Who knows stuff about animated pictures with hot spots?

[Stonelesscutter]

I have this new signature of a piece of film with pictures of movies in frames which looks very nice, but I want more. I'd like to have the pictures in the frames change from time to time and also I would like each picture to link to a different page.

Does anyone know if and how I could get this done? Am I going to need to learn to work with Flash? Even if I manage to get the picture to do what I want, will I be able to use it in my signature on Gatefans or are there restrictions preventing it?

 

[Overmind One]

I have this new signature of a piece of film with pictures of movies in frames which looks very nice, but I want more. I'd like to have the pictures in the frames change from time to time and also I would like each picture to link to a different page.

Does anyone know if and how I could get this done? Am I going to need to learn to work with Flash? Even if I manage to get the picture to do what I want, will I be able to use it in my signature on Gatefans or are there restrictions preventing it?

The hotspots thing as well as the Flash should be easy to do in Flash or even in Adobe Fireworks. But the pictures "changing from time to time" is not going to be possible without a folder to call photos from and a script to pick them from the folder. You would have to incorporate all changes into the Flash file and then run the file from another location (because you cant upload it here). It would not work in Flame Hell because the external site would not have access to Flame Hell or any part of the site which has restricted access. Hope this helps!

 

[OMNI]

you could use a banner rotator or iage rotator... that way everytime someone updates the page your pic will be dif.

http://rotasig.com/rotasig2/

ive used that one a few times and it does work pretty good but its far from animated.

 

[Stonelesscutter]

The hotspots thing as well as the Flash should be easy to do in Flash or even in Adobe Fireworks. But the pictures "changing from time to time" is not going to be possible without a folder to call photos from and a script to pick them from the folder. You would have to incorporate all changes into the Flash file and then run the file from another location (because you cant upload it here). It would not work in Flame Hell because the external site would not have access to Flame Hell or any part of the site which has restricted access. Hope this helps!

Cool. Any idea for a location I could run the file from?
If it doesn't work in Flame Hell, could I at least have the standard PNG file display there instead?

 

[Stonelesscutter]

you could use a banner rotator or iage rotator... that way everytime someone updates the page your pic will be dif.

http://rotasig.com/rotasig2/

ive used that one a few times and it does work pretty good but its far from animated.

That might turn out to be a helpful site. Thanks.

I could ofcourse make the pic an animated gif but then it would turn out large and it would be a lot of work adding new pictures. Also the hotspots couldn't be implemented, I think.

 

[Stonelesscutter]

Okay, I've been watching and reading some tutorials which should help me along great towards achieving my desired goal.
I am still wondering about a couple of things though as I can't seem to find that information anywhere.

Right now I'm looking into ActionScript code (for Flash) that will automatically choose random images to display from an array by means of reading an XML file.
I've found a piece of code that to me looks great which is the following...



pauseTime = 2000;

xmlImages = new XML();
xmlImages.ignoreWhite = true;
xmlImages.onLoad = loadImages;
xmlImages.load("images.xml");

function loadImages(loaded) {
if (loaded) {
xmlFirstChild = this.firstChild;
imageFileName = [];
totalImages = xmlFirstChild.childNodes[0].childNodes.length;
for (i=0; i<totalImages; i++) {
imageFileName = xmlFirstChild.childNodes[0].childNodes.attributes.title;
}
randomImage();
}
}

function randomImage() {
if (loaded == filesize) {
var ran = Math.round(Math.random() * (totalImages - 1));
picture_mc.loadMovie(imageFileName[ran], 1);
pause();
}
}

function pause() {
pauseInterval = setInterval(pause_slideshow, pauseTime);
function pause_slideshow() {
clearInterval(pauseInterval);
randomImage();
}
}



Okay this is coding for a slideshow which is something different from what I'm trying to do, but I think I can adapt this for my own purposes. However, though it loads a random picture, this piece of code does not prevent a picture from appearing several times in a row, which is something I would certainly like to prevent. I want to go even further because I don't want any of the last five pictures that were loaded to participate in the random selection of pictures. Anybody here with coding skills have an idea about how I could accomplish that goal?

Another thing I've been wondering about is if I can get the XML file where the random pictures are selected from to be created automatically according to the contents of a folder. This would mean that I would only have to upload new pictures to that folder and they would automatically become part of the XML file and therefore also the Flash file. A small problem with this might be that I also want links and flash videos to be incorporated into the file which are each associated with a specific picture. Who knows enough about XML to tell me how this can be done or why it can't be done?

 

[Stonelesscutter]

I now have a swf file that looks and operates rather nicely but I have no idea how to implement it as my signature.
Can it be done at all?

 

[Overmind One]

I now have a swf file that looks and operates rather nicely but I have no idea how to implement it as my signature.
Can it be done at all?

Im working on this.

EDIT: This is very cool! But the actionscript you have in it is going to be a problem. In the forums, this will only run if I upload the Flash file into the root directory and then call it from HTML in your signature. Links attached to the image frames is going to be a problem as well. If you are planning to make this a signature, you arent going to be able to use it anywhere as it is because it is technically a "program" now (because of the actionscript). I can do the following:

1. I can create the signature from your files and set it up.
2. I can create the proper embed code for your signature.

If you ask me to do this, you will need to keep it a while, because I cant have HTML in people's signatures here, especially Flash embeds. I will do it for you, but PLEASE dont change it often! Let me know. Also, there is no way another board will do this for you.

GOOD WORK on the project!

 

[Stonelesscutter]

Im working on this.

EDIT: This is very cool! But the actionscript you have in it is going to be a problem. In the forums, this will only run if I upload the Flash file into the root directory and then call it from HTML in your signature. Links attached to the image frames is going to be a problem as well. If you are planning to make this a signature, you arent going to be able to use it anywhere as it is because it is technically a "program" now (because of the actionscript). I can do the following:

1. I can create the signature from your files and set it up.
2. I can create the proper embed code for your signature.

If you ask me to do this, you will need to keep it a while, because I cant have HTML in people's signatures here, especially Flash embeds. I will do it for you, but PLEASE dont change it often! Let me know. Also, there is no way another board will do this for you.

GOOD WORK on the project!

First of all, thanks for your support.
Secondly my plan is to have the file automatically select images/videos from a folder. If I can get it to do so, you won't ever have to change the file. It'd be a matter of uploading new pictures/movies to a folder. There might be a XML document involved with that that I would need to change, not sure, but even then it would just be a matter of uploading the new XML document overwriting the old one. If I can get that done, would it be a lot of work for you?

I'm hoping I can make an XML document that contains pictures, videos and links, all ofcourse referenced to eachother. The picture would be the standard state, the video would play on rollover and the link would be, well, just a link.

 

[Overmind One]

First of all, thanks for your support.
Secondly my plan is to have the file automatically select images/videos from a folder. If I can get it to do so, you won't ever have to change the file. It'd be a matter of uploading new pictures/movies to a folder. There might be a XML document involved with that that I would need to change, not sure, but even then it would just be a matter of uploading the new XML document overwriting the old one. If I can get that done, would it be a lot of work for you?

I'm hoping I can make an XML document that contains pictures, videos and links, all ofcourse referenced to eachother. The picture would be the standard state, the video would play on rollover and the link would be, well, just a link.

It would technically be a FEED. I have no problem with that, and an .XML file will work with it. All you need is to have proper HTML in your signature to embed the video. I had it here when the Timelines forums were still here. I deleted them, but I am planning to revive it for the rewatch threads (we can put the videos on the timeline and it will also function as a calendar). Your signature does the same thing.

 

[Stonelesscutter]

It would technically be a FEED. I have no problem with that, and an .XML file will work with it. All you need is to have proper HTML in your signature to embed the video. I had it here when the Timelines forums were still here. I deleted them, but I am planning to revive it for the rewatch threads (we can put the videos on the timeline and it will also function as a calendar). Your signature does the same thing.

Unfortunately I haven't found out how to actually do all this yet. I keep running into trouble.