New to flash actionscript, making a game.

Question

Hi. My name's Rory.
I am an artist.
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=PimpOfPixels
http://roaring23.cgsociety.org/gallery/
I am learning action script and Flash so that I can make
games.
I am not a complete novice in programming. I am proficient in
Java and in MaxScript (3DSMAX embedded language).
I have been making some progress in action script and I have
a functional (although incomplete) game in the works. You can view
it here:
http://secure2.streamhoster.com/~rlu...orniverous.swf
The idea is it's a color game
red beats green, green beats, blue beats red. Think paper
scissor rock.
The idea is to change the entire circle into one color.
The graphics are place holders BTW.
I am using FlexBuilder 2.0 and Flash CS3, and I have come
across a problem not covered in either of my books.
I'd really appreciate any help that you guys can offer.
I have gotten this far on my own.
My #1 question (and I have many more) is:
How do you through Flash specify animation segments for a
MovieClip Symbol?
Notice how the red creatures occasionally open their mouths.
I want to have a walk, an attack, an absorb, and a bounce animation
on the same timeline and trigger the appropriate one depending on
which color the creature collides with. I do not know how to go
about this problem. I’ve just been trying to get the walk
animation to loop without playing the attack animation so far.
I've tried frame-labeling in flash, with scripts on the key
frames of a second layer that specify when to stop or repeat the
animation... No dice.
I have a symbol named RedShot in the library of a flash
project named "graphics"
In my timeline I have 2 animation segments, and I have a
second layer denoting two corresponding frames named "walk" and
"attack" from the properties menu.
On the final frames of the animations I have scripts.
Code:
gotoAndPlay("walk");
and
Code:
gotoAndPlay("attack");
respectively.
Im my library I have linkage options specified as such:
Class:RedShot
BaseClass:flash.display.MovieClip
export of actionscript#CHECKED
export on 1st frame#CHECKED
on the main stage of my flash project I have actionscript for
2 functions:
Code:
function walk(){
red_shot.gotoAndPlay("walk");
function attack(){
red_shot.gotoAndPlay("attack");
I export the project and the opened window has the "walk"
animation looping properly.
In my FlexBuilder project I embed the symbol
Code:
//Inside class global variables:
[Embed(source="../graphics.swf", symbol="RedShot")]
public var RedShot:Class;
private var _shot:MovieClip;
Code:
//and in my buildShot function:
_shot = new RedShot();
addChild(_shot);
When I build the project the characters appear, and they
animate. The only trouble is that there are no breaks in the
animation. The animation loops right through the frames where I
have specified that the animation should "gotoAndPlay" from a
different part.
What's weirder is that I can call
Code:
"gotoAndPlay("attack");"
without an error and it will go to and play from that point.
The only trouble is that it will begin to loop the entire animation
again without stopping at the gotoAndPlay events stored in the
frames of the timeline.
It seems like all embedded actions are ignored, add I can't
think of another way to controll the animation.
Any thoughts?

Answer 1

After hours of searching the internet I finally got this
blasted question figured out.
How to you export a symbol from Flash for use in a Flex
Builder project without destroying actionscript stored within the
frames of the Symbol's timeline?
That's a long winded way of saying: "In FlexBuilder, how do
you control MovieClips from Flash". I'm trying to make games, and
this was a particularly important question for me :).
Here's how:
1) You need a hotfix from Adobe.
[HTML]http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb401493&sliceId=2[/HTML]
This allows Flash CS3 to export a SWC file.
2)You have to set the linkage properties for your various
symbols in the flash library panel.
a)right click on symbol in library panel
b)choose "linkage"
c)"Class:" = (pick a name)
d)"Base class:" = flash.display.MovieClip;
e)"Export for ActionScript" = CHECKED
f)"Export in first frame"=CEHCKED
3)If you want to have multiple segmented animations as I
certainly did you'll want to create frames and actionscripts within
the symbols timeline to define where these animations are.
a) in the symbol's timeline make a second layer. We'll name
that layer "labels" for the sake of not having this get too
confusing.
b) on that layer create a new frame for each of the animation
segments that you'd like to define and stretch them to the length
of the corresponding animations.(I'm assuming that you have a
keyframe animation on the 1st layer... otherwise what's the point
of all this :P?)
c)in the properties panel name the frames in the "labels"
layer accordingly ie. "walk" "run" shoot" etc.
d)Define whether the various animations play once or loop by
adding a script to the last frame of the animation. If you want the
animation to loop add
[CODE]gotoAndPlay("name-of-the-animation");[/CODE]
if you want the animation to play once and stop add
[CODE]stop();[/CODE]
if you want the animation to play once and then return to a
different animation add
[CODE]gotoAndPlay("name-of-a-different-animation");[/CODE]
4) now you can export the symbols to an SWC file. Note: you
do not get this option unless you have installed the hotfix.
[HTML]http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb401493&sliceId=2[/HTML] .
a)rightclick on a symbol in the library panel
b)choose "exportSWCfile..."
c)export the file to a logical place such as the root of your
FlexBuilder project.
5) Now you have to tell flexbuilder about the new SWC file.
Note: Once this file is added to the FlexBuilder library you can
instantiate classes from it as though they were included using the
"include" function.
a)Right clicking on the root of the project in the Navigator
view.
b)going to properties.
c)Going to library path. (2nd tab)
d)and pressing the "Add SWC" button
Now you're done and you can instantiate any of the symbols
from your library while preserving any actions from your symbols
timeline just as though you had imported it as a class from a
typical library.
Sweet huh?
Thanks to the countless people and internet resources I found
on the subject. Hopefully it will be easier for anyone who finds
this post.
Here's an adobe video which covers the basic process.
https://admin.adobe.acrobat.com/_a300965365/p75214263/