Web site development - using shape tweening. Amazingly, Flash handles this process
using shape tweening. Amazingly, Flash handles this process automatically. To shape tween one circle into a word, start with a circle. When you get to Step 4 of the shape tweening process, delete the circle and create the text wherever you want. Choose any size, color, and font and then break apart the text (choose Modify.Break Apart). This command breaks the text into letters. Then break apart the text again (choose Modify.Break Apart) to break the letters into shapes. Finish the shape tween, and you re done! To create the effect that Jennie created, create a second, similar shape tween on another layer. To view the effect, choose Control.Test Movie. (The Flash movie is courtesy of Jennie Sweo. You can see this movie on the Web at http://sweo.tripod.com.) Getting Flash to take a hint using shape hints Does the transformation of your shape animation look strange? Flash tries to figure out the simplest and most probable way to change one of your shapes into another, but this solution might not turn out the way that you expect or want. Never fear. You can use the Flash shape hints feature to fix this problem. A shape hint is a marker that you attach to a point on a shape at the beginning and end of a shape change. The shape hints signal to Flash exactly how you want this point and the area around it to move from start to end of the shape tweening process. You can use up to 26 shape hints per layer. Shape hints are displayed on the Stage as small, colored circles with a letter (a z) inside. On the starting keyframe, the shape hint is yellow; and on the ending keyframe, it s green. When you first insert a shape hint before you move it onto your shape it s red. Figure 9-9 shows an example of beginning and ending shapes with shape hints. From this book s companion Web site, at www.dummies.com/go/flash8, you can download the Flash movie file shown in Figure 9-9. It s the file 4 to 5 point star with shape hints.fla in the Ch09 folder. Figure 9-9: Shape hints guide Flash as it tweens your shape. Chapter 9: Getting Animated 201
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