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Thread: ****** Feedback for SWiSH V2 Beta 1 ******

  1. #81
    Senior Member Cadence's Avatar
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    I'm a little lost . . . When I hear the term "mask", I picture a "cut-out" . . . In graphics programs (ie. PhotoImpact) . . . A Mask is a cut-out . . . What would a "mask" be in this case ??

    Any explanation would be appreciated

    Thanks
    cadence

  2. #82
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    Re: re: new masking feature

    Originally posted by flashopper

    This discussion just gave me a thought, a good future tool might be a "fuse" tool, where you could draw multiple shapes, group them, then choose "fuse", and all the shapes would become one object on their own layer, whether they were touching each other or not.
    I have already thought about this and am looking into what would be required. Probably do it by applying a Convert To Single Shape operation to an object of group. For text, it would split the text into individual shapes for each letter and then combine them into a single multi-part shape. For a group it would recursively convert each object in the group into a single shape and then combine them. Just have to see how easy that would be and if it is inedeed possible.

  3. #83
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    Originally posted by Cadence
    I'm a little lost . . . When I hear the term "mask", I picture a "cut-out" . . . In graphics programs (ie. PhotoImpact) . . . A Mask is a cut-out . . . What would a "mask" be in this case ??
    That is exactly what a mask is in SWiSH (upcoming beta).

    If a sprite has the [X]Masked checkbox set, then the bottommost object in the sprite acts as a mask .. the only parts of the rest of the sprite that will appear are those the one intersect the mask object (ie it is as if the mask object were really a cut-out hole in a big piece of paper and you can see the rest of the sprite through that hole).

  4. #84
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    Originally posted by flashopper
    Sorry if you already mentioned this in another post, Roger/Hung, but I didn't remember seeing anything specific about it: is the symbol checkbox feature going to make it, or is still in development? Or is it in the app somewhere and I haven't seen it?
    We've implemented 'symbols' only for sprites (ie. if you want something to behave like a symbol, it must be a sprite).

    What you do is give go to the Sprite page for a sprite and enter the name of another sprite that you want this sprite to be a clone of. SWiSH will then make this sprite a copy of the other sprite, and any changes you make to one will affect the other.

    Note that you could already do this already by copying and pasting sprites .. but this does not keep them in synch after the copy is made.

    At SWF generation time a single sprite definition should be written out (as the sprites are the same) so this will save you space.

  5. #85
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    Originally posted by flashopper
    Roger, had a thought as to how to deal with actionscripting capabilities on an expanding scale:

    Would it be possible to add something like an "expert add" actionscripting input window that could allow for entry of pure actionscript into a multi-line text box for those who know it, which could be inserted at a particular frame for interpretation by the flash player/plug in?
    That would be a good idea if the Flash Player could actually understand action script.

    It doesn't.

    Flash itself is the only thing that understands actionscript. It compiles the script into special individual action byte code instructions in the SWF file (that the player does understand). This is what SWiSH does with the current actions as well.

    For SWiSH to be able to handle action scripting, we'd need to put in our own compiler for an actionsript (Javascript) like language.

    Also at the moment, the swish internal player code is only Flash 4 compatible .. it doesn't understand the new action byte codes defined in Flash 5 and we aren't really allowed to change it so that it does. So even if we did provide full Flash 5 actionscripting, we'd not be able to see it inside SWiSH.

    However, we could provide Flash 4-style action scripting (maybe even with a Flash 5-style syntax .. its really up to us).

  6. #86
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    Regarding the play once checkbox for sprites, Roger wrote:

    <<Yes .. but its done by just setting a checkbox on the sprite page. Otherwise you have to find the last frame and add an action there .. and if you extend the sprite you've go to move the action again etc. The checkbox seemed nicer.>>

    I see, and I agree, I like it. I don't know if you saw it, but I had an idea that this sort of thing would be nice on any given effect, controls on the effect dialog that give the ability to simultaneously insert a play or stop command at either or both the beginning and end of the effect. Especially now that we have tell target, this will be an increasingly common process, and it's already an often-used practice even in 1.51. You may have already thought of this, but just thought I'd post it here in case you hadn't seen it before.

    Will

  7. #87
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    Regarding sprites as duplicateable symbols, Roger wrote:

    <<We've implemented 'symbols' only for sprites (ie. if you want something to behave like a symbol, it must be a sprite).

    What you do is give go to the Sprite page for a sprite and enter the name of another sprite that you want this sprite to be a clone of. SWiSH will then make this sprite a copy of the other sprite, and any changes you make to one will affect the other.>>

    When you say the Sprite page, do you mean the object tab, which, when you've got a sprite selected in the outline, changes to "Sprite?"

    And once you enter the name of the source sprite, is the old sprite's design erased and replaced by the source sprite, even if the original sprite was totally different? Sorry if these seem like obvious questions, this sounds very promising.

    Thanks, Will

  8. #88
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    Re: Actionscripting, Roger wrote:

    <<That would be a good idea if the Flash Player could actually understand action script.

    It doesn't.>>

    Ahh, that's a bit of a different story. Interesting.

    <<Flash itself is the only thing that understands actionscript. It compiles the script into special individual action byte code instructions in the SWF file (that the player does understand). This is what SWiSH does with the current actions as well.

    For SWiSH to be able to handle action scripting, we'd need to put in our own compiler for an actionsript (Javascript) like language.>>

    Wow, that sounds like a much more significant task.

    <<Also at the moment, the swish internal player code is only Flash 4 compatible .. it doesn't understand the new action byte codes defined in Flash 5 and we aren't really allowed to change it so that it does. So even if we did provide full Flash 5 actionscripting, we'd not be able to see it inside SWiSH.

    However, we could provide Flash 4-style action scripting (maybe even with a Flash 5-style syntax .. its really up to us).>>

    Thanks for explaining this. Flash 4 style actionscripting would be cool, though it does sound like kind of a more significant undertaking.

    Thanks for the info, very interesting stuff, way over my head!

    Will


  9. #89
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    Originally posted by flashopper

    When you say the Sprite page, do you mean the object tab, which, when you've got a sprite selected in the outline, changes to "Sprite?"
    Yes .. the Object panel when showing a sprite (and whose name then changes to 'Sprite' as well).
    I Just find it quicker to say the "Sprite page" (or "Sprite panel") instead
    And once you enter the name of the source sprite, is the old sprite's design erased and replaced by the source sprite, even if the original sprite was totally different?
    Yes.

  10. #90
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    Originally posted by Cadence
    I'm a little lost . . . When I hear the term "mask", I picture a "cut-out" . . . In graphics programs (ie. PhotoImpact) . . . A Mask is a cut-out . . . What would a "mask" be in this case ??
    Here's an example.

    This is a sprite containing a gradient fill rectangle which is moving left to right and the word 'Mask' below this and acting as the mask for the sprite. You can only see the gradient fill rectangle through the letters.

    It gives the effect that the word itself has an animated gradient fill.

    [swf width="200" height="100" background="#FFFFFF"]http://members.dingoblue.net.au/~roger_onslow/Mask.swf[/swf]

    [Edited by roger_onslow on 04-11-2001 at 01:06 AM]

  11. #91
    The Flash Wolf deltawolf's Avatar
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    Hey i have a request...please release Swish 2.0 fats or i might do something crazy! like jump off a building j/k but please do hurry Swish 1.51 is getting limited

  12. #92
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    I am going crazy. I can't read this anymore. I want beta export! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I get serious anxiety feelings when I read this, I am going crazy!

    What do we want?
    Beta export!!
    When do we want it?
    NOW!

    What do we want?
    Beta export!!
    When do we want it?
    NOW!

    What do we want?
    Beta export!!
    When do we want it?
    NOW!

  13. #93
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    Originally posted by harveybass
    I am going crazy. I can't read this anymore. I want beta export! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I get serious anxiety feelings when I read this, I am going crazy!

    What do we want?
    Beta export!!
    When do we want it?
    NOW!

    What do we want?
    Beta export!!
    When do we want it?
    NOW!

    What do we want?
    Beta export!!
    When do we want it?
    NOW!
    I'm beginning to get the feeling that you might want to be able to export from V2 Beta. Is that right?

    It is still very much on the agenda .. but ecommerce and security has to come first (we're hoping to get that sorted out in the next week) then we can look at providing a fully working beta for those the really want it (you'll probably have to pay for it).

  14. #94
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    Roger wrote:

    <<I'm beginning to get the feeling that you might want to be able to export from V2 Beta. Is that right?

    It is still very much on the agenda .. but ecommerce and security has to come first (we're hoping to get that sorted out in the next week) then we can look at providing a fully working beta for those the really want it (you'll probably have to pay for it).>>

    Yep, I'm looking forward to it. Cool news, thanks.

    Will

  15. #95
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    Possible bugs on clone sprites

    OK, I may have found a couple of bugs on source and clone sprites.

    Setup

    I inserted one new sprite and called it source2. In it I drew two shapes and grouped them.

    I then inserted another new sprite and called it target2. I drew one shape to give it some contents. Then I went to the clone dialog and entered "source2." Perfectly, target2 is now a clone of source2.

    Now here's where the bugs start popping up:

    1. It's often not possible to do a multiple object select, and hence grouping;

    2. Sometimes when you add objects, once you click off of them they disappear;

    3. Sometimes if you try to delete one of the objects in the source sprite, the program will crash;

    4. In certain cases, you can't get any visual selection of any object on the stage, though you can highlight their name in the outline view.

    If you try to ungroup grouped objects, they all get thrown out of the target sprite, and the target sprite disappears (or something to that effect, very bizarre).

    I think there's more too, but they keep intersecting with each other so it's hard to tell where one ends and the other begins.

    UPDATE: OK, played with the clone stuff some more and discovered something:

    If I have a clone sprite, I can assign it its own actions in the timeline, which means it's what's called an instance of a symbolized object in Flash. While it is connected to the source sprite via the clone dialog, I can't make any real changes to either, sometimes no changes whatsoever. However, if I delete the name of the source sprite in the text box, I can then edit both freely. If I add to the source sprite, then link the source to the target again via the clone text box, the updated source sprite replaces the target sprite, but the target sprite retains its instance characteristics and effects. That's a good thing.

    Is this how this is supposed to work? The problem I see with this is if you have 10 clones of a sprite and want to change the source sprite, you'll have to de-link all the clones from the source, change the source, then re-link all the targets to become updated clones. Still better than updating ten sprites, so I'm not complaining, just understanding how this works.

    I'm on a P3, Win2000.

    Thanks, Will
    [Edited by flashopper on 04-11-2001 at 03:35 PM]

  16. #96
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    "text as name" bg color change on text box

    Not sure if this is intentional or not, but I typed some black text in the text box on a text object, then de-selected the "Text as name" because I wanted to give the text object a name ("text block 1"). When I unchecked the "text as name" box, the background for the text input area turned black, and because my text color was black, I could no longer see the text. I changed the text color to red to test it and the background stayed as black, so it's not linked to the text color.

    Is this intentional? I kind of always liked the bg of the text input box staying white with the black standard text. Is this to accomodate for the fact that text can now show up in the input box in different colors and fonts, whereas in 1.x it just stayed as input text characters, with the only font/color effects taking place on the stage?

    thanks for any feedback, Will

  17. #97
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    Re:

    Originally posted by flashopper
    Not sure if this is intentional or not, but I typed some black text in the text box on a text object, then de-selected the "Text as name" because I wanted to give the text object a name ("text block 1"). When I unchecked the "text as name" box, the background for the text input area turned black, and because my text color was black, I could no longer see the text. I changed the text color to red to test it and the background stayed as black, so it's not linked to the text color.

    Is this intentional? I kind of always liked the bg of the text input box staying white with the black standard text. Is this to accomodate for the fact that text can now show up in the input box in different colors and fonts, whereas in 1.x it just stayed as input text characters, with the only font/color effects taking place on the stage?

    thanks for any feedback, Will
    I had the same thing happen to me and the only way that I found to get rid of it was to exit and then restart.

    Thanks.

  18. #98
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    Fade to color error

    When using the move effect and selecting the color option >>fade to color, it appears, at least on my machine, that the R(red)& G(green) text boxes are merging together

    [Edited by sleblang on 04-12-2001 at 12:25 AM]

  19. #99
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    There was a bug in the background color for the text edit box that would make it go black if the text was inside a sprite (because it was confused about what the background color should be).

  20. #100
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    Re: Possible bugs on clone sprites

    Originally posted by flashopper
    OK, I may have found a couple of bugs on source and clone sprites.
    snip
    It seems odd that you'd get these problem. I'll see if I can reproduce them.

    The way the cloning business works is that whenever you expand a sprite (or unexpand it) either in the scene tree or in the timeline, SWiSH does the appropriate copying .. if you expand a clone sprite, then it copies from the source to the clone; if you unexpand a clone sprite, it copies from clone back to source, and then from the source to all the other clones; if you unexpand a source sprite, it copies to all the other clones.

    It is possible that this may be causing (in some cases) the clone may be updating the source instead of vice versa. Also note that whenever a clone (or source) is updated, and selection would be lost, but as this should only be happening when you're expanding/unexpanding a sprite.

    Anyway .. thanks for the feedback, I'll do some more playing with sprites and clones and see if I can make it misbahve in a nice reproducable manner so I can see what is going ga ga (technical term).

    PS: Yes .. the clones are all supposed to have their own effects, just as they can have their own placement, and scaling etc. That is indeed the way it is supposed to work (it wouldn't be much use if it wasn't). Of course the objects INSIDE the sprite will all be exact copies in the clones, and so have the same effects etc.

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