Control an animation timeline with mouse coordinates?

[GentleHalo]

Hello, I'm new to the site, and this looks like a fantastic forum! I'm sure someone will tell me that my question has been answered in "thread XYZ", but I just can't seem to find it. So here goes.

What I am trying to do, is have 4 selectable icons orbiting each other on a single oval motion path, and look like they get larger as they come to the closest point in the orbit, and smaller as they reach the furthest point. I have this entire animation working fine, on a timeline that is 60 frames in length.

The part I am stumped on, is my desire to have the icons run counter-clockwise (forwards through the timeline) if the mouse is on the right side, clockwise (backwards through the timeline) if the mouse is on the left, and rotate gradually slower as the mouse moves towards the center point.

I've seen tutorials on doing something similar to this with a horizontal menu, but the technique doesn't seem to quite fit what I am trying to do. I can post my current source file if that will convey my idea a little better.

Thanks in advance for your help, and I look forward to helping out others here!

- GentleHalo

[azwaldo]

Greetings GentleHalo,
You have posted an interesting problem, would like to try to help. But, before I tie my fingers in a knot trying to describe what might turn out to be only a near miss, maybe can you attach the .fla for review? ("Attach" option is at bottom of reply panel)

If you try this, and FK tells you it is too big, maybe you could zip the file, or strip large image files or graphics, even sounds.

*** Edit ***
Have a look at this thread:
Scroll movie forward backward etc

[GentleHalo]

Here it is... this is just a roughed-in animation, to see if it is possible to do, before putting a bunch of time into it. What I'd like to end up with, is something that can be dropped into any animation and control the forward and backwards movement of the overall animation, regardless of what that animation is. After thinking about it more, i think it would be even easier to actually use the buttons on this if the right-hand area made it go clockwise, and the left area made it go counter-clockwise (just the opposite of what I was first thinking), because otherwise it might be difficult to actually click on these icons.

Anyways, here is the file;