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Help Masking

The thing is i have this image and in that image a square like a tv and i want to be able to tween stuff to go there but only show IN THAT SCREEN help me out here guys [][]

ok you can go to kirupa.com, tutorials, flash 5, special effects, light mask, or listen to me:P

Heres what you do.

Create your tv, just a square for now it doesnt matter you can edit it.

Click convert to symbol and make it a MC(movie clip)

Now in that MC, create 3 layers, including your current one, so 2 more. Draw your tv in detail and add whatever you want as the static tv in the layer it is currently in. Then copy that exact image, to the very top layer using paste in place.

Lets recap:P

You have a MC with 3 layers. The top and bottom layers are the TV and are identical. The middle layer is empty, for now.
Now click the TV and press control b, or brek apart
Now in the middle layer create what ever tweens you wish to see in the tv area. If you need more than one layer thats fine, but it makes it a little bit more complicated.

Now, when you have all your animation done, click the top layer, which is the copy of the tv, right click on the layer and press mask, leave all the padlocks on and stuff. It now masks the layer below it. If you need it to mask more, drag the other layers below it and it should get a purple arrow like the other masked layer.

Hope that helps, remember to keep the padlocks on whenever you publish it. If it doesnt work, email me

^that is probably the most complicated way to do this

you dont even need a mask just dont color in the t.v screen (or if you did fill it in delete the fill so that you have a hole) and put all the tweens and stuff that you want on a lower layer, than the tv.

simple enough eh

well for tv i suppose, but its better to do it my way if you have more complicated images

Those ways are not even masking the image, they are just covering it up. What if the image this person wants inside the tv is larger than the TV background, it will show through on the sides. And that method won't work if you want to use text to mask an image.
http://www.kirupa.com/developer/flash5/masking.

yeah but if the tv animation is larger than the background, just move the stuff that needs to be animated on a lower layer than both the tv and the backgorund, and nothing will show through

Yes, i know its not masking, but it does the job, try to avoid masking whenever possible and save some processing power.

my method would work for complicated stuff also.
for example something that i was making for a friend
http://www24.brinkster.com/ehman/loader.html
(looks kinda crap but you get the idea)

For the text i would probably use the masking but this is a tv screen (but you can break apart and delete if you really want )

There is a right and a wrong time to use masking, masking would be good for doing, say a spotlight effect where the spotlight moves around, but if the spotlight stays in one place then its better to use layers

Last edited by ehman, August 25th, 2003 06:54 PM (Edited 1 times)

Quote:

Originally posted by ehman
There is a right and a wrong time to use masking, masking would be good for doing, say a spotlight effect where the spotlight moves around, but if the spotlight stays in one place then its better to use layers

there is never a right time for the spotlight effect.

masking is probably one of my favorite things about flash.

those ways arent masking their just covering up

what do you think masking is?

em...read the last three posts before yours funkydwarf.

Quote:

Originally posted by FunkyDwarf
those ways arent masking their just covering up

i know !!!