Frame / Timeline relative Movie Clips

[Axonn]

Hi everybody.

I got two of my mind for some time. Maybe there's someone there who can clear this up for me ::- ).

Let's say I have movie clip A on frame 1 and movie clip B on frame 2. I gave each movie clip an instance name. How can I change something at the movie clip B from frame 1? What I want to do is set some properties for some movie clips that are not in the same frame. And I want to do that right when the movie clip starts.

The second problem is... how can I refer to an item on a separate layer? I guess a separate layer is considered as a separate timeline right? :;- ) How can I use relative paths to point (for example) to a movie clip on frame 3 of Layer 2 from inside a movie clip located on frame 1 on Layer 1????

Thanks a lot, have a nice day ::- ).

[Axonn]

Can anybody please answer this? I searched the forum but found no answer. I guess there might be a simmilar thread *somewhere* but the search engine is not so great and I can't find it...

Thanks...

[farafiro]

no, separate layer is not considered as a separate timeline right
there are 2 time lines in flash, the main one (the root), and the Movie Clips (each MC has it's own seperate time line)

for accessing of the MC, u can do this from the main time line by the dot syntax style

theMc.onRelease = function(){
this._alpha = 50
}

[Axonn]

Thank you for answering farafiro :;- ). Nice to know that veterans answer to such easy questions.

The problem is that I don't understand how this onRelease can help me. I want to change (let's say the alpha property) of a movie clip from frame 10 while I`m still in frame 1. But I forgot to mention (whoops) that I want to change ONLY the instance from frame 10 !

Let's say the movie clip is called "theMc" and then that I`m on frame 1. On frame 1, "theMc" is called "theMcF1" and on frame 10 is called "theMcF10". So I would do this on Frame 1.

theMcF1._alpha = 20
theMcF10._alpha = 20

But of course that this doesn't work ::- D ... because "theMcF10" is not 'known' on frame 1. Actualy I have a function that changes the Color of any movie clip. All I have to send is a string parameter with the instance name, so that I can define my Movie Clip object using eval. But as I said, this doesn't work because of the frame stuff.

So is there any way (dot syntax, a property, *something*) to make this possible? ::- )

Thanks a lot again!

[wannabeWinner]

make a global variable to define your constant. Try somthin like _root.alpha.
make _root.alpha whatever value you want it to be, dynamic or not. Then, Make all the other mc's have this:
onClipEvent(enterFrame){
_alpha=_root.alpha;
}

[Axonn]

Yeap, this solved it. Thanks wannabeWinner, and thank you too farafiro ::- ) I would help arround here too, but unfortunately I`m still pretty un-skilled in Action Scripting... my "loyalties" lie towards Visual Basic and C#, I`m working at a game, and I`ll really apreciate any help any of you can give me.

And don't get any ideeas, the game is free ::- ), it'll be my pleasure to put anyone who helps me on the 'credits' ::- ).

Have a nice day guys.

[farafiro]

Originally Posted by axonn

I would help arround here too, but unfortunately I`m still pretty un-skilled in Action Scripting... my "loyalties" lie towards Visual Basic and C#, I`m working at a game, and I`ll really apreciate any help any of you can give me.

just stick in here and you'll be a guru

[Axonn]

Hehehe farafiro ::- ). That would be nice. Do you also know Director MX 2004? For me it's very hard to use even this forum... I spend 9 hours per day @ work, programming in VB.Net, and the only spare time I got, it's when I get home already tired and I'm working at making a game in VB.Net using some Director for the graphics...

So actualy I`m writing Action Script to 'talk' with Director and Lingo to talk with the Action Script. And on the other side, I code in VB to talk with the Lingo and I write Lingo to talk with the VB. It's such a predicament ::- )

Anyway, as you may have seen, I`m surely NOT an expert on this Action Script stuff... mostly because I don't know the instructions / syntax.

Bye ::- ).

[farafiro]

day by dy u will get used of it, if u want to

unfortunatly, I donno anything about director but I know that Cyanblue do
I will PM him for this

[Axonn]

Yeah, I know... I saw CyanBlue's huuuuuuge list of posts... there were lots of nice stuff about Director there too. But he never answered to any of my posts, I guess they're too easy ::- D... that's because I`m so very unskilled at Macromedia's languages (*at least for now*). But hey, if anybody has questions about Visual Basic or SQL just point them to me :;- D.