Hide AS3 animated snow during animation?

Question

Hello. I am creating an animation in Animate CC that includes some snow created using ActionScript 3 on a layer above a background. I would like to be able to hide the snow for a little bit during the animation and then have it come back later. I thought having a movie clip animation with a solid background fade in on a layer above the snow would do this for me, but it seems the snow action script layer stays on top of all layers no matter what. At least how I am doing it. Is there any way to control this? I tried putting a mask layer on the snow AS3 layer and changing the opacity, but that didn't work. I also tried placing the snow AS3 layer inside a movie clip layer and fading that out and back in again and this did not work either. Any help as soon as I can get it would be great as I'm trying to get this animation/movie out soon for the holidays.

Btw, in case it can help, here's the code I used for the snow:

addEventListener (Event.ENTER_FRAME,snow);

function snow (event:Event):void {

var scale:Number=Math.random()*.6;

var _sf:snowflake2=new snowflake2();

_sf.x=Math.random()*900;

_sf.scaleX=scale;

_sf.scaleY=scale;

var speed:Number=Math.random()*3;

var RA:Array=new Array(-1,0);

var lf:int=RA[Math.round(Math.random())];

stage.addChild (_sf);

_sf.addEventListener (Event.ENTER_FRAME,snowfall);

function snowfall (event:Event):void {

_sf.y+=speed;

_sf.rotation+=Math.random()*10;

_sf.x+=(Math.random()*1)*lf;

}

JoãoCésar17023019 · Accepted Answer

This is a really nice representation of what I need except for the event of clicking a button. This is not going to be an interactive animation, but rather an animation that is exported to a movie and hosted. I tried your code and added a "container" layer like you did, but it's giving me errors. I'm assuming because I don't have a button. Since it's going to be a movie and I don't need a button to turn it on or off, can I adjust that code?

Have you ckecked the FLA? You can use it as a template.

Remember that layers are not acessible by AS3. What you have to do is to create a Movie Clip called container and add the particles to it.

And if you don't want the button, the code will be:

var snowFlakes:Vector.<snowflake2> = new Vector.<snowflake2>();
function generateSnow(total):void
{
    var i:uint;
   
    for (i = 0; i < total; i++)
    {       
        var snowFlake:snowflake2 = new snowflake2();
       
        reset(snowFlake);
       
        container.addChild(snowFlake);
       
        snowFlakes.push(snowFlake);
    }
}
function reset(particle:snowflake2):void
{
    particle.scaleX = particle.scaleY = Math.random() * .6;
    particle.x = Math.random() * stage.stageWidth;
    particle.y = -stage.stageHeight * 0.25;
    particle.speed = 0.5 + Math.random() * 2.5;
    particle.lifetime = int(-Math.random() * 2);
}
function enterFrameHandler(event:Event):void
{
    var i:uint;
    var total:uint = snowFlakes.length;
   
    for (i = 0; i < total; i++)
    {
        snowFlakes.x += (Math.random() * 1) * snowFlakes.lifetime;
        snowFlakes.y += snowFlakes.speed;
        snowFlakes.rotation += Math.random() * 10;
       
        if (snowFlakes.y > stage.stageHeight + snowFlakes.height * 0.5)
            reset(snowFlakes);
    }   
}
generateSnow(200);
stage.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, enterFrameHandler);

But how you intend to hide the snow anyway?

JoãoCésar17023019 · Answer

Add your snow particle to a container Movie Clip instead of the stage.So the line:stage.addChild (_sf);Could be:container.addChild (_sf);Then you just have to set this container Movie Clip to be invisible, to have a alpha = 0, and so on.And also make sure to remove the_sf.addEventListener (Event.ENTER_FRAME,snowfall);when you don't need it to not waste resources while the snow is invisible. Just call:_sf.removeEventListener (Event.ENTER_FRAME,snowfall);And then add it back later.Regards,JC

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