Shape tweening

In shape tweening, you draw a vector shape at one specific frame in the Timeline, and change that shape or draw another shape at another specific frame. Animate then interpolates the intermediate shapes for the frames in between, creating the animation of one shape morphing into another.

Animate allows you to add shape tweens to uniform solid strokes and non-uniform fancy strokes. You can also add shape tweens to strokes enhanced using the Variable Width Tool. Experiment with the shapes you want to use to determine the results. You can use shape hints to tell Animate which points on the beginning shape correspond to specific points on the end shape.

You can also tween the position and color of shapes within a shape tween.

To apply shape tweening to groups, instances, or bitmap images, break these elements apart. See Break apart a symbol instance.

To apply shape tweening to text, break the text apart twice to convert the text to objects. See Break apart a symbol instance.

The following steps show how to create a shape tween from frame 1 to frame 30 of the Timeline. However, you can create tweens in any part of the Timeline that you choose.

Ease presets are pre-configured eases that can be applied to an object on the stage.

A set of commonly used ease presets are available for Shape tween. You can select the preset from a list of ease presets and apply it to the selected property. You can also apply a custom ease to a shape tween.

You can create an optimized output js file when you use ease presets with HTML5 canvas document. HTML5 canvas uses the easing functions of Tween JS while creating an output. 

To control more complex or improbable shape changes, you can use shape hints. Shape hints identify points that correspond in starting and ending shapes. For example, if you are tweening a drawing of a face as it changes expression, you can use a shape hint to mark each eye. Then, instead of the face becoming an amorphous tangle while the shape change takes place, each eye remains recognizable and changes separately during the shift.

Shape hints contain letters (a through z) for identifying which points correspond in the starting and ending shapes. You can use up to 26 shape hints.

Shape hints are yellow in a starting keyframe, green in an ending keyframe, and red when not on a curve.

For best results when tweening shapes, follow these guidelines:

• In complex shape tweening, create intermediate shapes and tween them instead of just defining a starting and ending shape.

• Make sure that shape hints are logical. For example, if you’re using three shape hints for a triangle, they must be in the same order on the original triangle and on the triangle to be tweened. The order cannot be abc in the first keyframe and acb in the second.

• Shape hints work best if you place them in counterclockwise order beginning at the upper-left corner of the shape.

Animate CC allows you to add shape-tween to strokes with Variable Width. Earlier, Animate only supported creating shape tweens for solid uniform strokes and shapes. This limited designers from creating shape tweens for non-uniform strokes, such as strokes enhanced using the Variable Width Tool. Tweening strokes with variable width greatly expands the design possibilities within Animate CC.

Adding Shape tweens to fancy strokes is not different from tweening a shape or a solid uniform stroke. The workflow needs that you define the start and final shape of the tween, and Animate creates the transitional frames of the tween.

Variable Width tool allows you to enhance uniform solid strokes to create beautiful and fancy strokes. For information on how to enhance strokes using the Variable Width Tool, see Enhancing strokes and shapes using the Variable Width tool.

Animate CC also allows you to add shape tweens to fancy strokes saved as Variable Width Profiles. You can apply width profiles to the start and final shapes of a tween, and allow Animate to create a smooth Shape tween.

Width Profiles are nothing but fancy strokes created and saved using Variable Width Tool for easy reuse. For more information about Width Profiles, see Saving Width Profiles.

To add shape tweens to variable width profiles, do the following: