Rebirth - Flash

This week, find out why movie clip symbols are a Good Thing, andlearn to add interactivity to your Flash movies with the built-in Actions.And when you're done, use the new Flash Projector to distribute your moviesto all and sundry. Who needs Hollywood when you can just roll your own?!

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By: Vikram Vaswani, (c) Melonfire

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January 25, 2001

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TOOLS YOU CAN USE

The example you just saw demonstrates how to create a movie clip symbol from scratch. But what happens if you already have an existing animation sequence (which is not a symbol), and you'd now like to convert it to a symbol? Do you have to create the entire sequence anew?

Flash allows you to convert an existing animation sequence to a movie clip symbol via a simple copy-paste process. First, open up the file containing the animation sequence you plan to convert, and select all the frames containing the sequence. Use the Edit -> Copy Frames command to copy these frames.

Now, create a new movie clip symbol using the Insert -> New Symbol command. Flash will drop you into symbol-editing mode, as in the previous example. Select the first frame in the Timeline, and use the Paste Frames command on the shortcut menu to paste the copied frames into the movie clip symbol's Timeline. You now have a movie clip symbol which you can re-use throughout your Flash movie.

To test the symbol, go back to the Stage, and delete the animation sequence from the Timeline of the main movie. Insert an instance of the symbol you just created, and use the Control -> Test Movie symbol to test whether the movie clip works correctly.

This article copyright Melonfire 2001. All rights reserved.

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