Now that I looked at the website, it's actually not that difficult:
If done entirely in Flash:
- An entire graphic of the menu bar was created in a separate program and imported into Flash
- Cut outs of the graphic were converted to button symbols, complete with roll over graphic modifications etc.
- The menu items shown below the main bar are actually 1 embedded movie
- In this embedded movie, 10 frames are dedicated to each set of menu items. If there are 5 menu items, then the movie will have 50 frames.
- In each set of 10 frames, the graphic is different (representing each menu item). It fades in for the first 4 frames, stops on the 5th frame, and fades out on the 6th - 10th frame.
Let's say we call the submenu items symbol subMovie
For the first button on the main menu graphic that has sub options:
Code:
on (rollOver){
subMovie.gotoAndPlay(1)
}
For the second button which has sub options, the subMovie gotoAndPlays frame 11, frame 21 for button 3 and so on. subMovie will play and stop at frame 5 for the first button, frame 15 for the second button, frame 25 for the third button, and so on. You have to attach:
...on the 5th frame of every 10 frame segment in subMovie. That way, the on (rollOver) can start at the first frame for each segment and reliably expect it to stop at the 5th frame in the segment.
Now for the first button on the main graphic, also attach:
Code:
on (rollOut){
subMovie.gotoAndPlay(6)
}
For each subsequent button, the subMovie would gotoAndPlay the 6th frame of each segment (16 for the second button, 26 for the third button and so on...) because frames 6 - 10 fades out the graphic slowly.
On the 10th frame of each segment, the movie stops:
Now while subMovie has mouse focus, it will remain visible:
Code:
on (rollOver){
subMovie.gotoAndStop(5)
}
When it looses mouse focus, it fades out:
Code:
on (rollOut){
subMovie.gotoAndPlay(6)
}
...frame 16 for the third button, 26 for the third, and so on. See how easy that was? If you want to get creative, you can add a timer delay to the embedded movie before it fades out. Happy coding.