Parallax Scrolling

February 17th, 2009 | Category: Flash

You can easily achieve parallax scrolling in Flash CS4. Using the vCam AS3, apply different Z positions to your movieclips. Then tween the camera and publish your movie. How easy is that?

Here is a test I ran (Flash Player 10 Required):

Download FLA (Flash CS4)

This movie requires Flash Player 9

Artwork by Tim Allen

10 comments

10 Comments so far

  1. FJGamer March 3rd, 2009 4:42 am

    Could you do this in CS3? It seems silly that we’d need to limit it to CS4. I know CS4 has new identifiers, which you probably use, but why not add that dynamically through the scripting? I see a lot of components add extra parameters to objects. A ‘z’ depth could potentially be added to CS3 through a component, correct?

    Back to your work, I love it. In order to accomplish such effects, I usually move objects manually. This could save a lot of time.

  2. bryan March 3rd, 2009 1:02 pm

    It certainly could be done in CS3. I’ll have to run some tests when I get some time. Thanks for the post.

  3. Derekp June 26th, 2009 4:07 pm

    I think i’ve seen this somewhere before…but it’s not bad at all

  4. Amateur6 September 14th, 2009 9:47 pm

    I realize it’s only a test, but the parallax seems off. The very foreground should be moving much more quickly than the furthest background, which should hardly be moving at all.

  5. bryan January 11th, 2010 1:40 pm

    Thanks for your comment. I wasn’t going for perfection. All you have to do to adjust the speed is decrease the Z depth of the foreground.

  6. Jean April 10th, 2010 7:42 pm

    Hi, nice job on the VCam. I’m developing a game and I’m trying to use it as a camera. I’m not sure it’s possible because of the overhead. It made the game run too slowly. My question is: do I have to use tweens to move the camera or can I just move the movie clip through its x and y?

  7. bryan April 12th, 2010 12:17 pm

    You can position it through it’s x and y property.

  8. Dan May 4th, 2010 1:34 pm

    for some reason this isn’t working when loaded as an external flash.

    I am trying to do parallax on my index layer of a gaia site, and the vcam scrolls fine (using greensock tweening) but it is not producing the parallax effect. If i move the graphics around (not the camera) the the parallax effect works.

    It’s strange because i believe i am doing the exact same thing as in your demo, anyone have any experience integrating this into gaia? or loading it as an external swf?

    tnx :)

  9. engetic May 11th, 2010 1:05 am

    hi uhmm I have flash8 and is wondering if this could be done in flash ActionScript2. If so are you working on one? If your working on one can you post it in the text box above so no one will post a question similar to mine.

  10. bryan May 17th, 2010 5:03 pm

    It can’t be done in ActionScript 2 using this method because the Z axis was not introduced until AS3. You can fake it though.

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