Adobe Animate CC and the NOOB (the future of scripting is not for the creatives?)

[Poul_G]

OK im honest here. I have always been an idiot at Action scripting.

I worked with flash since version 5 and still to this day i don't understand enough to type in my own code.

I was a HUGE fan of the point and select action panel from flash 5.

It was killed off in CS6 i think it was. Or at least it was changed.

Now i know im properly outnumbered cause i know having a point and select way of creating actions is for the stupid ones, the smart kids just type in what they want and flash .. Or Animate CC (is it now..) does it. But for me i cant make a god damn button no more.

Thats so frustrating since i made some pretty cool websites in the past before AS3 took over.

In the Code Snippets i can find an minimal selection of actions to use. I wonder if any one out there has made some custom actions they want to share.

It could also be a file with simple samples. All i'm looking for is something i can look at to learn how to make my basic actions work again.

I'm looking for the following: (if they are even is possible any more).

Button actions:

On Press Play target (for movie clips)

On rollover play frame X

ON press get url

On press load movieclip into level X

Frame actions:

Go to frame.

Play frame.

Play movieclip (from a frame via target)

If Adobe is reading, i think if you are a creative person you need the most simple form of scripting tools. I love that Animate CC, and the fact Adobe has not "given up" animation in html.. I do think that scripting is for the "gifted" kids . There is a reason why Adobe always says.. It requires NO CODING AT ALL.. (not that you say that with animate CC. But it shows you know that creatives often don't get coding. So please redesign the action panel and make it more like in flash 5 where you could build amazing stuff without typing code. There could still be the possibility for the coders to type directly in to the actions code field.

But to be honest i think they have plenty of coding tools, and don't really like to use Animate at all. I could be wrong here. But thats my guess.

Sorry don't mean to sound like a jerk. It might come out that way.

Point is i used to love flash and be able to make creative stuff. Can't do that any more. And don't see others do it.. So it might just be me that is

not surfing enough, not finding the right sites on the web.. But i dont see it.

[kglad]

all those are in the snippets panel.

eg,

for all the mouse interactions (press, click, rollover etc), check the event handlers folder.

for get url, actions/go to a web page

load moveclip into level, no longer exists.  check the load/unload folder

for frame actions, check the timeline folder.

[Poul_G]

I have and so far i can't get it working.

You know of any tools to generate basic actions?

Or a file that was build here you could see some excambles should you not be able to get the snippits to work?

// POUL

[kglad]

for your press/play:

target_mc.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN,targetF);

function targetF(e:MouseEvent):void{

e.currentTarget.play();

}

[Poul_G]

Thank you. You are what i refer to as one of the smart ones. It really nice of you. However i hope Adobe will listen to what i say, cause there is no way i could learn that. I can copy and paste that but its just to hard for a non coder to replicate.

[ClayUUID · Accepted solution]

Sounds like learned helplessness to me. Have you ever actually tried to teach yourself scripting? Signed up for a class or read an introductory book? Or have you just taken it as a given that you can't do it and never challenged that assumption? Because at the level you're talking about, it's really not difficult. Speaking coherent English is an order of magnitude more challenging than cobbling together a button handler.

[kglad]

you can start to learn by using the code snippets.  the code i gave in message 3 just combines two snippets; one from the event handler folder and one from the timeline folder.  (actually, it's more than 2 snippets just because i thought you might want to apply the same code to several movieclips.)

i believe everything you want to two will require one snippet from two different folders; the event handler folder and one other folder.  you should create a test file and play with the snippets panel and some buttons to get familiar with how to use it.  change some of those crazy-long function names to something more meaningful and easy to read.

if you have an hour or so to learn, you should be able to navigate the snippets panel and use it to do what you want.

[Poul_G]

It would see that i have not spend time to learn, but i have. I have spend much more time in AS2 in AS3 ill admit that, but that because AS3 seems way harder, harder to read and to understand.
AS2 was properly more limited then AS3 but it just a lot more logical to me to read.

The old way of pointing what you wanted to do and have flash generate the code for you was really good.

So i don't see my self as an lazy person whos just dont want to learn, im just saying i think adobe should thing about making a way to do code for people like me. People who are not coders.

Back in the day there was so many great recourses to get you going, if you needed to do something you could easy find an example on sites like flashkit. Those sites made me able to put stuff together and work around it..

But thanks for your both help, and talking about this. Its nice of you guys to get back and talk to me.

I will play with the code snippits a bit more.

[Poul_G]

I forgot to tell. Im trying out the HTML 5 canvas, so i can use it with Publish online and Muse.

So im using the html5 snippits.

[kglad]

canvas doesn't use actionscript 3.  canvas uses javascript and as3-like libraries, createjs.

[marjantrajkovski]

Yes, you are right, on example Edge Animate was more intuitive for designers.

[sciencegal]

I have to agree with you. I started with Flash 3 and loved it and still do. It seemed that when code was introduced with 4 that the coders kept wanting more coding ability so it went in that direction rather than toward the average artist/designer who wanted to make animations. I did start to learn AS2 mostly by "borrowing" code and then dissecting and redoing it to fit my needs. I now have to learn AS3 which does seem like overkill. You need 4 lines to do what one or two words used to do. I was looking at getting Animate but I think I will just stick with CS5. At least I can still use AS2 and it will still do what I need to do.

[Poul_G]

I did the same thing like you did by borrowing code. And because it was AS2 i could modify it - or make it work by trail and error.

By having simple commands i could do what i needed and make whole sites with video, animations and sound.

The problem with AS2 is that you cant make html5 sites, and no one has flash any more . Or at least you cant count on it like back in the day. So like i wrote im hoping that Adobe will listen to us and make some kind of coding for designers. (AGAIN!)

[sciencegal]

Yeah, I get depressed sometimes, missing the good old days. Flash was so fun back then. Creating in Flash was like playing music.  I have counted on a popular Flash application that I made years ago to earn income. But, as people abandon computers for phones I have to adjust and produce at least a very watered down version to keep the income coming in. I get so tired of being asked "does it work on a phone?".

I am enrolled in a few online courses to learn Java and AS3 and have stacks of books helping to convert my AS2 thinking to AS3. But, quite honestly telling a target to go to a frame and play makes so much more sense than:

target_mc.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN,targetF);

function targetF(e:MouseEvent):void{

e.currentTarget.play();

}

That code is just not intuitive - actually makes no sense at all. At least they brought then word Target back.

[Poul_G]

Like playing music... Thats so right.. It was fun.