creating a bar that moves a specified rate in seconds

[myatia]

Hi,

I'm trying to create a breathing pacer in Flash. When the user is supposed to inhale, the bar goes up; when the user is supposed to exhale, the bar goes down. Eventually, the user should be able to set the number of breaths per minute. For now, I just want to get a function to make the bar move at a specified pace (I'll do the input stuff later). I know how to do this conceptually, but I don't know ActionScript and Flash very well. If anyone has any advice or code samples, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks,

Misty

 

[TheConeHead]

well you could simply build it... like if your movie is 12fps and you want the breath to last 3 secs then you make the bar at its lowest at frame 0 and at its highest at frame 36... then I believe you can change the fps with as...

 

[myatia]

I think I want the movement to stay smooth, regardless of the breath rate, so I want to leave the frame rate alone. With that in mind, this is what I have so far. It doesn't work yet, but if anyone could tell me if it's on the right track (or if it's completely off track), I'd appreciate it.

// I have a rectangle set up as a movie clip.  
// This is the ActionScript attached to it
onClipEvent(enterFrame) {
	
  var MinimumHeight = 5;
  var MaximumHeight = 250;
  var heightIntervalSize = MaximumHeight - MinimumHeight;
  var height = MinimumHeight;
	
   // Increment values
   // Increment the height heightIncrement pixels...
   var heightIncrement;
   // every timeIncrement milliseconds.
   var timeInterval = 25;
	
	// Time variables
	var breathsPerMinute = 7;
	var secondsPerBreath = 60 / breathsPerMinute;
	
	// Number of milliseconds for one breath
	var breathTime = 1000 * secondsPerBreath;
	
	// Number of milliseconds to inhale or exhale
	var inhaleTime = 0.5 * breathTime;
	var exhaleTime = 0.5 * breathTime;
	
	// Number of times we increment the pacer.
	var numOfIncrements = inhaleTime / timeIncrement;
	if(inhaleTime % 1 != 0) {
	  // Make sure it's in integer
	  numOfIncrements = (inhaleTime % 1) + 1;
	}
	
	// Number of pixels we increment the bar by every
	// timeIncrement milliseconds.
	heightIncrement = heightIntervalSize /  
                          numOfIncrements;
	
	startTime = getTimer();
	
        // Upward inhale motion
	for(var i=0; 
           (getTimer() - startTime)<inhaleTime; 
            i++) {
		
           if(
            (getTimer() - startTime) < timeInterval + 5) &&
	    (getTimer() - startTime) > timeInterval - 5)
	   ) 

	   {
	      height = height + heightIncrement;
	      setProperty(this, _height, height);	
	   }
	}
}