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OK, so there's the what and the how, but what about the why? Why make those particular choices? Well, embedding the clip in the SWF file will make for a clean loop (FLV files are notorious for stuttering the end of a loop when played back as an external file). Since this is supposed to be a seamless background, playback stuttering would go into the "bad" category. We chose Movie Clip as the symbol type to save the step of having to create it ourselves in the Library. Likewise, we had the wizard place an instance on the Stage and expand the timeline so we wouldn't have to. Little time savers here and there are always welcome. Anyway, if your import went as well as mine did, Flash placed the background on the stage and put two new items in the Library (fig. 12).
Figure 12
The bg.flv Video clip is an embedded instance, which is placed inside the bg.flv Movie Clip (which I've renamed bg_mc for consistency's sake). And since a Movie Clip will automatically loop around, no further action is necessary here. Let's move on to the last of our After Effects-generated content: the video clip. We're going to use the same process as before with the background FLV file, but we'll take a slightly different path to make the clip play as an external file. Sort of like a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book, but different. Anyway, on the main Timeline, click once in frame 1 of the clip layer, and then select (again) File:Import:Import Video from the menu bar to start the FLV import wizard. Here's yet another sequence of images to help walk you through (figs. 13-15):
Figure 13: Again, adjust the path as necessary to get to where you put your version of the clip.flv file.
Figure 14: No embedding this time; we're going to let Flash play this thing from where it already lives.
Figure 15: Flash 8 ships with some real purty skins, none of which we need for this project.
What we've done is to use the wizard to once again save a few steps. After you go through these steps, you'll find an instance of the FLVPlayback component placed on the Stage for you (fig. 16), already sized correctly and pointing to the right file on your drive. Of course, we could have manually dragged the component out of the Components Panel and entered in everything into the Parameters panel ourselves, but as I've said many times before, saving effort is always something that interests me.
Figure 16
Anyway, there is one tweak we need to make in the Parameters panelset autoPlay to false (fig. 17), as we're going to make a button that starts the clip in just a minute. In the same panel, name the clip "clip" (inventive, huh?) and set the coordinates to x:10 and y:18 (also shown in Figure 17).
Figure 17
OK, so we're down to one last thing: the button to set everything in motion. We're going to create one of Flash's infamous invisi-buttons, which is one of the more essential things to learn how to do if you're new to Flash. Fortunately, it's easy to do. Head to the menu bar and select Insert:New Symbol, this time entering "invisi_btn" as the name and Button as the type. Hit OK, and you'll be taken to the funky timeline that is the Flash button symbol. In Layer 1, click in the frame labeled "Hit" and create a keyframe (F6). Then, using the square tool, draw out a 450x150 pixel white square. Once you're done, your screen should look something like Figure 18:
Figure 18
Invisi-button, activate! Head back up to the main Timeline, click on frame 1 of the button layer, and drag an instance of the invisi_btn button onto the Stage, which should end up with a lovely teal tint (fig. 19):
Figure 19
Pay the color change no mind; it's just Flash's way of alerting you to the presence of an invisi-button, as it doesn't have anything but a hit state and would be kind of invisible otherwise (hence the name). Anyway, click once on the invisi_btn, head to the Actions panel, and enter in the following ActionScript:
on (release) {
clip.play();
text_mc.gotoAndPlay(1);
}
Even non-ActionScripters should be able to figure this out. Put another way:
when I click the mouse {
clip, you start playing;
and text, you go to the beginning and start playing too
}
That's itpublish your movie and behold the results (yet again):
Figure 20 (once last time, click to play)
Now, if you like, you can get freaky like I did and add some of Flash 8's live drop shadows from the Filters menu to the text and video clips. The text is straightforward enough, but to add a filter to an instance of the FLVPlayback component, you'll have to make a new Symbol out of it and apply the filter to the symbol. Name the instance, and make sure you adjust your button script accordingly (e.g., clipcontainer_mc.clip.play(); instead of just clip.play();.)
Well, we've reached the end of this part of our journey. Not to get too Mr. Rogers on you, but what have we learned? Well, hopefully, the takeaway from all of this is that yes, you can produce Flash-ready content using After Effects, as we did in part 1. You can then import and use this content in a number of ways, as we've seen here in part 2. But waitthere's more! There will (eventually, of course) be a part 3, where we'll head back to After Effects and change gears a bit by speaking to the more ActionScript-inclined amongst us. Until then, boys and girls!
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