movieclip resists any frame past 1 1

[PantherRun]

hey everyone;
I'm the one that ran into the 16000 frame limit. Oldnewbie had the good suggestion to rip out the VOs and put them into movieclips to save frames.

Here's my problem - i can create the movie clip fine, but if i try to place it in any other frame but the 1st one, it won't play under test movie. What i've been doing is this...

- create the movie clip
- insert blank keyframe somewhere along the main timeline
- drag in an instance of the movie clip, and name it say "MC"
- add some script on the frame - mc.play();

this all works as long as it's on 1st frame of timeline but won't work on other frames - and i need it to.

Finally, i wanted to put it along the root timeline so the play head will trigger it as opposed to using a button trigger.

Could you point out where i'm srewing up here?

thanks
Hoss

 

[oldnewbie]

This is getting quite confusing...
Can you create some small scale mockup .fla, replicating the whole setup, in MX only format (not MX2004), zip it and post a link to it?
Would be much easier to test it out...And find a solution!

 

[PantherRun]

I wish i could...
Let me do this, I'll list the steps i took down to the nitty gritty, maybe where i'm screwing up will come to light. I'm typing this as i create it in flash mx

- i open a new file
- next- insert- new symbol- named it "pain", checked the movie clip button, hit okay
- i'm now working on the movie clip stage named pain (i can see the +)
- next, file - import to library - i choose a vo in mp3
- i hit F11, bring up library. In the library is the movie clip Pain and the mp3 sound file. I dragged the mp3 sound file onto the movieclip stage.(frame 1 on the movieclip timeline fills up)
- went up to the timeline and inserted a keyframe a ways down, exposing the mp3 waveform along the timeline, hit enter just to make sure i could hear it.
- hit the blue back arrow and returned to the root timeline

here's where it gets strange.

- leaving the default frame 1 as recipiant, i drag an instance of the pain movieclip onto the stage and name it MC in the property box (I was adding action script to the frame containing the movieclip though i've discovered that to get it to play, i just leave it as is along the main timeline in frame 1)
-next, control - test movie- movie starts, i hear sound great! Sooooo, now i try what i really need to do.

backing up...
- back at root timeline, frame 1 stands empty. This time instead of dragging instance of movie clip to stage for frame 1, I instead go to frame 15, right click, and insert blank keyframe
- then i drag an instance of the pain movieclip to stage (frame 15 dot turns black- full).
-hit control - test movie, up comes the white screen and... not a sound EXCEPT... this quiet skipping sound, reminding me of the old days of when a record was done and the needle was still down, spinning around, scraping the silence at the end.

So there it is. I did try setting it all up on frame 1 where i know it works, then cutting out the frame and pasting it up on 15, tested movie, no works, but if i cut it out of frame 15 and past it back into frame 1, it does work.

Any ideas out there. Is there a step that must be done whenever you try to activate a movieclip that will use any frame greater than frame 1?

Hoss

 

[PantherRun]

my saga cont.
I found something out. I went back and redid the above, dragging an instance of the movie clip onto frame say 13. For the hell of it, i inserted a keyframe on say frame 20 - it grayed itself out between the two points and when I tested the movie and it worked fine.

But, i thought the whole point of using a movie clip was that it could excist on only 1 frame of the root timeline,(saving me many of the 16000 frames) by having its own internal timeline.

Oldnewbie am i using the movie clip incorrectly from how you wanted me to use it? Was i suppose to do a load thing with it rather than planting it on the root?

 

[oldnewbie]

I wish i could...

You mean you can't? Provide me with a mockup .fla? Rather than me trying to replicate your setup from scratch?

 

[PantherRun]

i say i can't cause i'm not sure how to go about doing what you need. I don't have a website to put the file on, so zip it, yes, but put it where - load it in this message box?
I could email a flash file attachment to you, i do know how to do that
Guide me to make this easier on you cause the last thing i want to do is create a hassle for people who are trying to help me

 

[oldnewbie]

You can e-mail it to me. Make sure the .fla is in MX only format (not MX2004 - Use Save As... Making a copy of your .fla and changing the Document type in the Save As... window), and that it is zipped up, and not over 1MB in size.
Hit my handle above for my addresses.

 

[PantherRun]

Just to let you know oldnewbie, zip file was sent out to your oldnewbie hotmail acct.
Again thanks for the help
Hoss

 

[oldnewbie]

Refresh my memory... Was this for a projector, or is this going to be online?

I gather from your file that you sent me, you don't want to stop the main timeline, probably because that's where you be building your video, while the VOs play within seperate movie clips?
Well for the sound clips to work, you'd have to stop the main timeline, and build your video in the same clips as each VO. Your main timeline thus becomes a main index interface, only holding seperate sections or chapters, whatever you want to call them.
If this whole project holds 20 sections, then the main timeline could be only some 20 frames long and not over 16000.
Do you get what I'm saying?

 

[PantherRun]

Online, and right, I didn't want to stop the main timeline because that's where all the work (16000 frames) is. And if I understand it correctly, a movieclip won't solve that problem either - movieclips don't 'come into' the root timeline, you have to leave (thus stop) the timeline to experience them.

Okay, so let me ask you, if I may, 3 quick questions, for this project has come to a standstill while I try to wrap my mind around what I must now do.

1) just out of ignorance and curiosity - in that file I sent you, why did the movieclip work perfectly in frame 1 but refused to work in any frame past 1?

2) In your professional opinion, an keeping in mind that what I’m making is for a "Broadband audience"...is it better to create a 16000 frame movie or is it better to create (in this case) 12 movieclips, all tied together, where one triggers the next, ect? Is there a difference, say, for broadband users in things like load times, ect?

3) If you believe that - for the broadband audience - there really is no difference in performance issues between one long movie or several clips tied together... then is there another way I can keep my main timeline intact and pipe in the voiceovers from somewhere else so that I can cut down on frame usage?

Assuming the worst, what i'll be doing the next couple of days is breaking up that 16000 frame movie into movieclips and trying to make it all work.

As always thanks for your time...

 

[oldnewbie]

Just don't understand why you ain't copying each section's main timeline video frames in each of the corresponding seperate audio clips, to be able to stop the main timeline on each section, and when a section is finished, simply move the playhead to the next main timeline frame where a new section would start playing.

It works on 1 frame, simply because even if the main timeline is looping (or running if you prefer), it's looping on one single frame and your audio clip is allways present. When movie that single frame audio to frame 15, and your main movie loops on 30 frames (or whatever number), that audio clip is only playing when that frame is present, as it was if the main movie was looping on 1 frame only.

I'm hitting the sack now! Will catch you in the morning!

 

[PantherRun]

yup, that's what i'm doing, and then using buttons to go to the next clip- that's what I've got to figure out next. Okay, I'm off to sink or swim, probably be begging again for help in 24 hours, thanks again for the help.
Hoss

 

[oldnewbie]

Apparently sync starts to drift after 1000 frames on a "stream" sound. You should try to limit each VO to under 1000 frames...

 

[PantherRun]

Excellent advice, the kind of stuff you never find in a book.
thanks
hoss

 

[oldnewbie]