Alpha Channels for Flash

July 8, 2005 7:54 AM

FlashFilter: I would like to lay a flash movie _over_ a web page and have web content show through the movie (in defined areas). Is there a way to specify an alpha channel (or other masking option) for a flash file? I'm certain there is, but my flash programmer is a neophyte and doesn't believe me.
posted by silusGROK to computers & internet (4 comments total)

It's been a few a few years, but if you search/google on the following

<param name="wmode" value="transparent">

you should find what you're looking for.

And since Ask Metafilter wouldn't be Metafilter without a little bit 'o snark, fire your programmer. Not knowing how to do something is fine for a neophyte, but not knowing that this is possible and refusing to believe you/look into it is ... questionable, at best
posted by alan at 8:01 AM on July 8, 2005

Watch out for form fields when using this technique - it can play nasty tricks with browsers other than IE. Unless you're laying over an entire page though, you should get out alive.

The young don't know what it is they don't know, a person needs experience to find out how dumb they are. Show him how the clever boys do it, but go easy.
posted by NinjaPirate at 8:14 AM on July 8, 2005

Go to file, publish. Export and for the HTML settings be sure to select "transparent windowless" for the "Window Mode:". You can then copy / paste the code from the published HTML to a new layer in the HTML document where you have your content.
posted by banished at 1:09 PM on July 8, 2005

Yes, there is, and it's called......."alpha."
posted by bricoleur at 3:22 PM on July 8, 2005