BLanius!!!

[MoonRise]

BLanius,

How much trouble was it going from 3DFA's method of Flash to Koolmoves'?

[blanius]

Big difference but once you figure it out it's great. Forget about every thing you learned in 3dfa and try to have fresh perspective.

[dniezby]

You've got that right.

I tossed 3dfa for KM and I'm in HEAVEN!!!!

It's easier to add actionscripting and many of the features are actually easier...Especially, animation. This is some GREAT stuff.
Welcome to the club.

[MoonRise]

BLanius,

As I said at 3DFA, I'm very good with menus, so I started with a Button. Is this a good start?

Also, I'm not use to timelines. How do you coordinate the button should appear 20 seconds into the flash, etc., etc.? If I can grasp this one little concept I know I'll be fine. Thanks!!!! :) :) :)

[gerbick]

Gotta say... your location says Greenville, SC. I'm in Simpsonville, SC; formerly Charleston, SC.

Ignore me though... nothing new to add to the thread :cap:

[MoonRise]

Nice weather we're having huh!!! :)

You're Undecided? :) :)

[gerbick]

I came up from Charleston just in time for the icestorm (http://www.flickr.com/photos/gerbick/sets/1596493/)... yay.

[Bob Hartzell]

You can always create a movie clip which has its own timeline with an initial key frame that is 20 seconds in duration. Put the button in this movie clip on key frame 2. To prevent looping, add a stop movie action to the last key frame. Add the movie clip to the main movie in the first key frame. I suspect that 3DFA does something like this under the covers.

[blanius]

Here's the thing about timelines. The time line is good for when you want to do tweened animations. Othewise Think instead of the frames as sort of pages in a book. The first thing I usually do when I start a KM project is add a second frame and put a stop() action in it. Then I move between frames as needed with action script. If I want something to animate I put it in a child movie and let it rip on it's own while still sitting ona a single frame in my main time line. So the way I'd do the button depends on if you want it to just appear or animate onto the stage. Bob's method sounds pretty good to me. if you just want it to appear make the tween for your first frame 20sec and put the button in the second frame and add a stop movie action.

Turns out 3dfa was doing alot of added Actionscript code behind the scenes to make it seem to not use the timeline interface but it was still there.

[MoonRise]

I think I know what you all are saying. I agree that 3DFA was probably doing this behind the scenes because if I'm not mistaken, an earlier version was somewhat timelined based. I'm looking at the KM time view and have it on story board. Do each frame represent each second of a movie? Or, does a frame have it's own set time? Or both? As in 3DFA, can I have elemnts on the stage that don't show until called?

Sorry, I know I'm asking some dumb questions here! :(
I really want to continue learning Flash, but 3DFA I think has lost me since there appears to be no support and the "basics" I know there need to get translated over to KM so that I can continue and continue with a different thought process.

[Bob Hartzell]

Look at the right side of the navigation toolbar. That represents the duration of the key frame in seconds or tweens.

Blanius, do you think that a tutorial for 3DFA users would be useful? I think you did something like that before as a forum posting.

Also, if there are features in 3DFA that would be generally useful in KoolMoves, I would like to know about them and figure out how to integrate them. For instance, this concept of an object appearing x seconds into the movie -- that can be added to the popup which says do you want to add to this key frame, all key frames, etc.

Different people have different internal conceptional models and I would like to encompasss as many as possible without cluttering the gui.

[blanius]

I think 3dfa users coming to KM are better off learning the way KM works.

3dfa had added things like built in velocity and acceleration to elements. And it looked like elements were something different than movie clips.

I'll try to put together a 3dfa->KM tutorial I need to give it some thought.

[blanius]

Moon one of the big differences is that 3dfa "elements" are really what we call Movie Clips. Since a paint object (shape) cannot have events or properties like velocity. To get that functionality you must make it a movie clip. Then remember that each movie clip has it's own actionscript and timeline. Some of the important Script for a MC is onClipEvent and onRelease onRollOVer

THe onClipEvent(enterFrame) is the most powerfull and usefull in many way's but also a little confusing. This is an event that happens when each frame is entered and you define this usually in the clips Actions in the property tag or the first frame. and it goes something like this

onClipEvent(enterFrame)=function(){
do something every frame in the clip
}

you can also do all this in the first frame of your _root movie but just add the clips name like this

mc1.onClipEvent(enterFrame){
do stuff.....
}

[MoonRise]

Thanks Bob!

A tutorial would be great if anybody has the time. That always is a great learning tool. As far as the GUI for KM I think is fine and easy to understand. My Biggest problem is understanding the timeline concept (especially when it was hidden from me before). I aready did a quick test of what I thought was going on and was able to get it to do what I wanted. I think that this will give me better control over what I want a movie to do for me too!

[blanius]

Yes in the end you'll find that KM gives you much more control. This means a little more work but it's well worth the effort. I've found great Velocity and EaseIn EaseOut code and most Actionscript you can find online will work in KM.

[MoonRise]

Thanks BLanius!

That helps even more. I'll go through that. Someone said in 3DFA area that their learning curve was like Mt. Everest; well, I tend to fall in that catagory as well, but I like learning stuff like this, so I'm going ahead full fource on learning KM.

[MoonRise]

Just let me know if I'm on the right track here with what I think I understand of the concept. It is very simple. Thanks!!

[blanius]

Good start

[Bob Hartzell]

Personally I rarely use the timeline when I create animations. It gets in my way. I use List of Shapes instead. The early versions of KoolMoves didn't have a timeline and we got a lot of flack from users who were used to a timeline from other flash tools.