Touring the Toolbox

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The Flash MX Toolbox holds two new tools: the free transform tool and the fill transform tool (Figure 2.1). Actually, these tools are reincarnations and extensions of functions that were available only as modifiers of other tools in previous versions of Flash. Transformation functions that used to be an option for the selection arrow tool are now consolidated in the free-transform tool. The paint bucket's former transform-fill modifier has transmogrified into the fill-transform tool. As a tool in the Toolbox, with modifiers of its own, the free-transform tool is easier to access and more powerful than its antecedents . The tool's Distort modifier allows you to distort shapes freely to simulate 2D and 3D perspective. The Envelope modifier enables you to reshape the bounding box of a selection by using B zier curves.

Figure 2.1. The Toolbox contains tools for drawing, editing, and manipulating graphic elements in Flash. The Colors section allows you to assign stroke and fill colors. The Options section displays modifiers appropriate to the currently selected tool.

What Are Strokes and Fills?

Stroke and fill are two terms you will encounter often in graphics programs, and Flash is no exception. What do these terms mean? Basically, a stroke is an outline, and a fill is a solid shape. Picture a coloring book in pristine condition, with simple black lines creating the pictures: Those lines are strokes. When you fill in the areas outlined by strokes ”say, with crayon ”that colorful area is the fill. In a coloring book, you always start with an outline and create the fill inside it. In Flash, you can work the other way around ”start with a solid shape and then create the outline around it as a separate object.

Flash's oval and rectangle tools allow you to create an element that's just a stroke or just a fill or to create the stroke and fill elements simultaneously . The line tool, as you might guess, creates only strokes. The pen tool can create both strokes and fills.

The concept of fills and strokes is a bit trickier to grasp in relation to the brush tool. This tool creates fills. Though these fills may look like lines or brush strokes, they are really shapes you can outline with a stroke. Flash provides special tools for adding, editing, and removing strokes and fills: the ink bottle , the paint bucket, and the faucet eraser. Chapter 3 discusses these tools in greater detail.

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