ProgressiveDrawing Documentation

The ProgressiveDrawing class creates a means by which you can progressively draw your dynamically drawn Flash shapes over a period of multiple frames. The drawing API for this class matches with that of MovieClip, with the exception of a few additions, so conversion of existing drawings is simple and seemless.

Use a ProgressiveDrawing instance just as you would use a movie clip to draw lines and fills using Flash's drawing API on a movie clip. The main difference is that when these commands are used on a ProgressiveDrawing instance, they are not drawn right away. They are only drawn when the draw command is used and over a period of time, not all at once.

target

The movie clip to draw in.

pen

Contains x and y properties representing the position of the pen for the drawing or the drawing's last position.

_currentframe

The current frame within drawing. This is between 1 and _totalframes.

_totalframes

The total number of frames in a drawing as specified in draw().

_currentcommand

The current drawing command being issued in the onStep event. This will represent any of the drawing commands applied to the instance, "none" if not drawing. Note that not all commands will be provided in an onStep, only that which is being used at the current pen location when onStep is called.

tweenMoveTo

Determines whether or not moveTo commands are tweened during drawing.

autoTween

Determines whether or not the class tweens a drawing itself when draw is called.

isDrawing

Determines whether or not the drawing is being drawn in an autoTween.

_curveaccuracy

Accuracy level for internally tetermining the length of curves created with curveTo.

addListener

description: Allows you to add listeners to the ProgressiveDrawing instance to receive events.

usage: No usage provided

parameters:

No parameters provided

returns: No return specified

removeListener

description: Allows you to remove listeners from the ProgressiveDrawing instance so that they will no longer receive evnets.

usage: No usage provided

parameters:

No parameters provided

returns: No return specified

draw

description: Initiates the drawing of a collection of lines defined in the ProgressiveDrawing instance.

usage: No usage provided

parameters:

frames (Optional) The number of frames to use to draw. If not provided, the drawing is immediately drawn in completion
target (Optional) The movie clip to draw in. This will change the target reference in the instance.

returns: nothing.

pause

description: Pauses the automatic drawing tween until resume is called.

usage: No usage provided

parameters:

No parameters provided

returns: nothing.

resume

description: Resumes the automatic drawing tween after it has been stoped as a result of pause.

usage: No usage provided

parameters:

No parameters provided

returns: nothing.

step

description: Forces the drawing to the next frame updating the drawing in the target movie clip. Use this if autoTween is false, otherwise it will be called automatically every frame after draw() is called. The onStep event is called after this is run. If you use step to draw a drawing at your own rate, be sure to call draw first so that you can specify the frames for that drawing and other setup operations can run.

usage: No usage provided

parameters:

No parameters provided

returns: nothing.

clearDrawing

description: Removes all drawing commands from the instance reseting it to the state of a new instance

usage: No usage provided

parameters:

suppressClear (Optional) Determines whether or not the target movie clip is cleared using clear() as well

returns: nothing.

setEase

description: Allows you to add an ease method to the drawing behavior of the drawing. Calling this method with no arguments removes any previously added ease methods.

usage: No usage provided

parameters:

easeMethod The ease method to use to ease the motion of the drawing. This method should accept at least one float between 0 and 1 that represents the current position in the drawing and return an eased version of that value within the same range.
args (Optional) Any additional arguments to be used with the easeMethod.

returns: nothing.

setDrawing

description: Sets the drawings for the instance to be that of the drawing another instance passed.

usage: No usage provided

parameters:

drawing A ProgressiveDrawing instance to get a drawing from

returns: nothing.

appendDrawing

description: Appends the drawing from the instance passed to the drawing for this instance adding it at the end of the of the drawing sequence.

usage: No usage provided

parameters:

drawing A ProgressiveDrawing instance to get a drawing from

returns: nothing.

prependDrawing

description: Prepends the drawing from the instance passed to the drawing for this instance adding to the beginning of the of the drawing sequence.

usage: No usage provided

parameters:

drawing A ProgressiveDrawing instance to get a drawing from

returns: nothing.

startAt

description: Drawing Command. Sets a starting location for a drawing. This works much like moveTo only this will not be tweened when tweenMoveTo is true.

usage: No usage provided

parameters:

sx Start x location for a drawing.
sy Start y location for a drawing.

returns: nothing.

curveMoveTo

description: Drawing Command. Creates a curved moveTo. This works much like moveTo only in curveTo form. Use this when tweenMoveTo is true to move in a curve without drawing one.

usage: No usage provided

parameters:

cx Curve x control point.
cy Curve y control point.
ex Curve x end point.
ey Curve y end point.

returns: nothing.

pauseFor

description: Drawing Command. Creates a pause command, adding it to the drawing. This lets you pause the drawing process

usage: No usage provided

parameters:

t Time to pause. Time is relative to the length of the full drawing and will vary based on how many steps it takes to complete the drawing.

returns: nothing.

lineStyle

description: Drawing Command. Creates a lineStyle command, adding it to the drawing.

usage: No usage provided

parameters:

thick Line thickness.
col Color to be used for the line.
alpha Alpha transparency for the line.

returns: nothing.

beginFill

description: Drawing Command. Creates a beginFill command, adding it to the drawing.

usage: No usage provided

parameters:

col Color to be used in the fill.
alpha Alpha transparency of the fill.

returns: nothing.

beginGradientFill

description: Drawing Command. Creates a beginGradientFill command, adding it to the drawing.

usage: No usage provided

parameters:

fillType Type of fill for the gradient.
colors Colors to be used in the gradient.
alphas Alphas for transparency distribution.
ratios Ratios for color distribution.
matrix Matrix object describing the gradient.

returns: nothing.

moveTo

description: Drawing Command. Creates a moveTo command, adding it to the drawing.

usage: No usage provided

parameters:

ex x end point.
ey y end point.

returns: nothing.

lineTo

description: Drawing Command. Creates a lineTo line, adding it to the drawing.

usage: No usage provided

parameters:

ex Line x end point.
ey Line y end point.

returns: nothing.

curveTo

description: Drawing Command. Creates a curveTo curve, adding it to the drawing.

usage: No usage provided

parameters:

cx Curve x control point.
cy Curve y control point.
ex Curve x end point.
ey Curve y end point.

returns: The ProgressiveDrawing instance.

endFill

description: Drawing Command. Creates a endFill command, adding it to the drawing.

usage: No usage provided

parameters:

No parameters provided

returns: nothing.

clear

description: Drawing Command. Creates a clear command, adding it to the drawing.

usage: No usage provided

parameters:

No parameters provided

returns: nothing.