Need help animating from a timeline.

[JeffInPoulsbo2]

Equipment: Dell Studio 540, Win 7 64 bit, Quad CPU,  Q9650 @ 3GHz; NVidia GeForce GTS 240; Monitor: Dell ST2410 Audio: Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio

Adobe Flash CS5 (11.02)

Newbie question:

I have a movie clip that starts when the mouse is over an area: I got it off the web from:

http://www.lemlinh.com/flash-source-undersea-bubbles/

and I think it was written in a much older version of Flash so this might be action script 1 or 2. Not really sure.

onEnterFrame=function(){

                bubblename="bubble"+bubblecount

                bubble.duplicateMovieClip(bubblename,bubblecount)

                bubblecount++

                }

onClipEvent(load){

          _x=_root._xmouse

          _y=_root._ymouse

          _xscale=random(30)

          _yscale=_xscale

          bubblecount=0

          xvelocity=Math.random()*2-Math.random()*2

          yvelocity=1.02

          _alpha=100;

          }

onClipEvent(enterFrame){

          _x+=xvelocity

          _y/=yvelocity

          _alpha--

          if(_alpha<1){

                    this.removeMovieClip();

                    }

          if(_y>400){

                    this.removeMovieClip()

                    }

          if(_y<0){

                    this.removeMovieClip()

                    }

          if(_x>550){

                    this.removeMovieClip()

                    }

          if(_x<0){

                    this.removeMovieClip()

                    }

}

Instead I'd like it to start and stop based on a timeline and to have the x,y coordinates of the path on a specific layer within the timeline . How do I do this? Can I use this script within Adobe Flash CS5 (11.02)?

any help appreciated.

JeffInPoulsbo

[Ned Murphy]

You can use this script with just about any version of Flash as long as you have your publish settings set for AS2 (you should post in the AS1/AS2 forum).

If you want to make this in the timeline then you should just focus on animating one object, since that is all you can animate at a time using the timeline.  Once you have figured out how to animate one, then you can add numerous others like it.

[JeffInPoulsbo2]

If what I'd like to do is get a handle on how to develop Flash, would it be better for me to start from scratch within AS3 to do:

http://www.lemlinh.com/flash-source-undersea-bubbles/    ?

It seems to me that this is a fairly elementary routine. Or is this a much more difficult action within AS3 than AS2 for a newbie to accomplish? I've been reading the Adobe articles but am struggling with the lack of familiarity of AS relative to MS basic and pascal, hich are the only two languages I currently have any familiarity with.

[Ned Murphy]

If you are going to learn Flash and Actionscript then you are better off learning the latest version, Actionscript.3.

While you can certainly produce the same result using AS3, the code for getting that to happen will only remotely resemble what you have for the AS2 version.

You should probably find some basic tutorials to get you started as even the somewhat simple programming involved with the bubbles is still somewhat advanced..  Still, if you are set on pursuing the bubbles, you can probably find an AS3 version already available if you search Google using terms like "AS3 bubbles animartion"

[JeffInPoulsbo2]

I have found several examples in AS3. As a newbie, I remain a little initimidated by the process since Flash has proven quite foreign to me. However, I greatly appreciate the suggestion that I immediately start work on learning AS3, as that is my inclination. So that I will do. I will see what I can learn on my own. I purchased a video tutorial on flash from Amazon.com  but it has yet to arrive. Is there one that you would recommend if learning AS3 is the goal?