FLASH™ ART - Critical Interactive Multimedia

Movie Clip PROPERTIES

a short-list of visible read/write properties
Properties describe -- and can be used to control -- various features of "movie clips".
You can think of them as VARIABLES with a predetermined physical meaning.
Note: only Instances can be controlled with ActionScript; shapes (drawn directly on stage) cannot.

visualization: controlling movie clip instance properties -- source file: properties.fla

PROPERTY REFERENCE VALUES MEANING

_x 0
Zero, the left side of the stage. Horizontal position of a movie clip, in pixels. Measured from the left side of the clip's _parent's stage to the registration point of the movie clip.

_y 0
Zero, the top of the stage. Vertical position, in pixels

_xscale 100
100% of original horizonal scale. Horizontal scaling of an instance relative to the original symbol placed on stage.

_yscale 100
100% of original vertical scale. Vertical scaling of an instance relative to the original symbol.

_width completely relative, that is, once changed, there is no stored value representing the original width of the element The width, in pixels, of the space occupied by the movie clip.

_height completely open The height, in pixels, of the space occupied by the movie clip.

_rotation -180 to 0 to 180
0 being the original rotation of the instance.
note that -180 and 180 are, visually, the same degree of rotation! Degrees of rotation.
note: Yes, you can set _rotation to 360; _rotation can be set to any number, but one complete revolution looks the same as two, or three, or seventeen ...

_alpha 0 to 100
0 being completely transparent; 100 being completely opaque
Transparency percentage.
Caution: transparency effects are memory hogs.

_visible 1 or 0; also, true or false
0 or false being invisible, 1 or true being visible. True and False are Boolean values.
When a clip's _visible property is set to false, buttons inside the clip will no longer detect events.

read only:

_ymouse The vertical distance between the mouse and the registration point of a movie clip.
To find the position of the mouse relative to the top of the main stage, use:
_root._ymouse

_xmouse The horizontal distance between the mouse and the registration point of a movie clip.
To find the position of the mouse relative to the left side of the main stage, use:
_root._xmouse

PROPERTY	REFERENCE VALUES	MEANING
`_x`	`0` Zero, the left side of the stage.	Horizontal position of a movie clip, in pixels. Measured from the left side of the clip's _parent's stage to the registration point of the movie clip.
`_y`	`0` Zero, the top of the stage.	Vertical position, in pixels
`_xscale`	`100` 100% of original horizonal scale.	Horizontal scaling of an instance relative to the original symbol placed on stage.
`_yscale`	`100` 100% of original vertical scale.	Vertical scaling of an instance relative to the original symbol.
`_width`	completely relative, that is, once changed, there is no stored value representing the original width of the element	The width, in pixels, of the space occupied by the movie clip.
`_height`	completely open	The height, in pixels, of the space occupied by the movie clip.
`_rotation`	`-180 to 0 to 180` 0 being the original rotation of the instance. note that -180 and 180 are, visually, the same degree of rotation!	Degrees of rotation. note: Yes, you can set _rotation to 360; _rotation can be set to any number, but one complete revolution looks the same as two, or three, or seventeen ...
`_alpha`	`0 to 100` 0 being completely transparent; 100 being completely opaque	Transparency percentage. Caution: transparency effects are memory hogs.
`_visible`	`1` or `0`; also, `true` or `false` 0 or `false` being invisible, 1 or `true` being visible.	`True` and `False` are Boolean values. When a clip's _visible property is set to `false`, buttons inside the clip will no longer detect events.
read only:
`_ymouse`	The vertical distance between the mouse and the registration point of a movie clip. To find the position of the mouse relative to the top of the main stage, use: _root._ymouse
`_xmouse`	The horizontal distance between the mouse and the registration point of a movie clip. To find the position of the mouse relative to the left side of the main stage, use: _root._xmouse