UBB.Developers Forums Community Development Programming HTML, CSS, and JavaScript Flash Pre-loaders

Hey,

I have come up with a quick flash animation for my site as an alternative to the main front page - but it's a bit too big to load straight off for 56k or below modems.

So I want to use a Javascript preloader.

Can this be done, and does anyone know of any preloader templates I can take a look at to get an idea of what I have to do ?????

Thanks,

TotalNewbie

Why a javascript preloader??
Why not incorperate it into your flash file this is easily done ...

Move your current movie to lets say frame 20
now label the first frame of your main movie START (frame20)
and on frame 1 add this action script

ifFrameLoaded (8) {
gotoAndPlay ("start");
}

Now on one layer have a small movie playing away to its self but do not let it run any further than frame 8 with out adding a keyframe at frame 8 and then remove the action script from there on in but remember t stop the preloading screen at frame 19

On another layer thats not visible add all your graphics on frame 8

What this does in effect is constantly keeps checking to see if all the graphics on this frame are loaded and if not it goes back to frame 1 but when they are all loded it will then jump to the frame labeled START and play thus allowing your movie to run smoothly


-=DJ INDEGO=-

Hey,

Thanks DJ

I have just a couple of questions....

How do I make "On another layer thats not visible add all your graphics on frame 8" - do you mean add all my first frame graphics of the main animation load at frame 8 but invisible ????

If so how can I make a layer invisible for a certain amount of frames whilst having graphics on that layer ????

Thanks for your help

TotalNewbie

Create a totally new layer i turst you can do this ?

rename it from Layer? to HIDDEN and then you see those icons above your layers one of them look like and eye and opposit your layer youll see a . click it and a red cross will appear this means its hidden




-=DJ INDEGO=-

This only turns the layer off in the Flash program itself. When you publish the movie, the layer that is hidden will be visable. This is what you do:

Say your whole movie is 100 frames long. You will use the first 3 frames for your preloader. In frame one you put your movie clip that says "loading..." or whatever you want. In frame two you have this actionscript attached to the keyframe:

If frameloaded (100)
Goto and Play (4)
End if

In frame 3 put this:

Goto and Play (1)

This will create a loop that displays the "loading" graphic until the whole movie is loaded and then go to the main part of the movie.

Check the tutorials at www.flashkit.com. They are very helpful and well put together.


This message has been edited by tigerarch on October 27, 2000 at 01:21 PM

I did a .swf file on Swish. It is loading slow as all I have to use so far is an MP3 file that is big.
Can this "preloader" be used in Swish or does it have to be moved and worked on in Flash ??
I am also a "total Newbie" to Flash production.
Thanks!

I don't know about swish, since I have never used that program. You can always try it, and see if it works.

This message has been edited by tigerarch on November 02, 2000 at 08:21 AM

you wouldn't have to move the swish file into the main movie BUT!! you would have to make the main flash movie a variable ( the movie must be named in the html ot java depending on what your using.) then you would have to do something called a tell target inside the swish movie. ( basically the swish movie, when it gets to a certain poit will tell the main movie to start playing. That's a little advanced for a newbie in flash bro. But if you really wan't to bite that much of the bullet go here.
http://swishzone.com/index.html

then go to their links page and look for anything about tell target

------------------
Newbie From Hell