How to Work Around the Frame Limit in Flash
Adobe Flash, an animation and application development program, has a 16,000-frame limit per movie. Flash supports several ways to get around this limit. Two of the easiest and more common methods are to use MovieClip symbols and scenes. MovieClips are, in effect, movies inside movies. Each MovieClip symbol has its own timeline with yet another 16,000-frame limit. Scenes are additional movies you can attach, one after the other, to the end of an existing movie. Each scene has its own 16,000-frame limit. Your movies can contain as many MovieClip symbols and scenes as you want.
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Instructions
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Create a MovieClip Symbol
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Open the Flash FLA file in which you want to create a MovieClip symbol or start a new movie by clicking the "File" menu and choosing "New." This opens the New Document dialog box. Choose "ActionScript 3.0" from the "Type" list. Set the movie's display size in the "Width" and "Height" fields and click "OK."
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2
Go to the "Timeline" panel and right-click the frame in which you want to place the MovieClip. Then choose "Insert Keyframe" from the fly-out menu.
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3
Click the "Insert" menu and choose "New Symbol." This opens the "Create New Symbol dialog" box.
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Type the name for the new symbol in the "Name" field.
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Click the "Type" drop-down menu and choose "MovieClip." Click "OK." Flash displays a blank stage and an empty timeline for the MovieClip symbol. You can now create additional content here without worrying about the frame limit in the main movie's timeline.
Create a New Scene
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Open the Flash FLA file in which you want to create a new scene or start a new movie by clicking the "File" menu and choosing "New." This opens the "New Document" dialog box. Choose "ActionScript 3.0" from the "Type" list. Set the movie's display size in the "Width" and "Height" fields and click "OK."
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7
Click the "Window" menu, choose "Other Panels" and select "Scene." Flash displays the Scene panel.
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Click the "Add Scene" button in the lower left corner of the Scene panel. Flash creates a new scene, Scene 2, and adds it to the bottom of the scenes list. You can rename the scene by double-clicking it and typing the new name.
The new scene has a blank stage and empty timeline where you create additional content. When you test the movie, Flash plays the scenes sequentially, one after the other. You can create as many scenes as you want.
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Tips & Warnings
With every MovieClip and scene you create, your movie's file size increases. If your movie gets too big, it will take too long to download and play. Instead, rely on other methods, such as breaking your movie into smaller individual movies and loading them into Flash Player one at a time. You can do this with Flash's built-in UILoader component.
References
Resources
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