Buttons!

As it turns out, much of the navigation in Flash is controlled by buttons. Buttons can be made from pictures or created from a graphic and can be scripted to perform actions. So far, I've created buttons that go to a specific frame and play the movie from there.

I know that doesn't sound too impressive, but there are many variables that make that simple action difficult to achieve. Firstly, all the frames in the movie (or at least the segments of the movie you are working with) have to be perfectly aligned and each layer needs to be contained by keyframes. I found that putting the layers unique to each segment in folders (which collapse for easier view of the timeline) really helped streamline this process and keep the actions organized. Only when the frames are properly aligned can you create an "Action" layer in which you can actually create a command to stop the movie. So, if you put the stop command in the wrong place, you will either interrupt the movie with no way to return, or Flash will ignore the command all together because it doesn't make sense.

With that obstacle overcome, you can then create what I call a MENU frame using the background layer and a button layer which appears at the point at which the movie stops. This allows the user to choose a button, and thus choose a thread of the story to follow. You then have to create "Go and play" commands for each button. This sounds simple, but selecting the button layer of the film and isolating each button you want to act is a time-consuming and tedious task (although I became more proficient with the hours of practice I had!)...and even then, sometimes the button, no matter how you edit it, still doesn't work, and you have to create the button and script it all over again. However, once this task is completed for each instance of the menu (i.e. every time the menu appears, you have to rewrite the script...or as I found, copy the working frame so the action script carries over), the user can navigate the different threads of the piece, going back to one, returning to the beginning, or moving ahead to the next scene!

What I found in creating this was that it not only made the movie more user-friendly, but it also made testing a lot easier. You see, the only way to know if the segment of the movie is playing the way you want it to is to CTRL+Enter and watch the movie. If the movie has no stops or navigation, the only way to see if a particular segment of the movie works is to watch the movie all the way through to that scene. On the other hand, with (working) navigation, you can jump to the scene you want to view...saving me a lot of time and, frankly, frustration at having to read the same parts of the story 20 times or more in an hour.

I also found that buttons can do much more than "Go and play"; I would love to learn more about conditional commands (i.e. if, then actions), but after looking at sample code, I think that might be a bit more than I can chew for now. Instead, I will relish in the fact that I completed parts one of the story (although final editing still remains to be done, based on my findings about the effects of visual elements on my audience and a period of revising and reevaluation of each element as it relates to the topic of the piece and purpose), and plan how I will format menus and visually (and auditorily) present the other parts of the story.