After messing (successfully) with the kirupa xml/flash slideshow code this past year, i wanted to ramp up the slideshow player with some animated masking effects (not your average blinds or squares or fades – which i have done in pure .as)
The thing is that i noticed (from those earlier trials) is that the xml slideshow code WILL NOT support a TIMELINE animation for masking! (it seems to force empty the movieclip as it goes along trying to do the masking)
I figured this out by repeatedly force re-loading the movieclip ON the timeline and watching it flicker like an epileptic seizure.
the problem is that this animated mask CANNOT be regenerated in code (not easily anyway)
The mask reveal is a multiframe sketching motion that runs under a pen animation. So its shape is not patterened whatsoever. (unlike blinds or fades or squares that can be manipulated through math repetitions because the reveal is a shape pattern)
So you can see, i have a problem:
How do i force the clip to NOT unload as the mask is being processed?
It seems odd to me anyway that flash would UNLOAD a clip without an unload command, but with the XML load-in, anything is possible.
bueller? anyone? help!
ps. yes i know this is extensive damage for my first post on kiru. lol.:p:
ppss. oh and YES – ive successfully used this animated mask in a swf where the content is NOT xml driven (its another external swf that is NOT xml powered) This issue solely comes up when the content is XML based.