Flash Extensions
Published by Dave March 21st, 2006 in Animation, Misc, Production, ProgrammingI messed around, learned some jsfl, and made these extensions for Flash. To install them, you need the Macromedia Extension Manager. Flash 8 comes with it, but Flash MX 2004 users have to download it. Then you just unzip these links and double click on the .mxp file inside. And yes, sorry, but these will only work with Flash MX 2004 or Flash 8. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!
All these extensions are free, but if you find them very useful and want to support further development, I have a PayPal donation box on the sidebar.
Now that the leeching is out of the way . . . 
Enter Graphic at Current Frame
Updated 3/27/06 to version 1.0.2
Updated 4/19/06 to version 1.0.3 to include support for Flash MX 2004
This adds a command that enters the selected graphic at the currently displayed frame. Defaulty Flash just opens the Graphic to its first frame, regardless of what’s being shown on the main stage. No more! Assign this to an easy to use hotkey like [ / ] for best use. I plan to make a tool that adds this function to the Selection Tool when I have more time.
SkipAround
This adds three commands: Skip Ahead, Skip Back, and Set Skip. This allows the user to advance and recede the current frame by the interval they set in Set Skip. This is very useful for quickly scrubbing through your animation (and even more useful if you animate on twos). To get the full use, assign Skip Ahead and Skip Back the hotkeys [ Shift ] + [ . ] and [ Shift ] + [ , ] as Flash’s advance one frame and recede one frame are [ . ] and [ , ].
Focus Layer
Updated 3/23/06 to version 1.0.1
This adds the Focus Layer command, which locks every layer but the one you are currently working on. Running it again unlocks all layers for a toggle effect (useful when you hotkey it).
View Layer
Updated 3/23/06 to version 1.0.1
This adds the View Layer command, which hides every layer but the one you are currently working on. Running it again shows all layers for a toggle effect (again. useful when you hotkey it).
By the way, if you are going to hotkey these two, it’s a good idea to put them on slight variants of each other. I use [ Ctrl ] + [ Shift ] + [ F ] and [ Ctrl ] + [ Alt ] + [ F ].
Update 3/28/06:
Well guess what! These two commands are in Flash from the get go! right click on the layer you want and select Hide Others or Lock Others. Hmmm….. haha, oh well. I don’t know if you can hotkey those though, so if not I guess these commands are still useful for that. If not…. it was fun.
Update 4/20/06:
You don’t need these! Just click the visible or lock button while holding Alt and it’ll have the same functionality as these extensions. Kudos to Dave Wolfe’s awesome Flash presentation tonight.
Squash and Stretch
Update 3/24/06: Apparently this one is having some issues on the Mac right now. I’ll look into it.
This adds the Squash and Stretch window. When enabled, applies squash and stretch to scale transformations. Note that it only works when you adjust either the height or the width, not both at the same time (so you don’t have to turn it off every time you want to do a normal transform, just grab one of the corner handles and it’ll perform a normal scale). It tends to work best if your transformation point is set at the middle of the bottom edge of your element, but feel free to experiment. I recommend docking the panel with your normal Transform panel. This is an early release, so there are still some bugs. Most notable is the lack of support for rotation. If your element is rotated at an angle different from 0, 90, 180, or 360 degrees, Squash and Stretch won’t work. However, at any time you can click the Reset button and your element will go back to its original form, ready for squashing and stretching. I’ll be adressing rotation and hopefully building a new tool that extends the Free Transfom Tool and adds this Squash and Stretch function when you hold down Alt sometime in the future, so check back every now and then.
Create Masking Layer
Updated 4/19/06 to 1.0.2 to remove a bug
This adds the Create Masking Layer command which adds a new layer and creates a black masking layer so you can only see what’s on your stage, not the elements hanging off. Useful for seeing what the viewer will see at runtime and also for not allowing the viewer to see what they shouldn’t by resizing your swf.
Keyframe Jumper
This adds the Next Keyframe and Previous Keyframe commands. They skip to the next or previous keyframe in your currently selected layer. Useful for checking out your breakdowns and quick navigation around the timeline. Flash has a next frame and previous frame functionality built in ( [ Control ] + [ > ] and [ < ]), but these commands take you to the next and previous keyframes (frames with the little black dot in them in the timeline), however many frames apart they might be.. It’s a good idea to set these to [ Alt ] + [ . ] for Next Keyframe and [ Alt ] + [ , ] for Previous Keyframe for the reasons mentioned above in SkipAround.
Key All Layers
Updated 4/24/06 to 1.0.2
This adds the Key All Layers command that inserts a keyframe on every unlocked layer.
Frame All Layers
This adds the Frame All Layers command that extends frames to your position on every unlocked layer layer.
LabelJumper
This adds the Next Label, Previous Label, and Goto Label commands which allow you to quickly jump to keyframes with specific labels.
Custom Zoom
This adds the Custom Zoom and Zoom Presets 1-4 commands. Custom Zoom opens a dialog that lets you set the zoom values for the Zoom Presets. Hotkey these to [ CTRL ] + [ 5 ] - [ 9 ] to complement Flash’s built in zoom presets of [ CTRL ] + [ 1 ] - [ 4 ].
Colors8, ColorsMX2004
This adds the Default Colors and Swap Colors commands. Default Colors makes the line color black and fill white, Swap Colors swaps the colors of the fill and line. If people were interested, I could make Default Colors customizable to any color you wanted. Download Colors8 if you have Flash 8, ColorsMX2004 if you have Flash MX 2004.
Autocolor Basic
During the process of production of an animation, there are often times when a creator decides to change the color scheme of a character, a set, whatever. Flash by itself doesn’t allow for this. So animators have been making images of color, a little square of color and using that as their fills, not the built in Flash fills. This way, if they decide to update the colors, all they have to do is change the image file and refresh Flash’s library and BAM! The color change occurs throughout the whole movie.
So I wrote this extension to help automate the process. You run a command to set the directory that you’re working in, and then the other command creates a new 21 x 21 png of your current fill color and places it in your library.
Keep in mind this is a beta, so be sure to test it out a bit.
I would like to create a full application for this, not just a Flash extension, that would allow you to quickly manage these color sets, give them custom names, quickly change the color of the .pngs, etc. However that would take some time, so we’ll see . If you find this plugin useful and want to stimulate further development, a Paypal donation is always appreciated
Autocolor Full
Permament Beta.
This is the full fledged version of Autocolor Basic. It is much more complex and posseses much more functionality. View the following movies to see what Autocolor Full is all about and how to use it (it works a bit differently than you might think).
Autocolor Guide
Autocolor Across Multiple Flas
Symbolize Frames
By request, use this extension to symbolize a series of selected frames.
If you have any ideas for an extension you’d like to see or find a bug or just want to drop a line, please don’t hesitate to email me!
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Very helpful stuff!
I get a long error message with the Enter Graphic at Current Frame command. (”at line 19″ it starts)
I was presuming you select the graphic then run the command.
Is there a trick to it?
Thanks for the kind words!
That’s strange, I don’t get an error when i use it. And line 19 is just a closing bracket . . .
But when I moce the bracket to another spot, the command still works for me. I’ll upload it in a few minutes, hopefully that’ll solve it. If anyone else has errors, let me know. I’ve only been able to test these on one or two machines.
Oh, by the way, what’s your setup? Windows or Mac, MX 2004 or 8?
Okay I did some testing and for some reason Enter Graphic at Current Frame only works with Flash 8. This doesn’t make any sense because JSFL is supposed to be the same between the two releases. I’ll try to get to the bottom of this as soon as I can. Sorry for the inconvenience!
Hah, okay, I fixed it. I’ll upload it in a few minutes. It was a simple fix, just had to move a variable declaration out of a for loop. Weird how Flash 8 didn’t care . . .
You are quick!
Holy heck, that’s a magnificently handy thing to have.
Keep up the great work!
Hi Dave,
Your commands are really useful. Sometimes a window swf is more convenient. For example I made a function similar to “Enter Graphic at Current Frame” as a panel so you can jump in and out of a symbol either at the designated first frame or at the last frame you visited. This is combined with a variation of the Nested Timeline panel which you can download and play with from my site moviemice.com (links on the left side). You may also find the renamer panel interesting but it doesn’t work with library folders yet. One time consuming thing about designing panels is debugging all of the error messages, which are screened out with a tree of conditonal statements.
Hello, Dave, I want to thank you for your flash extensions.
I was actually researching a way to set a label on a flash timeline and have easy access to it.
I was wondering if you knew a way to call up an xml window, then type in a specific label. I would like to go to the label also by an xml pop up window that lists out the labels that I’ve created.
I think I could figure out how to list out the labels in an xml window, be able to select the label I want, then go to it, but I don’t know how to get the label I created to update in an xml file.
I hope this is making sense.
I work as an assistant director for an animation studio and am always looking for ways to facillitate our workflow.
If you could help, that would be great.
Thanks for your time.
Ben
nice stuff i wiil love if you will please do
a comend that poens a pop up you put in a symbol name and than it gets in its edit mode
i found most of your extentions helpfol
sory for my english…
Great plugins!
great work!
You should write one that can scale the timeline…i.e. Stretch out all the keyframes or a selection of frames.
I have a 2000 frame animation right now and need to make it 1/3 slower, so have to go manually and insert frames…blah. It would be nice to select a section of frames or the whole timeline and have a scale tool to stretch out all the frames.
Hey, I’m having trouble with the AutoColor Full. Everything works fine with the fills, but as soon as I replace the color on the Strokes, when I publish my swf., all the strokes turn red… am I doing something wrong?
Thanks
Ramiro Olmos
How exactly did you do this! I exclaim about it. Looking for more like this..thanks.
Don Lapre Lenny
webmaster@linuxrocks.org
http://www.linuxrocks.org
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Flash Pro 8
It gives me this error…
At line 23 of file “Enter Graphic at Current Frame”:
TypeError:
fl.getDocumentDOM().getTime().layers[curLayer].frames[curFrame].elements[selectedElement]has no properties
How can I solve it?
Thanks,
Carlos
Great ext. and demo. Great Job.
Do you know of an extension that makes a symbol of a bunch selected layers and copies those layers actactly in that symbol (mc or graphic)
i was wondering..
thanks for the reply
Don
Yo Dave! The autocolor plugin completely rocks!! Thanks a heap for posting
One question I have though, is there a way to make the autocolour change over time? eg: If I had a guy with a red shirt and the scene darkens, is there a way for the red to gradually fade into another color?
jameslee03 (at) hotmail.com
Hey James, thanks for the kind words. Autocolor can’t do that, but a simple way to create your effect is to create a layer with a black rectangle and tween it’s opacity going up, simulating the entire scene getting darker. Or you could try messing around with the color adjustment filter on movie clips. Let me know if you need more help
Hey Don, I think Dave Wolfe’s NewAnimClip extension does that or close to it. His site is toonmonkey.com.
Thanks Ryan
Carlos, if it’s what I think it is, it’s a benign bug that doesn’t do anything but annoy you. I could probably fix it now, but my time’s pretty limited. Check back, I’ll try to get around to it as soon as I can.
Remyzero - that’s really strange. I haven’t had that problem. I guess try to make sure you’re publishing to lash Player 8, I don’t know if the strokes will work with 7.
Hey Dave,
I’m trying to use “Colors8″ but there is no JSFL file in the .zip available for download on your website. Maybe I’m missing something, but the MXI files links to “source=”Swap Colors.jsfl” but this file is nowhere to be found.
Thanks for letting me know Oliver. Check it out now, should work.
Hey Dave,
Thanks for checking it out. Unfortunately I still got this error mesage:
—————————
Macromedia Extension Manager
—————————
The file ‘C:\Documents and Settings\administrator\Desktop\Colors8\Swap Colors.jsfl’ is missing. The extension will not be installed.
—————————
OK
—————————
When I look in Colors8.zip there is only 2 files: DefaultColors.mxi and SwapColors.mxi.
I see no JSFL file. I’ve never used .MXI before, only .MXP. Do I have to install this extension with Extension Manager like I do with .MXP files or is it different this time?
Thank you,
Olivier.
Hmm, that’s odd. Try downloading it again, there should be two files in the zip, DefaultColors.mxp and SwapColors.mxp, not mxi. Weird! Let me know if it still isn’t working.
It’s working now. I think it’s because I forgot to delete my browser temp files. Shame on me. Just to let you know, I tried these extensions on Flash CS3 and SwapColors is working fine, but DefaultColors crash Flash. It’s SwapColors that I’m interested in, so it’s no big deal to me. But I tought you would like to know.
Olivier.
I know this would be really simple - is there any way that I could edit the Focus layer extension such that I could have it just toggle locking a layer on the current layer that I’m on? I just want a shortcut for lock layer…
Man, I’m loving autocolor, but I’ve got one serious issue. A few of the functions, like the replace colors, cause flash CS3 to crash. I know this extensions was made for flash 8, but is there anyway you could do an updated version for those of us who upgraded to CS3, so I don’t have to worry about hitting a crash-causing button?
Thanks man.
I like that!
Excellent resource you\’ve got here!!! Will definately be back!!!
Hey Jacob, thanks a lot! Sadly, Autocolor cannot work in Flash CS3. Why? Adobe messed something up with JSFL and now a certain,very innocent function (memory fails right now, but I think it’s something like exportToPNG or swapColors or something) crashes the program. That’s the main reason I made Easy Palette, so I had some kind of color management system for CS3. I need to make that more clear on this site. Sheesh, I have a lot of updating to do!
Thanks again for the kind words, and if you ever think of an extension idea, let me know and I’ll see what I can do
very helpful, thanks!i
wow nice!a
Thanks for clarifying that autocolor issue. I did have a few ideas for a custom panels, so feel free to read my lengthy explanations.
FRAME LEBELER
This panel would allow you, with the click of a button, change the label of a frame to either: keyframe, breakdown, or inbetween. There would also be 3 seperate buttons that would be for skipping to the next keyframe, breakdown, or inbetween frame. I’m not too familiar with JSFL capabilities, so I’m not sure if this is even possible but it would really help me out so I’m not having to scroll through the time line to find my keyframes and such.
ADVANCED COLOR PALETTE
This panel would be similar to Easy Palette (which I love) but would be more like the library panel, not a color swatch panel. It would have the title of the color’s name next to a smaller preview of the color than Easy Palette. They could be listed exactly like the library panel, one after the other vertically, and to reduce a massive panel size, a scroll bar could be added. It would also be nice if colors could be organized in nameable folders instead of pages. This way color sets for certain characters can be kept within that character’s folder. It would be even greater if there could be sub-folders inside the main folders for instances where character’s colors change depending on time of day or maybe their clothes change halfway through the animation.
Thanks once again
Hey Dave, do you plan on making the Enter Current Frame extension work for Flash 9 in the future? if you need donations, what’s a good amount, I love your externsions, and use them all the time, but now that I have CS3, I constantly have to go back to Flash 8 so I can get the tedious things done faster. Thanks!
Would it be easy to make an extension like your “view layer” but for lock/unlocking (toggling) layers? I know this works in flash already by alt clicking the icon but there isn’t a way to add a hot key and that’s the useful part ; )
(I didn’t get a confirmation when i submitted this question before, so I’m trying one more time):
Would it be easy to make an extention like “view layer” but for toggling lock on a layer/all layers? The point being able to assign a hotkey. That would be super cool.
DRew
Hey Drew, I think I could do that. Check back soon.
Hi Dave,
very sweet extension, thanks a lot, YMMD! But i have some issues with the label jumper. It seems the Label Jumper has a bug: It will not jump backwards to the very first Label in my timelines, forward wortks perfect. But it stucks on the second label i have.
Also i would suggest, if possible, to avoid throwing exeptions like “no property etc blah” when you reach the end or the beginning of a timeline, either with the label jumper or with the keyframe jumper. Cant you just ignore that and end the function call without the error thrown?
Best wishes and a big thanks again from south germany
Niels
Hi Dave,
these are really cool and helpful extensions, especially autocolor (I were looking for such a tool for a long time). Sadly, after some running time, it causes my flash8 to crash (following javascript errors occur: “TypeError: undefined is not a function” and “out of memory”). Have you any idea why this errors occur or how I can avoid them?
saved a lot of time
Dude ! That’s very cool tools!
You guy just rockstar 4 flash lovers like me …
Keep rocking !!!
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