The Liberty File

The liberty_final.fla file in the Chapter_07/Assets folder on the CD uses many of the effects that you've already looked at to create a single cohesive piece. It would be a useful exercise to deconstruct this file to see how you can build an effective file using mostly text effects.

You'll examine the layers that have text effects. There are some other layers in this file, including a series of layers that set up the preloading of graphics for this file. You'll be exploring preloaders in Chapter 16, so that discussion will be deferred until later.

Open the liberty_final.fla in the Chapter_07/Assets folder, and test the movie. Replay the movie several times, and see if you can recognize some of the effects you've already worked with.

Close the test movie and examine the following layers.

Layer 6: In God We Trust

Lock and hide all the layers except for Layer 6 and the Background layer (Layer 26). On frame 169, you'll find a movie clip named InGodWeTrustMC. This should look familiar to you ”this is the effect that you set up in Exercise 7.2. It's a simple tween with alpha transparency (see Figure 7.13).

Figure 7.13. In this example, you have simple tweened text with an alpha transparency change over the background bitmap.

Layer 7: Give Me Your Weak

This will be easier to see if you hide the Background layer (Layer 26). On frame 122, you'll find the GiveMeYourWeakMC movie clip. (See Figures 7.14 and 7.15.) This effect was created using SWfX and was imported directly into a movie clip. This effect could be imported rather than loaded using loadMovie because it uses only Flash 3 “level commands. By importing the effect into a movie clip rather than onto the main timeline, you have much more flexibility in placement.

Figure 7.14. The GiveMeYourWeakMC movie clip on the Stage shows only the first frame of the movie clip.

Figure 7.15. If you open the GiveMeYourWeakMC movie clip, you can see the frame-by-frame animation that was imported from a SWfX-generated SWF file.

Layer 8: One Nation Under God

Lock and hide all the layers except Layer 8, and move to frame 137, where you'll find the OneNationMC movie clip. (See Figures 7.16 and 7.17.) This is the effect that you looked at in the section on tweening text on paths. It uses motion guides and brightness changes over a white background. Remember, brightness changes can be a good substitute for alpha transparency changes when you have either a black or a white background ”and they're far less CPU- intensive .

Figure 7.16. The OneNationMC movie clip on the Stage shows only the first frame of the movie clip.

Figure 7.17. If you open the OneNationMC movie clip, you can see that the motion guides for the text as well as the brightness changes as the text moves across the Stage.

Layer 10:We the People 5 Layer

This is a simple frame-by-frame animation starting in frame 82. (See Figure 7.18.) It uses static text fields with each frame, slowly increasing the alpha transparency from 15% to 100%.

Figure 7.18. Sometimes simple frame-by-frame animations are all you need. In this case, this six-frame animation is nothing more than a fade-in using alpha transparency.

Layer 19:The United States Flash

This basic text flash beginning in frame 178 is white text positioned over the We the People 4 layer (Layer 23) to fit over the "United States" text. (See Figure 7.19.) Each letter is flashed in one frame over the United States layer one letter after another, with the previous letter disappearing .

Figure 7.19. This layer uses the text "United States" in white over the black version of the text in another layer. The white letters are "flashed" frame by frame over the top of the black letters .

Layer 21:We the People 2 Layer

This text beginning in frame 97 is converted to a symbol so that a Brightness effect can be applied. The Brightness begins at 63% (medium gray) and is tweened to a Brightness of 0% (black). Of course, this does not work for all situations, but it works here because the background is white and because brightness takes less processing than alpha transparency. (See Figure 7.20.)

Figure 7.20. This layer uses a motion tween of the text "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the," combined with a brightness change.

Layer 22: Freedom Loop

On frame 94, you'll see the FontLoopMC movie clip. This is a modified version of the file that you created in Exercise 7.3. It uses tweening on a motion guide and alpha transparency changes to give a 3-D effect. (See Figures 7.21 and 7.22.)

Figure 7.21. On Layer 22, the Freedom loop, you can see the movie clip for the looping Freedom animation.

Figure 7.22. The FontLoopMC movie clip has three separate loops animating at the same time.

The movie clip on the main timeline is tweened across several frames .

Layer 23:We the People 4

Beginning on frame 101, the same principle is followed here as on Layer 21: We the People 2. The only difference is 65% Brightness in the beginning frame. (See Figure 7.23.)

Figure 7.23. Layer 23 has another simple motion tween with a brightness change.

As you can see, a file that uses text effects as its primary means of communication can be quite effective.