Subtitles of the Movie

Let's now turn our attention to working with graphics in Fireworks CS4. Fireworks works with both vector graphic objects and bitmap graphics, so in this section of the tutorial I review how to create vector graphics in Fireworks and the next section I cover bitmap graphics. Unlike in previous version of Fireworks 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've done here. I have a vector object in the back as well as these circles, obviously I have some text objects, this text has been actually bent on a vector path and then I have these bitmap images of gems there. Switching to the appropriate mode is as simple as selecting the Text Tool to move into text mode or one of the Vector tools to move into vector mode, notice that if I just click on Line tool I can go ahead and add that vector line to the canvas or I can choose a Bitmap tool, notice that I'm erasing that bitmap object on the canvas, let's go ahead and undo the erasing. Now a vector object is a computer graphic whose shape is defined by a path, I have a perfect example of a path right here in this dark green background. Let's go ahead and copy this and then do File, New and open up a new document, notice that the new document will match the size of that vector graphic if I paste it in, fits in perfectly and if I zoom in you can see that these points define the shape of the vector object, I can take the Subselection tool, let's go ahead and zoom in a little bit, and with the Subselection tool, the white arrow, I can actually modify these points, notice that there's two different kinds of points, some have these Bezier handles that allows me to control the level of curvature between points also notice that I have two different types of line segments, I have curved line segments as I have here and then straight line segments. Notice that this point here, it's a little bit unique, it only had one Bezier curve because it's formed at the junction of a straight line segment with a curved line segment whereas this point is in between two curved line segments so it has two Bezier handles for controlling the level of curvature before and after the point. A vector object stroke color follows the path, notice I can control the stroke here in the Property Inspector, let's change that from no stroke to a bright red stroke and then let's increase the thickness so you can see it there it is. A vector object's fill determines the color inside of the path there. And I can control the fill color here in this color chip, change that to a lighter shade of red, I can also change the type of fill I can do a solid or I can do a gradient fill, there's a linear fill, not much of a gradient because the colors are all red, let me change this to blue, yellow, and blue again or copper color, black and white, red and blue is perhaps a good example of a linear fill, I can also change this to a radial fill. So the stroke and fill typically determine how the graphic looks when it's published in print or on the web, if I double click on the magnifying glass I can bring that back out to 100 percent so you can really see that radial fill there. Let me continue my review of working with vector graphics in Fireworks CS4 in the next movie.