Animated Symbol Outline/Stroke

programming flash
1

Is it possible to add a stroke/outline to a symbol?

I am doing some character animation (for example a “walk cycle” symbol), and am looking to create a thicker outline around the symbol. I can’t just draw the objects inside the symbol with a thicker stroke, as the outline only needs to be thicker when objects are outside the character.

For example, normally the character’s arm would have a thick outline, but as it moves in front of the body the outline becomes thinner.

If you’ve seen the cartoon “Billy & Mandy” you know what i’m talking about:

http://mariannadias.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/.pond/mandy.jpg.w180h210.jpg

thanks,
macnwook

2

In Flash 8 you can add all kinds of filters to movieclips.
You can add a outer-glow filter to your character and set its strength to 1000%.

But for 2004… :-/
Yeah, maybe you could place the same movieclip in a layer underneath the normal one. Then scale it up and set its brightness to -100%
This way you should have a nice animated border, but I think it will be hard to scale it so that it fits perfectly…

3

yeah, scaling a duplicate doesn’t work well… i’ve tried this for other things, and you’re right about it not matching up uniformly.

looks like i’m off to get Flash 8 ! that sounds perfect!