Importing clips with filters doesn’t work

[djcsdy]

Reported by Jarosław Pendowski on the mailing list, 2008-04-05:

Hi there - swfmill is a great tool but today using it I realized that it has a serious bug. I've made an example of that bug. I have a movie clip that has a filter (blur) and that movie clip is moving using motion tween. When I import that movie clip and create a swf using swfmill the movie clip doesn't have a filter anymore and it doesn't move. If I delete filter in flash - it's working fine. It also works if I apply filter to that movie clip using ActionsScript istead of Flash IDE. SWF's that I use with swfmill is prepared by graphic and I don't want to force him to use ActionScript instead of Flash IDE functionality. And it's a lot harder to tween filters using AS too - he's not a programmer.

Here are some files that shows the problem:

• source file : http://shwsite.org/outside/swfmill/filtry.fla (mirror)
• result of that file : http://shwsite.org/outside/swfmill/filtry.swf (mirror)
• swfmill XML file : http://shwsite.org/outside/swfmill/swf.xml (mirror)
• result of swfmill : http://shwsite.org/outside/swfmill/wynik.swf (mirror)

I'm using the latest swfmill release for Windows (0.2.12.4-win32).

And again by Rodolfo Lopez, 2009-01-14:

Hi! First of all, congratulations to the SWFMILL team for such a promising tool. You guys really rock! I'm having problems when trying to create an assets library using SWFMILL. Version: subversion trunk, 0.2.12.6, freshly compiled. Also same problem with 0.2.12.0. The problem is, the imported SWF's get broken. I've done a very simple test, just importing a couple clips:

<movie width="1024" height="768" framerate="12" version="8">
    <frame>
        <clip import="classes.swf"/>
        <library>
            <clip id="menu" import="lib/menu_item.swf"/>
            <clip id="feed" import="lib/feed_body.swf"/>
        </library>
        <call object="stub" method="main"/>
    </frame>
</movie>

The symbols are imported into the library, but some symbols inside them are placed onto the stage. Let me explain: The clip "menu_item.swf" is a very simple clip, with a (child) movieclip as background, and the option text. What happens is, its child clip (the item background) is placed onto the stage, even though it shouldn't. When I do an AttachMovie, the menuitem is attached, but WITHOUT the background. Looking at the flash console output, I see these warnings (maytbe not related to the problem) just before the method "main" is executed:

Warning: Failed to place object at depth 1.
Warning: Failed to place object at depth 1.

Same problem with the other clip. I've decompiled the generated SWF with a SWF extraction tool, and I see that the child clip is NOT present in the parent item, but it IS in the library. In the parent, in the place where the clip should be, I see a "yellow anchor", and Flash complains about the child clip belonging to a shared library, when I try to open it. So... can anybody please give me general guidelines on how to import SWF's and its limitations? Should it work flawlessly? maybe version problems? I'm working with everything set to Flash 8. I have been reading this maillist and nobody complains about a similar problem, so maybe it's just my fault. Also, the "call object" thing seem not to be working. Is it neccessary? or I can safely use the MTASC -main thing? that one works! Thanks in advance! Please dont hesitate in asking for more information. I'd be more than grateful with anybody helping me out to solve this problem

And again by Rodolfo Lopez 2009-12-21:

Hi there! Just to say thank you for this cool new release :) Keep up the good work!

I'd like to ask, when importing clips with filters I have the same problems than with prior version. Will this be addressed or it is not a priority?

I'd like to ask, when importing clips with filters I have the same problems than with prior version. Will this be addressed or it is not a priority?

I’m not sure -- do you mean this one? http://osflash.org/pipermail/swfmill_osflash.org/2008-April/001764.html

Hey Dan, thanx for your answer.

Yes I meant that one, and in general any imported clips with filters make those clips (that should be in library) appear onto the stage, without filters... There was some buzz bout this like one year ago.. My workaround was (and is) to force the imported clips to be Flash/7 only -hence no filters :)- but importing clips for V8/V9... tend to fail for me bcoz if any clip or subclip has filters, the resultant SWF is broken :(