Properties of MovieClips

Properties
Understanding MovieClip Properties

This tutorial is about the most important and commonly used properties of movieclips.

_x and _y
Every movieclip on screen has an x and y location that can be called or changed. These coordinates are measured in pixels from the top left corner of the screen. x is left and right, while y is up and down.

For example, on a 550 by 400 flash--
Top Left 0X , 0Y
Top Right 550X , 0Y
Bottom Left 0X , 400Y
Bottom Right 550X , 400Y



To find out what a movieclip's _x or _y location is use.

myvar = ball._x
myvar2 = ball._y
This sets the variable myvar equal to ball._x(the ball's x location), and myvar2 equal to ball._y(the ball's x location),.


To change a movieclip's location on screen.

ball._x = 200
This moves the ball to an _x position 200 pixels from the left side of the screen.

ball._x += 50
This moves the ball to an _x position 50 pixels to the right of where is was before.



_height and _width

Every movieclip also has a height and width. They are pretty self-explanatory. You can change them or find out what they are by doing this.

yourvariable = ball._width
This sets yourvariable equal to ball._width(the ball's width).

myvariable = ball._height
This sets myvariable equal to ball._height(the ball's height).



You can stretch or shrink a movieclip also.

ball._width = 38
Sets the ball’s width to 38 pixels.

ball._width += 20
Adds 20 to the ball’s current width.




_alpha

The _alpha property is how opaque or transparent a movieclip is. It has a range of 0 to 100 with 0 being invisible and 100 being opaque. Be careful when using it on moving objects because it can cause bad lag and slow frame rates on many computers.

ball._alpha = 50
Makes the ball somewhat transparent.


ball._alpha -= 5
If you put this in the onEnterFrame function so that it runs repeatedly, it will make the ball slowly fade then disappear.


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