help with movie clip...

[fanalejr]

Hey everyone, this is my first post, and i am a complete newbie with flash, im learnin from a book as i go, so this question may be completly idiotic, and im just missin somethin really simple, but i have a movie clip in layer 1 of my movie, and i just want it to play once, i have it playing, but its looping, is there some kind of crazy simple code i can just type in that i can seem to get? i hope this question made sense,
thanks,
jim

[Confused!]

Don't worry about it, everyone is still learning, even the experts! (Not that I'm one!)

Make another layer in your movie and name it 'Actions'. By tradition, Flash designers put this to the top of the layers but you don't have to it's just good practice for when you have a multitude of layers.

On this layer you just made called 'Actions' - click in its timeline at the point you would like your movie to stop. Right click and go to 'Insert Keyframe'. Keyframes are frames which indicate something should happen when it hits that point. In your case this will be the stop function.

With that keyframe still selected open up the 'Actions' panel (usually at the bottom of the program, if it's not, go to Window --> Development Panels ---> Actions Panel...or something like that!). Now, in that panel there is a white/blank text area, in here is where you will type your action:

stop();

Yup, that's it! Really simple one this.

To check if it's worked, obviously run your movie (Control ---> Test Movie).
Also look to see if you can see a little 'a' in the bit of the 'Actions' layer you made. If there is it should work fine. The 'a' obviously indicates that on that point there is an actionscript action assigned to it.

Hope this has helped.

[fanalejr]

thanks for gettin back to me so fast, i dont think i asked the right question.
I have a flash movie i developed for a website, with navigation buttons and everything, and then i made another movie clip. I wanted the clip to play as an intro, so when you go to the website, this little intro clip plays once, and then you can navigate the website, the movie just keeps looping though...i dunno what to do
thanks so much for helpin me, i hope this makes more sense
jim

[Confused!]

thanks for gettin back to me so fast, i dont think i asked the right question.
I have a flash movie i developed for a website, with navigation buttons and everything, and then i made another movie clip. I wanted the clip to play as an intro, so when you go to the website, this little intro clip plays once, and then you can navigate the website, the movie just keeps looping though...i dunno what to do
thanks so much for helpin me, i hope this makes more sense
jim


So lemme get this straight...it goes...

Intro ---> menu

and you would like the whole thing to stop when it gets to the menu?

If so, simply insert the stop(); in the Actions layer at the point it needs to be at. This will stop it looping. Is this right or am I still not getting it?! :confused:

EDIT: If you are in some way using a movie clip 'symbol' you have to remember that symbols are movies within movies. Meaning that they run on a loop regardless of wether the main movie has stopped. Perhaps then in your case, you need to put a stop(); in the timeline of the Movie clip 'symbol' rather than the main movie timeline itself.

Hope this helps.

[FXdgtal]

well, the thing that he's telling you is supposed to work, but if it doesnt, i think theres another way...you can try putting the intro movieclip in one scene and put the rest on another. on the last frame of your intro movieclip, put GotoNextScene..... ;)

[Terminal_Pain]

If the movie clip you are using is a .SWF file which as been imported into another flash movie and you don't want it to loop. You need to double click on the imported movie. This will open the timeline of the movie as it would normally play. At the time you wish it to stop on the timeline, click the fame you wish it to stop at then open the action script window. enter
stop();
warning
If you just put it in the normal timeline you'll get a compile error.

That may also help you. :thumbsup: