Lesson_13: Preloader

A Preloader is used to load the SWF and start the telling of the design story. Usually the viewer will see some type of loading bar to indicate the wait time.
Today we will design Preloading graphics and assign Actionscript.
We will also look at the bandwidth profiler.

We will also look at examples of the Final "Jukebox" Project.

ACOUSTIC JAM WEDNESDAY 6pm...

Bring your acoustic instruments to this week's JAM.
It will be held in our SCHOOL OF DESIGN.
RSVP me.

guitar-pro SHEET MUSIC PROGRAM

http://www.guitar-pro.com/en/index.php

ELECTRIC JAM BAND March 25, 2009

SCHOOL OF DESIGN ELECTRIC JAM ON!!!

WOW!!! What a great evening...
Sarah settled early into the Djembe, then held the beat on the Pearl drums for most of the evening. Awesome!!!
Shena took over on the Djembe, after shooting some video of the evening!!! Great vibes on the Djembe!!!
Shane and Matias swapped guitars for part of the evening and tore the frets off the necks, as usual!!!
Vlad drove the bass, played some heavy guitar, and sang a tune in his unique metal vocal style. Awesome!!!

After three hours of knocking the roof off the rehearsal hall... the group dropped into the local Pizza Pizza for a medium Hawaiian and an x-Large pizza with three toppings special (Chicken, Green Peppers, and Pepperoni).
We chatted about music, psychic phenomena, and other design matters... over a some cans of Sprite, Iced Tea and Coke...

We missed Jesse (the Saxman) as he was minding the Computer Lab :-(

Next up : Acoustic Jam (This time Sarah will sing for us, along with her YAMAHA guitar)

Some pictures of the event...
A YOUTUBE Video is in the works...

Loading and controlling external SWFs

1) KARAOKE SWF
This week we will be loading the Karaoke swf into another swf for playback.
A mask will also be used to set the karaoke swf into a TV set.

Some useful scripts:
/********** LOAD SWF VIDEO MOVIE *********/
//LOAD MOVIE BUTTON
on (release) {
// loads movie into the placeHolder_mc
loadMovie("KaraokeVideo.swf", placeHolder_mc);
}

The following script loads into the root.
/* NOTE REGARDING USE OF _root
on (release) {
// loads movie into the root,(on top of everything )
_root.loadMovie("karaoke.swf", _root.placeHolder_mc);
} */

//PLAY BUTTON
/* PLAY SWF */
on (release) {
_root.placeHolder_mc.play();
}

//PAUSE BUTTON
/* STOP SWF */
on (release) {
_root.placeHolder_mc.stop();
}


2) AUDIO ONLY SWF
We will also design and load an audio only SWF file into another SWF,
and create play and pause controls.

Some useful scripts:
/****** FRAME SCRIPT LOAD AUDIO MOVIE *****/
loadMovie("AudioOnly.swf","AudioOnly_mc");
/*----------------------------------------*/

/****** PLAY AUDIO BUTTON *****/
on (release) {
_root.AudioOnly_mc.play();
}
/*----------------------------*/

/****** STOP AUDIO BUTTON *****/
on (release) {
_root.AudioOnly_mc.stop();
}
/*----------------------------*/

DESIGN MUSIC JAM ON... Wednesday 6:00pm-9:00pm

RSVP to my email if you intend on coming as there is only room for about 5 jammers + a few seats for guest artists/designers/film-makers in the room.
Also, $10.00 per person to cover room expenses.

We'll meet at our SCHOOL entrance for about 6:05pm then hop on down to catch the King Street 504 Streetcar East to take us up to Broadview and Danforth for about 6:30pm start time.



http://www.amusikzone.com/
748 Av Broadview
Toronto, ON M4K 2P1
(416) 462-1731
www.amusikzone.com

MP3 Play Multiple Songs Using An Array

/* FRAME SCRIPT */


var songs=new Array();
songs = ["beach", "shogun","africa"];
// --------------------------------------

// get a song
var n:Number = 0;// item in the list
whatsong = songs[n];
extension = "mp3";
songFilename = whatsong + "." + extension;
// -------------------------------------------

// load the song from inside a folder
ThisSong = new Sound();
songFolder ="songs/world/";
ThisSong.loadSound(songFolder + songFilename,true);

var whereAmI:Number = 0;
ThisSong.start(whereAmI,1);
songName = "Now playing: " + whatsong;


/* NEXT SONG BUTTON */
on (release) {

if (n == songs.length-1) {

n = 0;
} else {
n++;
}


whatsong = songs[n];
songName = "Now playing: "+whatsong;

extension = "mp3";
songFilename = whatsong+"."+extension;

ThisSong = new Sound();
songFolder = "songs/world/";
ThisSong.loadSound(songFolder+songFilename,true);

var whereAmI:Number = 0;
ThisSong.start(whereAmI,1);

}

Lesson_11: MP3 & Sound()

This week we will be playing external mp3 files using some Actionscript.

// ****************
// * FRAME SCRIPT *
// ****************
// Setting Up The Sound Object //
// 1. Assign the file folder and filename to variables
// 2. Create a new sound object
// 3. Load the sound file
// 4. Initialize the start position to 0
// 5. Start Streaming the sound file (true – streaming, false – event)
songFolder = "songs/";
songFilename = "patsong2007.mp3";
playThisSong = new Sound();
playThisSong.loadSound(songFolder + songFilename, true);

var whereAmI:Number = 0;
playThisSong.start(0, 1);


// *******************
// * Pause BUTTON *
// *******************
on(release) {
// Where Am I when I paused?
// 1. The position is stored in variable whereAmI
var whereAmI:Number = playThisSong.position/1000;

// 2. The song is set to stop playing
playThisSong.stop();

// 3. Trace to the Output Window WhereAmI
trace(whereAmI+newline);
}


// ***************
// * Play BUTTON *
// ***************
on (release) {

// Start playing the song from the most current position
playThisSong.start(whereAmI, 1);
}


// *******************
// * Rewind BUTTON *
// *******************
on (release) {
// reset position to beginning
var whereAmI:Number = 0;
}

Deep linking

Perhaps the easiest way to organize a Flash-based website is to use a different keyframe on the main Timeline to represent each "state" ("page" or "screen") of the site

I was looking for this ... and here it is:
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/articles/deep_linking.html

MovieClip.currentLabel property

I was looking for this code... here it is...
at http://lassieadventurestudio.wordpress.com/2008/09/16/movieclip-frame-labels/


The first and most basic new feature is the MovieClip.currentLabel property. That gives us the frame label of the current timeline frame. While that may seem pretty straight forward, it’s a huge step up from AS2 where the current frame label was not available at run-time (…which always seemed like a pretty big oversight to me).

However, I think the best new feature is the MovieClip.currentLabels property, which gives an array of ALL frame labels on a timeline, along with their corresponding frame numbers. AWESOME. That means that we can quickly and easily set up a scenario that will let us browse all of a MovieClip’s labeled timeline frames at run-time. Here’s an example:

import flash.display.FrameLabel;

// _displayClip = MovieClip with timeline to access.
// _select = Flash UI ComboBox component instance.

_displayClip.stop();
_select.removeAll();
_select.addEventListener(Event.CHANGE, this._onSelectLabel);

// get and populate all of displayClip's frame labels in the select menu
for each (var j:FrameLabel in _displayClip.currentLabels)
{
// add list items with FrameLabel object properties: name, frame.
_select.addItem({label:j.name, data:j.frame});
}

function _onSelectLabel(evt:Event):void
{
// update displayClip when a new frame is selected
_displayClip.gotoAndStop(_select.selectedItem.data);
}
If you set that scenario up in a new Flash document and give the _displayClip a few frame labels to browse through, then you’ll be able to select and display the various frames in your MovieClip using the combobox (…just be sure to put different graphics on each labeled timeline frame so that you can see a change in appearance when you switch between frames!).

So, what can you do with this? I’ve used it in the new Lassie Shepherd editor so that a developer can select frame labels to display within externally loaded SWF media. It works like a charm. This would also be a good means to build a really simple navigation scheme: you’d set up and label different content frames along a timeline, load that movie into a shell, and then you could populate navigation options within the shell based on the frame labels. The beauty here is that if you ever added new content frames to the loaded media, they’d plug right into the shell movie that rendered the navigation.

Lesson_10: Importing Video

This week we will be importing our Karaoke video into Flash and creating controllers to be able to start and stop the video. We will also create labels and buttons to jump to the label in the video.

banner ad contest

FITC is running a banner ad contest. Design and build a banner ad.
First prize is 4 nights at the Hilton, plus tickets to FITC Toronto.
http://www.fitc.ca/contest/toronto/2009/

Banners
Creative Concepts are to be submitted in the form of a Flash banner ad:
Flash. SWF. 300 x 250. Max file size is 250 kb.
Audio is allowed, but not necessary, but must have a volume control in the piece
All banners must contain the following text info...
• FITC Toronto 2009
• The Design & Technology Festival
• April 24-26, 2009
• as well as including The FITC Logo, which you CAN modify.

Lesson_09: Karaoke Video

This week we will be creating a karaoke video for use in the Jukebox Project.
Remember to bring the song (mp3 or AIFF) and the lyrics to class,
and be sure to BRING HEADPHONES.