I had no intention to replicate what these guys are doing. Actually what they are doing is a lot simpler than the code I posted. One just has to introduce a third dimension linked to a focal point. Where it moves relative to mouse is up to the creator - just multiply -1 if the great marketing revelation is to make it more psychedelic. Sorry, that's just wrong. There is no third dimension and no focal point at all. It's 2D, not 3D. ... View more

Close but no cigar  The direction is wrong, objects need to move the opposite direction of mouse movement. You're not creating a 3D impression by simply dropping a bunch of objects on stage. They're clearly using 3 "layers" each containing a number of display objects (and one on top of that with the nav buttons). The "layers" move, not the objects themselves. Here's a better example: http://muzakdeezign.com/flashcoders/chromazone/ http://muzakdeezign.com/flashcoders/chromazone/chromazone.zip Still room for improvement, but comes close. What is missing is when resizing the stage, the display objects (circles) are not repositioned, which is the case in the original (chromazong-imaging). In the main timeline, I create 3 instances of the ZLayer class (which themselves create the circles) and I deliberatly created them one by one, so it's clear what exactly is going on: var layer3:ZLayer = new ZLayer(); layer3.scale = .4; layer3.alpha = .4; layer3.outerBounds = new Point(maxX, maxY); addChild(layer3); var layer2:ZLayer = new ZLayer(); layer2.scale = .6; layer2.alpha = .6; layer2.outerBounds = new Point(maxX, maxY); addChild(layer2); var layer1:ZLayer = new ZLayer(); layer1.outerBounds = new Point(maxX, maxY); addChild(layer1); You'd normally do that in a loop. So with the above, you then move those "layers" when the mouse moves. I used TweenLite for the animation. Wanted to do this alot sooner, just didn't have the time untill now ... View more

No, not the middleware - just getting data into and out of Flash from any database or middleware.  I've done it on several occasions (mostly for online training courses). But  just doing something normal, like provide an input form, insert a database record, then display and sort results - is more complex than in html, even if you're only using Dreamweaver's limited and built in server behaviors. Well, Flash isn't my main dev tool, I use Flex. And all it takes is a few lines of code. <mx:HTTPService id="xmlService" url="path/to/file.xml" resultFormat="e4x" result="serviceResultHandler(event)" /> And there's <mx:WebService /> and <mx:RemoteObject /> But  just doing something normal, like provide an input form, insert a database record, then display and sort results - is more complex than in html, Erhmmm, nope That's basically what I do for a living (creating RIA's and CMS's) and with Flex, this is just kiddy stuff really. Flash used to have Data Components - they're still there for AS2 - but there are no AS3 versions of those (no webservices or remoting components). So if data integration is a big part of your project, Flash might not be the right tool for the job . As you said, know when to use it and when not to (and switch to Flex). ... View more

You mean Jacob Nielsen? That's 10 years old and outdated. He even has since been hired by Macromedia (now Adobe) to actually speak "for" Flash when some of the things he objected against changed for the better. And to be fair I won't even mention search engines and data integration.  Your flashing it up better be good enough to offset these undisputed downsides. And that's a good thing, cos you obviously missed a few things: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/06/improved-flash-indexing.html http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/google-learns-to-crawl-flash.html Data integration? Not sure what you mean by that, but IMO there's nothing out there with better data integration than Flash. Or do you mean you need a middleware, like PHP, .NET, CF, etc? If so, I'd say that's a good thing, with swf being a client side tech. The average user looks at that and has no idea of what they do or who they are.  They will move on before trying to figure it out.  Well, I guess you missed the fact that most of the sites you're referring to, like Chomazone imaging,  are not targetted at the average user. They're usually advertising/printing shops or fashion oriented where these type of sites are the norm. Which brings me to: The best Flash developers know when not to use Flash, and like any good developer they put the end-user ahead of whether the final solution will require a little more debugging and testing They also know their target audience. A little more debugging and testing? Let's keep it real shall we ... View more

I use Burak's AS Viewer: http://www.buraks.com/asv/index.html Only works on AS2 files (but I think that goes for all flash decompilers). ASViewer will allow you to rebuild a complete swf file into an fla. Have a look at group94, they have some slick looking flash work. http://group94.com ... View more

Still wondering if there isn't an easier way, why can't all these object have a commen function to check children and do I have use frcn introspection to gues how to get to their childen is beyond me. Because you should never have to access those directly but have its parent expose them through its API if needed. In short this.someComponent.someChild is a no-no.             // waited 2 seconds for the other flash file to load             // should add event listner but this is simpler Good luck with that when it takes longer than 2 seconds to load.. ... View more

Ah, if you're using TweenMax/TweenLite, you're already using Robert Penner's easing equations They're used in most tweening engines. Stuff like: Elastic.easeOut Elastic.easeIn Back.easeOut Back.easeIn etc.. Those are easing equations. ... View more

I gave both sites a try but I couldn't do alot of the stuff there. For example, in the first site I was able to do the on mouse over scale up effect, but not as "fancy" as it is in the site. Also, I couldn't really do the timeline thing for the history of the company. Those kind of animations are all done using some form of easing (see Robert Penner's easing equations I mentioned earlier). Also look into tweening engines, like TweenLite/TweenMax. http://blog.greensock.com/tweenliteas3/ http://blog.greensock.com/tweenmaxas3/ I couldn't access the 2nd site, keep getting a server not found. Did you mean: http://www.cybele.biz/ If so, all those animations are easing tweens as well. ... View more

Well, you're assuming I meant Flash IDE layers in the timeline, which I don't If you have a better look at the chromazone imaging site, you can clearly see there's 4 "layers" moving independant from each other, that's what I meant. Those are most likely movieclips containing a number of "leafs" which are placed randomly inside those 4 "layers", well, 3 actually, the front most "layer" contains the circular buttons. ... View more

sorry duplicate post.. forum is messed up ... View more

Sorry duplicate post.. forum is messed up Worst forum ever.. ... View more

Alright thanks for the replies guys... I'll go through that kirupa tutorial and check out some tutorials about Papervision3D... I guess that might help me figure out how that website was done. I'm afraid that won't help you understand how this is done, since there's no 3D involved at all. It's 2D, in this case 4 "layers" on top of each other moving at a different "speed" based on the mouse position. It's a technique used in cartoon animation (if I'm not mistaken Disney came up with this, but don't quote me on that). Don't get me wrong, PaperVision will allow you to that as well, but you'll have alot of ground to cover to do something that doesn't really require PaperVision. I've done something similar years ago (way before PaperVision even existed), unfortunatly I no longer have the code (think it was done in Flash 5 or 6). Look up Robert Penner and easing equations, which is the basis for this type of animation. http://www.robertpenner.com/ http://www.robertpenner.com/easing/ The site (chromazone imaging) was done in AS2 by the way. As for the comment about how that type of site gives Flash a bad name.. Well, without those sites (by which I mean more art-type, media rich sites), Flash wouldn't be where it is today. I hear ya Swap, it is subjective.  My focus group on which I base that consists of a decent size group of technical people, who for the most part are not web developers.  They are iPhone users early adopters.  The discussion revolved around bringing Flash to Safari on the phone and I was surprised myself to see how many people didn't want this to happen, as well as how much they dislike Flash content on the web in general. Which makes one wonder which sites they visit and how much of these effects, where approprate can be carried out with Ajax, HTML5 and other technologies. And yet all of that can be done with one technology, Flash. If they prefer Ajax and whatever else crap they can come up with, spend hours/days of debugging and testing to make sure it works across all platforms across multiple browsers, etc.. fine.. I'll happily do the same thing with one technology, in less time, without the need for additional platform/browser testing/debugging. ... View more

And here's a more elegant solution Add the video to the stage, rather than the main timeline. When you add it to the main timeline and jump to fullscreen, the video is reparented to the stage, so you miight as well add it to the stage right away. You can then remove it as you like. var myVideo:FLVPlayback = new FLVPlayback(); myVideo.source = "your-video"; stage.addChild(myVideo); stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, ALbtnClicked); function ALbtnClicked(event:MouseEvent):void { myVideo.stop(); stage.removeChild(myVideo); stage.removeEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, ALbtnClicked); } Sorry for all the posts.. should have thought of this sooner.. ... View more

It does work. The issue is that it may not be very elegant. The program is portrait and my current setup is landscape so I need to test it further to know how it will actually look.  On my PC I don't really notice the jump from fullscreen to normal and back to fullscreen. Unless someone knows how to reach the video while in fullscreen mode, you're stuck with this solution. Also, say I wanted that video to loop. What is the best way to make that happen? Listen for the complete event on the FLVPlayback and start the video again. http://help.adobe.com/en_US/AS3LCR/Flash_10.0/fl/video/FLVPlayback.html#event:complete ... View more

Maybe because I read documentation and thus don't need to try what doesn't work. Why don't you give documentation a chance? 🙂 No need for that, I know them by heart by now.. ... View more

Why don't you try it first ... View more

Well, he's removing the video in response to a mouse event.. You sure you actually read the question? ... View more

The problem is that doesn't work in fullscreen mode, which is what the original question is about. In fullscreen mode, somehow the video is reparented (I guess) and is no longer a child of the main timeline, which is why you get an error when trying to remove it. I have no idea what the exact parent of the video is when in fullscreen mode and don't think it's documented either (allthough I haven't really looked it up). If you can't find the video's parent, best bet is probably to exit fullscreen mode, remove the video and then jump back to fullscreen mode. Something like this: function ALbtnClicked(event:MouseEvent):void { stage.displayState = StageDisplayState.NORMAL; myVideo.stop(); removeChild(myVideo); stage.displayState = StageDisplayState.FULL_SCREEN; stage.removeEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, ALbtnClicked); } ... View more

Google event.target vs event.currentTarget: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=event.target+vs+event.currenttarget Short answer, always use Event.currentTarget, which will give you the instance the event was registered to. Use Event.target to get the instance that triggered the event, which may be a child of the instance the event was registered to. ... View more

Striker9099 wrote: Hmmm... I guess we should have a sticky thread on the forums for exchanging effects/animations like that so we could all try to do stuff similar to them... I assume that would be a great way to learn some serious animation techniques and actionscript coding... This is rather basic After Effects 101. Check out Video Copilot for similar stuff http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/ ... View more

I am not so sure this is a video. The entire blob is 3.6 MB. Such a short video most probably will not be that much. Based on the fact that the animation is uniform - they did not use runtime effects either. Most probably it is done with other animation tools and exported as fla/swf. Given the size I would not be surprised if they used a series of bitmap images. In theory it can be done entirely with ActionScript combining vector graphics and manipulating BitmapData. It would be way smaller. It is video. There's 2 flv's in the swf. One with the full animation (ring + particles), other is just the particles. http://muzakdeezign.com/flashcoders/template/monster01.html http://muzakdeezign.com/flashcoders/template/monster02.html Probably done in After Effects or something similar, exported as QT movie (.mov) and imported into Flash, or exported to FLV directly if the program used supported that. ... View more

If you're only interested in the query string portion of the url, use: window.location.search ExternalInterface.call("window.location.search.toString"); ... View more

Well, I guess you don't understand what event dispatching is all about then. What he wants to do is notify whoever is listening that a "category button" is clicked, thus dispatching an event is the proper way to do so. I'll repeat it once more, a child doesn't "talk" to a parent directly. Does a Button component dispatch a click event or does it call a function in its parent directly? By calling a function, you're expecting the function to actually be there, what if you want to load that same swf into another swf? You'd have to have a function in place with the correct name. That's not how to do things properly. You may not like the answer given, but it's the correct one ... View more

Maybe because that's the proper way of doing things? As I mentioned, accessing functions in a parent isn't the right way to go. Event dispatching is. So to answer his question directly: How to access functions on my main SWF from my external SWF You don't , use Event dispatching instead. Did I earn my points now? djeez.. ... View more

A child should never access its parent. So rather than trying to access the parent (or parent.parent) you should look into event dispatching. The loaded swf should dispatch events to which the main swf listens. Avoid the use of root and parent like the plague ... View more

Make the main timeline (with the document class) 1 frame and 1 frame only. Put the animation into a seperate movieclip and attach a class to it (e.g. Intro). Attach a class to the navbar movieclip (e.g. NavBar). Control everything from the document class. - have the Intro class dispatch an event when animation is done. - have document class listen to that event (Inro is done) and then display the NavBar - NavBar will dispatch a custom event when a button is clicked, so that you only need to listen for 1 event for all buttons. Instead of doing: this.navbar.arch_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, clickHandler); this.navbar.clients_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, clickHandler); this.navbar.news_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, clickHandler); this.navbar.arch_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, clickHandler); this.navbar.land_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, clickHandler); this.navbar.urban_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, clickHandler); You'd then do:    this.navbar.addEventListener(NavBarEvent.CHANGE, navChangeHandler); The NavBarEvent could have a property that indicates which "button" was selected and/or the NavBar class could have a similar property (e.g. selectedLabel) that indicates which navbar item is selected. This is similar to how a List, ComboBox or DataGrid component works, which have a "selectedIndex" property. ... View more

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/articles/crossdomain_policy_file_spec.html Check the docs and google "crossdomain policy" ... View more

A DisplayObject's stage property becomes available when the instance is added to the display list. When trying to access the stage property too soon, it'll throw an error. Try listening for the ADDED_TO_STAGE event in you custom class, at which time the stage property will be available for use. ... View more