How to control an movie Clip in Flash

this is a short tutorial on how to make a movie Clip move when you press a key. this Action script is used in a lot of popular flash games. later i will be adding how to make instant power-ups, health and enemies

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Adobe Flash CS 3.
• the will to learn.

1. first open up Adobe Flash
   and start a new document.
   make sure you choose Action script 2.
2. now make a object you want
   to move.
3. now select it, right click
   and press "convert to symbol...".
4. now mark the circle called "movie clip"
   and call it what ever you like.
5. now that you have made the
   movie clip right click on
   it and select "Actions".
6. a little box will pop-up
   click it and type in
   A):
   onClipEvent (load) {
   walkSpeed = 10;
   }
   
   onClipEvent (enterFrame) {
   if (Key.isDown(Key.LEFT)) {
   _x -= walkSpeed;
   }
   if (Key.isDown(Key.RIGHT)) {
   _x += walkSpeed;
   }
   if (Key.isDown(Key.DOWN)) {
   _y += walkSpeed;
   }
   if (Key.isDown(Key.UP)) {
   _y -= walkSpeed;
   
   }
   }
7. or B)
   warning this is a bit more advanced and is an edit.
   call your object an instance name and then go to the first frame in you flash document and type in:
   this.[object instance name].onLoad = function () {
   walkSpeed = 10;
   }
   
   this.[object instance name].onEnterFrame= function () {
   if (Key.isDown(Key.LEFT)) {
   _x -= walkSpeed;
   }
   if (Key.isDown(Key.RIGHT)) {
   _x += walkSpeed;
   }
   if (Key.isDown(Key.DOWN)) {
   _y += walkSpeed;
   }
   if (Key.isDown(Key.UP)) {
   _y -= walkSpeed;
   
   }
   }
8. select "control>Test Movie"
   and play around with your game.

Tips & Warnings

• play around with these actions to get familiar with them.
• you can always double click your movie clip to change the graphic.
• check in often I'll update soon.
• actions script is "Capital letter" sensitive so make sure the right letters are upper case the right places.