ActionScript: The Definitive Guide

Name

Color Class — control over movie clip color values

Availability

Flash 5

Constructor

new Color(target)

Arguments

target

A string or reference indicating the path to the movie clip or document level whose color will be controlled by the new object (references are converted to paths when used in a string context).

Methods

getRGB( )

Retrieve the current offset values for Red, Green, and Blue.

getTransform( )

Retrieve the current offset and percentage values for Red, Green, Blue, and Alpha.

setRGB( )

Assign new offset values for Red, Green, and Blue, while reducing percentage values to 0.

setTransform( )

Assign new offset and/or percentage values for Red, Green, Blue, and Alpha.

Description

We use objects of the Color class to programmatically dictate the color and transparency of a movie clip or main movie. Once we’ve created an object of the Color class for a specific target, we can then invoke the methods of that object to affect its target’s color and transparency. For example, suppose we have a clip instance named ball that we want to make red. We first make a Color object with a target of ball and store it in the variable ballColor. Then we use ballColor.setRGB( ) to assign ball the color red, as follows:

var ballColor = new Color("ball");
ballColor.setRGB(0xFF0000);  // Pass setRGB( ) the hex value for red

The preceding example provides color control for simple applications. But to handle more complex scenarios, we need to know more about how color is represented in Flash. Every individual ...