Wildform Wildform is the creator of the SWfX SWF text effects generator and the Flix SWF video encoder.
last modified October 30, 2000
©2000 Wildform, Inc.
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WildFX Creation
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Introduction
Requirements
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Sample .FLAs
  • Template Save this .FLA under a new name and use it as your creation template.
  • Pop Big Simple Flash 3 compatible effect.
  • Pop Big2 Flash 3 compatible effect with chained tweens.
  • Pop Big - SWF4a Like "Pop Big" but for Flash 4.
  • Pop Big - SWF4b Like "Pop Big - SWF4a" but doesn't continuously loop.
  • Pop Big - SWF4c Simple Action Script effect which loops.
  • Pop Big - SWF4d Action Script effect using GetProperty("", _name)
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How SWfX Works
Wildform SWfX Text Effects plugin are essentially specially constucted Flash Movies (SWF files) which tell SWfX how to render the effect. The only tools required to create these Plugin movies is Macromedia Flash 4 and this developers kit. This document will describe how to create these special Flash movies.
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SWF versions
The Macromedia Flash 4 authoring program is required to create text effects. The output text effects have to be exported as a FlashPlayer 4 movie (SWF) for it to be used by SWfX. However, SWfX allows for certain text effects to be saved as Flash 3 movies. The SWF 3 compatible movies are generally simple text effects which don't use any special features available only in Flash 4. Effects that can be exported as SWF 3 movies may also be exported as SWF 4 movies. Exporting SWF 3 compatible movies as SWF 4 generally results in a smaller file size since SWfX renders the text effect with certain Flash 4 only features to minimize file size. A properly constructed Flash 3 compatible effect should render exactly the same regardless of the format it is saved in. Flash 4 only effects allow for more complicated effects than Flash 3 compatible effects since the SWF 4 format offers more features than the SWF 3 format. Features that Flash 4 only plugins offer are:
  • ActionScript in the text effect. This allows the effect to be scripted in almost any manner that Flash allows.
  • Additional Symbols in the text effect besides the character glyphs. This allows for other shapes to be included in the text effect.
  • More than one instance of each character in the effect. This allows for each character in a string to have independent "clones".
  • Generally smaller file sizes than SWF 3 output.
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Layout of Plugin Flash Movie
Each plugin effect has to be created following a specific layout otherwise, it is considered an invalid plugin and will fail to function as expected in SWfX. A good idea is to follow a template when creating your own text effects. Just change the variables and the various motion tweens, keyframes, and ActionScripts to suit your design.
the main timeline
The specification requires that the main timeline of the Flash movie have only one frame containing an "effect" movie clip and a set of Frame Actions:
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Main Timeline Frame Actions
main actions
The frame actions are composed of "SetVariable" actions which describe the plugin and contain metadata for SWfX to interpret. Essentially, the variables defined in the first frame of the movie contain "processing instructions" and meta-data. The following variables are currently the ONLY processing instructions supported by SWfX (case sensitive):
  • name - The name given to the plugin. SWfX uses this as the effect's display name.
    Ex:     Set Variable: "name" = "Pop Big"
  • type - A plugin descriptor. Currently only "SWFX_PLUGIN_1" is the only supported value. This variable must be set to "SWFX_PLUGIN_1", otherwise the effect is invalid and will not be loaded by SWfX.
    Ex:     Set Variable: "type" = "SWFX_PLUGIN_1"
  • version - Tells SWfX which versions of Flash this effect should function with. If the plugin movie contains features not supported by SWfX's Flash 3 engine, then this value should be set to 4. Set to 3 for Flash 3 compatable effects or 4 for Flash 4 effects. This variable requires a value or assumes that this effect is safe in the Flash 3 player. See "SWF Versions" for more information.
    Ex:     Set Variable: "version" = 4
  • author - The name of the author or company who created the plugin.
    Ex:     Set Variable: "author" = "Wildform Inc."
  • url - A URL linking to more information about the plugin or developer
    Ex:     Set Variable: "URL" = "http://www.wildswfx.com"
  • notes - Description of the effect or other issues.
    Ex:     Set Variable: "Notes" = "Wildform SWfX effects plugin demonstration."
Other instructions for the movie may also be set. For example, we encourage the developer to "STOP" the effect at the first frame, so when it it loaded into the SWfX user interface, the effect will not consume system resources animating off screen. Because Wildform uses Flash as a user interface, this is an important issue for the proper performance of SWfX. We recommend placing the following ActionScript into the plugin before exporting the effect for use in SWfX: 
Begin Tell Target ("effect")
      Stop
End Tell Target
This will stop the animation of the "effect" movie clip, which defines the actual transformations to apply to text in SWfX.
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The "effect" Movie Clip
The "effect" movie clip is the effect component of a plugin. The developer designs and animates the desired behavior of the plugin within the "effect" movieclip. The movieclip must be given an instance name of "effect" otherwise SWfX will complain that it "Couldn't find Effect Sprite" and will not render the effect.
effect instance
The "effect" movieclip can contain almost any action, transformation, tween, etc. that Flash supports. The Flash 4 features that SWfX doesn't support are:
  • Sounds
  • Buttons
  • Quicktime
  • Bitmaps and bitmap fills (SWfX will support bitmaps and bitmap fills in the final release)
In the "effect" movie clip, place the "letter" movie clip and apply any transformation to the "letter" movie clip. When SWfX uses a plugin to render an effect, it applies all the transformations applied in the "effect" movie clip to the "letter" movie clip. The "letter" movie clip serves as a placeholder for each character in a given text string when an effect is output by SWfX. Any item can be placed into the "effect" movie clip, such as masks, gradients, lines and fills, and Action Script; SWfX will apply everything in the movie clip to each character in a given text string.
letter sprite
If the transformation in an effect is not a simple key frame -to- key frame tween or chained tweens, then the "version" variable in the main timeline must be set to "4" (Ex: Set Variable: "version" = 4) otherwise undefined behavior may occur.
Simple Tween
simple tween
Chained Tween
chained tween
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The "letter" Movie Clip
The "letter" movie clip is a placeholder for characters in effects. It provides the developer with a visual representation of the text effect and its animation within the Flash 4 environment. The "letter" movie clip is then animated and transformed through the "effect" sprite.
The "letter" movie clip should only contain and Editable Text field centered at the origin of the "letter" movie clip. Set the "variable name" of the text field to text, check "Disable Selection" and check "Disable Editing". Uncheck all the other options. For outline options, select "Include only specified font outlines" and check "Characters". In the "Characters" edit box, enter a capital "W". The capital "W" should be used since it the glyph with the greatest advance in almost all latin fonts and will provide the developer with an accurate representation of orientation and skew while designing the effect. It's important to ensure that the edit textbox is the only symbol in the "letter" clip.
The "letter" Movie Clip
edit text
Options for the Edit Textbox
edit text box
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Exporting Your Effect
Once all the meta data has been set and the developer is satisfied with the results of the effect, the plugin can be installed for use in SWfX. Export the plugin movie from the Flash 4 authoring tool as a Flash 4 movie. You may choose to "Protect" the movie if you wish and SWfX will still read the plugin properly. Flash 4 doesn't import SWF 4 movies properly anyway, so the "protect" switch is redundant. However, future versions of Macromedia Flash may be able to import SWF 4 files properly. The choice is irrelevant to SWfX.
Export the ".SWF" file from Flash 4 and copy the output file to your effects directory. The effects directory is a subdirectory of the directory SWfX was installed in. The default path is C:\Program Files\Wildform\SWfX. In the SWfX directory, you will find the effects directory. Start SWfX so it recognizes the effect. If the effect was structured properly, then the description will appear in SWfX and you can test your new creation. Restarting SWfX is only necessary if you add or remove effects from the effects directory, otherwise if you update an effect that you're creating by overwriting an older version of the effect in the effects directory, the new effect will be used for the preview or saving.
edit text box
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Action Script in Effects
Flash 4 movie clips loop by default, so an effect output as Flash 4 will repear the text effect forever since the movie clip loops to the first frame by default. If the effect is supposed to stop at the end, then place a "Stop" action script in the last frame of the "effect" movie clip. When SWfX encounters this instruction, it creates output that will prevent the animation from looping. Action script may be used to determine the animation of the effect, including stopping the movie clip if a certain expression is true or false.
When the effect is output, a unique index is assigned to each character in a given text string. The first character is at index zero, second character is at index 1, etc. Action script can be used to determine this index. The _name of the "effect" clip is the character index assigned to each character in a string. Ex: Set Variable: "index" = GetProperty("", _name). In addition, the total number of characters rendered in this effect is placed in the variable textlen in the output movie's main timeline. Ex: Set Variable: "numChars" = /:textlen or Set Variable: "numChars" = ../:textlen.
Action script can be used to change the flow of animation in a text effect. It can be used to jump to different frames in an effect at any point of the movie's playback or depending on a condition. Finally, action script can be used to control other symbols in the "effect" movie clip.
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©2000 Wildform, Inc.