Precise Cursor Angle Compass

Detect Cursor Angle

    This lesson will demonstrate how to create a compass that always points in the direction of the mouse cursor. The script may be confusing if you don't know trigonometry but it's actually short and easy to apply. In fact I knew very little about trig before making the compass and would recommend that you spend some time researching the subject before attempting to create this project. The final result will be well worth it plus the knowledge you'll gain. Thanx to my friend Dave Dutt for telling me about the inverse sine function (asin). This lesson requires only two movie clips: a compass with an arrow to point at the cursor and a controller, which can look like anything you want (mine is just some static text, "Control Clip"). Important! When creating the compass the graphic within the move clip must point directly to the right. You cannot just rotate the clip to the right after it has been made. Also, the rotation axis of the compass needs to be centered on the crosshairs of the movie clip.