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I'm working on a game and want a burn-down timer which is a circular fuse, burning down (erasing itself) over 100 frames (3.6 degrees each.)

How can I generate these frames with software instead of having to hand-draw them. Assume access to all Adobe and free products.

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Here are a couple of approaches that occur off the top of my head:

  • In Flash, you could animate a mask and export as a png, gif or jpeg sequence, depending on your requirements. The "burning end" of the fuse would be its own movieclip, animating with the mask.

  • In After Effects, animate a stroke (create the stroke in Illustrator and paste into a new solid layer in AE, then animate). The burning end would be its own little animation. You'd have to parent the position to the stroke's End percentage. Render as a tiff sequence with alpha.

I've not gone into any details here, because you sound like you're just looking for the general direction. There are plenty of good tutorials out there if you're not sure of the specific steps.

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  • Thanks. Could you point to the tutorials you mention? Jan 16, 2012 at 22:02
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    Google "animate stroke after effects" and "animate stroke flash" for the specifics. There are quite a few results, both in video and tutorial form, for both. Jan 16, 2012 at 22:35

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