Animating Dynamic MovieClips - Page 2

While we got to a good start from the previous page, there are still a few more steps that need to be completed before you have a fully working example.

3. Once you have drawn your circle, select it and press F8 (Modify | Convert to Symbol). The Convert to Symbol dialog window should appear.
4. From the Convert to Symbol dialog window, give it the Name blueCircle, and ensure Movie clip is selected for its Type. You are not done with this window yet!
5. Click the Advanced button. Check the box for "Export for ActionScript", and in the Identifier text field, enter blueCircle. Your Convert to Symbol window should look like the following screen:

[ convert your circle into a movie clip with the identifier set to blueCircle ]

6. Once you made the necessary changes, press OK to close the Convert to Symbol window. You should be back on the stage. Select the blue circle you drew earlier and delete it from the stage. Don't worry, you will notice that your blueCircle movie clip is still stored in the Library:

[ notice that your blueCircle movie clip is still in the Library ]

7. So far, we drew a circle, made it into a movie clip, and deleted the circle we drew from the stage. Makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? Well, hopefully things will clear up once you add the code.
   
   Right click on the first frame of your timeline and select Actions. Copy and paste the following code into your Actions window:

8. If you preview your animation right now, you will notice that you get the similar effect that you saw in my animation. As you move the mouse, small circles zoom towards you and disappear. Great!

Now that you have a cool effect, let's go through the code and figure out how it all works. After all, we only finished one of the several goals I outlined in the first page.

Onwards to the next page!

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