I think there are no global variables in timelines any more in AS 3… I can declare a variable at the top and a nested movie clip can’t find it, sighhh. It seems easier to work in classes by the day, of course teaching classes is a bear. Teaching classes, teaching Flash, and teaching programming all at once is a very big bear.
In rewriting a Flash class for AS 3 all my strategies for revealing the structure of Flash by example need to be re-worked
When an undefined property or function or undefined something is showing up it is often because Flash is treating the object as a display container and not a movie clip, to get this to work cast the reference as a MovieClip
MovieClip(this.parent).gotoAndPlay
more at <a href=”http://www.quip.net/blog/2007/flash/trust-me-as3-its-a-movie-clip”>Casting</a>
And to get nested MovieClips to work with ActinScript ont he timeline you have to name them at the start of the MovieClip, it seems that each movieclip is a class in the program so any variables not declared (movie clips on the timeline are objects to reference them they need a name) can be renamed eventually, my head is spinning spinning spinning on getting this to work.
2 replies on “Casting Timelines as Movie Clips to get them to work!”
Hey, I just took your comics class this semester and found your site from the discussion.
I just read the stick figure post, and was wondering when you first came upon that method of story development?
What I used to do (before taking this class) was draw little blank page, then scribble in little boxes of different sizes to see how the layout of the page worked. Then I’d make quick little notes on the side to remind me which panels showed what.
Hey Hunter,
Stick figures is one strategy among a zillion for drawing comics. Walt Simonson breaks stories down the way your talking about with more writing then drawing at first.
I started using stick figures after I wrote the Comics online class. Mainly because I went to Brazil to talk at a writers conference about comics. I wanted them to do comics but guessed that most of them had almost no drawing skills, but everyone can do stick figures right? It allowed a bunch of teachers and grad students make some fun comics. So I tried it out for a couple of stories and I liked how it allowed me to work so quickly, so I thought I would try it out on you guys too. I really wanted you to be able to do stories and not get totally caught up in drawing a fancy page.
For me teaching comics or Flash, is breaking work down into strategies that are about the form ofcomics or interactive design.
If I can create a strategy that gets to the form of comics then you can learn that and do your comics without having to just copy me. I really wanted the comics class to draw on all sorts of artists ideas that why I used the patterns based on Kirby or Herge or Breccia and not stuff I did, so you guys could learn form anyone eventually.
Mark