Banner's mask animation making text disappear ???

**j4mes_bond25** · 26 June 2006, 08:09 PM

After laying my hands on Macromedia Flash little further, I've just made a flash banner.

I've got a "skimmer" effect playing as a "mask" in the background, which can ONLY be seen when someone rolls the mouse over it, exactly just as I want.

I've converted text to button (so as to have mouse over effect), then again to Movie clip, so as to have the final animation.

Problem is when the effect plays, the (part of) text itself, for some unknown reason, disappears for a split second, something that I really don't want. I rather want a SMOOTH animation, instead of shaky, as it appears to be now.

My page can be seen on: http://members.lycos.co.uk/darsh25/p...te/contact.php

while this banner related file could be seen on:

http://members.lycos.co.uk/darsh25/p...ebsite/banner/

Can anyone help ???

**Egg Bramhill** · 27 June 2006, 04:25 AM

Hi James Bond

The reason for the dissappearing text is due to the mask.

In frames 1,2 and 10 of your MC the mask isn't over the text at all so no text is visible. Just move your mask to cover the text completely in all frames but use the masks gradient to achieve the effect you're after.

**j4mes_bond25** · 27 June 2006, 12:16 PM

Originally Posted by Egg Bramhill

Hi James Bond

The reason for the dissappearing text is due to the mask.

In frames 1,2 and 10 of your MC the mask isn't over the text at all so no text is visible. Just move your mask to cover the text completely in all frames but use the masks gradient to achieve the effect you're after.

Hmmmmm........... interesting.

Now I got that the mask merely plays the effect ONLY at the position it goes through but not responsible for keeping the content "behind". So that I did now, is added another layer of "text" so the text stays same, while the mask effect plays fantastically well.

Updated banner can be seen from:

http://members.lycos.co.uk/darsh25/p...te/contact.php

Thanks for your time & help. Much appreciated.

**Egg Bramhill** · 27 June 2006, 02:55 PM

James

That seems to work fine now.

Couple of points

1: Your page takes an enternity (36 seconds) to load (I'm on a 2.2 Mbps connection)

2: Internet Explorer now requires users to click on an embedded swf file to activate it, so a visitor will need to click on your banner once to see the mouse over effect. This also goes for all the other flash buttons on your page.

Someone posted links re the above problem, I'll see if I can find it. EDIT: (Notice this post was addressed to you anyway!)

**j4mes_bond25** · 27 June 2006, 05:04 PM

Wonder why's it taking so long on Internet Explorer, cos I checked it on Firefox & it works rather fast. Overall, it's around 64kb file for banner. For such a reasonable size file, shouldn't it take much less than 36 seconds ??? If 64kb is considered to be BIG file on Flash, how else could I possibly reduce its size, so as to have faster download on viewer's browser.

I checked those link provided to me earlier, which sorted the problem out in my Internet Explorer on my Laptop, however, on my PC, I'm getting the same problem again. However, I'm NOT getting the "alt" text saying "Click to activate and use this control" (as it can be seen from your attached file).

Isn't this Internet Explorer's problem (cos if that's the case, the viewers would have to sort it out so the flash element gets displayed on their PC) OR is it ME who's to do something so other can view my flash file properly ???

**j4mes_bond25** · 27 June 2006, 05:07 PM

Duplicate Post.

**Egg Bramhill** · 27 June 2006, 09:44 PM

Hi James

This is strange. In IE it takes 30 to 40 seconds to load your page.
In Firefox it loads in 2 to 3 secs
Both above based on my connection speed.
Could anyone else confirm the slow load in IE?

**Egg Bramhill** · 28 June 2006, 02:08 AM

Overall, it's around 64kb file for banner. For such a reasonable size file, shouldn't it take much less than 36 seconds ??? If 64kb is considered to be BIG file on Flash,

On a broadband connection not really, but for dial up I'd say yes. If you consider a dial up feeds at 4Kb/sec a 64Kb file would take 16 seconds and thats just for your banner!

I don't know how you created your banner but here's a reproduction plus the buttons which aren't on your banner ( made in Flash8) which is 10Kb. The loading of the various elements is done over the timeline so no more than 4Kbs per frame loads, thus the visitor see something new every second and the whole things loaded in 2.5 to 3 seconds.

**j4mes_bond25** · 28 June 2006, 07:03 AM

Originally Posted by Egg Bramhill

On a broadband connection not really, but for dial up I'd say yes. If you consider a dial up feeds at 4Kb/sec a 64Kb file would take 16 seconds and thats just for your banner!

I don't know how you created your banner but here's a reproduction plus the buttons which aren't on your banner ( made in Flash8) which is 10Kb. The loading of the various elements is done over the timeline so no more than 4Kbs per frame loads, thus the visitor see something new every second and the whole things loaded in 2.5 to 3 seconds.

You ALREADY did EXACTLY what I was hoping to achieve, in fact, EVEN better, I must say.

What I had was the "simmer" effect appearing ONLY when the mouse is rolled over the banner, but you did it in the way it appears constantly, which is even further eye-catching.

Additionally, I haven't yet decided about the button's animation, but was working on it, however, you did it with great creativity, so much appreciated.

Lastly, as you can see from one of my other thread, I asked about how to make text wrapped around the circle, rather than breaking it to different alphabets & then arranging it AROUND the circle & then rotating it to desired position, etc. which all would be excruciatingly boring, eye-stressing & time-consuming.

Hence, although, I understood everything you did in the banner with exception to the "motto" rolling around the "circle". Is it achievable in Flash, since I've gone through all my 3 DVDs of Flash Video Tutorial, but none mention how to make text wrap automatically around a shape. Did you do it in Flash ??? If not, is it doable in Fireworks, since that's what I've also been using for basic use ???

**Egg Bramhill** · 28 June 2006, 03:18 PM

Hi James

I created an mc for the text effect under the title text so it would run even without the need to activate the Flash routine and it's not dependant on a visitor rolling over it.

As for the text spinner that was created in XaraXtreme and imported into Flash. It's very simple to create. It's just text on a circle, which if you haven't got XaraXtreme you should be able to do in Fireworks (I've got Fireworks8 but never used it). Then convert the text to shapes, delete the original circle, and import to flash. Convert to mc and apply a clockwise tween.