Subtitles of the Movie

Fireworks works with both vector graphic objects and bitmap graphics. Unlike in previous versions of Fireworks, however, you don't need to deliberately switch between bitmap mode and vector mode, and you can also mix bitmaps, vector objects, and text objects, all on the same canvas, as I have right here. The Gems are bitmaps. I have some text objects here as well as a text object that's curved to a path. My vector object is this one here. So you can work with each of these object types, vectors, bitmaps, and text. Switching to the appropriate mode is as simple as selecting the text tool to get into Text mode, or one of the Vector or Bitmap tools here in the Tools panel. In this movie, I provide a review of Fireworks' Vector graphics capabilities. A Vector object is a computer graphic whose shape is defined by a path. The shape of a vector path is determined by points that are plotted along the path. If I bring out my vector object here you can see these points that are plotted along that path. The Vector object's stroke color follows this path. I don't have a stroke attached to this vector object, because right here I have this symbol in my Properties Inspector, but if I add a color, let's do a bright red color, and let's bring up the stroke thickness. You can see that stroke quite clearly and how it follows those plotted points along the path there. The fill of the vector object fills in the spaces between the stroke and you can choose any color from the color palette, as well as doing gradients. There is a linear gradient. Let's do a radial gradient. I can change the gradient colors by double-clicking on the fill color palette there, and then adjusting my colors. So here is a green to red to green gradient. Let's go ahead and change that back to a linear radiant. There we go. You can also add a pattern, metal bars, to my fills. So the stroke and the fill typically determine how the graphic looks when published in print, or on the Web. Now Fireworks CS3 has many tools for drawing and editing vector objects using a variety of techniques with the basic shape tools over here in the Tools panel. Fireworks CS3 has many tools for drawing and editing vector objects using a variety of techniques. You'll want to use the basic shape tools over here in the Vector portion of the Tools panel. Let me go ahead and open up a new fresh document. You can quickly draw straight lines with the Line tool. Let's go ahead and add a thicker stroke to these so you can see them. You can draw objects here with the polygon, rectangle, ellipse, arrow, beveled rectangle, and so on; these tools here. Let's go ahead and add a fill color to these as well so we can see them. You can also draw polygons with anywhere between three and 360 sides, and notice that after I've created these vector shapes I can change their stroke or fill colors at any time, as well as the stroke thickness. Now you can draw free-form vector paths with the Vector Path and Pen tools; the pen tool here adjacent to the straight line tool can be used to draw complex shapes. These can include shapes with straight line segments by just clicking, or I can create curved line segments by clicking and dragging. To close the shape, double-click the pen tool, and that will close that shape. So using this Pen tool you can draw complex shapes with smooth curves and straight lines by plotting points one by one. Fireworks offers several methods for editing the vector objects that you've drawn. You can change an object's shape by moving, adding, or deleting points. You can move the entire shape or parts of it. You'll use primarily the selection tools up here at the top of the Tools panel. The Pointer tool or the Black Arrow tool will be used to move the entire vector shape. The Sub-selection, or White Arrow tool can be used to modify points along the path of that shape. Notice that here I have both curved and straight line segments, and if I click on a curved line segment, one of the points there, I get these Bezier curves that allow me to adjust the amount of curvature, or degree of curvature, of that curved line. And you get these little handles by clicking with the Sub-selection tool on the actual point on the path. Modifying these vector graphics does take some practice and some experience, but if you've used a program like Illustrator, Fireworks works in much the same way. The commands here in the Modify menu give you even more options for editing objects including combining objects to create a single object, creating an object from the intersection of several objects, and expanding the stroke of an object. Do that here under the Combined Paths: Joining, Splitting, Union, Intersect, Punch, and Crop. I don't have time to go over each of these, but you'll want to experiment with those. You can also use the Transform options to Scale, Skew, Distort, Rotate, Flip Horizontal, Flip Vertical. As I demonstrated in this movie, Fireworks has many tools for drawing vector objects, such as Basic shapes, Freeform paths, or complex shapes by plotting points one by one. You can also draw Auto Shapes, which are vector object groups that have special controls for adjusting their attributes. Let me now move on to the next several movies and demonstrate in more detail how to draw vector objects with these various tools in Fireworks CS3.