This is for Oasis

Ok first off I’ll explain how the thumbnail works:

It’s basically a button symbol with 3 states with UP, OVER and DOWN which you probably know already. So on each of those I have an effect.

As for the scripting for the button, I applied a script that tells it to play a transition section on the timeline that I’ve given a frame label:

on (release) {
	gotoAndPlay("transitionA");
}

When it reaches the end of that “transitionA” section, there is a loadMovie script and a stop applied to the last frame of that section:

stop();
loadMovie ("external.swf", "containerMC"); 

The loadMovie script loads an external swf into a empty movieclip with an instance of “containerMC” which is located on the same timeline as the thumbnails but on a different layer.

The external movie is the section you see in the window above the window that holds my little thumbnails on my site.

On the external movie, you’ll see that I have more clickable movieclips that shows a preview of my artwork.

Each of these preview movieclips has these actions applied to it:

on (release){
	_root.createEmptyMovieClip("emptyMC", 2)
	_root.emptyMC._x = Stage.width/5.9;
	_root.emptyMC._y = Stage.height/4.8;
	_root.emptyMC.loadMovie("artwork.swf")
	MovieClip.prototype.enabled = false;
}

This basically creates a movieclip with an instance name of “emptyMC” into level 2 and also loads another external swf called artwork into that emptyMC movieclip. It also places this newly created movieclip on the specified x and y cordinates as well. What this all does is create what appears to be a popup window to display my artwork which is the artwork.swf. The line MovieClip.prototype.enabled = false; is used to disable all those preview movieclips while the popup window is on the stage so that the viewer can’t press on them.

On the popup window (artwork.swf) that was created, I have a closed button which has these actions applied to it:

on (release) {
	MovieClip.prototype.enabled = true;
	_root.emptyMC.removeMovieClip();
}

What that does is once it’s clicked, it will enable those disabled preview movieclips and remove emptyMC which is the movieclip created by pressing the preview movieclips.

So that is basically how my gallery is set up, nothing fancy. I hope you were able to understand all that. I’m not good with explaining things so feel free to ask questions if you’re still confused. =)

okay… i’m trying to swallow it all at once… thanks for the explanation… i do have a few questions though…

  1.  i don't really understand the whole "transition" thing... what is it?
    
  2. what is "prototype" used for... what's it's purpose?...
    

i appreciate your time in explaining this to me… actionscript is still a little tricky at the moment… and there’s still a lot i don’t understand…

  1. Transition is the animation that plays when content is being changed. In the case of my website, the “trasition” section I made on the timeline is the part where the sliding doors take place. I used “transitionA” as a frame label to indicate that section of the timeline devoted to that transition animation. Let’s say this seciton is frames 15-25 so on frame 15, I clicked on it and opened my properties panel and gave it the label name of “transitionA” and I applied this action to my file thumbnail:
on (release) {
    gotoAndPlay("transitionA");
}

So after click on the file thumbnail, it goes to the “transitionA” or frame 15 and starts playing that section 15-25. So during this time when it’s playing frames 15-25 is when my sliding doors close. When it reaches frame 25, it executes the loadMovie script posted above.

  1. The prototype is sort of like a function, the one I used above is used to enable and disable movieClips that have button handlers.

Prototypes is something new to me as well so I can’t give you an in depth explanation, but I think that’s something you should worry about later and try to understand what you’ve asked me so far. I hope that was a little bit more clearer. :-\

wow!.. that just made a lot of things really click… i do have another question…

is the interface of your site, the “transition” frames, and sound built on the main timeline?.. the reason i’m asking is because i’m trying to figure out what the best method would be for constructing a site… i’m working on mine now, and i’m not real sure weither i should create the interface animations, “transitions”, and music all on the main timeline… or if i should make everything a load movie…

how is the main “shell”, if you will, of your site laid out? (if this isn’t a problem to ask.)… i have these ideas for my site and i know i’m qualified to do them, but i don’t know where to start…

i appreciate your help once again… some things just clicked in my head… thanks.

Now when you’re asking about sound, which sound are you referring to? If you’re talking about the music then that is built into the main timeline.

As for the sound effects, those are built into their corresponding objects or parts. For example the sliding doors is nested inside a movieclip and the sound is applied that movieclip’s timeline.

As to how my site is set up, It’s really hard to explain and I don’t know where to start, but to sum it all it, my site uses a very complicated system of tweens among many layers.

I would go more in depth, but I would only confuse you more trying to explain it.

This should be in “best of”. This thread just helps me Bunches! Thank you EG. preciate that

Wow, I’m glad it was of some use to you. =)

I’m not great at flash well nowhere near so …

…iT slightly confused me but am i right in saying…

We got 1 layer with the icons and our transition frames when we click an icon (with the actionscript on it) the other layer starts playing the transiition and then loads the extrenal movie file with you pictures in it? The other frame stays as the lil icons?

If not tell me i think i’m way off…

P.s I can describe it but get me to make it thats the hard part…