DUE DATE:__________

SHAPE TWEENS, SHAPE HINTS, and MORPHING

Find help and examples online here:
http://atl4.hostvelocity.com/~profal/cis127/flash/ani-morph.htm

Just follow these simple steps to get started.

1. In a new file, draw a circle onstage. (Don't group anything and don't convert anything to a symbol.) Fill with a color of your choice.



2. Insert a keyframe in frame 30, press [F6] in frame 30.



3. Insert a keyframe in frame 15, press [F6] in frame 15; leave the red current frame marker here. Change the color fill to another color.



4. Use the Arrow tool to first deselect the circle (click off the circle), and then bring the pointer close to the edge until the cursor changes to a curved-tail pointer. Click and drag the center of the circle to reshape it.



5. Now we just need to set Shape Tweening for the two spans. Click frame 1, hold Shift, and then click frame 15. From the Properties Inspector select Shape from the Tween drop-down list.



6. Test the movie, [Ctrl] + [Enter]. Save as flashlab2-tween.fla



7. Publish the flashlab2-tween.swf file to your csweb2 Web site as your TWEENING example.

TASK: USING SHAPE HINTS

Just follow these simple steps to get started. Note: although the steps walk you through turning a square into a triangle, you could change these basic shapes into something else if you wish. Perhaps, a square into a star shape; circle into a polygon? Feel free to experiment.

1. In a new file, draw a perfect square, (hold the Shift while you drag).



2. In frame 25 of the Timeline, insert a keyframe [F6].



3. In frame 25 change the square shape to a triangle, the triangle should be as similar in size as the square, try the tip next to do that.

In frame 25, draw a vertical line that doesn't touch the square. Select the Arrow tool (make sure Snap to Objects is turned on), click once on the line to select it, and click and hold in the center of the line. (Make sure you have the solid circle, indicating that you've grabbed the center, if not try grabbing the line again.) Now drag the line so it snaps in the center of the horizontal top of the square. (Review the images below for step 4.)

4. Click off the line and grab the top-left corner of your square. Drag it until it snaps to this bisecting line. Do the same for the top-right corner of the square.





5. Select and delete the excess portions of the vertical line.



6. Select the first keyframe and use the Properties panel to set Tween to Shape. Scrub and you'll see the results are probably not what you expected. Now's the chance to use Shape Hints.



7. Place the red current frame marker in frame 1 and select Modify > Shape > Add Shape Hint or press [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [H].



8. Notice a little red circle with the letter 'a', this is a Shape Hint marker. (Temporarily move the red current frame marker to frame 25 and notice there's also a Shape Hint in this frame too).





9. Make sure you're back in frame 1 and that Snap is turned on (select View > Snap to Objects). Use the Arrow tool and drag the Shape Hint so it snaps to the top-left corner of your square.



10. Go to frame 25 and position Shape Hint a so that it snaps to the middle of the left side of the triangle. Notice that the Shape Hints turns green, indicating that it's been mapped. (When you return to frame 1, the Shape Hint is colored yellow to indicate that it's been mapped.)



11. Scrub to see the results so far-if it looks good, you don't need to add any more Shape Hints. (Not this time, you've got more to do).



12. In frame 1, add another Shape Hint [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [H], which is automatically given the name 'b', and position it in the top-right corner of the square.



13. In frame 25, map the second Shape Hint 'b' to snap to the middle of the right side of the triangle.



14. At this point the results should be much better than before you added any hints. Test your movie and save as flashlab2-morph.fla.



15. Publish the flashlab2-morph.swf file to your csweb2 Web site as your MORPHING example.