Movie clips within movie clips

Question

I have a movie clip (I'll call it B_mov) inside another movie
clip (A_mov). When you click a button in A_mov, B_mov plays. At the
end of B_mov, I used stop(); to make it stop. How do I return to
A_mov from there? I assume this is ActionScript territory.
This is coming from someone who has just taken his first baby
step into AS, navigating a single timeline via buttons, but I have
no idea how to move between different timelines.
Is this something that can be easily explained? If it's
really complicated, I don't want to burden anyone.
...Would I be better off finding an online AS tutorial? Can
someone please point me in the right direction?

Answer 1

supaaman,
> I have a movie clip (I'll call it B_mov) inside another
> movie clip (A_mov). When you click a button in
> A_mov, B_mov plays.
Okay.
> At the end of B_mov, I used stop(); to make it stop.
Makes sense so far. :)
> How do I return to A_mov from there? I assume this
> is ActionScript territory.
Well, you've already entered ActionScript territory by
programming your
button and adding that stop() action, so that's a good thing.
When you say
"return to A_mov," what do you mean? What would like like
A_mov to do at
this point?
> This is coming from someone who has just taken his
> first baby step into AS, navigating a single timeline
via
> buttons, but I have no idea how to move between
> different timelines.
Timelines are synonymous with movie clips, and movie clips
are defined
by something called the MovieClip class. In fact, all objects
in
ActionScript are defined by corresponding classes (text
fields are defined
by the TextField class, arrays by the Array class, and so
on).
Thinking of it this way, you can consult the MovieClip class
entry of
the ActionScript Language Reference (the Help panel) to find
out everything
you need to know about movie clips. The characteristics of
the object are
called properties (you'll find references to width, height, x
and y
position, etc.). Things the object can do, such as stop(),
play(), and the
like, are called methods. Things the object can react to --
mouse clicks,
for example -- are called events.
You haven't stated what version of ActionScript you're
using, and the
exact wording of your code depends on that, but for example,
in ActionScript
2.0, you'll find that movie clips have a _parent property (in
ActionScript
3.0, it's simply parent). This property allows the movie clip
in question
to refer to its parent timeline (that is, its parent movie
clip). That
might be a step in the right direction for you, but I'm not
sure what you
have in mind.
Instead of simply invoking stop() in the final keyframe of
B_mov, you
might do something like this:
stop();
_parent.play();
... which invokes the MovieClip.stop() method on B_mov's
timline (because
that's where the reference to stop() appears: in B_mov's
timeline) and then
makes a reference to B_mov's parent via the MovieClip._parent
property.
That reference therefore invokes MovieClip.play() on A_mov.
The reason it works here is entirely because of the point of
view from
which the code operates: namely, keyframes in B_mov's
timeline. If your
code were all on the main timeline, your methods would be the
same -- stop()
and play() -- but your object references would be different.
Does that make sense?
David Stiller
Adobe Community Expert
Dev blog,
http://www.quip.net/blog/
"Luck is the residue of good design."