Making a non-Flash loading image for a Flash movie

[thesheep]

I'm creating quick and dirty Flash files as part of a interaction prototyping process. They're pretty big, and I just create them by exporting from Keynote. It's just a way to show ideas to a client.

The whole point is that I don't have to know anything about Flash (which I don't really).

Anyway, when viewing these over the web, it takes a while for the Flash movie to load of course. During which time there is a blank page.

Is there a way to put a message or animated gif 'loading' image BEHIND the HTML Flash object, such that it is visible until the Flash has loaded?

That way I get a 'loading' message/image until the Flash has loaded, and resassure people while they're waiting that the page is not broken.

[phranque]

that could all be done within the flash movie, which can be designed to start with a "light object" for the loading image and then download the "heavy object".

[thesheep]

Er... I realise that.

As I said this is a prototyping operation using Keynote. So I create the presentations, export as Flash and then upload them.

I don't want to have to open Flash or edit the movies at all.

Having said that, if this is the only way to do it, how quick is it to do, if I have an existing Flash movie file?

[phranque]

i can't help you with the flash - just speaking theoretically here.

you could probably put the image in a named or identified div and use a javascript function in the body onload event that waits and rewrites the contents of the div with the embedded flash object.
i'm just not sure if the page would render before the onload function completes...

[thesheep]

Hmm, I was wondering about something like that.

Would be a little involved though. I'd have to use Javascript to check for the loading status and only display the movie once it had finished loading.