This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Flipping, Rotating, and Skewing
Flash lets you flip, rotate, and skew selected elements. You can either manipulate elements freely with the free-transform tool’s Rotate and Skew modifier or use a variety of commands to do the job with more precision.
To flip a graphic element
- Select the element you want to flip.
- Choose Modify > Transform.
- From the submenu
, do one of the following:
- To reorient the element so that it spins 180 degrees around its horizontal central axis (like a Rolodex card file), choose Flip Vertical.
- To reorient the element so that it spins 180 degrees around its vertical central axis (like a weathervane), choose Flip Horizontal.
)
The accompanying figure 
shows the results of the two types of flipping.
These are the results of flipping an element by using the Flip commands in the Modify > Transform submenu.
To rotate an element by a user-specified amount
- Select the element and access the Transform panel
. If the panel isn’t open, choose Window > Transform.
You can use the Transform panel to rotate graphic elements in precise increments. Select the Rotate radio button and use the hot-text control to enter a value for the degrees of rotation. Positive values rotate the element clockwise; negative values rotate it counterclockwise. - Select the Rotate radio button.
- To specify the direction and amount of rotation, do one of the following:
- To rotate the element counterclockwise, use the Rotate hot-text control to enter a negative value (–0.1 to –360).
- To rotate the element clockwise, use the Rotate hot-text control to enter a positive value (0.1 to 360).
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When you work with drawing-objects and primitive-shapes, you can undo changes in width, height, rotation, and skewing at any time, even after you’ve deselected the item and made changes to other items. To restore the original Width, Height, Rotate, and Skew settings, select the item and click the Remove Transform button 
in the lower-right corner of the Transform panel.
To skew an element by a user-specified amount
- Select the element you want to skew and access the Transform panel.
- Select the Skew radio button.
- Use the Skew Horizontal and Skew Vertical hot-text controls to enter the desired skew values
.
Use the Transform panel to skew selected elements. You can set separate values for horizontal and vertical skewing.
To rotate or skew an element interactively
- Select an element to rotate or skew.
- In the Tools panel, select the free-transform tool. Then select the Rotate and Skew modifier
.
Select the free-transform tool’s Rotate and Skew modifier to access handles for rotating or skewing a selected element interactively.A transform box (similar to the element’s bounding box but with square handles) encloses the element.
- To modify the selected element, do one or both of the following:
- To rotate the element, position the pointer over one of the corner handles. The pointer changes to a circular arrow. Drag to rotate the element around its transformation point
.
With the free-transform tool’s Rotate and Skew modifier selected, you can drag one of the corner handles of a selected element’s transform box to rotate that element (top), or drag one of the side handles to skew the element (bottom). - To skew the element, position the pointer over one of the side handles of the transform box. The pointer changes to a two-way arrowhead. Drag the side handle to skew the element.
- To rotate the element, position the pointer over one of the corner handles. The pointer changes to a circular arrow. Drag to rotate the element around its transformation point
- Release the mouse button.
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Use the free-transform tool’s Distort modifier 
to change the shape of the transform box by individually dragging each corner handle 
. The Distort modifier works only on merge-shapes and single, selected drawing-objects; Distort doesn’t work on primitive-shapes, text fields, groups, symbols, or selections with multiple drawing-objects.
The free-transform tool’s Distort modifier lets you move individual transform handles to modify shapes.
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The free-transform tool’s Envelope modifier 
turns each handle of the transform box into a Bézier-style anchor point with handles for adjusting curves. You can edit the shape the of the bounding box as you would a Bézier path 
.
The free-transform tool’s Envelope modifier displays a set of Bézier-like handles for modifying a shape. By changing the path of the bounding box you change the shape(s) inside it.
Adding Perspective
As beginning art students discover, it’s not difficult to add depth to two-dimensional objects made up of rectangular shapes. You adjust the appropriate edges to align with imaginary parallel lines that converge at a distant point on the horizon—the vanishing point. Doing so creates the illusion that the objects recede into the distance. The free-transform tool’s Distort modifier can help you create the same illusion for nonrectangular shapes because it encloses your selected shape—circle, oval, or squiggle—within a rectangular transform box. You can drag each handle of the box so that the sides of the box angle inward like converging perspective lines. The shapes within adjust accordingly.
Flash CS6 also provides more sophisticated tools for putting two-dimensional objects into three-dimensional space. The 3D-rotation and 3D-translation tools work only on movie-clip symbols (which you’ll learn to create in Chapter 7). With Flash’s 3D tools you can rotate and position movie clips not only along the x-axis and y-axis (for horizontal and vertical positions, respectively) but also along the z-axis (for depth), redrawing the object to make it appear to recede into space. (Using 3D tools to create artwork that simulates three-dimensional environments is a complex technique and is beyond the scope of this book.)
After you learn to create symbols, try applying the 3D tools to a movie-clip symbol containing a simple shape, such as a square. Experimenting at this basic level gives you a feel for how the tools distort the movie clip’s “plane” to create the 3D illusion.
Note that the 3D-rotation and 3D-translation tools available in the authoring environment do not create objects that take advantage of the new Stage 3D architecture in Flash Player 11.