Subtitles of the Movie

In this movie I demonstrate how to create and modify Color Gradients in Flash CS4. Gradients help you create very interesting Color effects. With Flash you can create types of Gradient Fills, Linear and Radial, so in this movie you'll learn how to use the Color Mixer Panel and the Color Swatches Panel to create, apply and change the shape and Color of both Linear and Radial Gradients. Let's start by dragging out an oval onto my stage, nice big oval with a Fill Color and a Stroke Color. Next select the Pointer Tool with the Selection Tool, and click on the Fill in that shape and now if it's already open, open up your Color Panel by choosing Window Color from the main menu. Notice up here in the upper right hand corner when you have the Fill selected you have different types of Fills, none, obviously will give you no Fill, solid is what I started with. Linear will give you a Linear Gradient based on this series of Colors that you set up before hand here. I have a blue green kind of Gradient Linear Gradient set up there. Let's go ahead and click on, I lost my Fill so let's take the paint bucket and notice if I paint in there I'm going to paint this type of Gradient right there. I can also go with a Radial Gradient it looks like this so there's the Radial Gradient. Also notice have that set up, that Radial Gradient and the Color set up here in the Color Panel. Let me go ahead and double click on this oval and delete it and notice when I add or a new oval I get that Gradient Fill. I can change the Colors here by double clicking on the little crayon icon. Let's change that to a lighter green. Actually what I can do also is I can select the Fill like so and then the changes that I make here in the Color Panel will be applied immediately and also adjust the spacing and location of these Colors to get different kinds of Gradients. You can also add additional Colors by just simply clicking on the bar there, I can add up to sixteen different Colors to get quite sophisticated Gradients here. Again this is a gradual Gradient but I can change that back to a Linear Gradient like so and back and forth between the two. So for review, here in the Color mixer Panel you have the Fill Color and then you have the pointer here. Here is the Preview window to show you a preview of what the final object will look like. This is called a Gradient Definition Bar in the Flash documentation. So if that weren't options for changing your Gradients you also have a Gradient Transform Tool, let's change this back to a Linear Gradient and then underneath the Free Transform Tool in the Tool Panel is a Gradient Transform Tool. By selecting that Tool and then clicking on the Gradient or the object that has the Gradient, you'll get these sets of handles. This is the rotation handle here so you can actually rotate this Linear Gradient. This is the center point of the Gradient. This setting here is the width handle for adjusting the width of the Linear Gradient. Let's rotate that back to 90 degrees like so. If we go back and change this to a Radial Gradient you get additional handles here, there's the width handle, and the radius handle is a new one. Here's the Rotation Handle and then you've also got something called a Focal Point. There's the Center Point Handle but there's a focal point as well. Right there, that triangle in which you can adjust the focal point of the radius there. Gradient. So between their various settings you really have a lot of control over how your Gradients are displayed, you get some quite sophisticated Gradient work in Flash using the combination of the Gradient Transform Tool, here and the Color Panel. Now if you like a particular Gradient that you created, you can save it to the Swatches Panel, right here. Let's go back and convert this into a Linear Gradient and let's change this and let's say we wanted to save this particular Gradient for use on other objects what you would do is take the Eyedropper Tool, and click inside of that Gradient there and then notice if I go back to the Color Panel, here the swatches Panel is connected to it and right there is that Gradient that I created-I can actually create a duplicate, notice that I have a little paint bucket there, I can create duplicates of those Colors. Now it's a Color swatch, I can also delete the swatch and then notice if I want to change it back I just take the Eyedropper and click on that Color swatch and so there is my Gradient back there. So you can use the swatches Panel to save any of those Gradients you've been working on that you want to then apply to other objects let's go ahead and create a rectangle and notice that the rectangle or the oval primitive, they will both have that same Gradient that I saved previously. So by now you should feel fairly comfortable with working with the drawing Tools in Flash and modifying the graphics you create with them. IF you don't feel quite there yet, practice and play more with some of the different Tools and Color settings that I've covered in the last two sections of this tutorial. You might try drawing some artwork for a project you want to create in Flash. Nothing will ever replace good old fashioned practice. There are a few additional techniques you need to learn about regarding modifying your Flash images, Blending Modes and Filters but each of these requires knowledge of the more advanced topic that I cover later in the tutorial, movie clip symbols. So these two graphic modifying topics will have to wait until after I've introduced you to symbols and movie clips a bit later in the tutorial. For now let me cover how to use non-Flash graphics in your projects including how to import Bitmap graphics, converting Bitmaps to Vector Graphics, editing and animating Bitmaps and much much more.