Flash - Snowing Effect

The snowing effect we are going to discuss here is similar to the effect being used in Our Flash Form and Flash Menu. A bit of actionscripts are required for the effect.

Step 1

First of all, you need to create the snow object.

On your main stage, draw a few strokes so that it look like the following (acutally, you can draw whatever shape you like):

Then convert it into a picture symbol (and name it as "obj").

Step 2

While you are still at the main stage (with the "obj" on your stage), select the picture and convert it to a movie clip (name it as "ani_clip"). Open the "ani_clip" symbol for editting (you should see the "obj" picture in the first frame). Insert a key frame at frame 15. Select frame 1 and move the "obj" picture up a bit. Then select frame 15 and move the "obj" picture down a bit. Tween the animation from frame 1 to frame 15, so it looks like the snow object is falling. (add acceleration and roation if you like). Then move frame 1 to frame 2 (such that frame 1 is empty afterwards). Insert 1 blank frame at frame 1. The final time line shoul look like the lower layer as shown in the figure below:

Step 3

Now, you need to insert a new layer to the time line. In the first frame of the new layer, insert the following actionscript:

function start_play(clip)
{
rectw = 550; // size of the main stage
recth = 400;

// rand size and position
xpos = random(rectw-20) + 10;
ypos = random(recth-20) + 10;
xyscale = random(25) + 25;

setProperty(clip, _x, xpos);
setProperty(clip, _y, ypos);
setProperty(clip, _xscale, xyscale);
setProperty(clip, _yscale, xyscale);

clip.gotoAndPlay(3);
}

// random delay
threshold = 25;
num = random(30);
if(num > threshold) {
start_play(this);
}

Convert the second frame to a key frame and put the following actionscaipts to it:

gotoAndPlay(1);

Ok, the "ani_clip" is done. Lets move back to the main stage.

Step 4

On the main stage, first select the the "ani_clip" and give it an instance name "ani_clip". Then select frame 1, and add the following actionscript to it:

for(i=1; i<30; i++) {
duplicateMovieClip("ani_clip", "ani_clip" + i, i);
}

Test your movie....That's it! Easy?

(You may want to set the alpha of the "obj" picture in the "ani_clip" to make some fade-in / fade-out effect)

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