blending two external images into each other

[LimitLess]

i call upon the staff of biorust to help me once again with flash. i made a banner in photoshop and decided that i wanted to animate in flash so i saved it as a jpeg and imported into flash. The banner which was created in photoshop is based upon blending modes so there are 3 images of the banner on top of each other for the whole banner. What i basically want to do is take those 3 images which have all been imported and blend them together in flash in a fading in/ fading out type of way. And after that, i want to animate the other elements in the banner to spice it up because it is so plain otherwise. I've tried Motion Tweening the two images by having each image on a keyframe but that didnt work. Please, this is a plead for help.

A newbie explanation should do be fine. Thank You.

[malboroman]

Why don't you try to fade in/out in Image Ready first? It's much easier in there. From there you export a flash swf. (file>export>flash swf)

!!!NOTE!!!
This only works with the version of IR that came with PhotoShop CS.
!!!NOTE!!!

[BlodoPKNZ]

Hmm cant this be done with alpha and actionscript?

In the mc you want to fade out write in the actions:

onClipEvent (enterFrame) {
//this number is the speed of fading
	this._alpha -= 8;
//this checks if the image has faded out so it can move to a static frame
//you can usually just change gotoandstop with this._alpha == 0 to stop the loop
//or if youre feeling lucky do it with variables
	if (this._alpha <= 0) {
		gotoAndStop(3);
	}
}

Make a second frame and in the frame actions write

GotoAndPlay(1)

Be sure to make the picture you want to be seen after this one has faded on a separate layer lower than the layer with the fading picture

[LimitLess]

i have the two banners on two indivdual layers and i change the alpha of one of them and the other one changes along with it. I doesn't act as its own and remain constant. And also vice versa. I dont understand what to do. please help me.

please be a little more eleborate

[malboroman]

It seems that both layers are in the same movieclip... try putting them into different mc's and change the alpha again...

[LimitLess]

wat do i exactly do. i mean i differeicienate the layers and movieclpcan u please tell me the exact steps in chronological order?

[malboroman]

could you perhaps post the psd... we can help you a lot better when we have something we can look at

[BlodoPKNZ]

Here i did this for you. Just examine the code.

[LimitLess]

u just changed the alpha with actionscript. i understand that. now how do i fade in/out into a completly different image from the image i started out with? i want the first image to fade into the second image and the second fade into the third.

[BlodoPKNZ]

Repeat the process on the second image. Obvious...

[LimitLess]

iam sorry to bother u but would u care to make me another example?

[BlodoPKNZ]

Hmm looks like last time i made a small error in the script that would not allow you to add anymore pics without rewriting the script. Fixed + i added a third pic example

[LimitLess]

u did this fading with just colors, which can also be easily done with a shape tween. can this technique work with two completely different images?

[BlodoPKNZ]

Yes just replace the colors inside their respective mc's with pics. The third pic is actually a static one, unless you want to make a fading loop. And this technique is actually better then tweening, as the additional frames required dont enhance the file size. But then again tweening is easier, but its your decision.

[LimitLess]

ok, this one had 6 actions instead of 3 like the other one. so all i have to do is replace the rectangles with my images and add the same actions? ok, i'll do that, but wat about further animation to the whole scene. I have the fading that has already taken place, now i want to add more elements to the animation, like moving shapes and masking, etc. How would i accomplish this?