Flash Scripting Primer, arrow keys and video on keys, mouse events

Arrow Keys:

Last time we saw the images appear on keyboard input.
Some keys are very special like the arrows, and we have to get hitting the arrows in another way than the normal keys:

normal keys were tracked like this:
if (String.fromCharCode( event.charCode) == "5")
{
myMovieClip1.x = myMovieClip1.x - 50;
}

but with the arrows we have to do it like this:
if (event.keyCode == 38 )//up
{
myMovieClip1.y = myMovieClip1.y - 50;
}

that is because the characters and letters are having a charCode (ASCII code) but the arrows don't represent "normal" characters. The other keys are having keyCode too, of course, but "charCode" is more like "character".

Then using the arrow codes: keyCode = 37 or 38 or 39 or 40 you can steer an image around on the Stage.

An example with only images:

http://www.contrechoc.com/flash/e-paper-images.zip




1,2,3,4 are background images,
5 is a text png,
6 is a duck, 6 is special, if you touch it again the duck will be different, about 5 images are placed in a sequence
7,8,9 are images, and the last image , key 9 always come on top.

The video (using FLVPlayback)
We can start playing a video like loading an image or playing a sound.
The video is streamed, we have to indivate the path, where to find the video:
var videoPath:String = "MOV00948.flv" when the video is in the same folder as the flash movie, or var videoPath:String = "videoFolder/MOV00948.flv", as an example when the video is in the folder called "videoFolder".

Also the video will play only when it is in the special format .flv, you can change the format in the Media Encoder or Video Encoder (CS3 or CS4).

For this way of playing the video we use a "component" of Flash. The components can be found under Menu: Window: COmponents or CMD 7 (MAC) or CTRL 7 (Windows).
Then we drag the FLVPlayback into the library ( CMD L for MAC, CTRL L for Windows). That is all, import fl.video.VideoPlayer; will be recognized.

We can also stop a video, and we can put a filter on a video. All these actions are practiced with the keyboard input.

http://www.contrechoc.com/flash/FlashStarter3.zip
FlashStarter2-ImageSound_onArrows.fla is the flash example with arrows
keyboard input and video.fla shows the possibilities of the video

a fine resource of video material is youtube. Youtube movies have the right format for flash: .flv
you can download youtube movies with this program: ytd
http://download.cnet.com/YouTube-Downloader/3000-2071_4-192611.html

The mouse input
Handling the mouse also creates events like the keys.
We can attach reactions like the ones we practiced with the keys also to the mouse.
Again we use an eventlistener:

stage.addEventListener (.... )
also we have to add a function which defines what to do with the events triggered:
stage.addEventListener (...., whatToDoWithTriggerFunction)
the whatToDoWithTriggerFunction will have to be defined.

Here are several eventlisteners for the mouse (different kind of triggers, clicking moving):

• addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, clickHandler);
• addEventListener(MouseEvent.DOUBLE_CLICK, doubleClickHandler);
• addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, mouseDownHandler);
• addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OUT, mouseOutHandler);
• addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER, mouseOverHandler);
• addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP, mouseUpHandler);

Then in the function we can track different kind of properties:
The mouse is more versatile than a key! For example the mouse point has x and y coordinates.

We can do something with these coordinates like this:

function startDraw ( event:MouseEvent): void
{
var posX : Number = event.stageX;
var posY : Number = event.stageY;
}

So with the mouse we can make a simple drawing flash movie:

http://www.contrechoc.com/flash/SimpleDraw.zip

Ok enough for today, we have to practice using this information, modify the movies, make