Foundation Flash CS5 For Designers- P6: Flash is one of the most engaging, innovative, and versatile technologies available-allowing the creation of anything from animated banners and simple cartoons to Rich Internet Applications, interactive videos, and dynamic user interfaces for web sites, kiosks, devices, or DVDs. The possibilities are endless, and now it just got better | ACTIONSCRIPT BASICS 14. Type the following ActionScript into this frame 25 The keyword this isn t always needed strictly speaking. If you drop the reference to this in these examples Flash understands that you re referring to the timeline in which the code appears. 15. Test your movie. You ll see that because the ActionScript in frame 1 is commented out it s ignored. The playhead breezes right on past frame 1. When it reaches frame 50 the method is invoked on the main timeline and the movie jumps to frame 25 where it eventually continues again to 50. At frame 50 it will again be invoked and send the playhead to frame 25 and the cycle will repeat sort of like a dog chasing its tail. The only difference between ActionScript and a dog is that a dog will eventually stop. The only way to stop this movie is to quit Flash Player. What makes the playhead jump to frame 25 The number inside the method s parentheses determines that. Like the trace function we used earlier some methods accept parameters and is one of them. If you think about it the idea is reasonably intuitive. A method like doesn t require further input. Stop just means stop but gotoAndPlay wouldn t be complete without an answer to the question go where To be fair it isn t always obvious when parameters are accepted. In fact in many cases when they are they re optional. Some methods accept many parameters others accept none. What s the best place to find out for sure The answer once again is the documentation. Seriously it s is your quickest source for definitive answers to questions about class members. Events Events are things an object can react to. Yell at Tiago and he will turn his head in your direction. Push Tom to the right and if he is walking he will veer in that direction. It is no different in ActionScript. Events represent an occurrence triggered either by user input such as mouse clicks and key presses or by Flash Player
