Zoom & Pan

[Thomas Hanser]

I have a new project at work that I want to improve the interactivity on. Let's say I have a country map with icon-buttons representing cities.

Click on a button, and you zoom in and pan across to that city, close up.  (Not unlike searching on Google maps.)  A talkbox of information appears, including a X close button, which would return you to the zoomed out and centered state or position. 

How can I do this?

I imagined using different MC's, placed on frames across the timeline. Click on a button, go to frame _ and play the MC.  The MC would include the zoom in and pan (transform scale and position).

But what if I could use Flash "math" to zoom directly into the city, not MC involved?  How do I script that?

Anyone?

Thanks so much.

[kglad]

i think that would be easier and more satisfactory to use code instead of timeline frames.  each city could be a child movieclip (transparent works, too) of the main map parent.

when a you want to zoom and/or pan to a city, you would determine how much its x and y need to change to center it on-stage.  you would then apply that transform to its parent map.

[Thomas Hanser]

Great, and I agree.

Care to elaborate?  Or maybe direct me to a script library somewhere?

I'm currently looking here:

http://www.flashandmath.com/

I'll search for parent and child techniques, which I've never done yet. 

Thanks again.

[kglad]

if you want to hire me to help send an email via http://www.kglad.com > contact

for free help continue posting here. 

if you're willing to try this yourself and hit specific snags, you should be able to complete this with free help here.