How to add a health bar to Flash

i presume you have read my former article about movie clip control, so this is an update to that file. i will show how to make an area with decreases health

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• to have read my last article.
• Adobe flash CS3.
• have a save game from this article: http://www.ehow.com/how_2183368_control-movie-clip-flash.html

1. Open your .Fla file from http://www.ehow.com/how_2183368_control-movie-clip-flash.html.
2. make an area you would like
   to be the spot that gives
   damage.
3. then make it a movie clip.
   and call it what ever you'd
   like. I've called min "collision area"
4. now go into the action script of your
   new made movie clip.
5. now type in:
   onClipEvent (load) {
   damage = random(9)+1;
   }
   onClipEvent (enterFrame) {
   if (this.hitTest(_root.player_mc)) {
   _root.playerHp -= damage;
   }
   if (_root.playerHp<1) {
   _root.playerHp = 0;
   }
   }
   explanation;
   playerHp is going to be the dynamic text box with the health.
   player_mc is the name of our player in this case object.
   we will be making a variable called damage because it is easier to change.
6. now we will make a dynamic text box
   and give it the variable name "playerHp".
   as you can see on the pic. there is
   to types of boxes in the text box
   properties window. the one called "instance name"
   refers to the graphic part of the text box,
   but the one called "var" refers to the text
   inside of it.
7. now go to the main timeline' s
   first frame and add:
   playerHp = 100;
8. if you want to you can try to make a movie clip with a square with the scales x=200 and y=15, now ad to the script of this movie clip: onClipEvent (enterFrame){
   this._xscale = _root.playerHp;
   }
   make sure it is placed like on the picture in compared to the
   little "+".

Tips & Warnings

• remember to play with the hitTest effect becasue it it one of the most important actions in actionscripting.
• keep in mind that capital letters make a difference in Actionscripting.