MX

Rotation
Web Designer MX Premium calculates and generates the tween frames automatically by working out
how to transform the shapes from one key frame to the next. But sometimes it's not possible to know
exactly what type of rotation is required.
Take this example. Suppose you
tween from the first clock face to
the second:
You might expect it to rotate
clockwise, but of course it could
go counter clockwise:
In fact there are other ways it could rotate. The
above examples assume the hand rotates around
one end, but you could tween from one state into
the other by doing a straight line rotation of the
center of the object, which would result in this:
If you look closely, the hand rotates around its center rather than one end, and the center point moves in
the straight line from one key frame to the next. By default, Web Designer MX Premium rotates objects
this way.
The Rotate command
To force the rotation to be around any other point you can use a special keyword "rotate" appended to
the front of the object name. Or you can use "rotate +" to force the rotation to go clockwise or "rotate -"
to make it go counter clockwise.
To take the simple two keyframes animation example shown on the previous page, where the hour hand
needs to move from 12 o'clock to 8 o'clock. If you name the hand object "rotate + hand", you'll get an
animation showing the clock's hand moving clockwise. If you name it "rotate - hand", then the hand will
rotate counter clockwise.
If there is no rotate command, then the tween takes the shortest direct path between the object on one
keyframe to the next, rotating around its center. With a "rotate" command on the object name, it
calculates the actual rotation point, which in the above example is the "large end" of the hand.
Note:
It's not possible to rotate an object by a full 360° between keyframes if the rotation point is not the
center. For example, to do a full rotation of the clock hands in the above example, you would need to
create an intermediate keyframe.
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