Rollover Animation Problem

[Roxie_]

So im creating a flash website and for some reason my rollover on some of my
buttons is acting up.
If you try the first blue one, it works fine but by the end, the purple and
yellow, only one star appears! I have no clue whats going on! :(

http://www.tubesjujubes.com/home.html

[NedWebs]

I see multiple starts in each, even the smaller two at the end. In any case, you'll need to you explain your design approach, otherwise there's no clue at this end either.

[Roxie_]

oh yes, sorry! i should have explain a little more. My rollover is comprised of
5 stars going from bottom to top, alternating. In the first button (about us)
you can see that effect. In the third button, the 4th star is missing and in my
last 2 buttons, only 1 star appears, the middle one!
The rollover should be the same for all the buttons (like About us)
Another thing, when i preview the .swf file, the rollover is different then
when im looking at the HTML file but still not working properly...

i have no clue whats going on...

[NedWebs]

Try taking your first button and make a library copy of it. Then edit it to be
your last button (color and text) and see if it plays the same as the first one
still.

I currently see 3 stars in the last button, one partly cut off by the left
side.

Is the animation of the stars timeline-based or code-based?

[Roxie_]

Timelined bass! Im only a beginner in Flash so i dont know much of actionscript :(

[NedWebs]

Try what I said regarding editing the first button.

[Roxie_]

Still not working
It as something to do with the alignment of the other animations below.
I copied the button and played around by moving it on the page and it seems
that the more its on the right of the page, thats when the stars disapear

[NedWebs]

You may be right, something else might be interfering, but only you know what
else goes on in the file. Try moving the right side buutons to the top of the
stage and see if they still exhibit the problem.

[Roxie_]

So i tried something with a test file. I deleted everything except one layer
that contained one button with the animation and the problem still occurs. So
now, i think the problem is in the animation and not my file... but i still
dont get whats happening!

[NedWebs]

Break down the contents of the button. maybe removing one piece at a time and see if/when all the stars show up.

[Roxie_]

ok i lied... its not the animation. I really dont get it. I delete everything
again, only keeping my layer with the button. Then i moved it around on the
page and when i put it in the middle, i can see half of my missing star. As
soon as i put it back on the right, its totally gone and on the left it
there....
And since ive deleted everything in my file, theres nothing to cause such
problem... I think im gonna go crazy!

[NedWebs]

Can you save what you have with all the stuff you've deleted still gone and
make the fla file available thru the web site you linked at the start of this?

I'll see if I can figure anything out, but it's important that it's in the
same file where left and right seem to make a difference. No promises, but
I'll try.

[Roxie_]

Hey im back! ook so i posted the html, fla and swf so you can see the
difference it does between files. The rollover is worst when you look at the
html file.....
http://www.tubesjujubes.com/rollover.html
http://www.tubesjujubes.com/rollover.swf
http://www.tubesjujubes.com/rollover.fla

[NedWebs]

You probably need to clean up your star animations. You probably notice all of
the Tween #'s that are in the library. Those are usually generated when
something isn't being done right in timeline tweens... they get automatically
created to fill in undefined spaces--though I don't know the true cause of it.
Chances are you tried using the png version of it without creating it as a
graphic symbol, which led to all kinds of others of it being generated as
symbols.

You should be able to create all of your star animations using just one star
graphic. Take the png and put it on the stage. Right click it and select
Convert to Symbol... then select Graphic as the symbol type.

Then take that symbol and replace each instance of what you use in the
smallStarRollover mc with that symbol, at both ends of the tween, sizing and
rotating it as needed. Then see if it works any better.

You should probably do the same for the StarRollover mc.

Once you have those changes, delete all of the Tween # graphics that involve
the star and run the file. You'll know you did it correctly if no new Tweens
show up.

[Roxie_]

so no tween should show up if my animation works?! I didnt know that! I thought
the tween represented my animations! Ok thats probably the problem! ill work on
that tomorrow and let you know! Thanks for the help!

[NedWebs]

Anytime you see Tween #'s show up in your library it's indicative of a timeline
tween not being created properly. The will often work to some degree, but they
contain patchwork pieces that Flash creates.

Timeline tweens should only use symbols, and the symbol in the start frame of
the tween should be the exact same symbol in the ending frame of the tween. So
you should be able to make one star symbol and use that for all of the tweens.

[Roxie_]

Yessss! It worked! Now i have to fix all my other broken animations and clean out all my files! :( Thanks for the help and being patient with me! :P

[Roxie_]

oh wait question! if i use a button for the animations, will that create problems (tweens)?

[NedWebs]

I'm not sure what the question is, but if you follow the simple rule for tweens, that being...

the same object has to live at both ends of it

... you shouldn't have any tween symbols created