help creating warped fat/skinny effect with image

[timmeahy]

Heya. I'm having trouble creating an animated fat/skinny effect using an image.

What I'm trying to do is create a smooth animation in the style of the three images below.
http://www.allardice.com.au/IT/eclipse1.jpg
I'd like to do it using just one embeded image to keep the swf file size very low.
Thought the envelope transform would be my ticket but it doesn't seem to turn out the way I want it to.

Any tips would be much appreciated.

[Gamef13]

I don't know what you mean when you say the envelope transform dosent turn out the way you want but that is the way I would aproach your problem. If you want it smoother right click it and select smooth. Can you explain why the envelope transform dosent work for you?

[timmeahy]

Well when i break appart the image and apply the envelope transformation i get this:
http://www.allardice.com.au/IT/envelope.jpg
Seems to just use the image as a fill pattern for the shape.

And when i try to trace bitmap and apply the transformation it looks the way I want but it doesn't tween the way i'd like it:
http://www.allardice.com.au/IT/envtest.html
Not quite the effect I'm after as you can see.

[Gamef13]

Turn the shape into a symbol. That should work dont break aport just use the envelope transform when its a symbol and it should work.

[timmeahy]

envelope transform can't be applied to symbols

[aamenabar]

guess you'll have to play with displacement filters... or just do it in photoshop, Flash isn't THAT cool, yet.