Adding Sound

Interactivity, Sound, and Curvy Motions in Flash

For interest, I've also added a sound to the "Hit" frame so that, when clicked, a small chirping noise will play. To do this, first I had to import the sound (File/Import); it's then stored in the movie's library. (Figure 17)

Figure 17: Sound Dialog

In the same key frame of "Hit" where I added the action, I can now add the sound by again choosing the small rectangular box and choosing sound. From the drop-down menu, select the sound to use (if you've only imported one, that's all you'll see), and then choose "stream" from the "Synchronization" box. You can leave the other options as they are, until, of course, you get experimental and want to play with them some more.

(For instructional purpose, I've incorporated a sound into the initial part of Figure 1. Banner ads with background music probably won't catch on anytime soon, but this way you can see Flash's use of sound. To do so: create a key frame at the beginning. Then choose sound, just as you did above, and make sure you click "stream," from the "Synchronization" options.)

Now, when I enable sounds (Control/Enable Sounds), and preview my movie, when I click the button, I hear the sound. (Figure 18)

Figure 18: Banner with Click Button

When I move my mouse over the button, the color changes. When I click it, it drops down, and when I release, it pops back into place. That's pretty much what I want from an interactive button. Ahhh, but you skeptics out there are saying, "Just make the whole banner a link."

True, in this case, that would be a possible solution, and then there would be no real need for the interactive button. A flat colored circle with "Click Me" inside would serve the purpose, and the user might not ever realize that she could have clicked anywhere inside the banner without waiting for the "Click Here"-type invitation to appear.

But what if you want to provide several specialized links in the same banner. Image mapping banner ads isn't very common. But working with multiple Flash buttons can achieve the desired effect as I've shown in the sample shown in Figure 19.

Figure 19: Banner with Multiple Buttons

Here I've created three buttons which will take the user to specific parts of MySite.com (three different pages of my own site in the example) so that you can get a sense of the freedom and specificity Flash's buttons allow.