G94 Circular Menu

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Download Group94 style scrolling menu

UPDATE: AS3 (enhanced) version now available here

I built this circular version of the group94 style scrolling menu for a flash website awards showcase I was asked to work on. The original design was based around circles, but we ended up redesigning as parts of the interface (not this menu!) were too processor intensive.

Ok, so part two of my tribute to Group 94’s menu system! This is again inspired by the Group 94 (at least they are most famous for it) shuffle menu in Flash, which pushes items off the top and bottom as the menu shuffles into place.

This version is circular though, and each menu item rotates around a pivot. Initiating the prototype with particular variables will define the spacing between items, the radius of the Group 94 circular menu and the amount of items visible at one time.

Please note, this is in no way a rip of the Group 94 menu. In fact, I haven’t even seen a circular version which is why I made it. I have no idea how Group 94’s actionscript looks, or how they would have approached this style of menu. I do know however, that they have produced many innovative navigation systems, and so this is a simple tribute to their talent and innovation.

As with the regular group 94 scrolling menu, you will need Fuse installed, though all it does is handle tweening so you could use tweener or the inbuilt Flash tweening functions. I just prefer Fuse!

How it is done.

First import Fuse for tweening, then setup the array we will use for the menu:

import com.mosesSupposes.fuse.*;
ZigoEngine.simpleSetup (Shortcuts,PennerEasing);
 
var planets:Array = new Array ();
planets.push ("Mercury");
planets.push ("Venus");
planets.push ("Earth");
planets.push ("Mars");
planets.push ("Jupiter");
planets.push ("Saturn");
planets.push ("Uranus");
planets.push ("Neptune");
planets.push ("Pluto");

Then some very basic functionality for each menu button. I have ommited rollOvers for the demo…

MovieClip.prototype.circNavBtn = function (id:Number, par:MovieClip, name:String)
{
	this.pos = this.id = id;
	this.par = par;
	this.btn.txt.text = name.toUpperCase ();
 
	this._rotation = 90;
	this._alpha = 0;
 
	this.onPress = function ()
	{
		this.par.circNavRot (this.pos);
		this.activeBtn ();
	};
};

Then two small prototypes to handle the activation and de-activation of the buttons when the scroll function is called:

MovieClip.prototype.activeBtn = function ()
{
	activeNavBtn.inactiveBtn ();
	activeNavBtn = this;
 
	this.btn.scaleTo (200,0.5);
 
	this.enabled = false;
};
 
MovieClip.prototype.inactiveBtn = function ()
{
	this.btn.scaleTo (100,0.5);
};

Then the main shuffle or rotation function, which designates tweens to all visible movieClips and hides those outside of the visible items range.

MovieClip.prototype.circNavRot = function (num:Number)
{
	var diff:Number = num;
 
	for (var i:Number = 0; i < this.btns.length; i++)
	{
		var btn:MovieClip = this["navBtn" + i];
 
		btn.pos -= diff;
 
		if (Math.abs (btn.pos) < this.visItems)
		{
			var offset:Number;
			btn.pos != 0 ? (offset = btn.pos > 0 ? 15 : -15) : offset = 0;
 
			var rot:Number = offset + (this.spacing * btn.pos);
			var alph:Number = 100 - ((100 / this.visItems) * Math.abs (btn.pos));
			var scl:Number = 100 - (5 * Math.abs (btn.pos));
 
			btn.rotateTo (rot,0.5,"easeOutExpo");
			btn.alphaTo (alph,0.5);
			btn.btn.scaleTo (scl,0.5);
		}
		else
		{
			btn.stopTween ("_alpha");
			btn.stopTween ("_rotation");
			btn._rotation = btn.pos > 0 ? 90 : -90;
			btn._alpha = 0;
		}
 
		btn.enabled = Math.abs (btn.pos) < this.visItems;
	}
	this["navBtn" + num].activeBtn ();
};

Now we setup the circular scrolling menu on a movieClip:

MovieClip.prototype.circNav = function (array:Array, radius:Number, spacing:Number, visItems:Number)
{
	this.btns = new Array ();
	this.spacing = spacing;
	this.visItems = visItems;
 
	for (var i:Number = 0; i < array.length; i++)
	{
		var navBtn:MovieClip = this.createEmptyMovieClip ("navBtn" + i, i);
		var btnTxt:MovieClip = navBtn.attachMovie ("btn", "btn", 0);
		btnTxt._x = radius;
 
		navBtn.circNavBtn (i,this,array[i]);
		this.btns.push (navBtn);
	}
	this.circNavRot (0);
};

Here we dynamically create a movieClip, position it, then call our prototype to create the lovely Group94 style menu…

var testMenu:MovieClip = this.createEmptyMovieClip ("nav", 0);
testMenu._x = 20;
testMenu._y = 112;
 
testMenu.circNav (planets, 60, 15, 4);

And finally we add the ability to use the mouse wheel to scroll the menu. otherwise we just click the menu items:

var mouseListener:Object = new Object ();
mouseListener.onMouseWheel = function (delta)
{
	var navIndex:Number = activeNavBtn.id;
	if (delta < 0 && activeNavBtn.id < planets.length - 1)
	{
 
		testMenu.circNavRot (1);
		testMenu["navBtn" + (navIndex + 1)].activeBtn ();
	}
	else if (delta > 0 && activeNavBtn.id > 0)
	{
		testMenu.circNavRot (-1);
		testMenu["navBtn" + (navIndex - 1)].activeBtn ();
	}
};
Mouse.addListener (mouseListener);

I hope this is useful to someone! If you find a home for it, please let me know.