[FMX] stupid syntax ((math problem))

[shuga]

k ... i got this movie that i've made from one of the experiments in the Flash Math Creativity book. if you've got the book it's on page 106.

i copied all the code and made the symbol as close as i could to the vague directions that are givin in this poorly written but pretty cool book.

and it doesn't work

as far as my untrained eye can see the code is fine. but i'm sure i'm missing something

i'd really appreciate some help in figuring out how to fix this :)

thx very much

p.s. i can't really seem to get any of the exps in this book to work *shrug* except for one ... but thats not a lot :)

[lostinbeta]

I will see what I can do.

Also, Flash Math Creativity isn't poorly written, it is a book for people who know and understand AS, but what to take it to another level and learn cool effects and such.

What is this supposed to do anyway?

[shuga]

lol .. very true. although to understand AS is relative. i understand a hell of a lot more than i did about AS 6 moths ago ... and yet i'm still a newb to some but to others i'm l33t *shrug* guess it'll always be that way.

stupid syntax!

[lostinbeta]

I edited my above post, put I did it at the same time you posted sooo....

What is this supposed to do?

I can't fix it right if I don't know what its supposed to do...lol.

(if I can fix it at all, FOE is a bit advanced for me)

[shuga]

it's from this experiment
http://www.friendsofed.com/fmc/PaulPrudence/index.html#
it's the base fla from which the others will be derived

here's what it says in the book



The code basically plots duplications of a movieclip with the instance name line on a circular path. However the path is also dependant on the mouse position so the final plot can be oval in the x or y directions. Each newly plotted fuplicate is also individually colored using the color object. its alpha and x/y scale set according to a variable. There is a max of 70 duplications on the screen at any one time and the duplications are plotted on the fly creating quite complex animations.


make sense?

[shuga]

i made it do something!
i made it do something!
i made it do something!

it's just really small
:)

gonna keep working on it=)

[lostinbeta]

Kinda..... It also kinda sounds like my old footer (but not quite) :)

[shuga]

here's whats making it so small



line._yscale = x/15;
line._xscale = x/15;


heh ... but it looks funny when you make it big =)

[shuga]

it's doing something but i just looked at the examples online and it's doing nothing like what they are

*shrug*

maybe i'm not meant to be a scripter ... bah!

[lostinbeta]

Never give up, just try harder... here is a question though...

You have all these variables such as "curve", "ydist", and "radius", but you never use them anywhere else in the code.

Also, the original x value is never assigned, so you are multiplying everything by x, but there is no x variable. The only timeyou define what x is, is in your if statement where you say if x>70, how can x>70 if there is no x? I could be wrong though.

[shuga]

i know curve gets used in exp3 so i'm assuming the other unused ones do as well.

look at what the fla does ... you gotta give it a min .. and its pretty small (the effect it makes) then go look at the link i gave you it's the second from the right .... called circling on that page .... the two look nothing alike

as far as x ... i think you're right but it's in the code ... i copied word for word ... so i dunno :(

[lostinbeta]

Hrmm, I think the effect looks different only because you used lines, and Paul used circles.

You can see it much better if you do this...

line._yscale = x+50;
line._xscale = x+50;

[shuga]

here's what i've done

it looks better but still not like what he has ... guess i'll keep at it =)
thx for the help

[shuga]

hey lostinbeta

what do you think of this?

i'm trying to make that lil mouse follow thing you showed me work but backwards. so the ball always goes away from the mouse

i figured also that if you applied it to only the _xmouse that it would make it look more realistic (your footer) when the mouse moves around

=)

[shuga]

one thing i don't understand though is this:



line._visible = false;


that should make the original instance of line invisible .. right?

b/c it still shows up when you play the movie

:(

[lostinbeta]

Yeah, I was wondering that too.

I don't know if I can fix this.... I don't have the book, so I can't see the original code. And I am not Math expert I will tell you that.

As for that backwards thing, that was cool, I made a few adjustments if you don't mind :beam:

[shuga]

lol .. yours does the opposite of mine .... mine stays mostly in the top left .. yours goes down to the bottom right. i wish i could figure out how to get it to go the exact opposite of the cursor

check out what i did with the lil math exp now

stupid _visible property still not working but it's ok b/c i made it white =)

[shuga]

g'night lost

i'll catch ya tomorrow evening when i get home from school

sleep well

:sleep: zzzzzzzz

[lostinbeta]

Mine was just a slight modification of your file :)

This new thing is cool Shuga :)

[pom]

Looks pretty good :)

And Shuga, why don't you check the source of the original file?

[shuga]

they don't give source files :(

i think i'm understanding more about this now ... the only thing i still can't figure out is why the line._visible = false line doesn't work

pom ... any suggestions?

thx =)

[lostinbeta]

Hmmm, so they give you a book (well you buy it, but you know what I mean), with a cd, that has the flash files you need as example, but they don't allow you to view the source of it?

Your file looks somewhat the same, my only other suggestion is that the example file they show you is a slightly enhanced version to show you what you could do with that code if you change some numbers or something. Makes no sense, but I have no other answers :(

[shuga]

i think you're right about their swf being different so it looks slightly enhanced to show you more of what you can do with the experiment. but the book doesnt come with a cd so there is no source. the only source that comes with it is whats on the website and thats just swf files :(

[lostinbeta]

Oh ok, I thought it came with a CD of experiments.

[Jubba]

You can too download the FLAs :P

heres the link to them:

http://www.friendsofed.com/fmc/downloads/

just so you know, its in the front of the book. the page right after the contents...

[shuga]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!!

alright ... now i feel retarded

thx very much

you don't have any idea why the _visible property isn't working do you?