Subtitles of the Movie

Continuing my survey of the various filters available in Director 11 to add to vector images, bitmap images or text, we come to the Gradient Glow filter in the middle of my list. The Gradient Glow filter is used to apply a Gradient Glow effect to a variety of Sprites. A Gradient Glow is a realistic-looking glow with a color gradient that you control. You can apply a Gradient Glow around the inner or outer edge of a Sprite or on top of the Sprite. Probably this graphics text element will be a good candidate for a Gradient Glow filter. Notice that it adds sort of a Drop Shadow there. Based on this gradient, I can also change the color of the gradient from red to black. You can also add additional gradient points here or color gradient points and then change the color to get kind of a compound gradient effect going. And zoom in on that and see if we can see that gradient a little bit better. This is yet another one of those Director techniques that requires so experimentation and practice. Notice that I can also move the location of those color gradients by clicking on the arrow. Don't click on the color box. That'll just open up a color palette there as well as a blur X, blur Y, quality, angle and distance. Sometimes by exaggerating these parameter numbers you can get an idea of what effect they'll have on the filter; inner, outer and full as well. Knock out sometimes gives you interesting effects. Let's now move on to the Bevel filter. Use the Bevel filter to add a bevel effect to a variety of Sprites. A bevel effect gives Sprites a three-dimensional look. This is probably one of the more common filters used in many graphics programs. It's done to add kind of a three-dimensional look to a flat object. Let's bring this back to a hundred percent so you can see that on the Stage. But there is a classic bevel. The placement of the bevel can be change; inner, outer or full as well as, again, the knock-out option. Kind of an interesting effect there. Let's go ahead and remove this filter and now move on to the Glow filter. The glow filter lets you apply a color all around the edges of a Sprite and to add a glow effect to various Sprites you can set the style of the glow in several ways. Again, including inner, outer and knock-out mode. Let's go ahead and apply a glow filter. Glow filters are oftentimes used in button rollovers to give a glow effect when you roll over the button Sprite. And there's an inner glow, a knock-out option as well as the color. Color by default is red. It doesn't have to be. As well as a blur X and blur Y settings. And again, by exaggerating those numbers, sometimes you can get a better idea of what that parameter will be doing to change the filter. Let's temporarily disable the Glow filter. Now move on to the Drop Shadow filter. Use the Drop Shadow filter to add a Drop Shadow to a variety of Sprites. This is, again, a very common filter found in many graphics programs. Here you have strength settings, color, distance, that's going to be the throw of the shadow. Notice if I go 56 really displaces that shadow quite a ways. You can also hide the object and just have the Drop Shadow. You can do an Inner Shadow. Kind of interesting with that large distance setting there, as well as set your blur in the X and the Y dimensions. Sometimes it's easier if you've really made a mess of the settings there just to delete the filter and add it back again with the default settings. This setting probably looks a bit better than what I had before. And lastly there's the Blur filter. The Blur filter softens the edges and details of Sprites. Applying a blur to a Sprite can make it appear is if it's behind other Sprites. Notice that this one here looks kind of blurry, as if the camera lens is out of focus. Also it can make the Sprite appear to be in motion. So there you have a review of the various filters that are available with Director 11. Now, bitmaps are only one of two main types of graphics used with Adobe Director. The other one is vector shapes, so let me now move on to the next movie and introduce you to creating vector shapes in Director 11 using the Director Vector Shape window.