Thursday, April 5, 2012

Flash: Eyes That Follow the Mouse

Today we are going to be drawing an eye (facing left), converting it to a movie clip, dragging an instance to the desktop, naming your instances, adding some ActionScript, and testing it.  The result?  Eyes that follow the mouse pointer, obviously.  :)
  • Create a Flash ActionScript 2.0 file.
  • Create three layers (Actions, Eyes, and Content).
  • Add the following ActionScript to the Frame 1 of the Actions layer:
a = eye1._y-_ymouse;
b = eye1._x-_xmouse;
angleA = Math.atan2(a, b);
degrees = angleA/(Math.PI/180);
setProperty("eye1", _rotation, degrees);
a2 = eye2._y-_ymouse;
b2 = eye2._x-_xmouse;
angleA2 = Math.atan2(a2, b2);
degrees2 = angleA2/(Math.PI/180);
setProperty("eye2", _rotation, degrees2);
  • Click on Frame 1 of the "Eyes" layer
  • Draw a large circle (usually a black line and a white fill) [holding shift while dragging the circle helps it stay circular]
  • Draw a smaller circle on the inside-left of the larger circle (about 9:00) which will serve as the pupil
  • Select the entire eye [you can drag around the eyeball or click CTRL+A]
  • Go to MODIFY > CONVERT TO SYMBOL
  • Select "Movie clip" and call the clip something like "eyeball".
  • Drag the eyeball over so that the "+" is directly in the center
  • Go back to "Scene 1"
  • Press "Delete" to remove the eyeball from the Stage
  • Drag two "instances" of the "eyeball" on to the stage [a left and right eye]
  • Click on the left eye and give it the "instance name" of "eye1"
  • Click on the right eye and give it the "instance name" of "eye2"
  •  Test your movie (CTRL+ENTER) -- the eyes should "look at" your mouse pointer.
  • Add a background picture and resize the eyes accordingly to fit.
  • Optionally you can add a custom mouse pointer to give the eyes something interesting to look at.

Below is a Video Tutorial which doesn't follow our project exactly, but should help explain the process:

No comments:

Post a Comment

REMEMBER:

•  Add your name to your projects
•  Save Photoshop projects as PSD and JPG
•  Save Bryce projects as BR7 and [Save Image As] JPG
•  Save Sculptris projects as SC1 and JPG and export it as an OBJ.
•  Save Rhino projects as 3DM and JPG
•  Save Flash projects as FLA and go to FILE>PUBLISH SETTINGS and publish as SWF and JPG
•  Upload finished projects to your portfolio and/or your DeviantArt page
•  Keep checking your grade on PowerSchool