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Shape Hints in Flash
Author: T Norman | Email
Website : www.ntdesigns.net
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Shape Hints in Flash
Flash likes to use the path of least resistance when morphing, which can sometimes make your shape tween look like your cat sat on it. Enter, stage left, Shape Hints! These are added when tweening shapes to give you more control over the transition. They can keep the integrity of key shapes while you morph, instead of going through a tangle of colours and lines that have a closer resembalence to one of my stews than of a morphing shape.
Your shape hints are ordered a to z and you can only have 26 of them. The shape hints in the starting keyframe are yellow and those in the ending keyframe are green. If a shape hint is red it means that it's not on a curve. To place a hint on the stage you must have the shape tweening set on the first frame of the image, if not you won't be able to add hints. To remove a shape hint simply drag it off the stage, this will affect the frames the hint is in.
· For optimal performance during a morph place your shape hints in a counter-clockwise direction starting in the top left corner of the shape.
· For really complex shape tweens, put in a third keyframe in the middle and create a intermdiate shape to tween to and from.
· The order must stay the same. ie. The starting hint, a, should correspond to the finishing hint, a, starting b correspond to the ending b and so forth.
Shape Morph using Hints
First, select the first keyframe of the shape-tween and select the object to which you want to add the shape hint to. Choose Modify> Transform> Add Shape Hint. Your first shape hint will be a red circle with a letter a in it (see below). Next you have to drag it to a point on your image that you want to control during the morph.
Now select the last keyframe of the tween. You will see the green ending circle with a letter a, appear on the image. Move this hint to the place you want the starting a to end up. The point a marked in the starting frame will become the point a in the ending frame.
If you click on the first keyframe again you will notice the red circle has turned yellow. While you are practising use only one shape hint until you feel comfortable.
Choose Control> Play to play your movie to see how your hint affects the shape tween. To see all your shape hints select the layer containing the shape hints and choose View> Show Shape Hints. At this point you can tweek and add more hints to your starting and ending frames. Each additional shape hints will appear in alphabetical order.
If you want to remove all the shape hints choose Modify> Transform> Remove All Hints.
To place a hint on the stage
Select the first keyframe of the shape-tween
Ensure shape tweening is set on the first frame of the shape
Choose Modify> Transform> Add Shape Hint
Select last keyframe of the shape-tween
Move ending hint into place
To remove a shape hint
Drag it off the stage
To see all your shape hints
Select the layer containing the shape hints
Choose View> Show Shape Hints.
We hope the information helped you. If you have any questions
or comments, please don't hesitate to post them on the
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