DefineMorphShape

Tag Info

Tag Number:

Tag Type:

Define

Tag Flash Version:

Unknown SWF Tag:

This tag is defined by the Flash documentation by Adobe

Brief Description:

This is similar to a sprite with a simple morphing between two shapes.

Tag Structure:

struct swf_defineshape {
	swf_tag				f_tag;		/* 2, 22, 32, 46, 83, or 84 */
	unsigned short			f_shape_id;
	swf_rect			f_rect;
	is_morph = f_tag == DefineMorphShape || f_tag == DefineMorphShape2;
	has_strokes = f_tag == DefineShape4 || f_tag == DefineMorphShape2;
	if(is_morph) {
		swf_rect			f_rect_morph;
	}
	if(has_strokes) {
		swf_rect			f_stroke_rect;
		if(is_morph) {
			swf_rect			f_stroke_rect_morph;
		}
		unsigned			f_define_shape_reserved : 6;
		unsigned			f_define_shape_non_scaling_strokes : 1;
		unsigned			f_define_shape_scaling_strokes : 1;
	}
	if(is_morph) {
		unsigned long			f_offset_morph;
		swf_morph_shape_with_style	f_morph_shape_with_style;
	}
	else {
		swf_shape_with_style		f_shape_with_style;
	}
};

These are probably the most important tags in this reference. They are used to define a shape using Bezier curves and lines with different styles. The DefineShape of V1.0 is usually enough unless you need a large number of styles or you want to specify colors with an alpha channel (RGBA).

The DefineMorphShape and DefineMorphShape2 can be used to render an intermediate shape between two defined shapes. All the points and control points of both shapes must match. This is because the rendering of the morphing shapes is just an interpolation between both shapes points and control points positions. The interpolation is a very simple linear function (note however that you still can use a non-linear transformation effect in the end.) Most of the parameters in a shape definition are doubled when this tag is used. It otherwise looks very similar.

The f_stroke_rect and f_stroke_rect_morph rectangles define the boundaries around their respective shapes without the line strokes (excluding the thickness of the line.)

The f_define_shape_non_scaling_strokes flag should be set to 1 if at least one of the line strokes always stays the same while morphing.

The f_define_shape_scaling_strokes flag should be set to 1 if at least one of the line strokes is changing while morphing.

The f_offset_morph 32 bits value gives the offset from after that value to the start of the second shape (the shape to morph to.) In other words, this value can be used to skip the styles and the first shape at once.