September 2008 – Ryan Chapin's Website

Creating MovieClips with Button States in AS 2.0

Posted on September 24, 2008 by rchapin

Here is a quick tutorial on how to create MovieClips that act like buttons using ActionScript 2.0. Attached is a sample .fla file with a complete, working example.

Create a new Flash document for AS 2.0
Create whatever graphic/shape that you would like and convert it to a symbol. Double click on on it with the selection tool, and then press F8 to open the create symbol dialog box, or right click on it and select "Create Symbol". Make sure that you create it as a MovieClip.
Double-click on the new MovieClip to enter the symbol edit mode.
Rename the existing "Layer 1" layer that contains the base graphic "bg".
Create three new layers above that one in this order:

labels
actions
text

On the labels layer:

Create a keyframe at frame 10, 20, and 30
In frame 1, enter the following label: _up
In frame 10, enter the following label: _over
In frame 20, enter the following lable: _down

On the actions layer create a keyframe at frame 10, 20, and 30 and put a stop(); action in frame 1, 10, and 20.
On the text layer, create a keyframe at frame 10 and 20.

Add the following text to each keyframe:

Frame 1: Steady State
Frame 10: Over
Frame 20: Down

Go back to your main timeline, by clicking on the "Scene 1" button.
Select your MovieClip and give it an instance name of button_mc.
Create a new layer in the main timeline and name it actions
Add the following actions to it:

button_mc.onRelease = function(){
trace( "Click" );
}

Test your movie and when you rollover and click on the clip you will see the different states displayed.

Doing a Little Something to your Site is Better than Doing Nothing

Posted on September 23, 2008January 21, 2021 by rchapin

Recently, I have gotten back into roadracing motorcycles after a 7 year hiatus (here are some photos that Yermo took this past weekend, 2008-09-20). Before the weekend, I had to get some minor repairs done to my leathers. I called and talked to Connie at Vanson (the company that made the leathers) and they asked me the last time that I’d given them a cleaning. I had to admit that it had been quite a long time. A full-on “proper” cleaning is moderately involved and can take some time, of which most racers don’t have a lot of. Connie said that a quick and easy thing to do was to hit them with any furniture polish and a soft rag. She went on to say that because it was so quick and easy to do that the benefit of the quick cleaning a few times a season was far better than doing nothing at all.

That got me thinking about small businesses and websites, and that the same axiom applies. You are far better coming up with a strategy to make regular, even minor, updates to your site than doing nothing at all.
As I have mentioned in previous articles, your website should become a valuable resource to people who are looking for information about your product or service.

The best way to further that goal is to just fill it with content. Unfortunately, most small businesses that I know just don’t have the time to spend weeks or months when they redesign, or redevelop their site to write content. Moreover, many of them do not have their website set up with a CMS (Content Management System) that enables them to easily make updates and changes without having to know how to write HTML/CSS/server-side code, navigate FTP programs, and get everything working properly with their hosting environment. The typical result is that because it is so time consuming that the website is never updated.

The solution: get your small business website set-up so that you can use one of the many CMSs out there and come up with a plan whereby you can set aside 20 – 30 minutes a couple of times a month to add a few things to your site. Like cleaning my leathers with furniture polish vs. the full-on “proper” cleaning, it’s far better than doing nothing at all.

In the case of your website, it will continue to grow on a regular incremental basis that fits into your schedule and will hopefully increase your search engine ranking, your relevant traffic, and ultimately your bottom line.

— Ryan Chapin
President, Nuts & Bolts Interactive, Inc.

An Open Letter to MoveOn.org

Posted on September 22, 2008January 22, 2021 by rchapin

I am just as much progressive as everyone of the hard-working people at MoveOn.org and am doing what I can to help elect Obama.

However, I think that MoveOn might make a bigger impact if you learned from the masters, and by that I mean the Republicans.

I’ve seen a number of recent e-mails lamenting the horrible ads and slander of the McCain campaign that beg the membership to donate so that the truth can be told.

With all due respect, you guys just don’t get it. It is much easier to sew doubt that convince someone of something. As a result, your efforts would be much better spent generating media that generated doubt about him.

Something like this video ad:

Sinister, or perhaps old-timey music fades in (I’d have to think about the music some more)

McCain video with him saying that the economy is sound and strong, with date in bottom – left.

fade to:

McCain video that shows him admitting he doesn’t understand the economy, dated

fade to:

Stuttering video of him being clueless about how many houses he owns, dated

fade to:

Video of him saying that the economy is having a hard time, dated

fade to some horrible press photo of him looking clueless on one side, with a montage of people who are bumming that fade in and fade out on the other side.

Voice-Over:

Does McCain really have a handle on the economy? Can a man who doesn’t even know how many houses he ownes have any idea of what you are experiencing in these troubled times? Do we want to give the Republicans four more years?

Voila! Doubt! Not lies, just using the rich fodder that McCain has practically given us on a silver platter.

Unfortunately, we live in an era where truth and issues have been replaced with spin and attack ads, and if we (meaning all progressives) don’t catch a clue fast, we are going to lose yet another election (and we can kiss the supreme court goodbye).

When I was a little boy, I got beat up on the playground at school almost everday. I tried talking to the bullies, tried hiding from the bullies, tried everything I could. I didn’t get left alone until I broke one of there noses. Know why? Because that’s all they understood. It wasn’t their fault, I didn’t want to do it, but they gave me no choice.

The progressive movement in this country is in the same position. If we don’t take the gloves off and start bloodying some noses, we are all sunk.