animating curved lines

[ssgem]

i have a basic question but i'm stumped: is there anything w/i Flash akin to Illustrator's anchor point? i'm trying to simulate an arm motion but can't create a pivoting effect or curving effect of line while tweening. any suggestions would be appreciated. thx,

 

[ra350]

Im not sure if i am following you completly but a simple motion guide should do the trick... If you dont know how to do that email me at ra350@hotmail.com or post here and i would be happy to help you out.

 

[ssgem]

thx, i think i got what i want w/ shape tweening (i'm obviously new!)....but thx,

 

[Azmaramza]

Have u tried using a motion tween??

 

[ferhelping]

When you create a shape tweened animation, you can use anchor points called

 

[ferhelping]

When you create a shape tweened animation, you can use anchor points called "shape hints".

Create a line in frame 1. insert a keyframe wherever you want, i used frame 20. Double-click frame 1 and in the Tweening tab select Shape tweening. You will see the frames in the timeline become green. Now press MODIFY/TRANSFORM/ADD SHAPE HINT. Now you will see a little yellow circle with an "A" inside it. Drag the circle to the vertex where you want your pivot point.

Go to frame 20 (or whatever you selected) You will have a green circle with the same letter "A". Drag the circle to the same vertex as you did before. Now, grab the other line vertex and move it wherever you want it.(like a mechanical arm you wanted) Press enter and you will see the animation.

You can create complicated animations this way. The limitation is that you can only create up to 26 shape hints (26 letters in the alphabet)

I hope that answers your question.

 

[ssgem]

Excellent tips all!.....thx everybody.