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W
windowswarrior
Participating Frequently
September 11, 2008
Question

Loop swf 3 times and stop

  • September 11, 2008
  • 6 replies
  • 19908 views
I was sure that something would be posted here on writing action script to make a flash banner loop only 3 times since this is a fairly common standard for web banner advertising. I've been unable to find this help or to make it work on my own.

My fla file has 85 frames. I tried adding this action script to the 85th frame, but it doesn't seem like the var increases just upon reaching frame 85. It's increasing multiple times in it's first run from frame 0 to 85. I thought it wouldn't increase until it went back to 1 and reached 85 again.

Cannot seem to get ATTACH CODE to go between paragraphs. This is my last paragraph to read after code:

There must be an easier was to achieve this, but having spent 2 hours on it and searching online, I cannot figure it out. Do you know? Oh, I should probably mention that I started out with this Action Script at Frame 1 and that didn't seem to work either.

Thanks in advance,
Kristi

This topic has been closed for replies.

6 replies

N
Newsgroup_User
Inspiring
September 12, 2008
windowswarrior,

> Thanks for the help. It's nearly midnight and I'm fried.

Heh ... me too. I really need to start going to bed earlier. I'll be
able to soon. Nearly finished a walloping project that has taken much
longer than it should have.

> You were invaluable to me :)

Glad to help!


David Stiller
Adobe Community Expert
Dev blog, http://www.quip.net/blog/
"Luck is the residue of good design."


W
windowswarriorAuthor
Participating Frequently
September 12, 2008
Yes, I actually had 2 layers called ACTIONS, and didn't notice it. When I deleted the 1 column of frames, I think it disabled the other script which was on the duplicate layer.

Thanks for the help. It's nearly midnight and I'm fried. You were invaluable to me :)
N
Newsgroup_User
Inspiring
September 12, 2008
windowswarrior,

> I think the problem happened when I tried adding in a column
> of frames (new frame 1) to an already built FLA file.

Shouldn't really matter -- as long as that variable declaration is
ultimately in the first frame of the FLA file.

> I did this because you (and another help I saw) said to start the
> animation on frame 2. I thought this basically meant to start the
> content on 2.

Your visual content can start in frame 1, 2, or wherever you like. The
key to the approach suggested by me (and this other suggestion you saw) is
to only allow the variable declaration to happen once. If the playhead
travels to frame 1 more than once, the loop variable will be reset back to
0, which means it will never properly increment.

> Could you please comment on the correct way to add the script
> to an existing file?

Personally, I always create a layer at the top, just for ActionScript.
I name it "scripts," and that way I know where all my code is.

> Obviously it's not to add a column of frames across the layers and
? move the existing keyframes to frame 2, and then add the script to
> frame 1 ACTIONS.

Honestly, that should have worked just fine. But maybe you had script
elsewhere that conflicted with the suggested code.


David Stiller
Adobe Community Expert
Dev blog, http://www.quip.net/blog/
"Luck is the residue of good design."


W
windowswarriorAuthor
Participating Frequently
September 12, 2008
I think the problem happened when I tried adding in a column of frames (new frame 1) to an already built FLA file. I did this because you (and another help I saw) said to start the animation on frame 2. I thought this basically meant to start the content on 2.

Perhaps this is what caused the problems.

Could you please comment on the correct way to add the script to an existing file? Obviously it's not to add a column of frames across the layers and move the existing keyframes to frame 2, and then add the script to frame 1 ACTIONS.
W
windowswarriorAuthor
Participating Frequently
September 12, 2008
Decided to bail on the animation for now so I could get the ad to the site tomorrow. I deleted frame 1 across the board (thereby I THOUGHT removing var counter = 1 etc.).

Tested the movie to see what other changes I might like to make AND IT WORKED. Switched back to frame 85 and only rotated 3 times.

Not sure why, but I guess I misunderstood the "start annimation in frame 2". I didn't have any content in any of the layers in frame 1 except in the ACTIONS layer. Perhaps this is not right.

When I shift selected to deleted the column of frames in all layers under frame 1, the actions from frame one move to the content of frame 2 and all former frame 2 content became frame 1. Then the script you provided worked.
N
Newsgroup_User
Inspiring
September 12, 2008
windowswarrior,

> I was sure that something would be posted here on
> writing action script to make a flash banner loop only
> 3 times since this is a fairly common standard for web
> banner advertising.

It's definitely a common question! Not just looping, but particularly
the number three. Since you're posting in the AS3 forum, here's an
ActionScript 3.0 solution:

http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/flash/articles/flacs3it_astimeline.html

I'm the friendly looking guy in the black-and-white photo, not the
toothy guy in the color photo. (Just having a chuckle at Tom, lol ... he
does this sort of thing to me all the time. He deserves it.)

Joking aside, flip through that tutorial and see if that makes sense to
you. If not, write back and I'll be happy to answer particular questions.
Here's a version for ActionScript 2.0, as well:

http://www.quip.net/blog/2006/flash/how-to-loop-three-times


David Stiller
Co-author, The ActionScript 3.0 Quick Reference Guide
http://tinyurl.com/2s28a5
"Luck is the residue of good design."


W
windowswarriorAuthor
Participating Frequently
September 12, 2008
Working in Flash CS2 so I'm pretty sure it's AS3. However, your suggestion doesn't work. It just keeps looping.

I've pasted this in a keyframe on frame 1 of ACTIONS

var loop:Number = 0;

On the last frame I've added another keyframe and edited the script slightly so that the loop doesn't go all the way to the start.

loop = loop + 1;
if (loop < 3) {
this.gotoAndPlay(85);
} else {this.stop();
}

The swf file is looping back to frame 2 and continues indefinitely.

Also found this post in a FLASH site, but perhaps it's script 2, so it doesn't stop after 3 times either.

Frame 1

var counter = 1
var maxLoop = 3

Last Frame

if(counter > maxLoop){
stop();
}else{
counter = counter + 1;
gotoAndPlay(85);
}

This script also makes the playhead return to frame 2 and loop indefinitely.
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