Staggering movie clips

i have a feeling there is a pretty simple solution to this problem but i'm having a hard time phrasing it in a google search.

+++

so lets say i want to have a group of identical soldiers walking. so i make my one movie clip of one soldier in a walk loop. then repeat it out like 20 times.

but then all the soldiers are stepping in complete synchronization (which could be good if thats the effect you wanted. )

but what if i want them to look like they are all walking in their own rhythms -

ideally i could stagger the movie clips somehow, altering the various times at which the legs walk about.

i realize i could make each soldier his own movie clip and go in and change it myself but...im lazy.

any tips? (im sure someone out there knows an easy way to do this)

+++

upcoming projects:

- Salem 6 (game with Tarienn, Shadowfox2, and Seething swarm )
-The Dream Diver (my first serious, legitimate BIG project since Picos bro
-Oneys bday bash - -yay!
[shoot me a pm if u want any voice work done also]

Comments

Log in to Comment

Gerkinman 2010-11-06 19:35:30

Had that problem myself, i usually end up duplicating the clip and adding in some extra frames or taking some out to make around 5 variations. You could re-align all the keyframes to make the walk cycles start at different points, but thats a pain in the arse.

RiverJordan 2010-11-06 19:41:54

Change them to graphics and use the properties panel to have them start their loops on different frames
OR

just make a few copies of the soldiers, right click one at a time and press "duplicate symbol", you'll change the name and then just move the frames around so they loop differently

LewToons 2010-11-06 19:41:54

hmmm option one sounds like a good plan

Kevin 2010-11-06 19:46:54

Have a code that loops through their walking speed via a variable that you assign them.

Or something like that I dunno.

LewToons 2010-11-06 19:46:54

yikes that sounds like a lot of work!

SirReginald 2010-11-06 19:59:43

the bash is a surprise ya big dumby

PiGPEN 2010-11-06 20:32:15

Animators using "movie" clips instead of "graphic" clips should all be thrown into a pile, doused with gasoline and lit on fire.

Gerkinman should be used as the ignition fire.

LewToons 2010-11-06 20:32:15

haha i am a bit of a noob when it comes to animating - i admit

Ockeroid 2010-11-06 20:38:37

I'm with JordanD. Easiest way is to make 'em into graphics then go to properties and just change the starting frame of each loop to what you want.

doondeka 2010-11-06 20:43:29

some script in the main timeline, using a for loop you iterate through all the targeted movie clips one by one and tell each of them to go to a random frame in their respective timelines.

JoSilver 2010-11-06 20:51:53

Well, it really depends what are you working on, a game or a movie?

If it's a movie, set all instances of the movieclip to graphics and set them to loop with different starting frames.

if it's a game, just have them start at a random frame upon initialization.

JoSilver 2010-11-06 20:56:51

I got to agree with PIGPEN, when it comes to animation, graphics are way better then MovieClip, especially since the most code you'll probably have is the preloader.

Use MovieClips when you want your Movie to be a bit more dynamic.

redminus 2010-11-06 22:13:26

What about effects vs code, though? I make everything a movie clip so that I can apply filtering directly. Incidentally, it tends to look a lot better than if I had inserted them as graphics and other than the option of being able to apply an effect, the finished SWF doesn't make a distinction.
Again, unless you're doing something that involves code, but that I wouldn't really know about.
So to that effect RedHarvest, yeah, if you're not worried about using any filters and want to stagger them, JordanD's first suggestion would probably be easiest, though duplicating the symbols and making them very would be only slightly more work and would allow you to use filters if you were wanting to do that.

TL;DR - JordanD FTW

JonBro 2010-11-06 22:23:52

I feel like this might at least give a similar effect to what you're going for:

onClipEvent(load){
this.gotoAndPlay(random(50));
//replace 50 with the number of frames in the walking animation
}

You might be one of those logical people who doesn't put code into movie clips, so that code might have to be altered slightly if that is the case.
Or you might not want to use code at all, in which case everyone else's suggestions are better.

omegared 2010-11-06 22:42:29

I bet this guy would know
<a href="http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/516086">http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view /516086</a>

that clip is amazing, I'm sure you've seen it. But maybe you should ask him.

Miccool 2010-11-06 23:38:25

I'd just duplicate the movieclip a bunch of times.. And switch the frame order so they loop with different starting points..

SecretClock 2010-11-07 00:38:58

put them in looping graphics as opposed to movie clips and have them start on different frames

InputUnknown 2010-11-07 01:15:53

Place this on the movie clips

onClipEvent(load){
gotoAndPlay(Math.random(**how ever many frames are in your walk cycle**) + 1);
}

NOTE: The reason you +1 is because 0 is a possible integer that Math.random brings up!

InputUnknown 2010-11-07 01:16:36

Oops! Just realized JonBro left the same bit of advice! haha sorry!

LewToons 2010-11-07 01:16:36

all is forgiven

FrozenFire 2010-11-07 13:21:32

You can choose what frame to start on if it's a graphic. If your movie clip has no sound inside of it.. it should be a graphic instead.

Properties
"Graphic"
"Loop"
"First?: " Here you put your frame for that particular graphic to begin on

as long as that graphic has timeline to work with then you shouldnt have issues