Flash 101 (Part 4): Don't Touch Me! - Breaking It Down

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Typically, you cannot shape or apply a gradient fill to a text block. If you plan to do this, it becomes necessary to first break apart the block to create individual shapes that can be modified with the various shape tools. In Flash 5, this is accomplished by selecting the text block with the Arrow tool and then breaking it into its component pieces via the aptly-named Modify -> Break Apart command.

Once the individual components of the block have been separated, you can use the drawing and colour tools to apply different kinds of effects to the object. Breaking apart a text block is a necessary precursor to applying a shape tween to the object.



How did I do this? Very simple.

First, activate the text tool and place some text on the stage. Use your favourite font and colour.



Next, select the text block with the Arrow tool and break the text apart – you’ll see that each element of the text block becomes a distinct object. You now have an initial shape for your tween.



Move to a new frame (say, frame #10), and insert a new keyframe. Delete the previously-created text block, and create a new block containing the end result of your tween. Break apart this text block as described above, too.



Go back to the first keyframe, and insert a shape tween. Now, when you play the clip, the word(s) in the first keyframe will morph into the word(s) into the second keyframe, as in the example above.

This article copyright Melonfire 2001. All rights reserved.

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