Noob flash FAQ - Learn how to make your own multimedia

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Helpful, but reall unorganized. you need a table of contents or something	31.2%	[ 29 ]
Helpful, and forces you to read the entire thing, which is also helpful, since it makes the readers learn	41.9%	[ 39 ]
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[[Q]]

HOW DO I MAKE A LOADBAR WITH A PLAY BUTTON?
Image Version

1. Download the .fla Newgrounds.com provides.
Direct Link to fla | Indirect

2. Open Flash, and open the fla you just saved to your computer.

File -> Open -> NewgroundsPreLoader.fla

3. Select frame one, and doubleclick the tank logo in the middle of the canvas.
This should take you to a new area with more layers.

a. "NewGroundsPreLoader" is the name of the symbol. Symbols have their own timelines, this lets you know which one you're in.
b. Make sure the "Tank Logo" layer is unlocked(if there's a lock image, click it so it just turns into a dot as shown), otherwise, you won't be able to edit the layer.
c. Let's you know that the current selected layer is the "Tank Logo" layer. Ont his layer is the Tank Logo (go figure). If you want to take out the logo, select this layer, then select the tank, and hit backspace or delete. If you want your own logo, just paste it in or draw it now. =)
d. This layer is locked. You'll need to click the lock icon to make sure you can edit the layer(if you want to).
e. The "LOADING_TEXT" layer is the layer with the text "LOADING" on it. From here, you can erase the text completely, and/or add your own text.
Don't mess witht he keyframe(the frame with a black dot in it) with the red flag ontop of it on the Loading Text layer.

If you going to edit the newgrounds' loadbar, these are the only layers you should mess with when beginning. The rest of the layers/frames contain actionscript or important references. If you mess them up, your loadbar won't work.

4. To get out of this area, simply click "Scene 1" at the top to go back to your main timeline.

Make sure you delete the "Instructions" frames before continuing!

5. Add your movie/animation/art/etc. after the frames given to your loadbar. =)

HOW DO I MAKE A LOADBAR THAT PLAYS AUTOMATICALLY?
Image Version

1. Using the NewGrounds Loadbar, got o the layer "LOADING_TEXT".

Make sure the layer is unlocked, then click on the third frame(it has a red flag in it).


2. Click the play button on the canvas, and then hit backspace key or the delete key (you technically don't have to do this, but if you don't, the play button will flash up for a frame)

3. At the bottom where properties is, click the "actions" tab, so it expands.


Make sure you're in the third frame of loading_text (LOADING_TEXT : 3)
And if you're not, click "current selection, LOADING_TEXT", until you get what's seen in the image above.

4. In the big blank window, type in _root.play(); .
This is called "actionscript\".


5. Click the blue top arrow part next to "action again so the window minimizes, and then then have fun with it! You just made a loadbar that plays your flash automatically once it's done loading. =)

[[Q]]

HOW DO I LOAD A VIDEO INTO FLASH?
Image Version

1. Open Flash, for the love of god, add a loadbar to it before doing anything.

2. File -> Import -> Video


3. Choose your video.


4. Click "Next >" then chose the "Embed in timeline" option.


Then click "Next >"
If you don't get an error, skip to step number 7.

5. Assuming you got the error, click "Publish Settings" on the pop-up box.

6.

a. Click the "Flash" tab.
b. Click the dropdown menu for "Version" and pick Flash Player 6, 7, or 8.
c. Make sure "Compress movie" is checked.
d. Hit "Ok.", make sure "Embed in timeline" option is now checked, and hit "Next >".

7. Make sure these options are the same.


Then click "Next >"

8. Choose the quality of the video.


Note that kbps means kilobytes per second.
The larger the kbps, the larger your swf file will be(in size).

For your own reference, advanced options has cropping information, better data rate compression, codec selection, so on and so forth. But since this is a beginner FAQ, I'm assuming you don't know what that is, so we're not going to go into it.

Click "Finish" when done.

9.
Wait for this to finish.

10. Your video is now in your timeline.
Command -> Test Video (Ctrl + Enter) to make sure it works, or it is the way you like it.

If it is, File -> Export -> Export Movie, chose your settings, save as swf, host it somewhere, post the direct url in your multimedia. =)

[[Q]]

HOW DO I MAKE MUSIC WORK IN FLASH?
Image Version

1. Open flash, PLEASE make a loadbar first.

2. File -> Import -> Import To Library
Pick your song, click okay, etc., etc.

3. Select the frame where you want the music to start.
Make this frame a keyframe(right click it -> "insert keyframe" wink

In "properties", go to "Sound:" and pick the file you just imported.


If you just want background music, make sure "sync" reads "Event".
If you're making a music video, and want the music to be ON the timeline, make sure sync is "Stream".

"repeat"... Setting it to one will play the song only once. Setting it to zero will play it forever. Any number other than that is the number of times it will play before stopping.

4. When done, control -> tets movie see if you like it.
If you do, File -> Export -> Movie, chose your settings, save, upload to a host, put direct link in your multimedia. =)

[[Q]]

HOW DO I MAKE A SOUND ON/OFF BUTTON?

Learn for yourself using this tutorial.

OR CHEAT. Which is what I'm goign to guide you how to do, because it's easier. xd

1. Download the .fla the site provides.
Direct Link

2. Open up flash, and open up the .fla file (which is inside the .zip file.
If you don't know how to extract a .zip file, I pity you).

3. Import your music into the library.

4. In the Library, double click "sound" symbol, so you can go to its timeline/canvas.


5. Select the first frame in "sound" on the timeline.


Go down to "Properties", and for "Sound:" take the dropdown and choose YOUR song, instead of the one already listed.

File -> Export -> Movie, have fun. =p

Mmm. Cheating.

[[Q]]

HOW TO MAKE AN MP3 PLAYER(AKA Xspf Player)
... "Slim" Version

Before we get started, I want you to know that I still don't know how to do this completely correctly, so some features may not work.
(but the music will play, that's for sure - I'm not that dumb. XD)

1a. Click here and decide which player is the best for you.
"Slim" or "extended".

The examples are right after one another.

This tutorial is for the SLIM version, if you want extended, go to the next post.

1b. Download the version you want.
Direct Link | List of Mirrors

2. Extract the files, and save them ALL to your computer somewhere. You'll need ALL of them. Save these for later.

3. Now it's time to make your playlist.
Here is the help file. Try to make the playlist yourself. If you can't/don't get it, or are a lazy a**, follow the steps below:

a. First of all, if you're on a windows system, can you view extentions? Extentions are things at the end of a filename. For example: filename.mp3 or filename.exe, etc.
If you only see "filename" and not "filename.mp3" or whatever, then go to My Computer (or open any window with files in it).
If you can see extentions, skip this step.

Click Tools -> Options, then the "view" tab.
UNcheck "hide known extention types."


Click "Apply", then "Ok". All the extentions of your files should show up. If you don't like how this looks, you can change it later, but right now you need it.

b. Make a new text file.
Put this in it:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<playlist version="0" xmlns = "http://xspf.org/ns/0/">
<trackList>
<track>


If you know anything about bulleted lists, or HTML, this is like a list. From here on out, you will input basically the same thing for everything.

YOU NEED A FILE HOST TO CONTINUE

Photobucket and imageshack don't host audio files. I really can't help you with webhosts, but you need one that will let you directlink/hot link.
Basically file storage. Walagata.com does it but they stopped their free service.

Your best bet is trying tripod, aquafire, and all the other traditional free website hosting and HOPING they don't catch you screw over their bandwidth.

Anyway. Back to the text file.

c. Put <location> in the next line. Your document should look like this, now:
&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
<playlist version="0" xmlns = "http://xspf.org/ns/0/">
<trackList>
<track>
<location>

Location is the URL of your audio file. So it will be something like http://hostplace.com/folder/folder/filename.mp3 .

Put this, with no spaces, next to location, and then end location. It will end up looking like this:
&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
<playlist version="0" xmlns = "http://xspf.org/ns/0/">
<trackList>
<track>
<location>http://hostplace.com/folder/folder/filename.mp3</location>.

d. The next tag is <image>. Slim version doesn't use images, so either leave them out of your script(text file) all together, or just put this at the end:
<image></image>

Your script should now look like this:
&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
<playlist version="0" xmlns = "http://xspf.org/ns/0/">
<trackList>
<track>
<location>http://www.name.com/folder/song.mp3</location>
<image></image>

e. <annotation> is next.
Annotation is what your track name is, basically. An annotation will show up on this part of the player:

Yeah, I can't draw a circle. Shut up.

Anyhow, type what you want to show up. Anything from "Track one" to "Artist - Song" to "IN YOUR FACE b***h, YOU DON'T KNOW THE NAME OF THIS SONG! LOL!" And put that in between the annotation tags.
Your script show now look like this:
&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
<playlist version="0" xmlns = "http://xspf.org/ns/0/">
<trackList>
<track>
<location>http://www.name.com/folder/song.mp3</location>
<image></image>
<annotation>Text to be displayed</annotation>

f. Add </track> to the end.
This is all the information for your one track on your playlist.

To review,
&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
<playlist version="0" xmlns = "http://xspf.org/ns/0/">
<trackList>
Goes at the top.
<track>
<location>http://www.name.com/folder/song.mp3</location>
<image></image>
<annotation>Text to be displayed</annotation>
</track>
Is all the track information.

If you have more than one song you want to play, just keep adding more in this format. Here's a playlist with two songs:
&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
<playlist version="0" xmlns = "http://xspf.org/ns/0/">
<trackList>
<track>
<location>http://www.name.com/folder/song.mp3</location>
<image></image>
<annotation>Text to be displayed</annotation>
</track>
<track>
<location>http://www.name.com/folder/song2.mp3</location>
<image></image>
<annotation>Text to be displayed</annotation>
</track>


Hope that made sense.

g. Once you've finished putting in all the information for your tracks, you need to end the script.
To do this, just put
</trackList>
</playlist>
At the end of your tracklist. (pretty simple, huh?)

So, to review again, here's what a completely finished, two-trakc playlist should look like in your text document:
&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
<playlist version="0" xmlns = "http://xspf.org/ns/0/">
<trackList>


<track>
<location>http://www.name.com/folder/song.mp3</location>
<image></image>
<annotation>Text to be displayed</annotation>
</track>

<track>
<location>http://www.name.com/folder/song2.mp3</location>
<image></image>
<annotation>Text to be displayed</annotation>
</track>


</tracklist>
</playlist>


h. Save the text file as "playlist", or something simple. Keep it with all the other files you have.

Now, fine the playlist.txt you just saved, and right click the name. "Rename" the file to playlist.xspf
Hit enter. It should NOT be playlist.xspf.txt
It should ONLY be playlist.xspf.
It has to be this format so the flash player can read it.

4. Host your playlist somewhere where you can direct link/hot link to it. It doesn't need ot be in the same place as any other files, as long as you have the direct link to the playlist.

5. Open up "xspf_player_slim.as" in Flash. It should be a LOT of text.

Because it's an action script file.

Find this part:
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS <snip>
THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
*/
stop();
//autoplay=true
//repeat_playlist = true;
//playlist_size = 3;
//player_title = "customizeable title test"
//song_url = "http://downloads.betterpropaganda.com/music/Imperial_Teen-Ivanka_128.mp3";
//playlist_url = "http://webjay.org/by/hideout/moviequotes.xspf";
//playlist_url = "http://hideout.com.br/shows/radio-test.xspf";
//radio_mode = true;
//song_title = "Imperial Teen - Ivanka";
//autoload=true;
//info_button_text = "Add to Cart"
//playlist_url = "http://webjay.org/by/lucas_gonze/laconic.xspf"
//playlist_url= "http://hideout.com.br/tests/hideout2325.xspf"
//constants

Change //player_title = "customizeable title test"
To what you want the title of the mp3 player to be.
So, for me it's //player_title = "Q's mp3 Player"
It doesn't show up anywhere, so it really doesn't matter what you put in.

Change //song_url = "http://downloads.betterpropaganda.com/music/Imperial_Teen-Ivanka_128.mp3"; to the song you want the playlist to start on.

Change //playlist_url = "http://webjay.org/by/hideout/moviequotes.xspf";
//playlist_url = "http://hideout.com.br/shows/radio-test.xspf";
to the URL to the "playlist.xspf" you just uploaded.
Remember that?

Anyway, put in the same playlist twice. So it ends up like this:
//playlist_url = "http://webhost.com/folder/playlist.xspf";
//playlist_url = "http://webhost.com/folder/playlist.xspf";

Change //song_title = "Imperial Teen - Ivanka"; to the song title of the song file you autoloaded. (Remember? The one in //song_url)

Completely delete //info_button_text = "Add to Cart".

The end result of that should look like this:

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS <snip>
THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
*/
stop();
//autoplay=true
//repeat_playlist = true;
//playlist_size = 3;
//player_title = "Q's Mp3 Player"
//song_url = "http://webhost.com/folder/1stsong.mp3";
//playlist_url = "http://webhost.com/folder/playlist.xspf";
//playlist_url = "http://webhost.com/folder/playlist.xspf";
//radio_mode = true;
//song_title = "Song Title Here";
//autoload=true;
//playlist_url = "http://webhost.com/folder/playlist.xspf"
//playlist_url= "http://webhost.com/folder/playlist.xspf"
//constants

6. Now for the stuff right after that.
Find this:
DEFAULT_PLAYLIST_URL = "http://hideout.com.br/shows/allshows.xspf";
DEFAULT_WELCOME_MSG = "Hideout XSPF Music Player - by Fabricio Zuardi";
LOADING_PLAYLIST_MSG = "Loading Playlist...";
DEFAULT_LOADED_PLAYLIST_MSG = "- click to start"
DEFAULT_INFOBUTTON_TXT = "Info"

Change DEFAULT_PLAYLIST_URL = "http://hideout.com.br/shows/allshows.xspf"; to the playlist you already put in four times before.

Change DEFAULT_WELCOME_MSG = "Hideout XSPF Music Player - by Fabricio Zuardi"; to whatever you want the player to say before someone has started playing a playlist. It will show up where the annotation stuff went.

Everything else you can leave the same.

In the end, it should look something like this:
DEFAULT_PLAYLIST_URL = "http://webhost.com/folder/playlist.xspf";
DEFAULT_WELCOME_MSG = "Hideout XSPF Music Player - by Fabricio Zuardi & Customized by Q";
LOADING_PLAYLIST_MSG = "Loading Playlist...";
DEFAULT_LOADED_PLAYLIST_MSG = "- click to start"

And that WHOLE SECTION should look somehting like this:

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS <snip>
THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
*/
stop();
//autoplay=true
//repeat_playlist = true;
//playlist_size = 3;
//player_title = "Q's Mp3 Player"
//song_url = "http://webhost.com/folder/1stsong.mp3";
//playlist_url = "http://webhost.com/folder/playlist.xspf";
//playlist_url = "http://webhost.com/folder/playlist.xspf";
//radio_mode = true;
//song_title = "Song Title Here";
//autoload=true;
//playlist_url = "http://webhost.com/folder/playlist.xspf"
//playlist_url= "http://webhost.com/folder/playlist.xspf"
//constants
DEFAULT_PLAYLIST_URL = "http://webhost.com/folder/playlist.xspf";
DEFAULT_WELCOME_MSG = "Hideout XSPF Music Player - by Fabricio Zuardi & Customized by Q";
LOADING_PLAYLIST_MSG = "Loading Playlist...";
DEFAULT_LOADED_PLAYLIST_MSG = "- click to start"

Phew. That was a lot of crap to go through.

Don't mess with ANYTHING else, and save the .as file.

6. Upload "xspf_player_slim.as" to your webhost and DO NOT CHANGE THE FILENAME.

Upload "xspf_player_slim.swf" to the same webhost, in the SAME FOLDER as "xspf_player_slim.as" they should both be in the SAME PLACE.

7. Open up "xspf_player_slim.swf" on your webhost and give it a test run, see if it works and plays your song files.
If it doesn't, make sure everything is linked correctly, you have not run out of bandwidth, and you're allowed to direct link to your sound files.

If you fix all that and it's still not working, open up "xspf.fla" in Flash and re-export the moive, and re-upload the .swf. Sometimes this works for whatever reason.

If you change the filename of "xspf_player_slim.as" it messes up something within "xspf_player_slim.fla", causing your whole player to not work.

I'd tell you how to fix it, but I'm lazy; so just don't change the .as filename or it's location.

8. If all goes well, and it's working, take the direct URL to "xspf_player_slim.swf" and copy it.

Go to Gaia, click "My Gaia" in navigation, and then click "Multimedia".

Copy and paste your "xspf.swf" URL in the multimedia section.
(It should be somehting like http://webhost.com/folder/xspf_player_slim.swf)

Save your profile and view your profile page.

Everything should be working fine, now. =)

[[Q]]

HOW TO MAKE AN MP3 PLAYER(AKA Xspf Player)

... "Extended" Version

Before we get started, I want you to know that I still don't know how to do this completely correctly, so some features may not work.
(but the music will play, that's for sure - I'm not that dumb. XD)

1a. Click here and decide which player is the best for you.
"Slim" or "extended".
The examples are right after one another.

This tutorial is for the EXTENDED version, if you want Slim, go to the previous post.

1b. Download the version you want.
Direct Link | List of Mirrors

1c. Follow all the steps in the post above starting at 2. and ending at d. (Where it talks about images).

2a. For <image>, you can put in an image to go with the track you are playing. I have not been able to get this feature to work! But you can try.
In between the image tags, just put the direct url to your image.

It should look something like this:
<image>http://webhost.com/folder/folder/image.jpg</image>

2b. Follow all the step sin the above post starting at d until the end.

Every time it says "xspf_player_slim" pretend it says "xspf_player".

The only real difference between extended and slim is that in slim you can SEE the playlist.

Annotations show up in there place on the playlist in the player AND on the top when they are playing.

[[Q]]

[Gah, button version has way more features than the others! I'm too tired to bother.]

[[Q]]

Meh, I'm done. You can post if you want.

[Rosenbird]

ok how do i take one music((its not a vid)) and i want to use it in my profuile without the multimedia

[D a r k i e]

----- { xxDarkXAngelicxx} has a fancy snazzy posty thing!----
You must be:: SO jealous~!]
XX----------------------------------------------------------------------XX
Hey Q!
I haven't talked to you for a while!
Anyway, I was trying to to put this flash music thing in a website layout Im creating so Im browsing the tech forums. xD
I'll try you tutorial! But Ill proabably screw up....^^;;;
XX------------------------------------------------XX
-Well... anyway... you need to remember that =Dark- still loves you*.....
(even though your posts arn't as pretty as her's)

[[Q]]

Y 2 J

ok how do i take one music((its not a vid)) and i want to use it in my profuile without the multimedia

Technically you're not allowed to have background music on Gaia but if you follow the music tutorial and then hide your multimedia section with a CSS override, that's a round-about way of doing it.

Once you make the music a flash file, go to My Gaia -> Theme ->
and in the override Theme box, type in
#multimedia
{
display : none;
}


But if you're goingt o hide the multimedia section, you probably shouldn't have a loadbar. Or if you do, have it play automatically after loading instead of having a Play BUTTON, which is what Newgrounds has.

Dark: You stalker!

I kid. <3

[Novator]

Good stuff. Flash was one of thoes things I never got. (and I'm usually quite good at 'getting' stuff, yes all kinds of 'stuff')

[D a r k i e]

xD.
I dont understand flash. gonk *Wacks the computer.*
.....O__o
I shouldn't have done that. sweatdrop

[Joda01]

*waves a doggy treat in front of [ Q ], then throws it to page 1 of T&T*

[[Q]]

Found a new awesome file storage host that allows direct linking. XP