Creating a Shape from the Toolbar

This lesson is all about getting to know the interface, and now is as good a time as any to learn how to create your own shapes. For this exercise, you'll use the Circle tool in the toolbar to create a circle.

The toolbar is located along the top of the Canvas window. Throughout this book, you'll be using tools from the toolbar. The tools are grouped into categories, including the View set, the Create set, and the Mask set.

Tools in the View set are used to change the view and manipulation method in the Canvas. The Create set contains tools that add new content, such as shapes and text, to the project. The Mask set contains tools to add a mask to an existing layer or object.

Motion has three types of Create tools:

• Shapes Create squares, rectangles, ovals, and circles.

• Bézier Create unusual or complex shapes.

• Text Create text.

In this exercise, you'll use the Circle tool to create a circle.

To create a circle, you select the Circle tool; then drag in the Canvas to create the shape. Let's try it. The Circle tool is located on the pop-up menu with the Rectangle tool.

1.	In the toolbar, click and hold the Rectangle tool to open the pop-up menu.
2.	From the menu, select the Circle tool. The Circle tool becomes visible in the Create tool set, and your cursor changes to crosshairs.
3.	Move the crosshairs cursor to the center of the Canvas, below the letter B in the word Background.
4.	Drag down and to the right. Release the mouse.

Congratulations. You've created a shape, and if you're lucky, it's a circle. If, instead, you created an oval, you can easily try again. This time, to make sure you get a circle, you will constrain the proportions. Try this next task even if you created a circle on the first tryyou'll find your next circle much easier to create.

First, you'll undo your work.