Problem Tweening an object within an MC

[jackthe7th]

hi, new to this greensock thing, but so far it has been wonderful in accomplishing what I would like to do!

 

My problem is this: Im having trouble getting an object within an MC to tween. The object in the MC is a textField that loads external text files called Text_News. I figured I would just specify the parent MC using a dot operator:

 

timeline.append( TweenMax.to(BG.Text_Field, 1, {alpha:1}));

 

But this comes back with the error:

 

Error: Cannot tween a null object.

at com.greensock::TweenLite$iinit()

at com.greensock::TweenMax$iinit()

at com.greensock::TweenMax$/to()

at ZakAstor2_fla::MainTimeline/ZakAstor2_fla::frame2()

TypeError: Error #1009: Cannot access a property or method of a null object reference.

at com.greensock::TweenLite/com.greensock:TweenLite::init()

at com.greensock::TweenMax/com.greensock:TweenMax::init()

at com.greensock::TweenMax/renderTime()

at com.greensock.core::SimpleTimeline/renderTime()

at com.greensock::TweenLite$/com.greensock:TweenLite::updateAll()

 

 

 

 

Does anyone know how to do this?

[Carl]

give the movie clip that CONTAINs targetMC the instance name parentMC.

 

using "parent" as an instance name is going to to cause problems with the ActionScript reserved keyword parent.

 

change your code to say:

 

timeline.append( TweenMax.to(parentMC.targetMC, 1, {alpha:1}));

 

that should do it.

[jackthe7th]

heh I know, sorry i just called it parent to simplify it, the parent is actually called BG in my code.

 

so this is my actual code:

timeline.append( TweenMax.from(BG.Text_News, 2, {alpha:0}));

 

I realized something though, the object "Text_News" was not created on the stage like my other objects, it was created using AS3. Its a textField that loads an external html file:

var myTextLoader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();

var Text_News:TextField = new TextField();

myTextLoader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, onLoaded);

function onLoaded(e:Event):void {

Text_News.htmlText = e.target.data;

addChild(Text_News);

}

myTextLoader.load(new URLRequest("Text/News.html"));

 

 

 

so I am trying to target this textField "Text_News", whose parent is BG.

[Carl]

is the textfield created before or after the timeline code is run?

it needs to happen before.

 

is this code inside BG?

 

var myTextLoader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();

var Text_News:TextField = new TextField();

myTextLoader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, onLoaded);

function onLoaded(e:Event):void {

Text_News.htmlText = e.target.data;

addChild(Text_News);

}

myTextLoader.load(new URLRequest("Text/News.html"));

 

the best thing you can do at this point is add a trace right beneath your timeline code:

 

trace(BG.Text_News)

if it is there you should get something like [object TextField] in your output.

 

if you don't get a favorable trace, double check your instance names and paths.

[jackthe7th]

ahh yeah the textField is created after the timeline and in the BG MC...

 

Is there a way to specify when the textField is loaded without moving it off the BG movieclip?

[jackthe7th]

found a solution, I just loaded the MC one frame before the code for the transitions.

[Carl]

sounds good. thanks for the update!