HOw do u do this in flash need to know soon

**quantumlight** · February 11th, 2006, 05:42 PM

how do u play a flash movie inside a flash movie?

**DanGrease** · February 11th, 2006, 06:11 PM

Do you mean when using the program Flash? If so:

Ctrl+Enter = Test movie
Ctrl+Alt+Enter = Test scene

**pc-grafix** · February 11th, 2006, 06:19 PM

If I understand correctly what you want to do, you load the SWF that you want to play inside another SWF with Actionscript. For example:

loadMovieNum("path/someMovie.swf", 1);

This will load the movie named someMovie.swf into _level 1 of the main movie, also called the _root timeline. You can also communicate with the loaded SWF using the _level commands. For instance, if you want to load the movie, but not play it yet, you can put a stop action in frame one, then on the main timeline you can trigger it to play whenever you want by using:

_level1.play();

HTH!

**EXreaction** · February 11th, 2006, 06:28 PM

You could probably just insert it like any other movie coudn't you? I haven't played with flash in a while, so I dunno...

Otherwise, you could copy the frames from the movie you want added in, and just paste them into the main movie...

**pc-grafix** · February 11th, 2006, 06:32 PM

Copying frames and pasting them is problematic. You may lose functionality. Best to just import it at runtime which is also handy for keeping file sizes down. It only load the extra content if you want it to. You can make entire website this way. Where in HTML you would load a page when the user requests it, in Flash, you can create each "page" (swf) and only load it into the main timeline if and when a user requests it. But simply importing it in the authoring environment and republishing can really bloat file sizes.

**EXreaction** · February 11th, 2006, 06:36 PM

Ya, it can make the single file bigger...but you won't have to worry about keeping track of both files...(and it probably won't be much bigger for the total sizes)...

Copying and pasting can give you trouble...but if the movie you want to add is short, and simple, it might be the best way to do it...since you can modify it directly.

**pc-grafix** · February 11th, 2006, 07:00 PM

You make a good point. Sometimes I have a hard time thinking outside of how I do things!

My Flash movies typically have lots of ineraction in them, but if it is simply an animation, then you are absolutely correct. Copy and paste is the way to go. I have created Flash websites that have many many MANY swf's and it does indeed get hard to keep track of it all!

ESPECIALLY when you are coding the AS!

**quantumlight** · February 12th, 2006, 05:30 PM

i dont think mines gonna be simple cuz im putting importing video files into the flash movie and i want some animation beside the video......btw that brings me a question.......if i burn my flash movie on to a cd in swf format.......will i hav to burn the video files too on to a cd? or does flash somehow already hav a copy of the video file in the swf......wont that make it big?

**pc-grafix** · February 12th, 2006, 08:06 PM

How you do video in Flash depends on what version you have. If you have MX2004Pro or V.8, then I would recomend go to www.gotoandlearn.com and follow the tutes that Lee has there about Flash Video. If you follow along and know NOTHING, you will be building Flash files for video in no time at all. Lee has about 4 or 5 tutes there that pertain to video.

Specific to your last question about including the video, again, it depends on what method you use. If you import a video onto the file and render on the stage, then no, you do not need to burn the video on the CD seperately. If you use an external FLV or MOV format, then yes, yo will need to include it.

**quantumlight** · February 13th, 2006, 12:17 PM

how would i load it in a specific area though?

**EXreaction** · February 13th, 2006, 01:04 PM

Probably the easiest way to do it would be to insert it like a normal picture or movie, then go to the section where it has everything that is included in the movie(is it F11 to get to it?), then just drag it to wherever you want...

**pc-grafix** · February 13th, 2006, 04:04 PM

If you load it in a _level, then in your original, the one being loaded, you enter the _x and _y values in frame one using AS.

For instance, lets say your overall MC is 900x400. You want the other movie, the one being loading INTO the larget one, lets say it is 300x200, you want it to load up with the upper left corner at the x and y coords of 200 and 200. So, in frame one of the movie that is to BE LOADED, you type in a layer, in the AS panel the following:

_y = 200;
_x = 200;

And no matter when or where this movie loads, it will load at those coordinates. So the upper left corner of the movie being loaded, will be 200 pixel left and down from the top left corner of the main movie. Make sense?

**pc-grafix** · February 13th, 2006, 04:15 PM

I just re-read your posts, and let me see if I can clarify some of this.

First, your building a main Flash file, right?? And within that file, you want to load a second Flash file, a SWF, right. And in the SWF being loaded into the main SWF, you want to play some video. Do I have that right? If so, then follow along, if not, disregard the rest fo this and post again so I can understand just what you are trying to accomplish.

OK - First you make a video and render it to a FLV file. This enable you to load up all your Flash. both the main, AND the secondary file WITHOUT making the user wait until the entire video is loaded before they see anything. OK. now you have an FLV file. Next, to PLAY that FLV file, you need to create a SWF to play it in. You can use the component library to drag a video player and contol setup onto the stage and simply set the path to your FLV. Test the movie and your video will play in the component. Once you have THAT down, NOW, in that same movie, you can place the coordinates that you want the video player to load into in the main movie, so in frame one of the video player SWF, you set the parameter that it load by. _x = 50; _y = 100; or whatever. NOW, once that movie is published, it will ALWAYS load at those coords. Now onto your main SWF. You can now load that video player movie within your main SWF by using the loadMovieNum() fuction and I describes before.

Let me knowhow it goes, or what you get hung up. I would be happy to build a sample and send it along if it will help. It will only take me a few minutes.

**quantumlight** · February 13th, 2006, 10:16 PM

ahh thnx so much

i didnt quite get the part wher eu enter the x, y coordinates.............? is it in properties? and cuz i use older version of MX i dont got all the fancy components....dl it right now

**pc-grafix** · February 14th, 2006, 12:44 AM

No Prob. Nothing fancy about the coord's. In any movie, in the first frame, click a keyframe and type in the ActionScript panel and type in:

_x = 100; <-- 100 being the number in pixels for the movie to be offset
_y - 100; <--- again, 100 being the number of pixles you want the movie offset when it loads.

When you do this, you can test the movie and you will see that it will be displayed in your test screen that far to the right and down. If you wanted to move it up and left, you would put minus sign in front of your number.

You don't need all the components to play FLV's. Those tutes that Lee Brimelow has on www.GoToAndLearn.com are excellent and will walk you through step by step how to display an FLV in Flash WITHOUT using any components. He shows you how to build your own, and it very easy. I have done it just for the practice! Very good tutes. Look in the list for all the video tutes, start at the bottom of the list and work up. You will love it if you're going to be doing video in Flash.

**pc-grafix** · February 14th, 2006, 12:49 AM

I just checked out Lee's website again and here are the tutes you will want to go through.

Video Basics- Part 1 - Part 8. You will be running video at the end of Part one, The other just begin to ad controls. Like volume, scrubber, preloader, etc. Part one is only 6 minutes long. Easy as can be!! Let me know how you like it and if you have an problems.

**quantumlight** · February 14th, 2006, 02:28 AM

ok i just dl mx 2004............it feels totally different from the old mx lol im somehow stuck in expert mode in actionscript

well anways i got everything else pretty much figured out for my flash proj except that load movie part cuz i hav no idea what to type into the actionscript.......since its expert mode

help?

**pc-grafix** · February 14th, 2006, 10:07 AM

He he he... Expert mode in MX 2004 is the ONLY mode! They took that feature away in that version. I never used it, but there were a LOT of complaints about it. There is a new version of the AS helper in V.8 though.

OK, go to the frame on the timeline that represent the place - timeing - that you want your second movie to load. Create a keyframe and then in the Actions Panel (for typing actionscript) type in the following:

loadMovieNum("nameOfMovie.swf", 1);

That's all it takes. Of course, use your SWF name that you want to load, and the number one represents the leve you want the new movie to load into.

Keep in mind, you are loading a new movie into a different level. Think of levels like transparencies. You can stack them on top of each other and still see through the parts where there are no graphics. The original movie ALWAYS loads into _level0 by defaults. If you load something else into level zero you will force the orginal to be removed. Also, the original movie loaded into level zero will determine the frame rate for ALL levels. So if your original movie has a frame rate of 20, ALL subsequent movies will be forced into 20fps, regardless of how you created them. Keep that in mind as you play with this.

**quantumlight** · February 14th, 2006, 12:05 PM

ahhh but i still cant get the _x and _y in AS what command do i use? oh and is there anyway to just get the swf to play once.....mines looping

ok wait i think i take the _x and _y back

is there a command where i can stop and play specifically on level 1 of the main movie? and hopefully fast forward and backward? lol<----think im dreaming here

**quantumlight** · February 14th, 2006, 12:26 PM

on second thought.......i'll but those buttons into the movie im loading....that'll make things so much easier....lol but if u hav another way plz tell me lol thnx