Drawing Bitmap Data to Single MovieClip Frame

[adamV]

Basically I have a template movieclip with several frames for different "States". Each is the character's facing and other actions. I'm calling for the graphic data from an external file to be drawn to each frame with bitmap data.

The issue here is that when I do this, it draws the data to ALL of the frames. I tried making the character go to different frames when he's being drawn, but the flash just draws it to all.

If you could help that'd be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Let me know if you need more information as well.

[Mazoonist]

You cannot dynamically draw graphics to specific frames of a MovieClip. There is no such thing. MovieClips originally were an authoring-time affair intended for you to be able to create animations, hence their use of frames. To this day, the only way to place things on specific frames of a MovieClip is in the Flash authoring tool. You can't do it with code.

However (as you are experiencing), you can dynamically add graphics to a MovieClip using addChild(), because MovieClip is a DisplayObjectContainer. You just can't place the graphics on any specific frame. There just is no way to do that. However, rather than using frames, you could just use the visible property to show and hide your bitmaps. Write a function that shows one bitmap and hides all the others. It will have exactly the same effect visually as gotoAndStop().

[adamV]

Originally Posted by Mazoonist

You cannot dynamically draw graphics to specific frames of a MovieClip. There is no such thing. MovieClips originally were an authoring-time affair intended for you to be able to create animations, hence their use of frames. To this day, the only way to place things on specific frames of a MovieClip is in the Flash authoring tool. You can't do it with code.

However (as you are experiencing), you can dynamically add graphics to a MovieClip using addChild(), because MovieClip is a DisplayObjectContainer. You just can't place the graphics on any specific frame. There just is no way to do that. However, rather than using frames, you could just use the visible property to show and hide your bitmaps. Write a function that shows one bitmap and hides all the others. It will have exactly the same effect visually as gotoAndStop().

Wow that's a really good idea. Thanks for the tip!