Posted here will be each week's ActionScript exercise as well as any links of interest mentioned in class.
This page is, of course, a work in progress and will be updated each week before class with that week's exercise and the solution to the previous week's one.
This week's problem is described in a pdf file. You'll need Acrobat Reader to open it.
Week 2 (re-planned)
The "follow me" Flash movie has a ball movie clip which duplicates the user's mouse movements with a time delay. Mouse positions go on one end of a "stack" and come off the other after a specified number of frames. The ball's position is determined by the coordinates coming off the stack. All of the script in the movie is attached to the ball movie clip. Detailed comments are included.
Take a look at the script before class, and try to make some changes. Try changing the time delay and/or making copies of the ball clip (copy and paste the movie clip instance rather than dragging from the library in order to keep the script). For the ambitious, try to make a trail of balls following the mouse, or modify the code so that the ball moves like a time-delayed mirror image or on a smaller scale. The workshop will include a walkthrough of how the code works and discussion of modifications and applications. The post-workshop assignment will be for you to build your own variation on the clip.
Marie-Christiane found the BBC's Blue Planet web site, which uses this type of mouse-following in a quiz game.
Compressed Flash source (6k: download, unzip with zip utility or Stuffit Expander, then drag to Flash application): follow_me_example.zip
Tempête Example
The "Tempête" file uses a self-contained movieClip that gives itself random parameters for its behaviour, then reacts to mouse movements and button presses. The file contains 10 instances of this clip and sets them loose.
Compressed Flash source (6k: download, unzip with zip utility or Stuffit Expander, then drag to Flash application): tempete.zip
Popup window example
This version of the popup window example is done entirely in Dreamweaver. Keep in mind that window width and height do not include the "trim" (i.e. title bar, toolbar, borders, etc.), so a window you set to be 100x100 will actually be a bit bigger, depending on what browser is displaying it.
Link: to index.html, which opens pop1.html and pop2.html (you may want to try pop1 and pop2 directly to see what part of the work they do themselves and what part is done by index).