MindzleThe Movieclip Symbol
The last type of Symbol is the movieclip. A movieclip can be likened to looping film clip or reel. I like to use movieclips for animated backgrounds and buttons. Movieclips can be made either from an object that you animate frame by frame, photos you imported to your Flash stage or maybe just a series of images.
Below are the three movieclips I used for the animated button example. It was made by using the Maria grouped object and animating each state of the button as separate movieclips. The Up/Blinking state was made by first using the Maria object and inserting frames/keyframes and drawings that slowly closed her eyes and then opened them up again. Timing was made by simply inserting repeating frames until it looked okay. I cut the relevant frames then clicked Insert, New Symbol and choose movieclip. I then pasted the frames into the Layer of the Timeline of that movieclip. The other states, Over/Smiling and Down/Rolling Eyes, were essentially made the same way.
To use this movieclips for button behaviour, click Modify, Timeline and then Convert to Blank Keyframes. Then I pasted each movieclip into the different button states. The Hit/active was made by breaking up the Maria Object (including the stroke) and pasting it in the Hit state.
Keep in mind to place the separate movieclips on top of one another to make it appear that it is only one image. You can use the Onion skin feature for this. If you don’t enter a Symbol name then the default names Symbol 1, Symbol 2, etc. are assigned automatically. Also, any change in the instance of a movieclip also affects any instance of it in the entire animation.
Below are the three movieclips I used for the animated button example. It was made by using the Maria grouped object and animating each state of the button as separate movieclips. The Up/Blinking state was made by first using the Maria object and inserting frames/keyframes and drawings that slowly closed her eyes and then opened them up again. Timing was made by simply inserting repeating frames until it looked okay. I cut the relevant frames then clicked Insert, New Symbol and choose movieclip. I then pasted the frames into the Layer of the Timeline of that movieclip. The other states, Over/Smiling and Down/Rolling Eyes, were essentially made the same way.
To use this movieclips for button behaviour, click Modify, Timeline and then Convert to Blank Keyframes. Then I pasted each movieclip into the different button states. The Hit/active was made by breaking up the Maria Object (including the stroke) and pasting it in the Hit state.
Keep in mind to place the separate movieclips on top of one another to make it appear that it is only one image. You can use the Onion skin feature for this. If you don’t enter a Symbol name then the default names Symbol 1, Symbol 2, etc. are assigned automatically. Also, any change in the instance of a movieclip also affects any instance of it in the entire animation.
