Lesson 5.3 Shape Hints
Shape hints provide the Flash author with a bit of control over how the shapes tween from one to another. As you saw in the illustration with the mouse and cheese, we don't know the method Flash uses to morph from one object to another. Shape hints provide a way for us to define certain areas on the beginning shape and tell Flash to morph that area into a specific location on the ending shape.
Create a shape tween. Shape hints work in pairs. First place a shape hint in a position on the shape in the beginning keyframe of the shape tween and then put the corresponding shape hint in a position on the shape in the ending keyframe of the shape tween. Shape hints use the 26 letters of the alphabet to define its pairs. Flash will always call the first shape hint "A" and apply them in alphabetical order through "Z" in clockwise order.
If you require 26 shape hints...you're in for some heavy processing of your computer system. Shape hints require a lot of resources and can slow down your movie dramatically. To add shape hints to a shape tween, select the first keyframe of the shape tween. Go to the Modify Menu - Modify>Shape>Add Shape Hints or Control + Shift + H.
INTERACTIVE Flash DEMO 
Note the location of the original shape hints for the bottom animation.
One of the greatest uses of Flash text is the fade in or fade out effect. This is simply a motion tweened symbol with the alpha setting in the Color: drop-down menu of the Properties Panel set to 0%. You can change the size, tint, rotation, etc. In order to use the Properties Panel Color: option, you have to convert the text to a symbol and then you can no longer shape tween the text.
Now you know the foundation of text and have a few basic text effects. There are several third party Flash-endorsed software programs that create some pretty cool text effects for you. They create .swf files which you import into your .fla library. I've used Swish. Some of the effects may look familiar because they are so popular and have been used by many people.
This is the last section of this lesson. Please proceed to the Assignments area.
Up » 5.1 Text Effects » 5.2 Text Tweening » 5.3 Shape Hints
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