Using the Paint Bucket

I l @ ve RuBoard

The paint-bucket tool lets you fill the inside of a closed shape with a solid color. You can also use the paint bucket to change the color of an existing fill. The oval and rectangle tools automatically create closed shapes that are easy to fill. If you draw a shape yourself, it may have some small gaps. You can have Flash ignore these gaps and fill the basic shape anyway.

In addition to filling with solid colors, the paint-bucket tool can fill shapes with gradients or bitmapped patterns (see Chapter 3).

To fill an outline shape with a solid color:

1. In the Toolbox, select the paint-bucket tool by clicking the paint-bucket icon, or press K.

   The paint-bucket icon is highlighted in the Toolbox, and the Gap Size menu and Lock fill modifier appear in the Options section of the Toolbox (Figure 2.41).

   Figure 2.41. The paint-bucket tool and its modifiers.

   

2. From the Toolbox's fill-color box, the Color Mixer panel, or the Property Inspector, select a fill color.

3. Place the paint bucket's hot spot (the tip of the drip of paint) somewhere inside an outline shape, and click (Figure 2.42).

   Figure 2.42. The hot spot on the paint-bucket tool is the little drip at the end of the spilling paint. The hot spot changes to white when you move the paint bucket over a darker color.

   

   The shape fills with the currently selected fill color (Figure 2.43).

   Figure 2.43. Clicking inside an outline shape with the paint bucket (top) fills the shape with the currently selected color (bottom).

   

To set gap closure:

1. With the paint bucket selected, from the Gap Size menu in the Options section of the Toolbox, choose a setting (Figure 2.44).

   Figure 2.44. The Gap Size pop-up menu controls Flash's capability to fill shapes that aren't fully closed.

   

   Flash presents four options for filling gaps.

2. Choose the amount of assistance you want.

   If you draw your shapes precisely, medium or small gap closure serves you best; you don't want Flash to fill areas that are not meant to be shapes. If your drawings are rougher, choose Close Large Gaps. This setting enables Flash to recognize less-complete shapes.

Tips

• You may be unaware that your shape has any gaps. If nothing happens when you click inside a shape with the paint bucket, try changing the Gap Size setting.

• Gap-closure settings are relative to the amount of magnification you're using to view the Stage. If the paint bucket's largest gap-closure setting fails at your current magnification, try again after reducing magnification (Figure 2.45).

  Figure 2.45. The paint bucket cannot fill this apple shape with the setting of Close Large Gaps and a magnification of 100 percent (left). But in a 50 percent view, the paint bucket with the same large-gap closure setting recognizes this shape as complete and fills it.

  

I l @ ve RuBoard