FILL, STROKE, & EFFECTS

 

Fireworks makes the craziest designs, man The craziest

Youre going to really enjoy playing with all the different fill and stroke effects Fireworks has to offer.

So, here we go!

 

Fill Effects

Up until now during the web design course, weve used the tool palette to meet our color needs. How inadequate. You will now realize the comprehensive power of this fully operational battle station!

Sorry. Got a little carried away. What I meant was, you will now bask in the all-inclusive absolute glory that is The Fill Palette!

 

Applying a Solid Fill with the Fill Palette

1. Draw or select a good-sized shape. Rectangles are nice.
2. Open the Fill Palette
   WINDOW-> FILL
3. Choose a color.

You can:

�.       Choose any of the 216 web safe swatches.

�.       Type a hexadecimal color value.

�.       Choose the eyedropper tool and click any color on the whole screen to select that color.

�.       Choose the color wheel to create your own custom, non-web safe, color.

 

To Fill with a Patterned Picture

1.      Draw or select a good-sized shape.

2.      On the Fill Palette, choose Pattern in the main option pull-down menu

3.      Choose one of the funky patterns in the sub-pull-down menu

 

You image should fill with the pattern!

Experiment with the different patterns.

 

By choosing "other" you can fill an object with any image you specify.

 

Filling With a Gradient

Fireworks comes with all kinds of nifty gradients. Apply them at will. Gradients are useful for drawing the eye, and create a powerful visual effect.

 

** Note about gradients: Dont over do it. Beginners often go wild with gradients.

 

The gradients are kept in the main pull-down in the fill menu.

After applying a gradient, choose gradient colors from the sub-pull-down menu.

 

Choosing Your Own Gradient Colors

You can choose whatever colors you like to make up your gradient.

1.      Select an object and choose a gradient type from the Fill Palette

2.      Click the Edit button on the Fill Palette

 

The Edit Gradient Window will pop up.

 

 

�.       Move the square sliders around to change the gradient.

�.       Click a square slider to change its color.

�.       Click in an empty space under the gradient bar to add a new slider square.

�.       Drag a slider square off the palette to remove it.

 

Editing the Placement and Width of Your Gradient

 

Its very easy to edit the placement and width of a gradient.

1.      Create a gradient.

2.      Select the Black Arrow Tool from the toolbox

3.      Click the graidient containing shape.

4.      Adjust the gradient start and finish point.

 

Opacity

You can change any objects opacity on the Layers Palette. Fireworks is the only program that allows you to change the opacity of vector based objects. To open the Layers Palette, click WINDOW-> LAYERS.

Select the object and adjust its opacity.

 

Opacity and Gradients

Try laying different gradated objects of different opacity over each other. You can come up with some really cool effects.

 

Textures

There are all kinds of cool textures you can apply to any fill.

The textures are found at the bottom of the Fill Palette.

You must choose both a texture type, and a percentage.

 

The following image is a nice corner shape created with the pen tool, and filled with a solid color and the "Microbes" texture at 58%:

 

Stroke Effects

A stroke is a line. Tools like the Pen Tool, the Paintbrush, and the Pencil tool paint with a stroke. If you draw an image with the Rectangle Tool or any of the other drawing tools itll have a line (stroke) around it.

 

If you want to adjust the size, appearance, or color of a line, youll use the Stroke Palette.
(WINDOW-> STROKE)

 

Draw a line with the paintbrush tool and experiment with the different strokes. You can get some super cool combinations by checking out all the Different Drawing tool type and Brush Type arrangements.

Looking through all of the strokes is super fun. I hope you have a few hours to kill.

 

Effects

Effects can be used to make an instant shadow, make an object glow, or give an object 3-D effects. You can easily apply an effect by selecting an object and choosing an effect on the effect palette.

Adjust Color: Allows for some color adjustment like brightness and contrast. Useful if you dont have PhotoShop.

Bevel and Emboss:

Bevels can make a button or drawn object look more "natural".

 

Embossing makes your chosen object appear to make an impression on the object beneath it.

Shadow and Glow

You can apply all kinds of shadows and glows to your objects.

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