Flash Script – Create Duplicate Movieclips

Download the sample files here.

Note that this tutorial assumes that you know how to create buttons and text fields.

1. First, create a button and label it "make clones".

2. Create a text field as shown in the above movie. Give it a variable name "no_clones".

3. Create a movie clip of your choice, which we can duplicate. I created a circle object with a gradient.

4. Give the movie clip an instance name of "clone".

5. Now, in the default layer’s first key frame, insert this action:

// set variable clips=value in text field. 

clips = no_clones;

6. Right click the button and insert these actions:

/on (release)  

{ 

// get the current x pos of the clone movie 

mov_x = getProperty("/clone",_x); 

//Check if the text field is empty if empty set it to 1 

if(no_clones == "") 

{ 

no_clones = 1; 

} 

// Use for loop to remove existing movie clip 

for(i=1; i<=clips; i=i+1) 

{ 

removeMovieClip ("/clone" add i); 

} 

// Use for loop to create duplicate movies. 

for (i=1; i<=no_clones; i=i+1) 

{ 

mov_x = mov_x + 50; 

duplicateMovieClip ("/clone", "clone" add i, i); 

setProperty ("/clone" add i, _x, mov_x); 

} 

//set variable clips = no_clones. 

clips = no_clones; 

}

I’ve commented the above script so that it’s easier for you understand. But that’s all you need to do: it’s time to test the movie.

Learning to create duplicate movie clips in flash is very usefull. It can be used to create a lot of effects — happy experimenting!