# Animated Symbol Outline/Stroke

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/animated-symbol-outline-stroke/183418>\
**Category:** flash\
**Created:** [March 26, 2006, 10:35pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/animated-symbol-outline-stroke/183418 "2006-03-26T22:35:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![macnwook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@macnwook](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/macnwook)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 10:35pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/animated-symbol-outline-stroke/183418/1 "2006-03-26T22:35:13Z")

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

thanks,  
macnwook

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**Author:** ![Bokke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Bokke](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/Bokke)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 10:56pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/animated-symbol-outline-stroke/183418/2 "2006-03-26T22:56:19Z")

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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…

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![macnwook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@macnwook](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/macnwook)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 11:25pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/animated-symbol-outline-stroke/183418/3 "2006-03-26T23:25:29Z")

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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!