gmg tutorials - flash intro design

Flash MX Skip Intro

A discussion on Flash intro design and how we can make it right.

01 Introduction
02 Server logs / How may we avoid the intro? / Why would we want an intro?
03 What should an intro do?
04 A clever skip intro button
05 Automatic skip build / Conclusion / About the authors / Copyright

Previous << A clever skip intro button

Automatic skip build

Finally, we may use these ideas to skip animations that have already played once for the viewer. This is great if we have managed to avoid building an intro by animating in screen elements as we were streaming in content, but are now stuck with that animation every time the viewer returns.

This piece of code checks to see if the file has already been loaded. If not, then we should let our loading animations play (this could be things like logos sliding in, menus building, whatever takes your fancy). But if the file has fully loaded already this means that your visitor has probably already been entertained by your media callisthenics and would just like to use your site. In this case you can just jump forwards to an appropriate frame where the visitor may get down to business. (If you animations are really cool, you can still add in a button that says "play intro"!)

Add a layer and name it "actions". Keyframe frames 1 and 2. Add this code on frame 1 of the actions layer.

if (getBytesLoaded() == getBytesTotal()) {
        gotoAndPlay("skip build");
}

Now add a layer and name it "labels". Keyframe frame 1. Label this frame "start". Also add a keyframe where you would like to skip forward to if the file has already been fully loaded. Label this frame "skip build".

All done. Easy.

Conclusion

The actual approach that we used in our intro for the Western Australian Museum's "Western Australia: Land and People" exhibition involved a mixture of all of the methods we have discussed here. The intro was used as a last resort when resources became too large to be included in our main SWF file.

In the intro we streamed the smallest content first (mainly logos) and animated them in while waiting for the large map image to load. When that was available, the map was animated in, providing the background image for the online virtual exhibition.

Throughout this, we are constantly checking the download progress and as soon as the intro is fully down, we display the "skip intro" button. Clicking on the button doesn't load our main SWF file, but instead jumps to the end of our intro (straight to our unfolding map animation) providing an appropriate segue to the virtual exhibition proper.

For more information about our loader, check out the "Yet Another Flash MX Loader" tutorial elsewhere on this site.

About the authors

The Glasson Murray Group, Pty. Ltd. creates and presents high quality and engaging content for delivery across a range of media. They designed and developed the virtual exhibition in conjunction with the Western Australian Museum, producing a truly compelling and unparalleled presentation.

http://www.gmg.com.au/

Copyright

Materials are copyrighted and are protected by worldwide copyright laws and treaty provisions. Copyright law in Australia is contained in the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) and in decisions of courts, with further amendments in the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000. They may not be copied, reproduced, modified, published, uploaded, posted, transmitted, or distributed in any way, without GMG's prior written permission. Except as expressly provided herein, GMG and its suppliers do not grant any express or implied right to you under any patents, copyrights, trademarks, or trade secret information. Other rights may be granted to you by GMG in writing or incorporated elsewhere in the Materials.