Warm Forest Flash Blog » tips http://www.warmforestflash.com/blog A blog about Flash & ActionScript 3 from a designer's perspective Thu, 29 Jul 2010 21:20:23 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Simple Sanity-Saving Tip for All Timeline-Based Flash Projects http://www.warmforestflash.com/blog/2009/03/simple-sanity-saving-tip-for-all-timeline-based-flash-projects/ http://www.warmforestflash.com/blog/2009/03/simple-sanity-saving-tip-for-all-timeline-based-flash-projects/#comments Tue, 24 Mar 2009 01:55:42 +0000 warmforest http://www.warmforestflash.com/blog/?p=224
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    • ]]>     Here is a simple code snippet to use with any timeline-based Flash project that will save you from pulling your hair out. If you are like me you still occasionally find yourself doing Flash projects that are strictly timeline-based. No matter how much you love doing class-based AS projects, there are certain projects that just make sense to do with the timeline. Think banner ad animations and linear “Flash commercial” type projects, where it’s just two minutes straight of animation.

    Testing these projects inside of Flash is a pain. If you are testing the movie and there is a certain section of the movie you want to review, you always end up having to sit through parts of the movie waiting for the part you want to come up. Anyone who has had to work with a 3,000 frame timeline knows what I am talking about.

    The solution is simple but I can almost guarantee that once you use this trick you will start using it every single time you are working with a timeline.

    The trick is to add keyboard arrow controls to the movie.

    Up restarts the movie.

    Down pauses/unpauses the movie.

    Left jumps back 30 frames.

    Right jumps forward 30 frames.

    Now when you are testing you can just press the arrows to jump through the movie to get to the different parts.

    So if you want to review how a certain text transition looks, or pause the screen to double check you have the correct copy, or skip ahead to a certain part of the movie to review, just use the arrows.

    Add this script to the first frame of your animation and you are all set:

    import flash.events.KeyboardEvent;
    1. var framesToSkip:int = 30;
    2. var isPaused:Boolean = false;
    3.  
    4. function arrowControl(event:KeyboardEvent):void {
    5.  if (event.keyCode == 38) {
    6.   gotoAndPlay(1);
    7.  }
    8.  if (event.keyCode == 40) {
    9.   if (isPaused == true) {
    10.    play();
    11.    isPaused = false;
    12.   }
    13.   else {
    14.    stop();
    15.    isPaused = true;
    16.   }
    17.  }
    18.  if (event.keyCode == 37) {
    19.   gotoAndPlay((currentFrame – framesToSkip));
    20.  }
    21.  if (event.keyCode == 39) {
    22.   gotoAndPlay((currentFrame + framesToSkip));
    23.  }
    24. }
    25.  
    26. stage.addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN, arrowControl);

    Feel free to download the example and use it however you like.

    ยป Download the sample zip file

    __

    Related posts:

    1. AS3 Dotted Line Class
    2. Free AS3 Scrollbar: Fullscreen and Resizable
    3. Accessible Flash Nav: Right-Click Links to Open in New Window Using AS3

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