Using Ink Effects

Ink effects are special color effects that can be applied by paint tools when you create or edit an image. Each paint tool offers a different set of ink effects. (The only tool that offers every ink effect is the Brush, and the only ink effect offered by every paint tool is Normal.)

Ink effects in the Paint window should not be confused with ink effects in the Score. (See Chapter 3, "Building a Score," for information on the latter.) Ink effects applied to sprites in the Score can be changed at any time. By contrast, ink affects applied in the Paint window affect the actual pixels that make up a cast member, and therefore are permanent.

Even though ink effects in the Paint window are different from those used in the Score, some of them may have names in common. See the sidebar "Paint window Ink Effects" for a description of what each ink effect does.

To use an ink effect:

1. Select a tool in the Paint Tool palette.

2. Click the Ink menu at the bottom of the Paint window ( Figure 6.49 ).

   Figure 6.49. The Ink menu is located at the bottom of the Paint window. Here's how it looks when it's closed...

   

   The Ink pop-up menu appears ( Figure 6.50 ).

   Figure 6.50. ...and here's how the Ink menu looks when it's open .

   

3. Choose an ink effect.

   Depending on the tool you've chosen , some of the ink effects may be unavailable.

Tip

• When you choose an ink effect for a tool, that ink effect "sticks" to the toolthat is, it will remain in effect whenever you use that tool unless you explicitly choose a different ink effect. To turn off this behavior, open the Paint Preferences dialog box and deselect Remember Ink.

Paint Window Ink Effects

Normal This is the default setting, which is no ink effect at all. Paint tools use the currently selected foreground color and pattern.

Transparent The background color used in patterns becomes transparent, allowing you to see artwork behind the pattern.

Reverse Any color that you paint over changes to its opposite color. Reverse ink is not affected by the currently selected foreground and background colors.

Ghost Instead of the foreground color, tools paint with the currently selected background color.

Gradient Tools paint with two or more smoothly blended colors, specified by the current gradient settings.

Reveal Reveal ink makes use of the previous cast member. As you paint with Reveal ink, you "uncover" the bitmapped cast member that precedes this one in the Cast window.

Cycle As you paint with Cycle ink, the color constantly changes, cycling through all the colors in the color palette between the current foreground color and the current gradient destination color.

Switch If you paint over any pixels of the current foreground color, they are changed to the gradient destination color. Pixels of other colors are unaffected.

Blend All pixels that you paint over (including white background pixels) are mixed with the current foreground color. You can set the degree of blending in the Paint window Preferences dialog box.

Darkest When you paint over pixels of a different color, the overlapping areas display the darker of the two colors.

Lightest This effect works like the Darkest ink effect, except the overlapping areas display the lighter of the two colors.

Darken Darken ink reduces the brightness of artwork as you paint over it. You can set the rate of darkening in the Paint window Preferences dialog box.

Lighten Lighten ink increases the brightness of artwork as you paint over it. You can set the rate of lightening in the Paint window Preferences dialog box.

Smooth Smooth ink blurs artwork as you paint over it. It's useful for smoothing out jagged edges.

Smear Smear ink works only with the Brush tool. It causes existing artwork to spread or smear as you drag the Brush across it. The smear occurs in the direction you drag the Brush.

Smudge Smudge ink is similar to smear ink, but spreads colors in a manner resembling charcoal or pastels.

Spread Spread ink works only with the Brush tool. It paints with whatever color or pattern is beneath the Brush when you start to drag it.

Clipboard This ink uses the contents of the Clipboard as a substitute for the current brush shape and color.