Flash for newbie- need to animate logo

Want it to look like name is being signed

[faltered]

I've tinkered with flash some and can do basic animations with it. I know Director and find it to be somewhat similar.

I have a client who wants their logo animated on their website which I'm creating. Basically the client wants it to look like a quill writes out the first word of their company's name. Then the other words appear.

For the life of me I can't quite figure out how to do it. I was thinking of taking their logo and erasing almost all of it except a tiny piece of the first letter. Then erase all except for a a little bit more of the first letter. And so on until I eventually have all of the S there, then do the other letters like that. Animate and it'll look like the name is being written. Then animate a quill.

But it seems like there should be an easier solution that I just can't think of.

I'd rather not contract the work out to someone because I'd like to learn this for myself. Any suggestions on how to go about this?

[faltered]

Anyone done this before? Or know of a resource I could read up on about it? I would really like to figure this out. Thanks.

[4string]

It sounds like you have the right idea. Google 'flash handwriting' and the first result has a simple tutorial.

I don't know if a mask would work since writing would sometimes come back and overlap previous strokes. Sounds like you will have to erase little bits at a time.

[faltered]

4string: I was searching for flash signature and couldn't come up with anything. Changing signature to handwriting did the trick. That tutorial is exactly what I was doing, except I was doing mine backwards.

Thanks for the heads up. Now I can do this myself instead of contracting it out. Bonus!