Lesson 18. Loading External Assets
One of Flash's greatest strengths is that it allows you to load all of a project's media assets dynamicallybitmaps, sounds, videos, even other moviesfrom external sources. As a result, a greater range of content can exist externally from the movie (such as on a Web server) and be loaded into the movie on an as-needed basis. This means that you can deliver more dynamic content than ever before because the content of your movie is not restricted to what's placed in it at the time it was authored.
In this lesson, we'll show you how the various types of media are loaded into a running movie, as well as how to work with and manipulate this external content once it has been loaded. As a result, you'll be able to greatly expand the content used in your own projects without significantly increasing the time it takes for your user to download and view it.
Loading external video clips is one of the powerful capabilities of Flash that we'll explore in this lesson.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
In this lesson, you will:
Create a scalable slideshow presentation using external assets
Create a rotating Flash banner system by loading external movies into a level
Control a movie from its own timeline and another timeline
Dynamically load MP3s into a project while it plays
Script an MP3 playback progress bar
Load MP3 files based on XML files and display ID3 tag data from the MP3s
Load an external video into a Media component and trigger actions
APPROXIMATE TIME
This lesson takes approximately two hours to complete.
LESSON FILES
Media Files:
Lesson18/Media/background0.swf
Lesson18/Media/background1.swf
Lesson18/Media/background2.swf
Lesson18/Media/banner0.swf
Lesson18/Media/banner1.swf
Lesson18/Media/banner2.swf
Lesson18/Media/image0.jpg
Lesson18/Media/image1.jpg
Lesson18/Media/image2.jpg
Lesson18/Media/music0.mp3
Lesson18/Media/music1.mp3
Lesson18/Media/music2.mp3
Lesson18/Media/Agent00.mp3
Lesson18/Media/HardCope.mp3
Lesson18/Media/LoungeJam.mp3
Lesson18/Media/Prosonica.mp3
Lesson18/Media/playlist.xml
Lesson18/Media/bluezone.flv
Lesson18/Media/cue0.jpg
Lesson18/Media/cue1.jpg
Lesson18/Media/cue2.jpg
Lesson18/Media/cue3.jpg
Lesson18/Media/cue4.jpg
Lesson18/Media/cue5.jpg
Lesson18/Media/cue6.jpg
Starting Files:
Lesson18/Assets/virtualaquarium1.fla
Lesson18/Assets/mp3Player1.fla
Lesson18/Assets/video1.fla
Completed Projects:
virtualaquarium8.fla
mp3Player2.fla
video2.fla
