Nothing
says "This person knows their gradient fills" like shiny
orbs.
You've created them in Photoshop now create nice shiny
(vector based) glass orbs in Flash!
[here is
(roughly) what you'll end up with]
Enough Chit Chat show me how.
-
The
most important stage! Choose a nice bright primary colour
or use grey for plain glass. Then set your fill colour to
your desired shade. Set your line colour to a slightly
darker version of your fill colour.
[ The
colours I used ]
-
Create
a new Movie Clip symbol (Insert > New Symbol). Name it
something relevant ("Orb","Shiny" etc) and click OK.
Select the Oval tool and create a circle (hold down Shift)
approximately 200 pixels wide.
- Now
select the filled area of the circle and bring up the
Colour Mixer window.
On the Colour Mixer window click on the paint bucket to
make sure the fill is selected.
- Now
in the drop down menu select 'Linear Fill'. Your circle
will have a gradient fill fading from black on the left to
white on the right! Change the fill so that it starts with
a dark shade of your colour and ends with a light shade.
[ use the
colour mixer to perfect your fill ]
-
Now
select the "Fill Transform Tool" and click on your lovely
gradient fill.
Use the rotate fill handle to rotate the gradient fill
until the dark shade is at the top and the light shade is
at the bottom.
[ rotate the
fill until it looks something like this ]
-
Select the first filled circle and copy it (Ctrl+C),
create a new layer and "Paste it in Place" onto the new
layer (Ctrl+Shift+V).
-
Select the filled circle you have just made and go back
over to our old friend the Colour Mixer window.
This time select Radial Fill in the drop down box.
Set up the fill so that the outside of your circle is a
dark shade of your colour with an Alpha value of 70%.
Then set the inner colour's Alpha value to 0%.
[ set up
your second gradient fill ]
This
should create the shadow around the edge of your Orb.
[ hopefully
you'll have something like this! ]
-
Make
another copy of the circle by selecting the second filled
circle and copying it (Ctrl+C). Then create a new layer
and "Paste it in Place" onto the new layer (Ctrl+Shift+V).
-
Select
this new fill, go to the Colour Mixer window and select
radial fill from the drop down menu. Set up the fill so
that it blends from white with 100% Alpha value in the
centre to white at 0% Alpha at the edges.
[ the final
gradient fill part I! ]
-
Select
the "Fill Transform Tool" and move the fill vertically
upwards so that it's centre touches the top of the circle.
[ the final
gradient fill part II! ]
-
Select
this fill and use the Transform window to shrink the fill
horizontally by about 6%. Now use the cursor keys to move
the fill down a few pixels.
And hey presto a shiny orb to impress your friends and
family with!
[ the end
result! ]
Extra Stuff.
I added text to the layer below the final fill but
pictures, animations and roll over effects would look
awesome.
I hope
you find this tutorial useful. If you have any queries or
get stuck try the forums here at Kirupa.com for help.