How to reference a bitmap?

Hi

I'm having problems removing a bitmap from the stage from within a function. Apparently I need to reference the bitmap first. How do I reference the following bitmap?

The bitmap code I'm using:

PHP Code:

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function ScreenShot():void {
    addChild(snapShot(LoadedCam)); 
    function snapShot(mc:DisplayObject):Bitmap {
        var m:Matrix = new Matrix(Flip,0,0,1,240,400);        
        var TempPhoto:BitmapData = new BitmapData(480,800,true,0x00000000);
        TempPhoto.draw(LoadedCam,m);
        var bmp:Bitmap = new Bitmap(TempPhoto);
        return bmp;
    }
} 


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And the function code I'm using:

PHP Code:

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function RetakeButton(event:MouseEvent):void { 
    TempPhoto.dispose();
} 


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Thanks in advance!

Hi,

although I'm not so good at AS3, I will try to help you anyways. When you place add a bitmap to a MovieClip, you can't control it anylonger (as a bitmap), or at least not in AS2 (I don't know about AS3, but it should be the same). Therefore, you will have to remove the actual movieclip which has the bitmap in it, in order to remove your snapshot bitmap. As for BitmapData.dispose(), that only frees the memory of the bitmap information stored in memory, in other words, it doesn't remove a bitmap object.

If this is not accurate, as I have little experience in AS3, then any AS3 guru is welcome to correct me.

Hope this helps :)

Thanks for your reply.

What I'm trying to so is take a screen shot, then be able to reposition that screen shot then eventually remove the screen shot from the stage. So I need to somehow reference the bitmap in order to do so?

Do I reference this with addChild and delete the bitmap off the stage using removeChild? If so, how do I create a reference to the bitmap?

Any ideas?

Cheers.

you can't do TempPhoto.dispose(); because TempPhoto is local to snapShot. even if it was not, and you could, disposing it is only half of the job, you also need to remove it from display list.

if you do not add anything else after the bitmap, it will be on top of display list:

PHP Code:

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var bmp:Bitmap = removeChildAt(numChildren - 1) as Bitmap;
bmp.bitmapData.dispose(); 


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Quote:

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how do I create a reference to the bitmap?

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you could go this way, too. for the reference to be available in other functions, you need to place it outside ScreenShot function:

PHP Code:

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var reference:Bitmap;
function ScreenShot ():void {
    addChild(reference = snapShot(LoadedCam)); 


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then in RetakeButton you could do just

PHP Code:

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removeChild(reference);
reference.bitmapData.dispose();
reference = null; // send the reference to GC 


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Perfect! you just put that into perspective for me and it works.

Thanks so much :)