Wildform Wildform is the creator of the Flix SWF video encoder and the SWfX SWF text effects generator.
This tutorial was written by FR Elkins.
last modified November 17, 2000
©2000 Wildform, Inc.
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Flash 5: Load, Unload and Chain SWFX Effects
Table of Contents
Concepts Covered

Load Movie
Unload Movie
Flash Treatment of Its Own Movies
Levels
Movie Clips
With
OnClipEvent
Alpha
Set Property

Table of Contents
Introduction
While it's easy to make exciting animations and text effects in SWFX, it's often not clear how best to incorporate them in your larger Flash project. The SWFX Help and website explains conceptually how to load your SWFX .swf into a movie clip and set its attributes with Actionscript. This is fine if you are very comfortable with Actionscript. However, many of us designers find the scripting does not come naturally to us. So here's a little step-by-step tutorial. In it we will sequentially load and unload SWFX swfs into a larger Flash 5 movie.
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Goal
Objectives and Assumptions
This is a simplified, general tutorial that will however teach you some basic concepts in a hands-on manner. It demonstrates how to use a timer to unload an SWFX effect at a certain time, and also how to use a variable to unload an effect and load another in its place. We'll also take a moment to show why using movie clips with SWFX effects is so superior to using levels. And finally we'll quickly change the x and alpha of the effect in a simple way. Since SWFX incorporates both Flash 3 and Flash 4 effects, our tutorial will use one of each so you can see how it goes!
Part 1
Making the SWFX Effects

Let's start in SWFX:

  1. Open it, and type in whatever text you like. For this example, I used the text "Flash Rules," and I chose a Flash 3 effect, All in One.
  2. The easiest way to position your animation in your final Flash project is to make the SWFX file the same dimensions as your larger Flash movie. So before you go any further, go to the Movie panel and set the width and height to be the same as the final Flash movie, 550 and 400. Also, it helps to set the background color to match that of your Flash movie as well, although it's not strictly necessary. Select whatever font and size you prefer. Just make sure it fits in the movie window! Click Preview to ensure no part of your text disappears off the stage during the effect.
  3. This is a thinking step: Where within my final Flash movie will my SWFX animation go? I took a look at my final design. As with all Flash projects, it often easier to start with a rough sketch of the end of the animation and work backwards to get there. So look at your final Flash design, using the ruler in Flash, and find the x and y positions for your animation. To some extent where your animations end up depends on the particular SWFX effect you choose. Use guides in Flash to help you. But draw out or visualize the completed effect; this helps a lot. Remember, Flash doesn't place or measure these animations from the center of the text, but from the upper-left hand corner. SWFX does the same.
  4. Set the x pos and y pos positions in the SWFX Font panel to 20 and 20. This sets the upper-left hand corner of the text at 20, 20 in the animation when you save it. And this is where it appears when it loads into the final Flash movie.
  5. Click Preview to look at your animation. Neat, huh? To make it possible to open the Flash 3 effect later, clear the protect swf checkbox. And, for purposes of the tutorial, also clear the loop output checkbox. Click Save As to save it to your Desktop. Name it ani1.swf.
  6. While we're here, let's make the Flash 4 effect. I used the same text, but chose the effect, Alpha Scan. Set the x and y pos to 220 and 190. Again, clear the protect swf and loop output checkboxes. Save As ani2.swf to your Desktop.
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©2000 Wildform, Inc.