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Drop
Shadows in Flash
written by Chris Georgenes |
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| This tutorial demonstrates how to create drop shadows
in Flash..By the end of this
tutorial you will have made an illustration similar to this: |
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- Use any of the shape tools or drawing tools to create a shape
- doesn't matter what it is - just keep it simple for now.
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| 2. With the arrow tool (black arrow) select your
shape (or CTRL + A). Now copy this shape (CTRL + C). Create a
new layer and move it so it is below Layer 1. Paste in place
(CTRL + SHIFT + V) into Layer 2 and use the arrow tools to nudge
it over to the right and slightly below original position. |
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| 3. Open the Mixer Panel and slect black as the
fill color. Then use the Alpha slider to add about 20% transparency
to the black fill. From the drop down menu select add thia swatch
(optional).If the shape in layer 2 is still selected, it's fill
color should now be updated with our new semi-transparent black
color. If not, simply use the fill bucket and manually fill the
shape with this new color. |
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| 4. Select the shadow shape in layer 2 and from
the Modify drop down menu, select Shape > Soften Fill Edges. |
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| 5. In the "Soften Fill Edges" options window, you
can customize the distance and number of steps the shape will
be "softened". Your own experiments will be necessary to detirmine
the amount of softness you want. Select "Expand" to make your
shape dither outward (this will make the shape slightly larger
depending on the amount of steps you detirmined). Select "Inset"
to make the shape dither inward (not recommended for thid drop
shadow effect). |
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This is how Flash "softens" an object. I have magnified
our shape quite a bit to show you how Flash creates this effect.
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| Done! |
I hope this lesson helps you. I have provided the source file for you to download
and play around with. If you have any questions feel free to drop me an email
or IM me: |
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Download source (Flash MX) |
