Control video playback

Over the last few years, Flash has been making a slow but steady march towards, among other things, providing a platform-free, quality method of delivering video. Macromedia, and now Adobe, have done this by introducing embedded video in Flash MX 2004, and then improving it with Flash 8.

Flash Video has become more and more ubiquitous, and now sites such as YouTube.com, panjea.com and video. google.com have played a big part in bringing the format into mainstream acceptance.

Here you will learn how to use ActionScript in Flash 8 to load, progressively stream and control multiple video clips to create a zoetrope effect - a device designed to simulate moving imagery from a series of still images by spinning a cylinder that is decorated with slots that allow the viewer to see inside as it spins.

Within the cylinder is attached a series of still images, each image part of a moving sequence, much like a flipbook. As the viewer looks through the slots, the pictures appear to blend into a moving image. In some ways, this is similar to the way modern-day movie projectors work.

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