Screen drawing in as3

Question

Hi
In my latest project im trying to have the player draw on the screen and that the line he drew will fade out form the end to the start
i've done an animation to explain what im trying to do im your still confused
http://www.swfcabin.com/open/1307457211
off corse i wnat this to happen totally through the code with no animation involved
what i have so far is the drawing mechanism, whenever the player presses down and moves the mouse the it draws a line on the screen,
but i dont have a clue on how to erase it afterwards and that it will look cool like in the animation.
here's the code:
               stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_MOVE, DrawMouseLine);
               stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, MouseDownHandler);
               stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP, MouseUpHandler);
               addChild(lineDrawing);
          function MouseDownHandler(event:MouseEvent):void
               bDraw = true;
          function MouseUpHandler(event:MouseEvent):void
               bDraw = false;
          public function DrawMouseLine(event:MouseEvent)
               if (bDraw)
                    lineDrawing.graphics.moveTo(last_X,last_Y);
                    lineDrawing.graphics.lineStyle(4, 0xff9933);
                    lineDrawing.graphics.lineTo(mouseX, mouseY);
               last_X = mouseX;
               last_Y = mouseY;
i did something similar in C# with a queue, i saved the locations of the mose movement , and on every frame drew the whole queue of points and discarded the last couple of points however in as3 this is not possible nor right to do.
i really hope you can help me

Answer 1

Try the code below. It is perfect but just illustrates a concept.
Timeline code:
import flash.display.Graphics;
import flash.display.Shape;
import flash.display.Sprite;
import flash.events.Event;
import flash.events.MouseEvent;
import flash.geom.Point;
var lineDrawing:Shape;
var lineWidth:Number = 150;
var lineHegith:Number = 4;
var begin:Point = new Point();
var end:Point = new Point();
var conversion:Number = 180 / Math.PI;
init();
function init():void
     drawLine();
     stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, mouseDownHandler);
     stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP, mouseUpHandler);
     addChild(lineDrawing);
function drawLine():void
     lineDrawing = new Shape();
     var g:Graphics = lineDrawing.graphics;
     g.beginFill(0x000000);
     g.moveTo(-lineWidth, 0);
     g.lineTo(0, -lineHegith * .5);
     g.lineTo(0, lineHegith * .5);
     g.endFill();
     addChild(lineDrawing);
     lineDrawing.scaleX = 0;
function mouseUpHandler(e:MouseEvent):void
     stage.removeEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_MOVE, drawMouseLine);
     addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, removeLine);
function removeLine(e:Event):void
     if (lineDrawing.scaleX > 0) lineDrawing.scaleX *= .03;
     else removeEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, removeLine);
function mouseDownHandler(e:MouseEvent):void
     stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_MOVE, drawMouseLine);
     removeEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, removeLine);
     begin.x = mouseX;
     begin.y = mouseY;
     lineDrawing.scaleX = 0;
function drawMouseLine(e:MouseEvent):void
     end.x = lineDrawing.x = mouseX;
     end.y = lineDrawing.y = mouseY;
     lineDrawing.rotation =  Math.atan2(mouseY - begin.y, mouseX - begin.x) *  conversion;
     if (lineDrawing.scaleX < 1) {
          lineDrawing.width = Point.distance(begin, end);
     e.updateAfterEvent();
Doc class:
package
     import flash.display.Graphics;
     import flash.display.Shape;
     import flash.display.Sprite;
     import flash.events.Event;
     import flash.events.MouseEvent;
     import flash.geom.Point;
     public class MouseDrawing extends Sprite
          private var lineDrawing:Shape;
          private var lineWidth:Number = 150;
          private var lineHegith:Number = 4;
          private var begin:Point = new Point();
          private var end:Point = new Point();
          private var conversion:Number = 180 / Math.PI;
          public function MouseDrawing()
               init();
          private function init():void
               drawLine();
               stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, mouseDownHandler);
               stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_UP, mouseUpHandler);
               addChild(lineDrawing);
          private function drawLine():void
               lineDrawing = new Shape();
               var g:Graphics = lineDrawing.graphics;
               g.beginFill(0x000000);
               g.moveTo(-lineWidth, 0);
               g.lineTo(0, -lineHegith * .5);
               g.lineTo(0, lineHegith * .5);
               g.endFill();
               addChild(lineDrawing);
               lineDrawing.scaleX = 0;
          private function mouseUpHandler(e:MouseEvent):void
               stage.removeEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_MOVE, drawMouseLine);
               addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, removeLine);
          private function removeLine(e:Event):void
               if (lineDrawing.scaleX > 0) {
                    lineDrawing.scaleX *= .03;
               else {
                    removeEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, removeLine);
          private function mouseDownHandler(e:MouseEvent):void
               stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_MOVE, drawMouseLine);
               removeEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, removeLine);
               begin.x = mouseX;
               begin.y = mouseY;
               lineDrawing.scaleX = 0;
          private function drawMouseLine(e:MouseEvent):void
               end.x = lineDrawing.x = mouseX;
               end.y = lineDrawing.y = mouseY;
               lineDrawing.rotation =  Math.atan2(mouseY - begin.y, mouseX - begin.x) *  conversion;
               if (lineDrawing.scaleX < 1) {
                    lineDrawing.width = Point.distance(begin, end);
               e.updateAfterEvent();
I added e.updateAfterEvent();