Animating bubbles

[hbuyer]

My next question is about animations and timings.

I have created a mask which looks like a test-tube next to a computer screen. The test-tube has a number of buttons on it and I would like to add some bubbles running up the test-tube (behind the buttons) from the bottom to the top and then disappearing (fade out?), new ones coming in the bottom. An animated gif would work well but not supported at this stage. I saw an example of a dot animated at autrun.org, however, there was no explanation on how it was achieved and I am a fairly simple fellow that is not very familiar with scripting!

I assume I can make a few circles in PNG format, and set up some movement, transparency and timing on the page. I have not read the manual cover to cover, but I couldn’t find anything like how the dot example was created.

Could some one please explain how to achieve this idea, or point me in the direction of some information on how to achieve similar things?

[Corey]

The *best* way would be to make that portion of the project a Flash object. You can get tons of bubble based movies at places like Flashkit.com such as I used in ur Liquid Cabaret Flash movie found here. (at the page bottom):

http://www.indigorose.com/lc/index.php

I combined it with a wave effect to create a strong overall feeling of "Liquid".

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software (http://www.indigorose.com)

[Worm]

Or...

You stated that an animated GIF would work. AMS gives you all the tools you need to animate your own frames. Simply create each frame of the animation, then use the page timer to hide and show the frames.

[hbuyer]

Thanks for the replies, both are useful.

By animating each frame do you mean show and hide or can I move it within the menu space from one location to another over time. If so how, are there any tutorials or examples of this.

[Worm]

You could move an image, but I think you'd it would look better having all the frames of the animation in individual image boxes.

[hbuyer]

I have tried both suggestions. Unfortunately Flash hides the buttons, and my bubbles need to travel under them, so That one is eliminated.

The timer works well, however, they seem a little fast. I set the page timer on, then imported 26 frames, PNG format, set transparency, visibility off and lined them all up on the same spot. Then in the timer settings set each one to “visible on”, next action “visible off, next frame visible on” etc for all 26 frames. They played well, but a bit fast, to try and slow them down, as I couldn’t find a way to set a time for the next action, I repeated the “visible on” action as a separate action. This did slow them down a little but it would be better if I could add a delay to the visible off action, is this possible.

Another issue is it ran fine on my P4 2.5Ghz machine, but I tried it on a PIII 930Mhz machine and it taxed 100% of the processor for autorun.exe. This caused the menu not to function as the processor was spending all it’s time on the animation! If I could remove some of the duplicated actions, perhaps use less frames as well this should help I think.

Would it make a different if they were set to visible on in their properties and visible off in page settings for on show (i.e. pre loaded)?

The other option would be to move a single PNG image, how is that achieved?

[Corey]

Yes, to do it in Flash you would need to add the buttons in Flash and use fscommands to trigger their actions...

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software (http://www.indigorose.com)