http://www.westelm.com/ - How did they animate their text?

[fourthtower webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

Hello, all!

A client of mine fell in love with the animated text at the following website:
[url]http://www.westelm.com/[/url]

I've been struggling for awhile with trying to produce something similar, with no such luck. It doesn't have to be exact, just something that gives that smooth fade in and gives the text a sort of wavery gently-morphed look. Any hints, tips or tricks would be much appreciated! I'm a real newbie when it comes to Flash :)

Thanks much!
Sara Almes
[email]sara@fourthtower.com[/email]

[stwingy webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

You can make this effect by shape tweening the text. (To shape tween text click breakapart, then breakapart again.)

Certified but not by Macromedia!
myurl

[fourthtower]

Thanks so much for the quick response! I've been able to morph the letters successfully, but try as I might I can't seem to get them to move as "fluidly" as my client would like. I'm beginning to think what she would really like to see is letters that fade in and then ripple a bit...like water ripples. Can anyone give me some hints on making "rippling" letters? Sorry for being such a pain! :)

Thanks,
Sara

[stwingy webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

You could try making a gradient fill mask and have its alpha values alternating between 0 and 100 (several times along its length.) Then just move this across your text.
Swish exports as swf so you will be limited as to what you can learn but it is a good tool.

Certified but not by Macromedia!
myurl

[Sly1211]

To make them appear to ripple, you can do what stwingy suggested, but in addition use masking to get the rippling effect.


-Sly-

[henri]

To smooth up the process modify the brightness istead of the Alpha, the
latter being much more ressource intensive.

Henri