Why Does My Flash Ad Loop Constantly?

Adobe Flash is vector-based Web design software that is used primarily for creating rich interactive Web sites and animations. In addition to full-fledged websites, flash is used as a tool to create online Web advertisements.

The Timeline

When you view a looping ad on the internet what you are seeing is a timeline of events that are triggered behind the scenes in the Adobe Flash program. The timeline is most commonly used to create animation in Flash. It is a segmented structure that sits in the Flash toolbar and is broken up into "frames." Animations -- or "tweens" -- are created by dropping an object into a keyframe, moving it down the timeline and using one of Flash's animation components to smooth the transition.

ActionScript 3

ActionScript is the Adobe programming language used in Flash. ActionScript 3 is the language supported by Flash CS5. In addition to timeline animation, you can tween or animate graphics using this object-oriented programing language. It is also used for timeline control. What determines whether or not a flash ad will loop is completely dependent upon the programing that is entered into the flash ad using ActionScript.

Stop Command

By default, flash will loop a "Flash Movie," which is the generic term for a document created in Flash. You can control playback by entering ActionScript into a frame of the timeline. To prevent an a Flash Movie from looping you would simply enter "stop();" into the frame that you want the movie to stop at. The semicolon indicates that that the line of code you entered has finished.

References

• Adobe: Flash CS5
• Adobe: Tween Animation
• Adobe Press: ActionScript 3
• Layers: Controlling the Timeline with ActionScript 3