animating dynamic text

[ollie]

Just a simple question: is it possible to animate (tween) dynamic text in Flash 5? My text content is being sucked into the Flash movie from a SQL database via an ASP.

This is quite cool but the cream on the cake would be if I could animate the text once it has arrived in the movie. At the moment whenever I try to tween a dynamic text object the 'variable' field in the text options window gets greyed out.

Any guidance would be appreciated!

[Jesse]

You can't motion tween a field. TO motion tween it you must put it within a movie clip and motion tween the movie clip. Note that when you do this the path changes from:

_root.textVariable

to

_root.mcInstanceName.textVariable

And to answer the basic aspect of your question - yes it's very possible.

Cheers

Jesse

[orv]

i'm also trying to motion tween some dynamic text from asp.

i have a dynamic text field inside a movie clip with a variable name of "user", just 1 frame.

then i have that movie clip inside another movie clip, which then tweens the original.

i load variables from my asp ie. user=orv

but it's not working

it works just with a simple text field, but not when it's inside another clip and tweening.

i saw your example of _root.mcInstanceName.textVariable

but i'm not sure of how that applies to my situation.

i've tried, _root.grr.user = user;

where grr is the instance that contains my text field (user)

any help would be greatly appreciated.

[orv]

ah, got it

used the debugger for the first time, i guess thats what it's there for.

_level0.usermovie.movie.grr.user

[gyftus]

Hello people,

I know that this might be a stupid question, but I hope you would be able to answer it.

I am trying to put up a site where the content as far as text is concerned I want it from some type of external file. Now I don't have the money to affor the Macromedia Generator Server thing, and my Hosting doesn't provided either. So I am asking if there is another way.

Also can it be done with images???

Thanks in Advance, this will really get me started!!!


Cheers,
Gyftus

[Jesse]

read up on loadVariables which will load in text from external sources. there are also free apps to convert images to importable SWFs on the fly. Swift Generator is free for personal use I believe. look into JPEG2SWF and GIF2SWF.

[phej]

I am trying to import text from a flat .txt file and tween it but can't get it working.I have a mc named 'tween' and a dynamic text field on layer 1 of the mc named "data". In layer 2 I have some AS:
"loadVariables("text2.txt","_root");"

text2.txt looks like this:
&data=Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit

It works great when the AS and the field are in Scene 1, but inside of a mc, it doesn't load. What am I doing wrong?

[Jesse]

Check out the Paths and Advanced Pathing tutorials. particularly the part in Advanced Paths about relative paths. The issue is that the path to you are always telling the variables to load at the _root level, but your field isn't on the _root when it's within a MC; it's in the MC, which is a sub element of root.

Try this instead:

loadVariables("text2.txt",this);

Relative paths are less likely to 'break' when the structure of your FLA changes.

[BDore]

Hi all

Let me share my findings...

The movie clip+dynamic text tween works, as you all know. What DOESN'T work (at least right away) is the combination mask+movie clip(with the dynamic txt field in it) tween.

To get around this, try embedding the characters in your movie. Worked for me.

Hope I've helped.

cya

[moot]

yeah, here are couple rules about animating dynamic text

first, always put whatever dynamic text into a movie clip so it's easy and clear where the text is and how to do stuff to it

you want to include the font outline for any text you animate (even if it's arial cause ya never know what people won't have)

you cant mask device fonts - if you want to animate small readable text, get pixel fonts. pixel fonts (like at fontsforflash.com) are sharp and readable and can be masked and animated