Curious about resolution when adding 3d property

I Have previously, happily, made 3D objects in Flash and have been very happy with them. Recently I drew a leaf in CS4 and found that when some of my AS3 script kicked in to modify the rotationX property the resolution would instantly drop. I was curious if anyone else could shed some light on this or have a solution that prevents the drop in resolution. I find it odd considering it is a relatively simple shape (just a flat drawn MC)…

Even more curious I found some of my ‘branches’ mc would drop their resolution if a 3D property was add in the constructor… and then recover the resolution if a ‘leaf’ floated past them and blocked them from view (had to block the entire branch not just part of it). I am guessing when flash redrew the ‘branch’ it would do it properly but not initially?

Thanks,

S.