The mysteries of Loading SWF's and Loading Fun's Explained.
In Kool Moves when we talk about Loading Movies there are two types of things we can be talking about. We can be talking about the File Function Insert Movie (It early versions it was called Load Movie) or we can Be Talking about The Load Movie Action. The diference between the two is that the File Function deals with .FUN Files on your Local Hard Drive where as the Load Movie Action Deals with the SWF (The finished Product) loading another SWF (It doesn't mater what produced it) anywhere on the web or your local machine, and then Playing it.
The Load Movie Action is accessed either through the Button Action Dialog or through the Movie> Sounds and Actions Dialog ( This dialog is associated with Frame Actions). When you select Load Movie you are given a dialoug that asks you both for the URL and Level to place the movie. You can select any URL on the web by typing in the URL as http:// and the full web address as the URL. To understand levels:
Imagine a stack of pappers laying on your desk. The bottomost papper is at level 0 the next papper is at level 2 and the next at level 3. The higher the number there is the closer to you the level is. Now what happens is the background setting of Level 0 is the only background that gets displayed. All of the higher levels are transparent so that you can see the layer bellow it.
Imagine the levels as empty slots and you can place or remove any movie you want into those slots. The load movie action places the swf into that slot while the unload movie rwemoves those from the slots.
Now lets talk File Functions cause these are diffrent and usefull
The File function Load Movie allows you to place any shapes or group of shapes from another .Fun file into your current movie.
Before we start on this function lets talk about the diffrent save File functions;
Under File there are the standard save functions that anyone would expect. You Have Save (CTRL S is its short cut) and Save AS (Alt F-A). Both of these functions allow the user to save an entire movie.
But lets say we don't want the whole movie- perhaps we only want 3 or 4 shapes or how about just 3 or 4 frames?
To save a group of shapes or shape this is how you do it. First select your shapes. You can select them in many diffrent ways. Drawing a rectangle around them with the select tool, Selecting each shape with the mouse + the shift key, or by hitting the list shapes button and then selecting the shapes from the list (remember to hold down the shift key to select multiple shapes). Once you have selected your shapes hit Edit>copy (copy can also be found in the both the right click menu and Ctrl-C or Alt-E-C). Then Select Paste to File. When you do this just keep in mind that there is only 1 frame in the timeline and your shapes when loaded into another file cannot be extended when loaded like a short clip.
To save a group of Frames or sequence of frames you will do this; Either Select Frames> list Frames from the menu or hit the list frames button (it is the button in between the seconds display and the frame Bar). The Frame display will slide out of the right hand side of the screen. Now select the Frames or group of frames that you wnat selected (hit the shift key to select a group of frames). Once you have the frames you want selected then hit Ctrl-C to copy your selction. Again just like the shapes you are going to select paste to File from the Edit menu. If you have pasted more than 1 frame to file then you can use the timeline placement feutures in the insert movie function.
Now for the Insert Movie function...
To use the Insert Movie function hit Alt F- I- Enter or select File> Insert Movie. When you do this you will see the Insert Movie interface appear. On the left will be the Files avialble. Right of that you will see the preview pane, and then right of that you will see the ADD, Cancel, and Help buttons.
The first thing you will do is find the right Fun File and click on it to load it into the interface. You will see your movie on the bottom and the added movie previewing above it (Always on the layer closest to you). If your new movie is only 1 Frame long you can only make it last 1 frame. The colors of the text and shapes will be displayed under the preview. By double clicking any color bar you can change the that color before adding the clip to the movie. Under that you will see The X and Y positioning. You can change the physical loaction of the inserted clip by placing numirical values in Pixels into these boxes (Remember negative Numbers in the X value moves left positive numbers move right. Negative numbers in the Y value move up where positive move down.). Finally you will see the timing boxes. You have 3 choices here; The start Frame value, the End Frame Value and the Speed control. If your movie clip has 2 or more frames you can extend the length of the clip over as many frames as your current animation or stop and start it anywhere within it [The current animation]. Just select your start and finish frames while the preview window shows you what the inserted movie will look like with those settings.
When you are happy with what it looks like then click the add button to add the clip to your current movie.
[Edited by johnie on 01-25-2001 at 03:36 PM]