Scripting
3D in Flash
by
senocular
Wire Frame Examples Using
the Drawing API
The drawing functions in Flash was only just touched
upon in the first example. Its about time we started
pushing what they have to offer in terms of getting
a true rendered 3D shape out of all that has been
learned so far in creating a 3D scene in Flash.
No attached movieclips involved here.
Same as before, only now there's a wire frame
cube drawn between those rotated points from the
pointsArray and no balloon movieclips are involved.
[
drawn wire frame cube ]
Steps to Create Animation (partial)
- There's
pretty much only one change in this movie from
the balloon-based cube, and that's the replacement
of the attached clips with the drawing methods
needed to draw out the wire frame All that involves
is a lengthy planned out list of moveTo and
lineTo commands to correctly connect the
dots in the screenPoints array in the rotateCube
onEnterFrame function.
- As
an added bonus, the make2DPoint function no
longer needs the depth or scaleRatio properties
making it much simpler to use (not that it was
such a burden previously). Otherwise, everything
else can remain the same.
Wire frame Tube
So far, in using the drawing API, we've
only implemented straight lines. Would you ever
have thought curves work in 3D too? Well, they
do. We can use curves and approximate a circle
for each axis and rotate those circles to give
the impression of a curved tube. All that's changed
is the pointsArray and the drawing methods used
to draw out the shape.
[
drawn wire frame tube ]
There is still quite a bit more,
so feel free to explore the next tutorial for
more information involving shapes and fills. After
all, who likes to look at wireframe objects?