Jesse Nicholson

I'm a flash developer in Ontario Canada, I run my own business and I love pushing the limits of flash and exploring the latest developments from Adobe. I have developed a way to author flash 10 in the flash CS3 IDE and would like to begin posting articles on working with the new features (specifically 3d).

View all articles by Jesse Nicholson

I've written two classes that generate AE quality FX for loading and unloading movie clips from the library. First, you can download the classes here: http://digitalwarp.googlecode.com/files/ascensionsystems%20V2%20Final.zip.

Here is an example of these two classes in action:


If you would prefer to learn how to use these classes by recreating the above example, visit my website to watch a video tutorial on just that at: http://www.ascensionsystems.ca/tutorials/watch/digitalWarpClass/digitalwarpclass.html.

If you prefer to just get right to the point, here is how you use the classes.

After downloading and setting up the classes, import them;

import ascensionsystems.pixelwarp.digitalWarpIn;
import ascensionsystems.pixelwarp.digitalWarpOut;


To load in the movie clip from the library, first you must of course create a new instance of your library class/item.

var myLibraryItem:libraryMovie = new libraryMovie;


Next you must create an instance of the digitalWarpIn class:

var myWarpIn:digitalWarpIn = new digitalWarpIn;


The next thing you must do is add that new digitalWarpIn class to the display list. This is to help the class do it's work inside the current user level, so if you inside a movieClip or working on the stage, it will determine where you are and load the library item to that level.

addChild(myWarpIn);


Now you have to call a public function inside that class instance called warpIn and pass in three parameters. The three parameters are first, the library movie clip you want to load, then the x position you would like it loaded to, then the y position you would like to loaded to. 

myWarpIn.warpIn(myLibraryItem, 10, 10);


Now you must remove the myWarpIn instance from the display list because we're done with it:

removeChild(myWarpIn);


That concludes how to use the warp in class. Don't worry the warp out class is much easier. It goes like this;

Create a new instance of the warp out class:

var myWarpOut:digitalWarpOut = new digitalWarpOut;


Now just reference a public function inside that class called warpOut and pass in a single paramenter, that is, the name of the clip you would like it to remove.

myWarpOut.warpOut(myLibraryItem);


That's it, nothing else. By the way no need to add that class to the display list. Just use it as listed. One note for this tutorial is that, in order to have this class work properly, YOUR MOVIE CLIP CONTENTS MUST ALL BE IN THE POSITIVE X AND Y AREA OF THE PARENT MOVIE CLIP. If you don't understand what I mean by that just watch the video tutorial I posted a link to, it's obviously visual and is explained very throughly with visual aid so check it out. I will be doing a tutorial soon exploring the inner workings of the classes but for now I hope you enjoy and make use of these and maybe even edit them and come up with your own unique variation of this effect.

Jesse