Blurry Text and Images When Using Native 3D Transformation in Flash

I recently found out that when using the 3D rotation and transformation tools in Flash CS4, the movieclip or object that has the transformation applied to becomes slightly blurred. I have found that if you apply a 200% scale transformation to the movieclip you want to have the rotation effect applied to, and then nest it in another movieclip that has 50% scale transformation, it results in the end product being much crisper.

Click here to view and example of what I mean. The panel on the left is the standard output after applying a 3D transformation. Notice how the text is blurry. The movieclip on the right, while still not perfect, is noticeably crisper. The middle movieclip is how it would look without any 3D transformation.

Click here to download the source .fla. Note - you will have to download the Tweener tweening classes for the file to compile.

Comments

Submitted by Jens (not verified) on Wed, 12/08/2010.

I had the same problem when I rotated a simple MovieClip by 360 degrees. All texts in it were blurred after this.
My workaround was to set the transform-matrix to null:

mc.transform.matrix3D = null;

But after this the movieclip is rotated and positioned back to 0. So you must set your position to the old value.

Jens

Submitted by sigman (not verified) on Mon, 11/23/2009.

Thanks for this post Sam.
I think that this is the best workaround available so far... Second thing would be to scream to the Flash developers for some smart fix: http://forums.adobe.com/message/2258767
cheers,
sigman

Submitted by Matt (not verified) on Fri, 09/11/2009.

Sam. I don't know when you posted this but it would appear to potentially be the solution that I have been searching for. I suppose I need to express my disclaimer that I am very green to AS3 so please bear with me. First off, the .fla that I downloaded, upon publishing, distorts the right-most box... and I am unable to determine why this is happening. The second is, based on viewing your example... the text is noticeably sharper after applying the transformations. Why does the fuzzy text happen in the first place, and why does this method correct the issue? I've seen countless forums that have told me, "... whole integers, even transformation percentages, static text, anti-aliasing for animation, etc...". All of which made not a lick of difference in text crispness. Is your solution the only solution? Or do others exist? Any correspondence is massively appreciated. Thanks. -Matt p.s. What specifically are you referring to in the headline when you say "NATIVE 3D"?

Submitted by Sam on Mon, 09/14/2009.

Hmm, I downloaded the file I put online, and it compiles fine for me. I believe that once you use 3D transformation in Flash (using any of the 3D rotation features or using the Z depth), the object that you are performing on gets converted to a type of raw bitmap data with a 3D transformation matrix applied. I believe this example works because if you have a larger object (scaled 200%) to begin with, the 3D engine has more resolution to work with when applying the 3D transformation. Similar to how a scaled down high resolution image looks sharper than a low resolution one. Native 3D is anything that uses the new Flash Player 10 3D transformation inside the Flash IDE (3D rotation or translation on the Z axis).

sam wirch

Blurry Text and Images When Using Native 3D Transformation in Flash

Comments

Post new comment