- When Lines Intersect Lines
- When Lines and Fills Interact
- When Shapes Interact
- Understanding Grouping
- Working with Grouped Elements
- Controlling the Stacking Order
- Editing Groups
- Aligning Elements
- Using the Complex Paint Modes with the Brush
- Applying Gradients to Multipart Shapes
- Using the Eraser Tool with Multiple Shapes
Applying Gradients to Multipart Shapes
As the characters and elements in your animations get more complex, you may wind up creating graphics made up of numerous parts. When applying gradients to multipart graphics, you have the choice of filling each part with its own separate gradient (as you learned to do in Chapter 3) or selecting several parts and applying one gradient to all of them.
To apply one gradient separately to multiple fills:
On the Stage, create a graphic made of several fills.
Select the fills to which you want to apply the same gradient.
To choose a gradient fill, do one of the following:
Click any fill-color box (in the Toolbox, the Property Inspector, or the Color Mixer panel), and from the pop-up swatch set, select a gradient.
In the Color Swatches panel, select a gradient.
Flash applies the fill to each selected shape separately (Figure 4.41). The full range of the gradient appears within each shape.
Figure 4.41 With several shapes selected (top), when you choose a gradient from a fill-color box or from the Color Swatches panel, Flash applies the gradient to each shape separately (bottom). The full range of the gradient fits within each shape.
Tip
You can also use the paint-bucket tool to apply separate gradients. Make sure that the Lock Fill modifier is deselected, choose the gradient you want, and then click the shapes to which you want to apply the gradient fills.
To spread one gradient across multiple fills:
On the Stage, create an object made of several fills.
On the Stage, select the fills to which you want to apply the gradient.
In the Toolbox, select the paint bucket.
Deselect the Lock Fill modifier.
Choose a gradient fill.
Flash applies the gradient to each shape separately.
On the Stage, use the paint bucket to click any of the selected fills.
Flash spreads a single gradient across all the selected fills (Figure 4.42).
Figure 4.42 When you use the paint-bucket tool to apply a gradient to multiple selected shapes, none of the selected objects contains the entire color range of the gradient. Each object opens a window onto part of the gradient within a behind-the-scenes bounding box that contains a single gradient.
Tip
You can also spread a single gradient across unselected fills using the paint-bucket tool. In the Toolbox, select the paint bucket's Lock Fill modifier. Click each unselected fill on the Stage. Flash spreads the gradient across the entire Stage ). Each shape you click reveals the portion of the gradient that corresponds to that location in the frame.