ActionScript for Flash MX: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition

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Chapter 13: Movie Clips

clip._y = y;

}

moveClipTo(ball_mc, 14, 399);

In this chapter, we’ll cover the specifics of referencing, controlling, and manipulat-

ing movie clips as data objects.

The MovieClip Class

All individual movie clips are instances of the MovieClip class, which defines the

properties, methods, and event handlers supported by movie clips. The MovieClip

class can be manipulated like other built-in classes; we can overwrite its methods or

add new methods to it using the techniques we studied in Chapter 12. For example,

the following code adds a new method, getArea(), to all movie clips:

MovieClip.prototype.getArea = function ( ) {

return this._width * this._height;

};

As we’ll see in Chapter 14, as of Flash MX, the MovieClip class can even be used as

the superclass for new classes (i.e., new subclasses can be derived from the MovieClip

class). For full coverage of every property, method, and event handler supported by

the MovieClip class, see the Language Reference.

Types of Movie Clips

Not all movie clips are created equal. In fact, there are three distinct types of clip

available in Flash:

• Main movies

• Regular movie clips

• Components (formerly known as Smart Clips in Flash 5)

In addition to these three official varieties, we can distinguish four subcategories of

regular ...