Fireworks 8 Dream Trip (5): New menu changes

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Previous section:Fireworks 8 Dream Trip (4): Other panels

Part II: Menu section

In Fireworks 8, there are some improvements to the menu, and it should be said that some commands play an important role in actual use. In this section, we focus on a few of the menu changes that are worth our attention, and we are not here to introduce any changes to the small details.

　　One, menu "edit | insert | polygon SLICE" command

The menu "edit | insert | slice" command, which is consistently maintained in the fireworks series, is replaced by the menu edit | insert | Rectangular SLICE command in fireworks 8, which corresponds to a new menu "edit | insert | polygon Slice" command, which is used Fireworks is a very effective menu command for friends who make Web pages, because some friends always try to be perfect when making pages, even for slicing settings. Although, in the previous version of Fireworks, you can insert a polygon slice through the property inspector, but for a complex variety of objects, the method of using a hand-drawn method to add a polygon slice is a huge effort, and now it's simple enough to require a single command to insert a complex, variable-shaped slice.

[Instance 1 inserting a complex polygon slice] to verify the efficiency of the menu edit | insert | Polygon Slice Command, we examine the various ways in which you can draw a Star automatic Shape object and deform it in the editing area.

(a), the basic shape of the polygon slice inserted.

1, open Fireworks, new files, file size, background color random.

2. On the Auto Shape Properties panel, click the Insert New auto Shape drop-down menu, select Star, make a setting for the properties of the Star Auto Shape object, set the point to 25, and leave the rest to the default settings.

3, select the Star object, press the "CTRL+J" key combination or click on the toolbar "merge" button, the path of the merge operation, so that the automatic Shape object into the Path object.

4, select the menu "edit | insert | polygon" command, the edit area will soon add a Star object with the same shape of the slice object.

[Hint:] The object source that requires the Insert Polygon Slice command operation must be a path object, an automatic Shape object, or a bitmap object, that does not add a slice of the polygon, but instead automatically adds a rectangular slice that overrides the size of the object. That's why we have to perform a "merge" path operation on the Star automatic object.

(ii), the polygon of the deformed object inserted.

1, through the Auto Shape Properties panel, insert the Star object. For the properties of the Star Auto Shape object, make a setting, and refer to the figure below.

2, after the relevant settings, the editing area of the star-shaped object will appear as shown in the following image of the effect, it should be said to be a very complex path object.

3. For the same reason, select the deformed Star object, press the "CTRL+J" key combination or click the "Merge" button on the toolbar to merge it into the path object.

4, select the menu "edit | insert | polygon" command, the edit area will also add a deformed star object with the same shape of the slice object.

[Hint:] By this example, as long as a single closed path, no matter how complex the path object is, it has no effect on inserting a polygon slice command.

(iii), manually drawn polygon slice inserts for complex shapes.

1. Select the "Pen" tool in the toolbox and draw a closed path object that you think is complex enough in the editing area.

2, select the menu "edit | insert | polygon" command, the edit area will also add a similar to the path object you draw the same shape of the polygon slice object.

[Note]: Be sure to perform the Insert Polygon Slice command on the closed path, and if it is an open path, Fireworks will automatically connect the start and start path nodes in a straight line to form a closed path and then insert a polygon slice.

(d) Inserts a polygon slice for a synthetic path object.

The above three examples are the individual path objects do insert polygon slicing operations, if we have multiple path objects to do the operation of the synthetic path, can also directly insert polygon slices, we will look at the actual operating results.

[Hint]: For the sake of understanding, we use only two path objects for the operation of the synthetic path, and then the synthetic path to insert the polygon cut edge operation.

1. Draw four objects in the editing area: Draw three star objects, set their points to a large number, draw a rectangular object, in order to facilitate understanding, we put it in the editing area first placed as shown in the following figure:

2, to be located in the above two objects for a group, the following two objects as a group, the position is made an adjustment, respectively, to the intersection of the state, the specific effect shown below.

[Note]: The placement can be placed according to personal circumstances, this example is only a general description, not a special case, I hope everyone attention.

3, successively on the above two objects, the following two objects execute menu "Modify | Synthetic path | UNION" command, the Edit area object is now shown in the following figure.

4. Next, we perform the menu "edit | insert | polygon Slice" command on up and down two synthetic path objects to see that the path object above does not insert a polygon slice as we expected, but instead inserts a rectangular slice, and the following path object inserts a polygon slice as required, Take a look at the effect of the following illustration to insert a new multilateral slice.

5, Next, we undo just the operation steps, back to the 2nd step of the operation. Then the menu "Modify | Synthetic path | merge" command is executed on the top two objects, followed by the menu "Modify | synthetic path | punch" command for the following two objects, the edit area object is now shown in the following figure.

6, the top and bottom two synthetic path objects execute Menu "edit | insert | polygon Slice" command, you can see the top and bottom two synthetic path objects are inserted rectangular slices, see the following figure effect.

[Summary]: For a separate path object, regardless of how complex the Path object is, use the menu edit | insert | Polygon Slice command to insert the same slice object as the same path object, but for a synthetic path object, a discrete path appears, all in the form of a rectangular slice. So, this requires us to have an end to the path object before inserting the polygon slices, and for this case where the synthetic path operation is required, avoid the generation of discontinuous paths so that you can insert the expected polygon slices. Finally look at a schematic to deepen the impression.

If it's a synthetic path, there is also a need to pay special attention to, even a continuous path, in some cases, there will be unable to insert polygon slices, that is, through the operation of the combined Path command to form the hollow effect of the synthetic path object, even if it is a closed path object, is still unable to achieve the desired effect after inserting the polygon slice command, but is inserted as a rectangular slice, please see the illustration below to deepen the understanding.

From the above, we conclude a relatively complete conclusion: if you need to insert the selected object into the Polygon slice command, you must ensure that the object is a separate closed path object .

For bitmap objects, if you want to insert a polygon slice, you need to use the menu that you want to introduce Next, "choose | Convert marquee to path" command to convert first to a Path object, and then use the command to insert a polygon slice to achieve the ultimate goal. Please look at a simple image operation diagram, the specific menu "choose | To convert Selection box to path" command, see below.

　　Two, menu "edit | library" command Group

Select the menu Edit | Library command, there are six library objects, including thumbs, themes, animations, bullets, buttons, and their Halo Lite, that appear in the following illustration of Fireworks 8, but there is no content in the Thumbs library object, but you don't know why.

In fact, in the previous section for the "library" Panel we have some introduction, now said the "Library" command and the "library" Panel is a certain relationship, but the two are not the same, this one needs attention.

Click any library object, where you select the Halo Lite Object, and the edit area appears with the Import Symbol dialog box, as shown in the following illustration, click any of the component objects, and then click the Import button to implement the import of the Component object.

The imported component objects appear automatically in the library panel, ready to be invoked at any time in the future.

　　Three, menu "select | Convert marquee to path" command

What would you have chosen if you had chosen Fireworks 8 to bring you the most significant changes? If it were me, I would choose the two commands that are about to be introduced in this section. The advent and improvement of these two commands make bitmap processing in Fireworks somewhat more flexible and more accurate for the control and selection of selections. With regard to the specific use of the two commands, we will do a detailed introduction by following the example operation.

In fact, many of the previous versions of fireworks have been taking pains to publicize their vector graphics processing power, and some friends in the understanding of fireworks and PS differences will come up with this thing. But Adobe's illustrator in vector graphics processing has been in the industry reputation is good, it should be said than Fireworks vector production, processing function is much stronger. The new "Convert Marquee to Path" command in Fireworks 8 should be a great step forward in the processing of vector graphics, and then we'll look at the power of this command by "making Vector cartoon characters".

　　Example 1 making vector characters

Please note that the title of the article is very clear, is "make", not "draw", we can distinguish. Kite oneself is not what art personage, also have no art foundation, do not pretend art worker here to teach everybody "draw" any graph effect, we in this example is to pass the ready-made bitmap drawing object, cooperate with the use of Fireworks 8 software to produce vector drawing object. Please look at the following produced Vector cartoon character modelling:

　　This case material file download (88KB, WinZip compressed file) source file Download (88KB, WinZip compressed file)

[Hint] Before starting this example, you can save the material file download to the local hard drive standby.

1, open Fireworks, new file. Import the material file provided in this example for later action.

2, select the Toolbox "Magic wand" tool, in the character object of the black contour of the click, you can quickly on the contour of the figure to achieve all selected.

3. Enlarge the view of the editing area and find that the contour of the face and the interior contour of the hair are not selected.

You can also use the SHIFT key to click on the Magic Wand to overlay the selection in an outline that has not been selected, and a simpler trick, which is also a very useful feature of Fireworks 8, which is the dynamic marquee.

Here you can increase the tolerance value, into more than 70 of the appearance, you can find that the remaining unselected those contour lines are also selected, so that the completion of the contour part of the selection work.

[Supplemental]: Introduction to the feature of the dynamic marquee

For previous Fireworks versions, if you were not satisfied with a selection of a bitmap object using the Magic Wand tool, you might need to make a change to the tolerance value and then select the selection again. In Fireworks 8, the introduction of the dynamic Marquee feature makes selection of selections easier, and you can first set an appropriate tolerance value for a bitmap object, and once you're not satisfied with the size of the selection, You can make further changes to the tolerance value directly on the property inspector, and the result of the change is immediately reflected in the selection, which is much more convenient for the control of the constituency.

For example, we need to make a selection of the shape of the cloud in the following figure.

Using the Magic Wand tool, set the tolerance value to "20" and then click in the golden portion of the cloud to appear in the selection.

A selection with a tolerance value of "20"

First, make sure that the check box for the dynamic marquee on the property Inspector is selected. Then you can make further adjustments to the tolerance value, by adjusting the size of the tolerance value, you can see that the selection on the edit area will change as the value of the tolerance changes quickly, and once you have the selection shape you need, You can end the adjustment of the value of the tolerance.

A selection with a tolerance value of "63"

A selection with a tolerance value of "94"

About the dynamic marquee introduction so much, for the understanding of the function needs to be through practice to concrete experience.

4, select the menu "SELECT | Convert marquee to path" command, you can convert the overall contour of the bitmap characters to the path object, as shown in the following figure.

5, the transformation of the contour path of the fill color set to black, stroke color set to No, so that the figure's path contour is completed.

6, next, in accordance with the 2nd to 4th steps of the operation, in turn, the rest of the characters to do the conversion to the path of the operation, the fill color and its stroke to do the corresponding settings, a vector of the characters will soon appear in the editing area, the production of this example will be declared over.

[Tip]: Before making a selection conversion to a path operation, you can select the color of the fill hole on the toolbox to the same color as the area that needs to be converted, so you can avoid any future adjustments to its color.

For example, next we're going to convert the hair region, you can use the Magic Wand tool to select the blue hair area, then select the Eyedropper tool for the toolbox, take a color on the hair area, set the color of the fill-color well to the appropriate color, and then execute the menu "SELECT | Convert marquee to path" command. The vector effect of the hair area is also one-step.

　　Iv. Menu "Modify | convert path to marquee" Command and menu "Select | Save bitmap selected" command

After a period of time, it is estimated that some friends of a functional change should be very uncomfortable, it is the original by the level board with the "CTRL" key to click the Path object layer, so as to quickly get the selection of the path object, but this practical function is not known why in Fireworks 8 Inexplicably and disappeared, personally think "convert the path to the Marquee" command is a disguised adjustment of this method of operation, of course, can not say inconvenient, but for accustomed to the old version of Fireworks users, but also to adapt to a sudden. If you combine the "Convert Path to Marquee" command with the "Save bitmap Selected" command, in the actual combat there is a lot of effect, below we through the production of the Olympic Rings flag effect, to the two commands and its associated command to make an understanding.

　　Example 2 making the Olympic Five Rings flag]

Before starting the tutorial, let's take a look at this example to make the finished picture.

　　source file Download (215KB, WinZip compressed file)

1, open Fireworks, new file, size, background color random.

2, open the Auto Shape Properties panel, insert the "doughnut" automatic Shape object, and then press the "Ctrl+d" key combination to clone the 2 "Face Circle" object, and select the editing area three path objects.

3, open the "Align" Panel, click the "Vertical Center" and "Horizontal Center Distribution" button, the three path objects in the horizontal direction of equidistant placement.

4. Select two Path objects at the same time, clone them and place them in the center position below the three rings, which can be accurately adjusted by the property inspector for their "X, Y" values. Adjustment, in turn, the Circle Path object's fill color to make a setting, the specific color settings we refer to the Olympic flag to do, the final color settings after the effect shown below.

5, press "CTRL + a" key combination, select the edit area of the Path object, and then clone them. For ease of operation, you can create a new layer on the layers board, and then drag and drop the cloned path object into the new layer.

6, select the cloned Blue ring object, select the menu "Modify | convert path to marquee" command, pop-up "convert Path to Marquee" dialog box, the edge can do "solid edge, anti-aliasing, feather," and so on three adjustments, this example selects the default anti-aliasing effect, click OK button.

7, now the clone of the blue ring object will disappear, generation is a circle-shaped selection box, do not cancel the selection box, then immediately select the Menu "Select | Save bitmap selected" command, in the pop-up "Save selected" dialog box, you can see that the contents of the Save marquee has been greatly enhanced, the other aside, All we need to do is type a name in the name box for the marquee we need to save, and click OK to finish saving the marquee.

[Hint]: for a marquee that needs to be saved, you can choose to save the marquee in this document or in another document (provided that you have more than one document object open on the workspace), or you can choose to have the selection box you want to save new This marquee is also a further calculation of the selections for the selection box with the other preselected marquee (if the command action you have selected to save the bitmap is in the corresponding Document object).

And we can also find that the operation of multiple constituencies is more comprehensive:

A. Add to the selected range (for the previous Fireworks version we are using the SHIFT key to add the operation of the selection); b. From the selected removal (this operation is implemented by matching the ALT key); c. With the selected crossover (this operation is done by using ALT + Shift key to implement) ".

8, Next, select the cloned yellow Ring path object, select the menu "Modify | convert path to marquee" command, and then select the menu "Choose | Save bitmap selected" command, named "Yellow", click OK button.

9, do not cancel the selection box on the edit area, and then select the menu "select | Restore Bitmap selected" name order, in the Resume selected dialog box that pops up, click the Down menu in the source area selected, select Blue, and in the action area, set the method to "intersect with selected" and click OK.

10, you can find the editing area of the cross selection appears, as shown in the following figure.

[Note]: We need to explain that the above steps are designed to create a two-ring nesting effect, by this step, the selection of the intersection of the blue and yellow rings has been obtained, but it is necessary to observe the Olympic flag to get the intersecting selections above, so we need to remove the intersecting constituencies below.

11, select the toolbox of the rectangular marquee tool, with the ALT key, the bottom of the intersection selection, so as to achieve the removal of the selection.

12, will fill the color of the well color set to blue, press "Alt+del" key combination, fast to the selection of the object to achieve color fill, after this step, the edit area on the red-yellow two ring nested effect appears.

13, next select the cloned Black ring object, or repeat the above several commands: First, select the menu "Modify | convert path to marquee" command, and then select the Menu "Select | Save bitmap selected" command, name it "Black", then select the menu "select | Restore Bitmap selected" name order, in the pop-up " To recover the selected dialog box, click the Down menu in the source area selected, select Yellow, and in the action area, set the method to "intersect with selected" and click the OK button.

14, the next reference to the operation of the 10th to 12th step, the manufacture of black rings and yellow ring nesting effect.

15, the next operation is no longer introduced, referring to the above steps to operate, in turn, black and green ring, green and red ring nesting respectively, you can have five-ring nesting effect.

16, next, through the property Inspector of the Filter menu command operation, to make a five-ring mark to make a progress of the effect of processing. First press the "CTRL + a" key combination to select all the objects in the edit area and then press "Ctrl+g" to combine them as an action object. Select the grouped object, and then follow the action for some of the next filter commands.

17, select the Filter menu "Miscellaneous points | Add miscellaneous points" command, the specific settings shown below.

18. Perform the Filter menu "Shadow and Flare | projection" command, as shown in the following figure.

19. Perform the Filter menu "Bevel and Emboss | Inside bevel" command, as shown in the following settings:

20, finally, to its implementation of the filter menu "Shadow and Halo | Spring Shadow" command, about the use of the filter commands, we will be in the next tutorial in detail, this example just refer to the following figure to set up.

21, the final effect of the production completed, save, exit.

[Note]: If you are working on a non-bitmap object, or if there are no selections on the edit area, even if you already have more than one saved marquee, the menu "select | Restore bitmap selected" command is still grayed out and unavailable. The solution is to either create a new selection or a new bitmap layer or object to activate the menu command.

[summary]: Through the study of this section, it feels like Fireworks 8 has made some progress in terms of constituency control and operation, but because there is no introduction of the channel concept, these functions seem to be a lot of thin, but for our daily applications, as long as the request is not too high bitmap graphics processing, Should be enough to deal with, the specific function or that sentence: personally practice it!

　　V. Menu "Command | creative | add Shadow" command

For the instruction of this command, we still use an example to illustrate that by making a concrete example of the perspective shadow, I believe you have a comprehensive understanding of how the command will be used.

　　Instance 3 Perspective Text effects

Before the tutorial begins, take a look at the effect chart as usual.

　　source file Download (72KB, WinZip compressed file)

1, open Fireworks 8, create a new file, size, background color random.

2. Draw a rectangular object in the editing area as the background of the editing area. The rectangle object takes a linear gradient fill, and in this case the fill color is set to #0054C1-#FFFFFF, and the fill effect is shown in the following illustration (the fill color can be set by itself).

3. Enter the text object in the edit area, this example text object's font adopts "Arial black", and it also makes a gradient fill setting, this example text object's fill color is set to "#0066CC-#000000", as shown in the following figure.

4, adjust the text object's gradient fill direction, the direction of the linear gradient from the horizontal adjustment to the vertical direction, the following figure.

5, select the text object, select the menu "Command | creative | Add Shadow" command, so you can quickly add a perspective shadow to the text object, as shown in the following figure.

6, in the added perspective Shadow object, we can find a total of two yellow diamond control points, move the mouse to the left side of the diamond control point, you will be prompted: "Direction: Click to reset", so we will call it "direction control point."

7, click the Direction control point, the added shadow object will automatically revert to the same size as the text object in the edit area, and the shadow object is below the text object, as shown in the following figure.

8, the moment simply by dragging the direction of control points, you can make a change in the direction of the shadow. In this case, we plan to cast the shadow in front of the text, so you should drag the direction control point below, as shown in the figure

9, after the adjustment of the direction control point, the shadow effect of the editing area will be shown in the following figure, perspective shadow effect has been basically presented. If you are not satisfied with the current effect, you can make a further adjustment by dragging the direction control point, or you can click the direction controller to return to the original state of the perspective shadow, and then adjust the direction of the perspective shadow again.

10, next look at another yellow diamond adjustment point role. On the corner of the perspective Shadow object, there is also a yellow diamond control point that moves the mouse over the control point to the prompt "pivot: Click to reset," which is used to control the effect of the perspective shadow's concrete pivot shape, which we will call "perspective control".

11, drag perspective control points, you can adjust the shadow object's perspective shape, as shown in the following figure, to the perspective control point to the right direction of the drag, so you can make a perspective shadow perspective shape adjustment, as shown in the following figure.

12. By dragging the perspective control point to the right, you can produce a perspective shadow effect as shown in the following illustration. As above, if you are not satisfied with the shape of the Perspective shadow, click the control point to revert to the factory settings for the Perspective shadow shape.

[Note]: If you still need to make further adjustments to the direction of the perspective shadow, you need to drag the direction control point to the left or right direction to make a horizontal transformation of the shape of the perspective shadow, as shown in the following figure.

If you need to adjust the fill color of the shadow, directly adjust the fill color well on the property inspector, and adjust the fill handle to make further subtle adjustments to the shadow effect. This example in the later part of the adjustment, the final effect shown in the following figure.

[Tip]: Menu "Command | creative | Add Shadow" command can only be applied to a path object or text object. It is not possible to do this command directly on bitmap objects, if you need to do perspective projection of bitmap objects, the method must be immediately thought of: first convert to a Path object, and then add a shadow. This is the positive solution!

　　Six, menu "command | batch execution command" command group

In the menu commands of Fireworks 8, the menu "command | batch execute Command" command group (how so clumsy, hehe) inside the integration of 11 for the Graphics object Common choice, deformation, and its filter operation, the details as shown in the following figure, we will make a brief introduction to it in turn.

1. Select All commands. All selected edit Area objects, feel redundant, even if we do not know the full choice of shortcut keys to "Ctrl + A", is to use the menu "select | all" command to do all the selected operation, but also faster than the choice of this menu, because after all, this "all" command belongs to the Level 2 menu, so the conclusion is: inconvenient Recommendation: Use the shortcut key "Ctrl + A" for all selected operations.

2, select the selected color, blur the selected, automatic color adjustment selected, sharpen the selected command. A few of the common filter commands are assembled here, combining the settings of the full selection command above, to infer that Fireworks 8 has the intention of the "Batch execution command" menu, which is to provide a quick way to implement graphical effects for the primary User Service, and from this point of view, The setting of these commands is more appropriate, which is more common.

3, the selected rotation 180 degrees, 270 degrees, 90 degrees command. Which is to integrate the transformation commands in the menu "modify | transform" command group into here, is the editing area of the object to do rotation adjustment, in the practical use of convenience and the use of Modify menu commands no big difference, we recommend: Select the object that needs to adjust the adjustment, click the right mouse button, the shortcut menu, Select the Transform menu command group to perform the associated transform operation.

4, rotate 180 degrees, 270 degrees, 90 degrees command. is to integrate the relevant adjustment commands in the menu "modify | canvas" command group into this area, which is the overall angle rotation adjustment of the canvas. In the specific use, it is recommended that the gray area outside the editing area right mouse button, the shortcut menu, select the "Canvas" menu command group to make the relevant adjustment work.

[Summary]: For beginners, is a good common batch of command set, for the relatively skilled users, you can choose to use the shortcut key or the right shortcut menu to do these operations, without regard to the existence of the new menu command group. :)

[Conclusion]: Through the above six sets of menu commands more detailed introduction, I believe that the Fireworks 8 inside the menu command has a more comprehensive understanding and understanding, I hope everyone in the actual combat can quickly and conveniently use these menus to serve us.