Animation Tutorial:

Tween Animation

Part 3: Creating the Star with Shape-Tweening

Editing the Nodes at a Keyframe

In this part of the tutorial we will use the node-tweening to convert the circle to a star as it moves across the page.

Make sure the end keyframe for the object is active. If not, click on the black keyframe rectangle at the end of the block for the starcircle object. Now select the object and select the node editing tool just as you would to edit the object's nodes on the page.

In turn, drag each alternate node outwards from the centre of the object to form the spikes of the star.

Once all the points have been created press Page Preview again to review the progress. Now the circle not only moves across the page but transforms into a star at the same time.

If you would like the star to be a little sharper then simply edit the nodes at the end keyframe to produce the effect you want. Note that turning the curves to lines using converting the nodes to Line nodes would have a similar effect but this would change the object itself not just its appearance at the keyframe so the curves in the original circle would also be converted to lines which might make it look too jagged.

Remember that when node editing in a tween, some fundamental changes to the object - including the type of node being used at a point and the total number of nodes - will affect the object throughout the tween, not simply at the keyframe.

DO NOT ADD NODES AT A NEW KEYFRAME OR UNEXPECTED EFFECTS MAY RESULT
Therefore you need to add all the nodes you are likely to need to the object before adding keyframes or making any edits.