2A Preloader

[XploreR]

Anyone knows how to do something similiar to the preloader animation by 2A? I find it very slick and kewl

[nader]

Hi,
would you please explain me what is the 2A preloader?

thanks,

[poab]

Hi,

nader:

www.2advanced.com



XploreR:

It's just animation. Tweens. Alphas and stuff. There's no formula. If you're really after that style it's worth noting that the tweens are functioning in the opposite way to most people's in that they speed up towards the end of their run rather than the reverse.

Do you have a specific production problem? If so please elaborate. If it's not knowing how to go about it, you probably could do something similar in a few hours. Try playing around with scripted tweening (do a search) and Jesse's preloader tutorial.

cheers.

[XploreR]

Hey poab, thanks for the reply!

I am currently doing a project for my school and my lecturer in charge happen to saw that loader and he wanted me to make something similiar and i have absolutely no clue :(

anyway, how does scripted tweening helped? also i don't get what u mean here:

If you're really after that style it's worth noting that the tweens are functioning in the opposite way to most people's in that they speed up towards the end of their run rather than the reverse.

if u can explain :)

[poab]

Hi,

When you're tweening (named after the cells in between keyframes) you will notice that there's an option called 'easing'. You can ease in or out. Easing out is commonly used to progressively slow a change.

If you had a square that was 100 px on each side and you wanted it to become 10 px on each side, and it had to happen across 10 frames, it would tween so that on frame 2 it was 90 px on each side, frame three would be 80 px on each side etc. If you chose to ease out frame 2 would be 50 px on each side, frame three would be 25 px on each side etc. This is quite commonly used. The sensation 2advanced gets with it's tweens is exactly the opposite: The tween starts slow and speeds up it's rate of change. This is easing in.

That's all I meant. It's really not that technical, but trying to use layman's terms I obviously was too obscure so sorry about that.


I'm assuming that when you say you have no clue, you have a bit of an idea, or at least you can get to Flash often enough to play around a bit? As I said before do the preloader tutorial on this site. That will give you your basic preloader. You can then extend it.

One way of extending it would be to make an animation that's running as a movie clip. All you do there is create an animation inside the MC and place that MC on it's own layer at the same position on the main timeline as the preloader. That way you've something like that little square flicking about and changing it's alpha property.

Scripted tweening uses code to produce the animation rather than 'hand tweening' (hand tweening is when you click on the keyframe and use the Frame panel to select a shape of motion tween). For example if you had a movie clip named 'square' that you just wanted to scroll across the screen you could do it like this:

Frame 1:

square._x = square._x + 10

Frame 2:

gotoAndPlay(1);

What that says is 'square's' new x position is the same as it's current position plus 10 pixels. So the square moves ten pixels to the right then the script on frame two sends the playhead back to frame one and it ads another 10 pixels.

The point here is that you don't have to use _x, you can use _alpha, _y etc. Or combinations. And you don't have to use standard measurements you can make it more dynamic (if you've got the preloader working) by saying:

square._x = square._x + (percent_done/10);


2advanced is really just using animations for effect (I think) there isn't any really complicated code there (that I know of). You should just play around with animating in flash and then build a preloader. After that try making it more exciting, but you'll never get there if you don't start. Getting it wrong's the only way I ever learnt anything.

cheers.


p.s. Ask your lecturer if he's not perhaps being a little ambitious:p

[nader]

Hi,

or maybe you tell us precisely which part of this site's preloader is your (or your lecturer) mean???

[XploreR]

hi poab

thanks for the explaination. i was toled they used masking on the loader too? true?

and nader, i mean the animation before the whole site loads, the part where the 2Adanced logo is shown and u see lots of fancy stuffs going around

[poab]

Hi,

I guess he (originally made by one man I believe) may have used masks. I don't know. I suppose most people use them quite a lot. You can certainly effect the appearance of a surface that way.

I can't think how else the lighting looks were achieved.

cheers.

[nader]

They are just:

- Animation
- _alpha changing
- mask (actually animation)

and of course sounds.

regards,

[chimpbizkit]

Originally posted by XploreR
hi poab

thanks for the explaination. i was toled they used masking on the loader too? true?

and nader, i mean the animation before the whole site loads, the part where the 2Adanced logo is shown and u see lots of fancy stuffs going around

sorry, im gonna sound like a total noob here, but what exactly are masks and what are they used for? i see them all the time but noones ever explained what they are or what they are used for. thanks.

[tx_fusion]

chimp? try checking the your samlpe list in flash 5.
i would like to tell u what mask is but it better if u see it.

when u open flash
go to the menu bar /help/samples/spotlight mask

press ctrl+enter to see movie.

then mess around with the file.

theres on actions so dont sweat it.