At 4/29/01 01:34 PM, scaramanga wrote: how do I make the background of a movie transparant??

File_.Publish Settings->HTML Tab->Window mode->Transparent Windowless.

At 4/28/01 08:01 PM, Typhoon-X wrote: i bet if you invested in Dreamweaver it would make that kind of thing MUCH easier...pop a column in there, import a SWF...done!

That's not really the best solution, in my opinion. Yes, it'd be quicker, but it's always best to learn HTML before using WYSIWYG packages - or you could run into long term problems.

At 4/28/01 07:48 PM, fourchinnigan wrote: Perhaps I should have had Zing post this.

;)

To be perfectly honest, when it comes to online animation, I like anything that:

- isn't CPU intensive (I'm running a P2, 266Mhz). Some games I've seen on the portal have just completely locked the machine up. I know, I know, I should get a faster machine. Keep in mind that there are probably plenty of people who're running a similar spec to me though.....

- doesn't promise to deliver something that it can't / doesn't. If someone's expecting a game to include certain features, perhaps because the author hypes it up, and then the movie / game doesn't deliver what's been promised / what the viewer is led to believe, they're disappointed.

- isn't massive in file size; and if it is, at least have some sort of mini game / trailer so that people are able to get a preview of what the movie is about and the author's skills. There's nothing that irks me more than when I start downloading a 1Mb movie in the portal, to find that the author has just used a few big bitmaps, probably set the jpeg quality when they exported the movie to 100 - and that's the content of the movie. A few pictures. Waiting 10 minutes on this piece of shit connection, just to see a few bitmap sequences is not my idea of fun. Flash has many compression features, and it's irritating when people don't actually use them.

- has well pieced-together sounds and music. There are plenty of amazing animations in the portal, that totally fail to deliver, because the author hasn't included the right sounds, or has settled for the crappiest music loop. Some "would-be" great animations fail purely because they have no sound at all. There aren't many people who'd go to the cinema (movies) to watch a film without sound nowadays.

If a movie's been well thought out, structured, and contains sounds that fit the animation, the author's not going to lose credibility in anything but the content.

There are many people who visit newgrounds who're probably willing to help with things like audio, it intrigues me to see that so many Flash authors don't ask around for help. It's good to see that you've taken the initiative to ask for opinions - if I were you, I'd continue to employ the same tactics. :)

At 4/28/01 08:04 PM, Typhoon-X wrote: I STILL don't see how this works if within the first 11 frames, there is some type of animation. Upon changing your music, would the page not reset and play the animation from the frame that the music is on?

No. I think I see where you're getting confused. The example I've given uses a Movie Clip Instance, as opposed to a separate .swf file. Movie Clips act independently of the main timeline, so providing that the Movie Clip containing the music is on its own layer, in a keframe of its own, and the number of frames the Movie clip spans across is the entire length of the Movie, Anything else that happens on the timeline will not affect the Movie Clip containing the sounds, etc. A Movie clip, is, put simply, a kind of semi-.swf. Make sense?

The easiest thing to do is to just try it.

At 4/28/01 11:41 AM, thebluehippo wrote: right, i started using tweening, but when you create a motion tween an object won't move say a person won't walk they will only just float along, does anyone know how to create a tween which has more than one frame in?

You'd have to do it as a series of tweens (ie break up each part of the body you'd want to move into its own object).

At 4/27/01 04:15 PM, Shaolon wrote: Anybody have any FLA's of music selectors I can look at or have any directions on how to make one? Thankes.

Assuming you have 5 sound clips:
Create a movie clip called "sound." In the first layer create 11 frames. In the first frame, insert a keyframe, and change the actions of the keyframe to "stop all sounds", and "stop". In frame 2 insert a keyframe and give it a label "clip1", and have the actions "stop all sounds". In frame 3, insert a keyframe. This will contain the first sound clip. So, import the sound, set it to start and loop as many times you want. Add an action, "stop."

Repeat what you did for keyframes 2 and 3 another four times (giving you clip2, 3, 4, 5 etc).

Now, in a new layer, insert a keyframe in the first frame and place 6 buttons. The first will be your mute button. It needs to have the actions, "On Release, goto and play frame 1".

The other buttons will need to have the action, "On release, go to and play clip(no.)".

The effects of what you have done: When your movie starts, there is no sound, as the first keyframe stops all sound and stops at that keyframe. When you click button 1, to go to clip 1, it goes to a frame that stops all sound, then progresses to the frame containing the first sound. You'll now see why you have a "stop all sounds" keyframe before each of the keyframes containing the sound: if you didn't have those keyframes, the sounds would overlap.

However, if you now pressed button 2 it goes to the frame "clip2", which clears any sounds that might be playing rather than going directly to the frame containing the next sound.

Hope that helps.

At 4/27/01 05:22 PM, Typhoon-X wrote: Did no one reply to this because no one genuinely knows, beacsue I was too confusing, or is it just cause you all don't like me for some reason?

No, I didn't reply because it was posted in the week, and would have taken up too much time replying from work, and too much valuable beer consuming time during the evening. :)

It seems that what you've asked has been answered. I'd rather use a movie clip than loading different movies for the sound though.......

Double click the button. Select the action tab. Choose Get Url. On the right, you'll see a pull down box, with "Target" written next to it. You can either select _top, _parent, _blank, or you can type in your own. Type in "right", or whatever the name of your target frame is. Simple.

At 4/28/01 09:42 AM, hannetz wrote: dats wat i did but it still doesn't work...

It would help when asking these questions to provide a URL. :)

Let's hope that the magazine doesn't intend to do what FHM did with the pictures of Gail Porter (TV presenter - presented a program on Channel 4 called dotcomedyTV, and featured Newgrounds (a while ago)).

FHM projected images of her on the Houses of parliament (covering the whole of the houses of parliament (which is the UK equivelant of the Pentagon)), for which they got promptly arrested.

I don't think they'd get away so lightly with doing the same thing with the intended Eminem pictures, though.

Anyway, I'm nowhere near London, so it makes no odds to me. Here's the picture of Gail Porter they put on the afore mentioned political buildings, just to give you an idea.

No.

However, you could at least spell the address to your own website in your BBS signature correctly. :P

da_zing_man,

When you post a message in a public forum, you have to be expected to take whatever anyone throws back at you, as that is the nature of a forum. Many of the people who have criticised your site are themselves versed in creating web pages, and they offer crticism not to annoy you, but to aid you in creating better pages.

You're putting yourself in a no-win situation: You've learned a new skill / element to writing HTML, and for this you think you're going to get a pat on the back from everyone who reads the comments you post on this BBS. Well, let me shatter your illusion. You're not. People who reply to your posts on this BBS will probably (loosely) fall into four categories:

1/. People who're into web design, have been at it for a good while, and there's nothing you could tell them (short of re-writing the markup language itself) that'd make them fall off their seats. Any sites they're asked to look at, they'll scrutinise the code, and only then, after satisfying their "geeky" selves that everything's cool with the code, will they take a subjective view on how they like those sites.

2/. People who're learning how to work with websites, have some knowledge on the subject matter, and understand what you mean about HTML tables, but might struggle in spotting code irregularities. They might tell you that there's a problem with the way something looks or behaves on your page, but are unsure / can't be bothered to offer a diagnosis. And why should they? You're the webmaster.

3/. People who use Homestead, geocities and (to an extent) people who use WYSIWYG packages. They tend to give up on their pages because they can't spot errors in code when they occur - they make a half decent site, but can't complete it or improve on it, because they're restricted (through lack of knowledge) on how to write or manipulate the code (I actually use some WYSIWYG packages, not because I need them, but because my typing skills are inadequate, and I find constructing pages with them a lot quicker - I can confidently find and irradicate any errors / overcome shortfalls because I already know as much of the language as the packages I use are prepared to offer).

4/. People who couldn't give a flying fuck about how things work, just that they work!. These people are likely to be the ones who provide you with most visits. They really couldn't care about HTML tags, or any other type of programming / markup language (web-orientated or otherwise). They either like your site or don't, and depending on how much they like it, they'll return to it.

If you look back over these "categories", you'll see why you've been receiving (as what you perceive to be) so much negative response: The people who're into the web design stuff are either uninterested in your newly acquired skills, and the people who aren't are likely to be completely oblivious to what the hell you're talking about. So, posting a topic "site update" is a complete waste of time, unless the site contains new material, or you've completely overhauled one of your pages / entire site - most visitors to your site will not be interested in "tweeks" / adjustments you've made to your pages, and most will rarely even notice them. Don't think you can't write about them on your site, in some deep dark corner of one of your pages, as there are a minority who may be interested to see how the site has progressed, but don't think you're ever going to get thanks for it.

Anyway, to finish, you're missing / getting worked up over some responses that are actually intended to help you improve your site. And even those messages that say "your site sux!" are, in their own way, a pointer to the fact that you're doing something wrong. Of course, you can't please everyone all the time, but you can at least take heed of what's been said, and see if it bares any relevance on how you might change things on your site in future. If it doesn't, take it with a pinch of salt.

Good luck.

At 4/26/01 01:48 PM, Tomlad wrote: yeh cheers nik i think quite a few ppl know that i now use homestead cheap shit (not hard html) like everyone else

Oi! You speak for yourself buddy. Not everyone uses Homestead. :P

Ray,

If you're talking about raw access logs, then no, you can't, because neither Angelfire or Geocities allow their users access to them. What do you need them for?

At 4/25/01 02:07 PM, nik_connor wrote: do not get a book they are totaly shit the book I got cost me £15 and its a bag of wank it is really rubbish it dosnt tell you how to make the games like the ones on NG alls that it tells you is how to draw good and animate things and Im 3/4 of the way through the book

After reading previous posts by you, it had already occured to me that you hadn't read anything in a good while, hence your inability to write coherently.

Everyone, books are no good. I take back what I said. No-one needs them.

At 4/25/01 12:53 PM, nik_connor wrote: get it quick but its a pain in the ass if you have noone to ask find someone on NG who you are funds with and ask them regaulr question on flash cuz you will get your ass into a mess if you dont once I lost my timeline and I thought I coulnd get it back but somone showed me on a tut how to get it back apart from the probs flash is exellent

Rather than rely on people who give up their free time to answer questions, you should invest in some books, which'll propel you through learning Flash a lot quicker than waiting for handouts from BBS users. The tutorials that come with the Flash package are also extensive, and answer many of the questions asked regularly on this board.

Learning time will depend on a great deal of things, I'd suggest downloading the trial, and getting a book.

At 4/24/01 10:01 PM, fourchinnigan wrote: For the nav frame make it the parent frame and the frame you want to change must be specified as the target in the html code. If you do not have a program to write html for you, go to http://www.htmlgoodies.com and learn html.

Why not try some Jalfrezi while you're at it. :)

At 4/24/01 05:53 PM, ray1912 wrote: Energy drinks shouldn't be dangerous. I hear on the news, mixing Red Bull or any energy drink with alcohol could be dangerous, because alcohol makes you sleepy and those energy drinks make you energetic.

That's half the fun!

At 4/24/01 03:53 PM, AgentO wrote: where do i put the tell target action, on the duck movie clip, or on the motion tween?

In a keyframe, (probably) on the main timeline. Think logically. When the Movie gets to a certain part of the timeline, you want to tell the MovieClip to (go to and) stop doing whatever it has been doing.

Red Bull and Vodka. It's your friend.

At 4/24/01 12:59 AM, NGclock wrote: uhg..... thats just one frame that it seems to link to the source of the banner and i can't get it to stop

That would be a problem with your host - they're forcing adverts onto your page. The only way around it would be to get clever with something like javascript and break out of their frames.

At 4/24/01 01:17 PM, nik_connor wrote: please vote low so I can get turd of the week

I think they did one better than that:

Error - no movie with that ID exists in the database. It has either been deleted, or never existed at all.

At 4/24/01 12:01 PM, traekwon wrote: EastFatal and Nikachu are chat room morons not BBS morons.

Off topic: EastFatal used to contribute to the BBS regularly. Not seen so much of him on here lately though.

On topic: Can't say as I dislike anyone on the net, and it's unlikely I ever will. People who act like assholes online are more of an irritance than anything else...... I can't actually think of anyone I hate, on or offline. *Shrug.*

At 4/24/01 10:19 AM, da_zing_man wrote:

At 4/24/01 07:13 AM, liljim wrote: Use the "TARGET" attribute in the href tag:

now before you people say i'm not taking critisism well again, your wrong i am taking it under advisement, BUT...

how many times do i gotta tell you people i SUCK AT HTML...=(

i know very little about java script, so i don't even try using it (unless i'm using at and don't know about it....i dunno)

but there is one thing you helped me with here liljim, until you brought it up, i had no idea what the hell that "TARGET" thing in my HTML editor did, now i know, thanx =)

I think you need to learn when to differentiate between criticism and helpful hints: mentioning the target part of the a tag being the latter. Glad it helped, anyway.

Hrms. It's not a bad site. However, many of the pages take a while to load because of the Flash animation you have in there. This doesn't make for easy navigation.

Points to consider: Apply a font tag to the text in the pages, so that the text looks neat.

"here are some of the sites i concider extremely cool, and i think everyone should take a look at, but PLEASE open these links in a new window, don't want you forgeting about me now do i? " - Use the "TARGET" attribute in the href tag:

<a href="http://www.newgrounds.com" target="_blank">Newgrounds</a>

Make a check of the spelling mistakes on the site.

Try and tidy up the javascript errors on the site (there are plenty of them).

Keep up the good work!

At 4/23/01 12:46 PM, devil_child wrote:

At 4/23/01 10:34 AM, InsaneLogan wrote: Are you looking for domain hosting or what?

I have the domain and im looking for a place to build my site in Html and with the least advertisements and easy 2 use and I also want the maximum webspace possible do you know any good site like this???

Err, I've never come across a web host that doesn't allow you to build a website in HTML. And your job is supposed to be related to web design?

Also, you might want to make yourself a little clearer - your geographical location, how much you intend to pay and what else you want from your hosting other than just allowing you to "build sites in HTML."

There's also the matter of getting whoever you purchased the domain from to forward vistors on to the location of your web host (when you do eventually get space). This could be tricky, particularly if, in the small print, the company states that all domain names registered through them must be hosted by them. Unlikely, but possible nonetheless.

At 4/22/01 07:13 PM, traekwon wrote: You coulda just called me an asshole and saved yourself the long post :)

*Chuckle.*

Well, part of the reason for making that post was because I doubt that the American news concentrates too much on events in the UK or other parts of the world other than where the US is concerned (and why should it? America is a self-contained country, and the only commodity commanding importance exogenously is fuel - and I'm sure if fuel were ever cut off in the US, someone would think of an alternative).

I often think that people I write to / this BBS take what I write the wrong way. But then that'd be a trait (not to be too stereotypical, of course :)) of someone from the UK.... Dry sense of humour.

Legokiller666 is an exception to that, by the way - I'm not sure he even comes from this planet, let alone this country. ;) Although, I think Suffolk (where he's from) is pretty close to the latest outbreak of foot and mouth, so perhaps there is an effect of the disease on humans.

At 4/22/01 02:10 PM, killbot_ wrote: if there was a case where a child had a terminal illness that required a transplant/infusion/bio-donation from a family member, and the parents of the child refused to do so, should those parents be forced to by law>? if so/if not why?
secondly, if you answered yes to the above, what if the situation was reversed, and a parent required a transfusion/donation (blood, bone marrow etc) from a family member and the only compatible donor was the child, but the child refused, should that child be forced to by law? if so/if not why?
consider in your answers the ramifications of the death of any member as a result of inaction (ie, the future emotional outcome for a child scared of needles at age 6,who grows up to be 16yr old who feels responsible for the death of a parent etc), and the use of family members as a bio-bank
why am i posing these questions? i am bored and i thought for a change it might be interesting to have a post that was not totally inane and pointless

It's unlikely that a child of 6 would have organs or any other body parts that would be compatible with an adult's requirements. And it would probably put a child at risk to remove organs at such an early age anyway.

It's an interesting set of questions. I don't know whether or not you're familiar with the siamese twin case in the UK not so long ago, but basically it was like this: If the twins weren't separated both of the twins would certainly die (they were sharing major organs). If the twins were separated, the strongest one has a 90% odd chance of living, whereas the weaker one would certainly die. The parents' beliefs went against any sort of blood transfusion, or anything that would affect life or death. Their beliefs were overruled after many days of court and the twins were separated. The strongest one, as predicted, survived and the weakest one died.

In instances like that, I'd have to say that I was with the judicial decision, as at least one of the twins will now live. However, I don't think that it's ethical to enforce anyone to do anything against their will. In the case of the twins, neither of them would have lived long enough to benefit from that freedom of choice.

I suppose you could argue that going against the parents' will was as good as going against the childrens' will in this example, as the next of kin are typically the ones to take decisions when the person (or people) in question are unable to make decisions. I don't think that the surviving child will agree with that when she grows up though.

At 4/22/01 12:51 PM, traekwon wrote:

>>I could refer to the whole of America as pitifully stupid - a "great" nation who not only make a balls up of their election, they take over six weeks to sort the problem out.

I'm not so candid though.

And I'm not so candid to say that I could refer to Britain as pitifully stupid -- for feeding their animals their own body parts and spreading Mad Cow disease, or being so lax in thier farm practices they have a huge outbreak of Foot & Mouth disease which spreads to other countries, almost destroying their economy.. give me a botched election any day.

I saw the post you made, "Shame on you UK..", and let it go, seeing as you couldn't be bothered to express your own opinion (you'd copied and pasted three completely unrelated articles), as you did with the Ramones article you posted.

Now you've taken a quote from me completely out of context with this post (obviously in some sort of attempt to humiliate me). Why, I don't know. The only reason I can deduce is that you've got some sort of problem with the fact that I ended up as user of the day for so long. Yet that'd be a stupid reason, as I, nor anyone other than the people working for Newgrounds, have any sort of control over who gets to be user of the day.

Perhaps you didn't get the point I was trying to make in the post containing the "Candid" statement, which was "it's dangerous to apply stereotypes, as they're very often wrong."

However, going back to what you've said about Foot and Mouth, BSE and in your "shame on you UK" post (which, in addition to the farming issues in this post, contained a pop at the British transportation system), you clearly haven't got a clue what you're talking about.

In the article you posted, it mentioned "The British Government should have done more to contain the outbreak" (etc). True. They should have done. However, containment of Foot and Mouth disease isn't as straightforward as people often think. Foot and Mouth disease is a "clever" disease - it's one of these diseases that can survive outside of its host. Not only can it survive out of its host, it can attach itself to just about anything - which includes (but is not restricted to) cars, birds.... everything that moves. That is why this outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease is known as an "outbreak". It's very difficult to contain, even on quick diagnosis, so that is why it spreads so quickly. Preventing exports of meat did little to kerb the spread of the virus abroad, as people most likely carried it over. It's ironic that France should complain about the spread of the disease, as it's just as likely some French people touring the UK could have taken the disease back over with them as it is UK people and the exports that got through to France did.

BSE is a completely different disease to Foot and Mouth, both in how it attacks the beasts it infects and how it it passed on to different animals. BSE attacks the nervous system of the animals and sends them... Well.... Mad. (Note that foot and mouth, whilst extremely contageous, is neither life threatening to the animals, or harmful to humans: it just causes small blisters to form on the animals' hooves and mouths).

The "feeding animals their own body parts" is partly true: Offel contains all sorts of stuff I'd rather not know about. But you'd be obtuse to think that the feeding of offel to cattle is restricted to the UK. It's practised all over the world (and I'd be surprised if there weren't parts of America that did the same thing). I read an article somewhere that the French actually fed their cattle on treated sewage (though I can't remember where).

Mad cow disease doesn't typically "spread" as you've mistakenly written. Unlike foot and mouth disease, that can spread via just about anything that moves, mad cow disease is contracted by the animals via what is fed to them (and CJD is contracted by humans after consumption of infected meat), so unless other countries were feeding their animals with offel, they would not be affected by the disease. However, like BSE, Foot and Mouth can also be spread through what is fed to the animals, and in the case of this particular outbreak, it's believed that the source was meat from abroad destined for a Chinese Restaurant (which makes you wonder how safe meat humans are eating is (and meat that has not just come from the UK)).

To say that Farming practices are "lax" is also incorrect - more so that the journalists in the UK are extremely vigilant, and cases such as foot and mouth are often on the front page of the tabloids before they've been brought to the attention of the Government or respective farming bodies.

The French (and I think it was the French agriculture minister you quoted in your post) were pretty funny in how they handled BSE there. When the UK announced that they had a problem, sales of UK beef were banned in France and they put out a message, "Eat French beef - it's safer than British and BSE free." Shortly after, someone turned round and asked them if they had actually tested their livestock to see whether or not it was infected. It turns out that they were.

Don't think that I'm sticking up for the UK Government here by the way, because I'm not. One of the articles that you posted stated that the British Transport system was an embarrasment to the rest of Europe. I couldn't agree more, and I'm fortunate enough to have my own car.

However, it can't be all bad. To quote Tom (taken from http://www.newgrounds.com/lit/adventures.html):

"After spending nine days using the London Underground, a fine public transportation system that actually arrives on schedule, my hatred for SEPTA is at an all time high. I can't just blame SEPTA, either. It's the people who use it. The people who urinate on it and even defecate on occasion. I thought this was standard practice until I went to London and found no urine or defecation in site. It boggles the mind!"

Alright. I'm done with what turns out to be a lenghty reply now. :)

By the way..... I'm aware that the Dreamcast works from its own software. The point of the last post was to emphasise why it's important to express why you're disproving what someone has said. Not simply calling them a "dumbass."