Chapter 10. Animation with Shape Tweening

10. Animation with Shape Tweening

In shape tweening, as in motion tweening, you define the beginning and ending graphics in keyframes. Macromedia Flash 8 creates the in-between frames, redrawing the graphic with incremental changes that transform it. The important difference between motion tweening and shape tweening is that motion tweening requires graphics that are in containers (drawing-objects, groups, symbols, or text boxes qualify), and shape tweening requires editable graphics (merge-shapes and drawing-objects qualify).

You can use shape tweens to change properties of graphicssize, color, location, and so on. Shape-tweened graphics can move in straight lines, but they can't automatically follow a motion path or rotate a certain number of times.

Flash can shape-tween more than one graphic on a layer, but the results can be unpredictable. When you have several shapes on a layer, there is no way to tell Flash which starting shape goes with which ending shape. By limiting yourself to a single shape tween on each layer, you tell Flash exactly what to change.

You define shape tweens by setting the tweening property in the Properties tab of the Property inspector. For the tasks in this chapter, keep the Properties tab of the Property inspector open.