Can you look at a map,
put it away, and remember, with surity, how to get there? Or are you better
with a verbal explanation where someone points out landmarks along the way?
How would you like the best of both? Flash is perfect for an interactive map
of this type.
I wanted users to have
a psuedo-authentic experience. They can not only imagine a path as with a
static map, but they can see the path that the bus takes and some of the key
sights along the route.
I began by developing
some base images in FireWorks to use throughout the movie: the map image,
the bus, location pictures, and buttons.
I then started a new
movie project in Flash.
I imported all of the
images that I created in FireWorks to the Library in Flash.
I dragged the map image
into its layer and the bus image into its layer (I created a layer for each
object used in the project).
I placed the bus in front
of the Memorial Hall position on the map.
I then selected the bus
layer and inserted a keyframe at about 3 seconds (36 frames).
I selected the keyframe
and moved the image of the bus to the next position that I wanted it to take.
I then selected one of
the frames inbetween and inserted a tween.
I repeated this procedure
to move the bus through its route on the map.
When the map itself needed
to shift, I did the same process with the map layer (of course I only have
to do this once).
I then added pause and
play buttons.
I did this by dragging
the up button to its layer, right clicking, converting to symbol, double clicking
on the image (to get to the symbol editing area), adding a key frame under
the down button frame, inserting the down button image, opening the action
window, and double clicking on the stop/start option. I did this for all the
buttons used in this movie.
Througout the movie I
then added scenes: introduction, location indicators, and conclusion.
These scenes were cued
by actions in the map scene. I would select the frame that I wanted to open
a new scene, then set it as a keyframe, then set the action to goto (scene,
frame number). I then used the same process to return from the new scene to
the map scene (only I had to make sure that I set the goto frame to the next
frame after the one that cues a new scene).
To make these scenes
used the insert new scene option.
I then inserted the background
images or colors.
On top of these I used
tweens to animate the text in the same way that did the bus above. I tried
to give users plenty of time to read the text (about 3 seconds per line of
text).
The last option that
I used was the use of text links that open separate windows for both the Bloomington
Transit and the Kroger homepages.
I did this by selecting
the text object and setting the options in the property menu. First I changed
the type to dynamic, then set the link to the webpage that I wanted to go
to, then I set the target to _blank to open the web page in a new browser
window.