Button question

[Daveeyboy]

I'm trying to make a small button that plays a shruken version of a flash movie when the mouse rolls over it. I'm having a problem with the "extra" stuff that is part of the movie but isn't seen when viewed at the correct dimensions. You know, like extra background that isn't supposed to be seen until the animation moves to that part. How can I make a button that cuts off all that extra stuff? In other words, I need to make a square button that only shows the dimensions of that square. I really could use the help. Thanks.

- David

[Daveeyboy]

I think I just figured that out...use layers...duhhrrrr. Sorry. =)

[Daveeyboy]

After further experimentation, I discovered that the whole layer thing causes some problems. Namely, the extra layer I add to "erase" the extra unecessary parts of the movie makes my button too large. I just want the clickable area of the button to be the movie that is playing, not all the extra covered up parts. Anyone know what I can do? There must be some way to make a square button the only viewable/clickable part. Thanks in advance for the help.

- David

[Daveeyboy]

I'm still having a problem doing this. Is there anyone out there that can help me? I have a deadline tomorrow! Thanks.

- David

[oldnewbie]

I gather maybe a mask! Would be much easier if you attached your .fla!

[Daveeyboy]

Wow, how embarrassing. I'm somewhat new to flash and I haven't learned all the options available to me yet. That worked out just perfect. There is one other problem though. When I do a rollover on the button, I want the button to get bigger. The mask remains the same size. I need the mask to increase to the size of the new, bigger button. I tried going into the button and putting a mask on that, but that didn't work for some reason...seemed logical to me. =T Anyway, am I just doing it wrong or is there another way?

[oldnewbie]

Didn't say it was the ideal solution, but again we'd get a clearer picture if you attached your .fla.

[Daveeyboy]

I tried to attach the .fla a few times but it's just too big. 750k about. =T

I just want to thank you for putting your time into helping me though. If you can think of any way to allow a mask to expand when there is a rollover that would be sooo helpful. Thanks.

- David

[cancerinform]

myButton.onRollOver=function(){
mask.onEnterFrame=function(){
if(this._width>=50 && this._width<100){
this._width+=10;
}else{
this._width=100;
}
}
}

try this.

[gotoAndPray]

Reading the thread it's clear that you have an evolving eager in getting into the working environment of flash. I strongly recommend you to press F1 before you waste a lot of time to get to know the basics. It usually boring but I cannnot emphasize enuf that if you do it you will save a lot of time.

There are a lot of ways of doing one damn thing. Before you indulge in the uneffective, undynamic, time consuming ways try to hit that button.
For instance you can change a moviclips position with tweeening also with ActionScript and the best in almost any case is AS...why? Well it's much smoother, dynamic, flashy, custimizable and whatever...it's its more of FLASH

So you'd better hit it. (F1)

[Daveeyboy]

Yah, I do press F1 all the time. The reason why I asked questions on this board is because F1 doesn't always give you the answer even though the answer is there. I didn't know what to do in the case above because I didn't know the correct term to search for. All someone needed to say was "look at mask" and I would have figured it out. It's not so easy to look through hundreds of pages to find the topic "rollover mouse button movie clip import swf." Sometimes you need human intelligence to make sense of what you're actually looking for, especially if you don't know the correct terms to describe the problem.

[gotoAndPray]

Exactly, I know what you are saying exactly. And I really don't understand why vendors are still insisting to provide topic based only answers in their help sections. We've got clips, instances, buttons, and a lot more but they're taken into account independently. Actually I think that I could have prepared an intro section that explains the whole concept which would be real F1 racer at first glance.

See the day before I bought a wash machine and there are programs on it virtually. The 50 page manual doesnt give in depth information on what the machine "really" do in each program but only explains for what type of clothes and stuff it is used for...You don't have the actual "sequence" information on when it washes rinses, how many time it rinses etc..But at least I know that I should not use it with an un-grounded electric installation!