User Guide

112 Chapter 5: Bitmaps
Changing registration points
A registration point is a marker that appears on a sprite when you select it with your mouse.
(Registration points don’t appear on unselected sprites or when a movie is playing.) Registration
points provide a fixed reference point within an image, thereby helping you align sprites and
control them from Lingo or JavaScript syntax. Registration points are crucial to precisely placing
vector shapes, bitmaps, and all cast members that appear on the Stage.
By default, Director assigns a registration point in the center of all bitmaps, but for many types
of animation, you might want to move the registration point. To do this, you can use the
Registration Point tool.
You can edit a bitmap’s registration point in the Paint window or using Lingo or JavaScript
syntax.
Moving the registration point is useful for preparing a series of images for animation. When you
use Cast to Time or exchange cast members, Director places a new cast member’s registration
point precisely where the previous one was located. By placing the registration point in the
different locations, you can make a series of images move around a fixed position without having
to manually place the sprites on the Stage. Use onion skinning to set registration points when
images are placed in relation to each other. For more information, see “Using onion skinning”
on page 125.
With the registration points set as shown, the series of fish swim in a circle without any tweening or
manual placement of sprites.
To set a registration point:
1 Display the cast member you want to change in the Paint window.
2
Click the Registration Point tool.
The dotted lines in the Paint window intersect at the registration point. The default
registration point is the center of the cast member.
The pointer changes to a cross hair when you move it to the Paint window.