Remember that unless youre using a shape tween, a symbol is required to animate an object. Symbols can also be used over and over again without increasing the download time. The most used symbol is a movie clip. Weve already been using movie clip symbols whenever we created a tweened animation.

Other than being required for animation, a movie clip has some cool properties that become very useful for Flash developers. The extra usefulness of a movie clip hinges on the fact that movie clips have their own multi layer timeline that operates independently of the normal Flash Movie timeline. Basically, you can think of a movie clip as an independent little movie that can be inserted into your main Flash movie. Movie clips can hold animations, buttons, sounds, and interactivity. Basically, a movie clip can do anything a regular movie can do, and its reusable! If you use an animation more than once, youre better off creating that animation inside a movie clip so that it only has to download once.

The theoretical idea of inserting one movie into another.
The two timelines function independently of each other.
Therefore, one timeline might stop, while the other continues.

Movie Clips Dont Stream

You should understand that movie clips do not stream, and only play after the entire movie clip is loaded. This is a really good thing if you have animations that change quickly. Montages and other fast moving sequences look bad if slowed by streaming. If the montage is created in a movie clip, the entire montage will download before it displays. Because the entire sequence is downloaded, it will display as intended. Check out the montage at web design course. Notice that the montage doesn't show until it is all loaded. That's because it's set up in a Movie clip.

You should also know that movie clip animations do not display in the Flash environment. In order to view inserted movie clips, you must test your movie by hitting F12.

Creating Movie Clips

Creating Movie clips is easy. In fact, weve already done it.

To create a movie clip:

1. Select a drawn or imported object
2. Hit F8 to convert it to a symbol

3. Make sure "Movie Clip" is selected and click OK

Youll notice that a new item will appear in the Library. The movie clip icon looks like

Editing Movie Clips

You can think of a movie clip as a little Flash Movie. It has its own timeline that you can animate. When inserted into a Flash Movie, the clip will play along its own timeline, regardless of whats happening on the main timeline. That means that, among other things, the movie clip can loop while the main movie is stopped.

Were going to make a very simple movie clip right now. Later well use movie clips to animate a button when you roll over it. Well also learn how to control movie clips using buttons. Well even use movie clips to do other cool things like create a scrollable text window!

It is important to note that if you edit a movie clip that you are actually editing every instance of that clip in the main movie.

To Edit a Movie Clip:

1. Double click the clip on the screen, or in the Library.
2. Youll open into Movie Clip Editing Mode.
   Its very easy to get in Movie Clip Editing Mode by Accident. The only really reliable visual clue that Flash offers you is in the upper left corner of the screen.

IMPORTANT: Any editing or animating that you do while in Movie Clip Editing Mode only applies to the Movie Clip and will not show up in your normal Flash movie unless the movie clip is currently being displayed. Beginners often get into Movie Clip Editing Mode by accident and end up doing lots of work they cant use.

To return to the main movie, click the button.

3. Make sure youre in movie clip editing mode.
   If you click the shape, youll notice that its no longer a symbol. When you enter editing mode, Flash doesnt know what you want to do, so it breaks everything down for you.
   If you want to animate the shape youll need to create another symbol. (F8)

4. Animate the symbol at will.
   You can do anything you normally would. Tween symbols, add new symbols, add text, whatever.
5. When youre done, return to the main movie by clicking in the upper left corner of the screen.

Thats it! Drag the movie clip from the Library a couple of times. Test your movie by hitting F12.

Youll notice that the movie clip will loop until the main movie runs out of frames. There are ways to stop movie clips. Well get to that soon.

Nesting Movie Clips

You can create a movie clip inside of another movie clip, or you can drag one from the library. Each movie clip has its own timeline and can function independently.

Naming Movie Clips

Later on, well create buttons that tell specific movie clips to start playing. If you have the same movie clip on the screen four times, youll need to be able to tell Flash which one to play. Each time you drag a movie clip on the screen, youll have the opportunity to name that instance of the clip. If each instance is named, youll be able to control it later on.

Remember, when I say an instance of the Movie Clip, I mean the actual item that displays on the screen after being dragged from the Library.

1. Select the movie clip instance on the screen.
   Make sure you dont double click it!
2. Open the Instance Panel
   WINDOW-> PANELS-> INSTANCE
3. Type the instance name in the box.
   You can name it whatever you feel like, as long as youll remember it later.

Note that the Instance Panel can also be used to easily switch any symbol on the screen for any symbol in the library by selecting the on screen symbol and clicking the Switch Symbols button .

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