movie clip?

programming flash
1

Is there anyway to make an arrow point to a moving movie clip, besides moving the arrow every frame?

2

Umm…give more detail…Im not 100% sure what you mean.

3

like a little moving movie clip… lets use ‘~’ for now… then there would be an arrow at the bottom of the movie, and as ‘~’ moved, the arrow would keep pointing to it.

[edit=oops, it didnt save the spaces…]
something like that…

4

just thought of a good way to explain it…
its like those movies that have the eyes following your cursor, but I want the eyes to be an arrow, and follow a movie clip instead…

5

You get the angle between your clip and the clip you want to follow (with Math.atan2) and then you set the angle. If you know your trigonometry, it’s a walk in the park.

pom 0]

6

heh… sorry, Im just now passing Pre-Algebra (7th Grade)… can someone explain to me in a little more detail? :lol:

7

Something like in there : pub40.ezboard.com/fkirupa…3331.topic

pom 0]

8

hmmm… still doesnt seem to like me… any chance someone could try and make a .fla where it follows a clip instead of the mouse… or make it follow the mouse and explain how to make it follow the clip :lol:

9

Ok, here’s what you need : in the first frame of your animation

 MovieClip.prototype.follow = function (destx,desty) {
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp // destx is the x coordinate of what you want to follow
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp // same for y
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp var distx = destx - this._x ;
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp var disty = desty - this._y ;
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp var angle = Math.atan2(disty,distx) ; //angle in radians
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp angle *= 180/Math.PI ; //angle in degrees
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp this._rotation = angle ;
}

Then if you want a movie clip to follow the mouse, it’s

 onClipEvent (enterFrame) {
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp follow (_root._xmouse,_root._ymouse) ;
}

If you want it to follow the clip ** guide** that is in _root, it will be

 onClipEvent (enterFrame) {
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp follow (_root.guide._x,_root.guide._y) ;
}

pom 0]

10

got it to work!! :smiley: Thanks pom :smiley:

11

Prototypes rock, don’t they ?? :smiley:

pom 0]