I have noticed that every time I climb over a hump in my Flash work, I find that the resolution presents the basics of pure logic and order. Everything makes sense at that point and seems to apply to not only the program, but the world itself. Perhaps this is another reason why I love to strive so hard to establish my goals in Flash. This ever-sensible program is like my little bubble of serenity; a world in which order applies to all objects and actions. Perfection….
This is what I had:
My portfolio needed a Site Map, but the site is set up so that the “pages” are individual .swf files that are loaded into the main .swf layout when the site is being browsed. I did this by using the “loadmovie” command and it’s “location” property that directs the desired file to show only in the designated masked layer. I had real fun with this, and love how the main layout is never left when browsing the site. It keeps information organized and uncluttered. However, when making a site map, I discovered that it is literally impossible to direct a “loadmovie” file to load into a separate flash file. I solved this by creating the sitemap in a different frame number of my layout page in which the mask does not exist. From there, each button contains two separate sets of source-code. The first source jumps to the frame number that contains the mask, allowing the movie to now use the second source, “loadmovie” into the masked layer. Flash feels so limitless.
~Gemini