macromedia preloader

[Nick Toye]

Does anyone know how macromedia do that preloader circle animation on their preloaders?

[Colin Campbell]

I really don't know if I want to help you or not, after that Snapple incident.

But I will. They probably have a circle movieclip, and in that probably 50 frames, each next one with one of the segments turned to 100 in alpha, and then turn down the ones after that by 20% each. I'm just guessing here, but it should be close enough, and with every 2% loaded, they advance one frame in the timeline. You could just simplify it and make it 100 frames/every 1%. All you need to do is once you complete one full cycle, copy/paste the frames until you get 100.


//preloader code here
//
circle.gotoAndPlay (percent_loaded);
//make sure when you declare the percent_loaded variable
//that theres a code to round it off, like Math.ceil ();


I hope that helps in your understanding. Of course, if you look around here and there, you'll find an example for download. But why not try to make it on your own? Too many people these days are getting things handed to them...

Colin

[annexion]

Why wouldn't it just be a looped movieclip that is removed when the target's bytes loaded and bytes total are equal?

[Nick Toye]

I don't want it done for me, I just wanted to see the theory behind it, and me and snapple are talking and laughing about that whole incident, so I would appreciate it if you would to, it was nothing.

Back to the circle, it looks like a dog chasing its own tail if you see what I mean.

So is it just a circle split up into say lots of segments and then alpha'd to make it look like motion?

[annexion]

That's the way it appears to me. Then it's just a tweened rotation which plays until the movie is loaded.

[Colin Campbell]

had another idea. I could tween the one segment, and use duplicateMovieClip (); to dupicate it at the right times, and then fade away. That would definitly be less labour intensive, but it would hard to code. Of course it could just be the alpha... I donno, you have lots of options.

[Nick Toye]

Well I have certainly started something here, how do Macromedia do that, perhaps we should all get a petition together and force macromedia to reveal their secrets.

[boyzdynasty]

Originally posted by Colin Campbell
I really don't know if I want to help you or not, after that Snapple incident.
Colin What snapple incident...did he/she did something to our Snapple:confused:

[Colin Campbell]

nah, he just refused to thank snapple after helping him, insulted him, thats all... :rolleyes: Laughing about it? He didn't seem to happy. Lets not repeat this though.

[boyzdynasty]

o..ok.

I remember the last time someone did that....we had a whole big debate. As long as the lesson has been learn...it's all good! :D

With that said...


hmm = Nick?friend:foe;


j/k ;)

[annexion]

And Colin, why would you make something more complicated than it is? I think the answer I provided would accomplish everything required.

I suppose I could even upload an example for you, as you don't seem to believe it could be that easy.

[boyzdynasty]

oh...annexion is right.

just use a mask and guide lines...is that what it is called...guide lines?

or is it line guides...ah...you get the pix

[Nick Toye]

Colin...I apologised and am very sorry about the whole incident, me and Snapple did talk it through on PM and its all in the past, it was a genuine error that got out of hand. I truly appreciate all the help that I receive on this forum.

With that Annexion, if you can upload something for us to see that would be great.

Nick

[boyzdynasty]

Originally posted by Nick Toye
Colin...I apologised and am very sorry about the whole incident, me and Snapple did talk it through on PM and its all in the past, it was a genuine error that got out of hand. I truly appreciate all the help that I receive on this forum.

With that Annexion, if you can upload something for us to see that would be great.

Nick That is good to hear :D Welcome to the family.

[annexion]

I'm actually taking off right now, however, when I get back I'll upload something.

For now...

hmm = Nick?friend:foe;

Hmm would always be friend. Because it's saying "If Nick exists, then he's our friend, otherwise, he's our foe."

Now that I think about it, perhaps that's exactly what you were going after Boyz.:p

[boyzdynasty]

Originally posted by annexion
Now that I think about it, perhaps that's exactly what you were going after Boyz.:p Now is see why I am not a professional actionscripter :D

[Colin Campbell]

I don't see the problem with me posting my ideas, even though yours, which I say somewhere, is better. :rolleyes:

EDIT: this was sarcastic.... boyz.... :)

[boyzdynasty]

now now...don't go crying....we don't want you sniffling gasoline again ;)

all ideas are good. it's good to know more than 1 way of doing things. :D

*chin up*

[Nick Toye]

Annexion, do you have something ready for us, i'm quite anxious to see what you have come up with.

[annexion]

Yes, sorry, I forgot why I had that file on my desktop.

I don't know why it needs to be any more complex than what I have in the file. Anything more would be bloated and unneeded.

[Nick Toye]

So how does this work then, do I just drop it in as a preloader

[annexion]

I forgot a line. On the first line inside that function put the following:

targetClip.loadMovie("movieName.swf");

Then just rename targetClip with whatever the name of the clip you're loading the clip into.

[Nick Toye]

Ok, so let me get this right, you place this movie in Dreamweaver, and it loads say the main movie, so I have to put the main movie in the same directory, but not actually on the web page.

You see the preloaders I do, go on the first frame, the second frame checks whether all the frames have loaded and the third frame plays the movie (if the frames have been loaded else it goes back to the 1st frame and loops).

[annexion]

Why? That's old syntax.

Yes, it loads a movie in the same domain. It's a lot more powerful than making everything one movie. Macromedia certainly doesn't do it that way. At the very least they are preloading the data. But I assume they are loading a full movie.

[Nick Toye]

so how would you do it?

[Nick Toye]

So can I have a preloader movie that loads all the MC's in another movie.

And if so, can I rather than load all the frames in a movie, load a movie clip full of images, a movie clip full of sounds and a movie clip full of text, and then have it shown on the preloader, like.

images loading...
text loading...
sound loading...