Create an Interactive Movie with Flash MX and QuickTime

With your QuickTime movie finished, create a new Flash project. Import
the QuickTime movie to the Stage (File -> Import -> Import to
Stage). When importing, choose to "link" to an external file instead of
importing it into the Flash project. Make sure the layer with the
QuickTime movie is long enough to accommodate the whole movie. Also,
make sure the frame rate of the Flash project matches the frame rate of
the QuickTime movie. For example, if the QuickTime movie is 15 fps, set
the Flash project to the same. Rename the layer that contains the
QuickTime movie by double-clicking the layer name and entering "QT
Movie."

Add a new layer in the Flash timeline and rename it "Code." This layer
will have some keyframes and a little ActionScript code. On the first
frame, add the following code: var myStop = 0. The "myStop" variable is
used to determine whether playback should stop at certain points, or
keep playing all the way through.

Add another new layer in the Flash timeline (for a total of three) and
rename it "Buttons." This is the layer you’ll use for (can you guess?)
buttons. To start with, let’s add a "Play" and "Pause" button by
creating basic shapes using the drawing tools. Select each shape and
select "Modify Convert To Symbol." Name each shape appropriately and
make sure the selected Behavior is "Button."

Select the Pause button you’ve created and add the following code as an
action: on (release) {stop();}. Do the same for the Play button, but
change "stop()" to "play()."

This whole thing works because QuickTime supports multiple tracks or
layers, more than just audio and video. Using Flash, you can export
your QuickTime movie from Flash with the Flash animation and buttons on
a separate Flash track without re-compressing the movie. Before you do
that, however, you need to tweak some settings in the "Publish
Settings" dialog box ("File -> Publish Settings"). For Formats, turn
on QuickTime, then click to the QuickTime Tab. Make sure "Paused at
Start" is checked, then click to the "Flash" tab and make sure
"Compress Movie" is not checked. If you want, you can click back to the
"Formats" tab and turn off Flash exports. (You can also assign a better
default name to your exported QuickTime movie.)

Click "Publish" at the bottom of the "Publish Settings" dialog box. The
first version of your new movie has just been created and saved. Close
the "Publish Settings" dialog box and click over to your desktop.
Double-click the movie to open it in QuickTime Player and test it out.
If all goes according to plan, the movie should play and pause when you
hit the corresponding buttons.

With the Buttons layer selected, add the graphics for the chapter
buttons. This is identical to Steps 3 and 4 (above), but this time
you’ll add different code for each button. Since each button will take
the playhead to a different point in the Flash movie, you’ll need to
scrub through the Flash timeline and make a note of the frame numbers
where each chapter (section of the QuickTime movie) starts and stops.
In the example, I’ve noted that the first section spans frames 63
through 133, the second section spans 234 through 267 and the last
section covers frames 328 through 403.

Using the information from Step 7, click to the last frame of the first
section (frame 133 in our example) and select the CODE layer, the one
we’re using for ActionScript code. Add a keyframe by selecting "Insert
-> Timeline -> Keyframe" and add the following code as an action
to the frame: if (mystop) {stop();}. Keep adding "stop" keyframes to
your "code" layer on the last frame for each section.

All that’s left now is to add the code to each of the buttons. Use the
first button to play the whole thing from the beginning, and the other
three buttons to play only sections. Select the first button and enter
the following code as an action for the button on (release) {mystop =
0;gotoAndPlay(2);}. This ensures that the value for mystop is false,
and that playback starts at the beginning of the movie (actually, the
second frame). You need to set "mystop" to zero or false so that you
can play through the stop marks you added in Step 8.

Select the second button and add the following code as a button action:
on (release) {mystop = 1;gotoAndPlay(63);}. This will start playing at
the beginning of your first section, and setting mystop to "1" (or
"true") ensures that the playhead will stop when it hits the end of the
section keyframed in Step 8. Repeat this step for the remaining two
buttons, replacing the frame numbers in the gotoandplay() function with
the frames numbers for the end of the corresponding sections.

Select "File -> Publish" and open the exported QuickTime movie in
the QuickTime Player. Using the same techniques, you can add buttons
that click to a Web site by adding the following code:on (release)
{getURL("http://www.animationbureau.com");}. You can also
roll together multiple QuickTime movies, or use any of Flash’s
animation features for adding more style. It’s a simple technique with
limitless design potential. And all an end user needs to view it is
QuickTime.

Mike Caputo, President, Animation Bureau, New York, NY

In addition to his traditional and computer animation work at the New
York -based Animation Bureau, Mike shoots and edits video, authors
CD-ROMs and DVDs and designs Web sites.

Though I used Macromedia Flash MX on a Mac for this tutorial, the
procedures should work just as well on a Windows PC, provided QuickTime
is installed.

Animation Bureau
www.animationbureau.com
ph. 917.509.1246
e-mail: mcaputo@animationbureau.com