Quick and short post. Due to a suggestion from Ryan Ragona I checked out how much resources the circle loader took up and it was pretty unacceptable. I re-wrote the class so that it snapshots the vectors to a bitmap object and rotates that instead of the vectors (vectors are now never even added to the display list)

CPU usage on my dual 3.2 went from 11% to 1%. Quite a difference. I would strongly encourage you to re-download it if you plan to use it. (I also updated the original link)

Download V2 (300Kb) (1531 downloads)

That’s quite a topic. “A customizable gradient circle loader / animation for AS3“. I wrote it then looked at it and couldn’t help giggling. Aaaanyway. You know the one, we’ve all seen it. From the worst sites to the best sites, every now and then you see that circle that spins with an internal gradient. Like a snake trying to eat its own tail.

Most commonly these are bitmaps. Pngs exported from PS that are rotated. The problem with that is that it becomes pretty rigid. If you need to change the width or height or whatnot, you’re quickly faced with re-exporting a new one. Actually more or less the same thing goes for those that took the time to make it with Illustrator. Once you are faced with increasing the inner radius and not the outer, or vice versa - you gotta redo it.

Soooooo, without further adieu, here’s a scripted version that uses the drawing API to construct a circle that is fairly customizable. You can use it as a loading animation or just .. just a spinning circle because how cool aren’t spinning circles? Much much cooler than fireflies, for sure!