Custom Cursors in a Flash 5 Movie.

The action of creating your own mouse pointer, rather than the standard white arrow, can be performed very easily.  Cursors can also be animated.  This tool is invaluable when creating games but also a novel feature to your SWF’s. 

For this tutorial I would create a new movie, although as I have said, this action can be easily added to completed movies. 

With a blank frame in front of you, label the layer ‘cursor’ and insert a key frame at number 1. 

In this key frame draw or import your cursor image but do not animate yet.  Once drawn, convert your cursor to a movie clip called ‘cursor’ (select cursor – insert menu – convert to symbol – check movie clip and name ‘cursor’)

Now click on your movie clip so it is selected and pull up the instance panel (Windows menu – Panels – Instance).  On this panel you should see a text box labelled ‘Name’, in here type ‘cursordrag’.  It is best to close any spaces and always use lower case as it leaves less room for errors. 

On the layer labelled ‘Cursor’ (Should be the only layer), right click the keyframe and select actions.  This will display the action scripts box.  If you haven’t used much action script before, then don’t worry, this is a very easy action script.  On the left side click the Actions tab.  This will drop down a list of actions.  From the list select ‘Start Drag’, this action will then appear on the right.  At the bottom you should see several text boxes.  For the target, type ‘cursordrag’ (Which is the name assigned to your cursor movie).  Just below this, check the lock mouse to centre check button. 

If you view your movie now, the cursor will follow your mouse pointer.  Lastly you will hide the standard cursor.  Return to the FLA and right click the first frame, selecting actions, to view the action script box again.  You should see the script you have just entered.  Now select the objects tab on the left, scroll down below the actions tab to find this.  The objects tab will drop down more options.  Find ‘mouse’ and select it to view it’s actions.  This will reveal ‘hide’ or ‘show’.  Obviously to hide the mouse select ‘hide’. 

Your cursor is complete!!  To make it animated, simply double click the cursor in FLA to open the movie clip.  Then animate it as normal, within the movie.  This will play as you use your cursor. 

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