Animator Class Enhancement

Posted in CS3, Flash AS 3.0 | Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007 | No Comments » Trackback

I don’t know how much exploration of the Animator class many people have done out there, but a current project seemed like a good place to experiment with it. I’m pretty impressed with Adobe’s implementation of it—though I’m far more impressed with the capabilities of E4X XML tools that make it possible—but some things are less then ready for prime-time.

Basically, flashes Animator.play()

Example

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How it works

This Assumes the code is on frame 1 of the main timeline.

?View Code ACTIONSCRIPT
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import fl.events.*;
import fl.motion.*;
 
//stage.frameRate = fps;
//trace(stage.frameRate);
stop();
 
 
/*************  this is the speed controller (or delay controller) *************/
var player:Timer = new Timer(33,30); // "33"/1000th of a second is pretty much 30 fps and the animation is "30" frames long
	player.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, playAnimator);
	player.start();
 
function playAnimator(e:TimerEvent)
{
	if(e.currentTarget.currentCount < 30){
		ner_animator.time = e.currentTarget.currentCount;
	}else{
		ner_animator.stop();
		ner_animator.rewind();
		player.reset();
		player.start();
	}
}
 
/************* speed controlled animator (taken straight from the clipboard but with the Animator.play() removed *************/
var ner_xml:XML = <motion duration="30" xmlns="fl.motion.*" xmlns:geom="flash.geom.*" xmlns:filters="flash.filters.*">
	<source>
		<source frameRate="10" x="95" y="114" scaleX="1" scaleY="1" rotation="0" elementType="movie clip" instanceName="ner" symbolName="Symbol 1">
			<dimensions>
				<geom:Rectangle left="0" top="0" width="42" height="42"/>
			</dimensions>
			<transformationPoint>
				<geom:Point x="0.5" y="0.5"/>
			</transformationPoint>
		</source>
	</source>
 
	<keyframe index="0" tweenSnap="true" tweenSync="true">
		<tweens>
			<simpleEase ease="0"/>
		</tweens>
	</keyframe>
 
	<keyframe index="29" tweenSync="true" x="253"/>
</motion>;
 
var ner_animator:Animator = new Animator(ner_xml, ner);
//ner_animator.play(); // removed because we play it with the new player function

So as you can see, it’s just replacing whatever the built in play() function does (likely some kind of onEnterFrame event) with a Timer driven, and thus framerate independent animation. Which allows old slow computers to keep things moving more like the Tween or Tweener class, frames will be skipped to keep the timing more or less on track (as much as possible).

I’m planning on releasing an class that extends the Animator class built into flash—or possibly building a new one from scratch—that will include this speed feature as well as other enhancements I’ve required in the last project (also coming soon).

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