Who here uses strictly AS when making projects? Where are all the AS whizzes?

[mattkenefick]

Who here uses only Actionscript in their projects?

My projects normally have 10 or so layers with different titles: Configuration, Documentation, Objects, Functions, Protos, Execution, MySQL, etc...

And one frame (sometimes 2) that runs everything. All very well organized and fast.


Anyone else go like this? Without using timeline at all?

[inhan]

In my last project I made some separate animations manually, kept these symbols in the library and scripted it all that resulted in +1700 lines of code (only in that single frame on the root timeline) which caused me much of confusion at many phases.

But what exactly are you asking?

[mattkenefick]

Same thing you replied about. Some people use timeline to tween things.. Or to organize by using gotoAndStop(x) etc..

I was wondering who else organizes it all in in frame across multiple layers like I do. I find it the best, easiest, and least confusing but I was wondering who else did.

:D These smilies are ridiculous haha.

[xxneon]

im currently working on a project where the code is organized into different .as files and then the code is included in the timeline where needed.

then if you need to change something you have an easier time finding what you need to change .. as long as your smart about what code is in what file and how you "nick-name" your code by the filename..

[inhan]

:D
I have about 14 recursive functions that are unconventionally long and 17 non-recursive functions at decent lengths. I wish I could separate these into as files (I actually have 1 as file for a dissolving banner that loads its file infos from an xml doc)...

[xxneon]

why cant you take those functions and stick them in seperate files?

just because there are so many?

[inhan]

Because at each menu item click, it travels from 1 to another several times, and each sends some parameters along with checking some global variables.
I could make these separae files but when I need to make changes, I would need to open at least 10 files at once to edit that action...

[xxneon]

i see what you mean now.. yea that would be even more confusing .. hehe

[theelephantwords]

yeah, i'm all AS. it's easier for me to maintain. i like programmatic animation, but i also animate on the timeline if i need to make things look hand-drawn, like http://h108design.com/vids/?x=v&id=68 .

[inhan]

hey. TEW could you solve that FF issue with your video component btw?

[theelephantwords]

hey. TEW could you solve that FF issue with your video component btw?

sorry, i'm not sure what you're talking about. what FF issue?

[mattkenefick]

Because at each menu item click, it travels from 1 to another several times, and each sends some parameters along with checking some global variables.
I could make these separae files but when I need to make changes, I would need to open at least 10 files at once to edit that action...


That is one of the most annoying things and a lot of people do it surprisingly. They make you chase a goose around 30 different files just to find out what one variable means.

Annoying as hell.

I have a special class going that is very actionscript driven that I was wondering if anyone might be interested in working on / contributing to that I think everyone will get good use out of.

[Noct]

Well, overall, it's pretty much a given that all professional developers/animators use timeline tweens as little as possible. (Which I suspect is why you're not getting a ton of responses.)

But, there are absolutely still cases where you need timeline tweens.
Shape tweening for one...
Also, don't underestimate the motion guide, it can be very usefull/timesaving.

For instance, I create CBT modules. Say I was creating a course that dealt with the veins in the human body and I wanted to show arrows moving through all the veins to illustrate blood flow.
Do you think that would be faster/easier with AS?

Granted, I'd get a smaller filesize, but it would take a lot longer to lay it all out in code then to draw a quick line with a pencil tool and snap an arrow to it.

[inhan]

sorry, i'm not sure what you're talking about. what FF issue?
Wasn't the streaming graphic behave abnormally in Mac FF a couple of months ago? I remember having discussed that after seeing your flv player again today in the link you've posted.

[mattkenefick]

Well, overall, it's pretty much a given that all professional developers/animators use timeline tweens as little as possible. (Which I suspect is why you're not getting a ton of responses.)

You'd be surprised. I know some professional developers, several actually, that still use the time line almost strictly. They use some actionscript but not serious. They've worked at R/GA for years too and thats kind of what sparked this question.

I was asking a bud of mine if he knew anyone thats real keen on actionscript that would like to partner or contribute to something I'm making and he suggested a few. Two of them said they didn't know nearly enough AS cause they were timeline guys and I was kinda shocked.

[theelephantwords]

yeah, every place i've worked i've found that it's about half are hardcore AS people, half are timeline people. i teach the timeline devs how i do things, and they then migrate over.

[theelephantwords]

Wasn't the streaming graphic behave abnormally in Mac FF a couple of months ago? I remember having discussed that after seeing your flv player again today in the link you've posted.

ohh yeah.. i think i remember. it wasn't working in opera. i haven't checked if that's been fixed. the problem was that the stream wasn't checked by the browser, so flash never knew how big the file was until it was downloaded. i hate opera haha

[inhan]

matt... What does this class basically do?

[mattkenefick]

matt... What does this class basically do?

Well its pretty extensive.. I'll have a release soon, but part of it is a CSS Simulator. Which works like this:



properties = [{
background:"#FFFFFF url('example.com/image.gif') repeat-x",
top:"0px",
width:"100%",
height:"30px",
border:"1px #FF00FF 100%"
}];

maraCSSC.addProperties( my_mc, properties );
maraCSSC.setStageFluid();

// or set the properties like this

properties = "background:0xFF00FF;border:1px #FF 50%;top:0;left:50%;marginLeft:-150px;";






That will make your MC 30px high, 0px from the top, 100% wide, have a white background and then overlay a scalable bitmap data of that URL which will only repeat horizontally, and put a rectangular purple border at 1px wide and 100% opacity around it.

It'll size with the Stage which was set to fluid.


It's pretty awesome. This is one part of it though. It's pretty extensive, low file size, and saves me hours and hours of work on projects.

[theelephantwords]

Well its pretty extensive.. I'll have a release soon, but part of it is a CSS Simulator. Which works like this:



properties = [{
background:"#FFFFFF url('example.com/image.gif') repeat-x",
top:"0px",
width:"100%",
height:"30px",
border:"1px #FF00FF 100%"
}];

maraCSSC.addProperties( my_mc, properties );
maraCSSC.setStageFluid();

// or set the properties like this

properties = "background:0xFF00FF;border:1px #FF 50%;top:0;left:50%;marginLeft:-150px;";






That will make your MC 30px high, 0px from the top, 100% wide, have a white background and then overlay a scalable bitmap data of that URL which will only repeat horizontally, and put a rectangular purple border at 1px wide and 100% opacity around it.

It'll size with the Stage which was set to fluid.


It's pretty awesome. This is one part of it though. It's pretty extensive, low file size, and saves me hours and hours of work on projects.

that's pretty dope. i like.

[mattkenefick]

that's pretty dope. i like.


Thanks, here's a short example of what else there is..

A PHP Date Simulator ( works exactly like the PHP Date function )


date = _root.maraDate._date("F j, Y, g:i a");
trace( date );
// returns June 21, 2007, 1:08 am


date = _root.maraDate._date("D M j G:i:s Y");
trace( date );
// returns Thur Jun 21 1:08:29 2007



Inhouse Base64 / MD5 regular+advanced encryption
Easy ContextMenu Builder
Image Storage/Loader (most useful thing i've ever used)
A very special watch system which eliminates SetInterval
and a lot more...


The watch system is great.. you just say like maraWatch.set(DB,"results",my_txt,"text",true);

Then when DB.results changes, it will automatically change my_txt.text to that value. You dont have to use SetInterval anymore to see if the data is in yet or not, no canceling of intervals.. etc, no intervals used at all. Its immediate. No timer involved.


There's a lot of great stuff. Documenting it is taking a while because its not just what I've listed, plus it's like i've said, pretty extensive.

[Noct]

You'd be surprised. I know some professional developers, several actually, that still use the time line almost strictly. They use some actionscript but not serious. They've worked at R/GA for years too and thats kind of what sparked this question.

I was asking a bud of mine if he knew anyone thats real keen on actionscript that would like to partner or contribute to something I'm making and he suggested a few. Two of them said they didn't know nearly enough AS cause they were timeline guys and I was kinda shocked.

Ok, I should have been more clear with what I meant by professional.
Just because someone had/has a job does not make him/her a professional in my book. A pro is someone who is continuously honing their skills and never stops trying to better themselves.

I agree that there are a ton of guys in the field that don't know nearly enough (if any) AS to do their job well, but I would hardly call these guys pros. There are guys I work with who barely know any coding, and they only got into this job because the guy that hired them knows less then they do. If they walked into any serious Flash development house they would get laughed out the door.

In my experience, "developers" that only work on the timeline are simply too lazy (or stupid) to learn any other way of doing things. I know several guys like that, and I don't consider any of them to be professionals, regardless of the paycheck they receive.

What I love is when people try to justify themselves as a "designer", rather then a developer. That to me means that they (may) have some artistic ability, but have taken absolutely no time to learn the technical fundamentals of the medium they are working in. We even had a thread here a few weeks back where guys were chiming in on whether they were developer or designer. In my opinion, a Flash designer is just a Flash developer who hasn't learned how to use Flash yet.

(I was a semi-employed Flash "designer" for a long time...then I went to school, joined as.org and now I have a great job as a developer.)
:)

But hey, don't think I'm up on some soap box here...there is a reason I still come here every day, I need to know WAY more before I would be comfortable applying to the companies I really want to work for.
Like...I have never used Flash lite, I have never worked with Flex, I know very little about PHP, etc...
But I keep coming here, I read everything I can, and eventually..I'll know that stuff too.

[mattkenefick]

Ok, I should have been more clear with what I meant by professional.
Just because someone had/has a job does not make him/her a professional in my book. A pro is someone who is continuously honing their skills and never stops trying to better themselves....


I agree. I was just saying from what I know. I mean, if you work at R/GA and get paid that money, you're "Professional". But I agree that you must know what you're doing and push the envelope to be a pro. A pro is someone that can answer questions, you know? It's the guy at the office who you go "Where's Dave? I have an actionscript question"


I, too, have a great job as a 'developer'. Lovin' it. Taught myself everything I know. Ambition and sacrifice of time is the name of the game.

[Noct]

"Where's Dave? I have an actionscript question"

Hah, I agree wholeheartedly man!
Last week my boss walked into the room and asked me a coding question...
It was one of the coolest things that has happened to me at work all year.

[mattkenefick]

Hah, I agree wholeheartedly man!
***************************** .

lol that happens to me all day. I don't have anyone I can ask a question to unfortunately. Everyone asks me stuff though so I can never get any work done.

I see you're in NY. Where do you work?

[Noct]

lol that happens to me all day. I don't have anyone I can ask a question to unfortunately.
Well, thats the beauty of as.org. Now you have thousands of people to answer your ques. Granted, only a dozen or so are really experts, but they answer a lot of questions...
(One of whom is probably going to move this thread to the chat forum at some point, btw..)
I see you're in NY. Where do you work?
Upstate. I used to do freelance in the city, but I got married and the corporation I work for now is much more stable.

[xxneon]

I am glad that i found this site also.. learn something every day either by reading or helping.. :)

[theelephantwords]

*

speaking of nyc, where do you work? i'm in union square.

[mattkenefick]

speaking of nyc, where do you work? i'm in union square.

Ha, I go down there for lunch like every day. I'm right across from FIT on 28th. Except today, it's real hot out.

[theelephantwords]

Ha, I go down there for lunch like every day. I'm right across from FIT on 28th. Except today, it's real hot out.

nice, i like FIT. my ex goes there. and yeah, today it is very hot, looking across the hudson from weehawken to the city you could see how hot and disgusting it was, i didn't feel like getting off the bus haha

[mattkenefick]

nice, i like FIT. my ex goes there. and yeah, today it is very hot, looking across the hudson from weehawken to the city you could see how hot and disgusting it was, i didn't feel like getting off the bus haha

Ends up like I gotta go down to Union Square today anyway. I'm out of cigarettes. Where do you work? Is it a Flash job or is Flash your hobby?

[mattkenefick]

but uh, to get this thread back on topic..

anyone want to learn about this project / contribute?

[inhan]

I am glad that i found this site also.. learn something every day either by reading or helping.. :)
Exactly. That's why I like this place.

[theRemix]

oh, i thought everyone in this section of the forum uses nothing but actionscript.

i was under the impression that programming in AS 2.0 means that there is no code on the timeline whatsoever, except a few stop(); functions and one line that creates a main class, that calls every other class.

[mattkenefick]

oh, i thought everyone in this section of the forum uses nothing but actionscript.

i was under the impression that programming in AS 2.0 means that there is no code on the timeline whatsoever, except a few stop(); functions and one line that creates a main class, that calls every other class.

Actually it means using stop(); and gotoAndStop();. That's it.

But sometime people go crazy and mix up a lot of timeline things AND dynamic variables that need actionscript. Its unheard of I know. :o

[theRemix]

Actually it means using stop(); and gotoAndStop();. That's it.

But sometime people go crazy and mix up a lot of timeline things AND dynamic variables that need actionscript. Its unheard of I know. :o

that's... that's just crazy talk :eek:

heh, having variables on timeline and in classes would be such a mess!

[mattkenefick]

You guys happy with AS2 or are you really excited and eager for AS3 to get bigger?

[jsonchiu]

I put scripts in as files unless they are really short (less than 200 lines).

I don't like having scripts scattered among 10 different layers as I often have to refer to them (like variable names...etc) quickly when I'm writing code. My code don't usually get over 600 lines, and for lots and lots of code (1000+), I organize them into classes so that I don't get confused.

Also, when I'm making flash games, it's mostly code work, and rarely any hand-drawn animation or timeline tweens.

[mattkenefick]

I put scripts in as files unless they are really short (less than 200 lines).

I don't like having scripts scattered among 10 different layers as I often have to refer to them (like variable names...etc) quickly when I'm writing code. My code don't usually get over 600 lines, and for lots and lots of code (1000+), I organize them into classes so that I don't get confused.

Also, when I'm making flash games, it's mostly code work, and rarely any hand-drawn animation or timeline tweens.


I always make sure to keep the file size as low as possible. I generally do a really really good job unless i'm in a super rush. Its something I do without even thinking, even sometimes when I know I shouldnt.

[CyanBlue]

Well... I guess it all depends on what your outcome is and how your team is composed of... I am doing the e-learning stuff right now and the team is composed of many developers and designers... I am one of those who jumped into this place latest, so I don't really have a say on this, but to follow whatever we are using... But I think it sorta makes sense to use timeline and all that stuff because it is the most convinient way for 'anybody' can edit the file to make the changes when needed regardless of their skillset level... Gosh, I have never used timeline before I got into this job... and if I were to start it from the scratch, I'd probably create an engine that basically creates everything from the XML/raw images but that'd be realy ideal workd... At any rate, hey, it works for now... ;)

[mattkenefick]

Well... I guess it all depends on what your outcome is and how your team is composed of... I am doing the e-learning stuff right now and the team is composed of many developers and designers... I am one of those who jumped into this place latest, so I don't really have a say on this, but to follow whatever we are using... But I think it sorta makes sense to use timeline and all that stuff because it is the most convinient way for 'anybody' can edit the file to make the changes when needed regardless of their skillset level... Gosh, I have never used timeline before I got into this job... and if I were to start it from the scratch, I'd probably create an engine that basically creates everything from the XML/raw images but that'd be realy ideal workd... At any rate, hey, it works for now... ;)


Creates everything from XML/raw images? What do you mean? Like an XML with placement for text, images, etc?

[CyanBlue]

That would be one way to handle it... ;)

[Noct]

They use a mix of the two where I work.
We have a main GUI that loads individual page content from xml, and lays it out accordingly. The devs then create the xml files, plugging in whatever swfs they need on a page by page basis.

At an individual swf level the devs are then still free to use whatever methods they like. Some of the guys here use timeline, some of us use mainly code.

It works well except that often at the end of a project one developer will be asked to do corrections on another's file, and that's when it becomes painfully obvious who knows what.

[mattkenefick]

Whats the site look like that uses that GUI?

[Noct]

Its on cd actually. I did see it online once, but it was just an example someone had created by publishing to a swf rather then an exe. It opened in a pop up on some temp server. I hated it to be honest with you, they decided to change the size of it for some reason, and everything looked squished.

I believe in the future they are going to offer it online, but I don't know if it is going to be a projector you download, or actually launched from a page...

[mattkenefick]

what is the site for?

[Noct]

Heh, there is no site, but I also work for an e-learning company if that's what your asking. Well, I mean, they have a site of course, but it's for the whole corporation, not specifically the project I work on.

[tg]

actually the larger the team, the larger the code base... i dont care how its done, as long as anyone on the team can go in and work on it, and a year from now it will still be easy to go in and do maintenance on.

in the long run its all about pleasing the client, automating as much as possible to avoid maintenance and doing your work in a fashion that will save you time in the future.

it that calls for a tween, heh. use a tween.

if it calls for 5k lines of code in 50 classes.. do it.

but to use 1k line of codes for a simple timeline tween is just kinda elitist, and will ultamatly cost you or your client more money in the end.