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Flash Tutorial - Shape Hints

Free Flash Tutorial

Step Ten: Shape Hints

When making Shape Tweens you do not need to use Shape Hints, but often Shape Tweens throw up unexpected results. To control the way the Shape changes as it moves you can use Shape Hints. A Shape Hint lets you specify which point, corner or line in one shape will move to which position in the second shape.

In this Example I am going to move the right side of the word one to the left side of the word two:



The pair of Shape Hints effect how the animation will move.

Example: Download the Flash file  Beg 001h

 

Look carefully and you will see that the 'e' of 'one' moves to 't' of 'two':


Example of Shape Tween with Shape Hints.


1. Go back to: Frame 1

Frame 1 is selected.

1. Go to: Modify > Shape > Add Shape Hint (Ctrl Shift H)



This will place a red disk marked with a letter:

2. Drag this to point to a new position that you want to mark on the word: one



3. Go to the last Frame of the shape tween: Frame 15

The disk will already be there:



4. Drag it to mark a desired point the word: two

The disk should turn green:



Note: Now that both the 'a' disks are in both place (Frame 1 & Frame 15) the hint is complete and if you return to Frame 1 you will see that the disk has turned from red to yellow.



Shape hint always come in pairs of disks (each in a different Frame) and when they have been moved into the correct position they colour as follows:

The 1st in the pair is Yellow:

The 2nd in the pair is Green:

5. Test the Movie to see the difference: Control > Test movie (Ctrl Enter)

   You should see something similar to this:
   
   

6. Close the Test Window:
   
   
7. You may want to try and: Move the Disks
   
   
8. Then test again: Control > Test movie (Ctrl Enter)
   
   
9. Close the Test Window:

Other Options: Try and add addition Shape Hint Disks:


Multiple Shape Hints.


Additional Notes:

• If you place additional disks in Frame 1, they will be marked B, C, D etc. You can only have 26 disks:
• If the disks are not visible go to: View > Show Shape Hints (Ctrl Alt H)
• It is best to place the first disk in the top left hand corner of your shape and work anti-clockwise around the shape with subsequent disks.
• Try and use the Context Menu: Right Click on the Disks (Mac Ctrl click)
  
  
  The right click Context Menu.

Well that's it so have fun Shape Tweening!!

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