flash (macromedia): I've been looking for a tutorial that will let me animate swirls in flash just
as they would be hand drawn. I've seen similar effect on many websites and on
TV channels like The Food Network and TCM.
Does anyone know how to get this done?

Thanks in advance.

John

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Not sure, never watch food network or the tcm (not even know what that stands for).
Could you screen shot an example of that thing that you looking for ?

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Best Regards

Urami


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<urami>
If you want to mail me - DO NOT LAUGH AT MY ADDRESS

The "Drawing Line" effect, as far as I know, can be done in one of two ways.

Option 1) Create the line that will draw out in its entirety. Place the full
length line in your end key frame. Then, working backwards, create new key
frames with progressively more and more of the line deleted. When played
forward, the line will look like it is being drawn.

Option 2) Use an animated layer mask. The mask can be a movie clip with a
series of shape tweens. (to draw a box, you might have layer 1 of your mask
movie be a rectangle drawing over the top line of the box. Layer two would be a
rectangle drawing over the next line of the box.. and so on... )

Both of these methods are time consuming and require a lot of patience to get
the timing down right.

If there is another method, I would love to know!

You could make it with ActionScript:

//Create spiral clip
this.createEmptyMovieClip('spiral',0);
with(spiral){
_x = Stage.width/2;
_y = Stage.height/2;
lineStyle(5,0xFF0000);
}
//Draw Spiral
var i =0;
spiralID = setInterval(swirl,1);
function swirl(){
i+=2;
var r = i/5;
var a = i/10;
spiral.lineTo(Math.cos(a)*r,Math.sin(a)*r);
if(r>200){
//Stop drawing spiral
clearInterval(spiralID);
}
updateAfterEvent();
}
//Spin Spiral
spinID = setInterval(spin,1);
function spin(){
spiral._rotation+=3;
}