What's new in Fuse Kit 2.1

[ Changes since version 2.0 only. For earlier changes see Upgrading ]

• Overview
• Highlights
• New CustomEasing class
• Updates to the Fuse (sequencing) class
• Updates to the ZigoEngine (animation engine) class
• Updates to the FuseFMP (BitmapFilter handling) class
• Other Fuse Kit Updates
• Bugfixes & internal

Overview

If you are familiar with the Fuse Kit, you know that it contains three major elements:

• A robust animation engine called ZigoEngine
• An optional set of sequencing tools called Fuse
• And an additional set of BitmapFilter tools called FuseFMP.

Since version 2.0 the architecture of Fuse has let you mix and match these code components based on your project needs.

Version 2.1 is a significant release that improves on all three of these elements.The information that follows will be most useful to people who have used the Fuse Kit in the past and are interested in finding out what has changed and been added. If you're new to the Fuse Kit you should probably start with the introductions to the three main classes in the regular documentation instead.

Highlights

The new Fuse Extension is well worth installing if you own a copy of Flash. (If you do not use Flash, the swf is provided in the download bundle.) It features:

• Improved code-hinting & linked Help
  
• The new Custom Easing Tool is installed into Flash with the extension. It lets you define your own motion styles by dragging points on a curve, preview the motion, and then name and save your new easing style for later use.
  You will find this panel under: Window > Other Panels > customEasingTool2
  Thanks to L. Zigo who created the v1 panel and the easing code that this update is based on.
  
  
  
• Actions Panel sidebar literally writes the code for you on double-click.
  Lots of extras: Setup commands, PennerEasing Shortcut Strings, Valid Fuse Command Strings, ZigoEngine Callback Objects -- plus every Fuse Action Object parameter under the sun in one place - all neatly organized into books!
  
  

New features let you Fast-forward through Fuse & engine animations. And for build & debug cycles when you want to zip through transitions quickly, you can now tweak the speed at which all tweens play swf-wide.

An important and positive Fuse change to know about is that interrupted Fuses now stop automatically (and if set to auto-clear they self-delete), which represents a change in kit behavior designed to make it a lot easier to mix Fuse with interactivity. More on this topic below.

Perhaps the biggest update for advanced developers is built-in "multi-tween" functionality in the animation engine. This means that you can tween all of the sub-properties in any Object or Array as a single item, at once. For instance, you could tween a Matrix object and use an update callback to reapply the matrix to a target, in order to tween a number of visual transformations at once — including skew. (Code examples in the docs and example files shipped with the download bundle.)

• Here's an example. The tween call in this swf affects complex properties like the alphas, colors & ratios Arrays and the matrix Object, while an updfunc callback redraws the fill. The tween is repeated a number of times, showing the gradient fill changing its complex properties. (A similar example FLA is provided in download bundle.) Unlike in earlier versions of the engine, in version 2.1 it's possible to directly tween a property like "matrix" with a single end-value like {a:".1", b:"-.1"}, affecting each one of the sub-properties specified in the original object.
  
  

And by popular demand:

Fuse gets instance-level easing and duration defaults to avoid having to repeat those properties across actions; ZigoEngine gets math-rounding control on a per-tween basis; and FuseFMP BlurFilters now use 0 as their default, so that Blur_blurX or Blur_blurY tweens will leave the unaffected property crisp. Details below.

Bonus: all $dollarSigns have been removed from FuseFMP's parameters... woohoo!

New CustomEasing class & IDE panel

• The Custom Easing Tool generates a single Array for each new motion style, easy to use in code.

Updates to the Fuse (sequencing) class

• Starting in version 2.1, Fuses now stop playing when interrupted.
  • New Fuse class default: Fuse.AUTOSTOP = true and Fuse instance autoStop property added
  • Auto-stopped Fuses dispatch the "onStop" event and if set to auto-clear, they also delete themselves.

  Note that this item represents a DEFAULT BEHAVIOR CHANGE for Fuse that affects all users. Normally it will just make coding interactivity easier and won't require any action on your part. For more info see If upgrading Fuse within an existing program... on the Upgrading page.

• Simple Syntax now supports triggers.
  • Triggers make sequencing animation far more flexible, by letting you step forward in a sequence before all tweens in a group are finished.
  • To add a 2-second trigger within an open group, just use Fuse.addCommand( "trigger", 2 );
  • (Object syntax folks: Hopefully you know that Fuse has sported time-based triggers since version 2.0 - be sure you learn to use this powerful feature!)
• New fastForward method: jump through some or all animations in a Fuse
• New instance-level duration & easing defaults.
  
  public var duration:Number;
public var easing:Object;
  • For intance, myFuse.easing = "easeInOutQuad"; provides a new default for myFuse only, that overrides ZigoEngine.EASING but can still be overridden within any action that specifies its own ease / easing parameter.
• Applied actions: The action property may now be an Array. (see Fuse constructor in docs)
  • { target: clip1_mc, action:[ fadeIn, slideIn ] }
  • As before you may also include applied actions within a group as well.
• New tweenable engine property _fade / fade - works like _alpha + _visible.
  • { target:mc, fade:0, seconds:2 } turns visibility off after tweening _alpha to 0
  • { target:mc, start_fade:0, seconds:2 } turns visibility on before fading up to 100
  
  
  
  
  

Updates to the ZigoEngine (animation engine) class

• 'Multi-tween' support: you can now directly tween all properties inside Objects and Arrays as a single tween. (See also: highlights above, docs, example files included in download.)
  
  • Tween complex FuseFMP properties like BevelFilter_alphas or BevelFilter_colors
  • Tween all values of any Object or Array in your code with one call
  • Tween Matrix objects to achieve skewing and other transformations
  • Special feature: Any Array containing 'colors' in its name will be tweened as hexidecimal values
• New tween-level math-rounding control: Determine whether each step of a tween is rounded or allows decimal values. This is helpful when the global default (ZigoEngine.ROUND_RESULTS) is turned on, but you need to retain decimal-level control for certain 0-to-1-range properties such as BitmapFilter alphas. Or if you're using pixel fonts you may prefer to use rounding for just text-related tweens while leaving the global default turned off.
  • Add the property roundResults:true to any tween's callback object to force rounding for that tween
  • Or, use roundResults:false to cancel rounding when the global default ZigoEngine.ROUND_RESULTS = true
• New debug feature: Skip, speed up, or slow all tweens globally.
  
  • By default: public static var ZigoEngine.TIME_MULTIPLIER:Number = 1;
  • Set to 2 to slow to half speed, .5 to double speed
  • Set to 0 to skip through animations (differs from the new Fuse.fastForward in that callbacks are fired)
• New skipTweenTo method and Shortcut: skip to any position within an active tween
  
  ZigoEngine.skipTweenTo(seconds:Number, targs:Object, props:Object):Void
• New tweenable property _fade - works like _alpha + _visible.
  • Also works in Fuse, see above for examples.
  • More reliable fadeIn & fadeOut shortcuts
• Easier scoping: the engine now recognizes the scope parameter in a callback object as a default like Fuse.
  • Example: { scope:this, func:'callback', updfunc:'update', startscope:clip1, startfunc:'start'}
    Here, func and updfunc will both resolve to this, while startfunc specifies a different scope.

• New suppressEndEvents parameter in ffTween method (similar to rewTween)

Updates to the FuseFMP (BitmapFilter handling) class

• All "$" characters have been removed from parameter names
• New default for Blur Filter: Unless specified, all FuseFMP Blurs (blurX and blurY) start at zero by default. This feature makes it a lot easier to tween only one of those properties without ending up with a default 4px blur on the other property.
  
  New class default property: public static var BLUR_ZERO:Boolean = true;
  
  • A simple Fuse action { start_Blur_blurX:100 } now leaves the target crisp when done.
  • If set to false, the standard Flash default of a 4-px blur is used.
• Complex FuseFMP properties like BevelFilter_colors are now tweenable (see Multi-tween support above)

• FuseFMP.setFilterProps has been rewritten to perform much faster.
  • Existing filter settings will not be disrupted by additional calls
  • Property-ordering fidelety: Complex filters like GradientBevel seem to need to have the colors array set prior to the ratios array. Ordering is now honored. This change also affects properties passed to writeFilter when a properties object is passed, which makes an internal setFilterProps call.
  
  
  
  

Other Fuse Kit Updates

• Documentation, comments, errors & warnings improved
  • Some error codes changed slightly
• The easyfunc parameter found in several places has been removed from the kit. Instead, use easyfunc-style strings like "trace('done')" for regular startfunc / updfunc / func callback params (when Shortcuts is registered).
• Behavior change: Targets are no longer deinitialized automatically when all tweens are complete, if any listeners are subscribed on it.

Bugfixes & internal

• ZigoEngine.getTweens now returns 0 instead of NaN if queried prior to first tween.
• Callback and Fuse custom event code has been improved kit-wide.
  • Callback parsing centralized in new FuseKitCommon.parseCallback method.
• changed Fuse property _sState:String to _nState:Number
• Updated Fuse and FuseItem classes for new fastForward functionality.
• Command validation and string imaging for Fuse.traceItems has been improved
  • FuseKitCommon._validateFuseCommand method added
• Fuse.getHandle added to standardize naming during output messages
• FuseItem was failing to fire callbacks in certain scenarios where all targets or props failed
• extra1 & extra2 params fixed in Fuse
• Fuse commands were missing from traceItems string output.
• Fuse.splice was leaving null values in place of removed items.
• Fuse.pushTween was malfunctioning when multiple targets were passed

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