Expert Flash Tips and Tricks
- Set Your Toolbars Free
- An Easy Dupe
- Exploit the Creative Potential of Masks
Selected from Flash 4! Creative Web Animation, by Derek Franklin and Brooks Patton
SET YOUR TOOLBARS FREE To make a toolbar float separately on the screen, place the pointer over an area on the toolbar with no buttons. Then, while holding down the Control key, click. The docked toolbar becomes a floating toolbar.
CHANGE A LINE TO A FILL To color a line with a gradient or even a bitmap fill, you must first convert it into a fillable area by selecting the line with the Arrow tool and then choosing Modify > Curves > Lines to Fills.
A SHOW OF HANDS Any time you are drawing with another tool, you can hold down the spacebar to activate the Hand tool. Releasing the spacebar returns you to the tool you were previously using.
GET IT STRAIGHT If one click of the Straighten button doesn't perfect your shape, you can keep pressing it because it has an accumulative effect. You will, however, reach a point when the square or circle is perfect or the line is straight.
A shape before straighten.
A shape after straighten.
QUICK DROP SHADOWS Use the Soften Edges effect to give your shapes a drop-shadow effect. An interactive tutorial on how to do this can be found on the CD for Flash 4! Creative Web Animation.
A CHANGE OF CENTER You cannot change a stage-level object's center point. However, if you really need to rotate a stage-level object from a center other than its true center, simply turn it into a group, move its center point, rotate it, and ungroup it. You've cheated the system. Doesn't it feel great?