Overview

In This Chapter

Using shape and drawing tools

Working with Drawing Objects

Setting Brush and Eraser modes

Creating optimized lines and curves

Choosing fill and stroke styles

Using selection tools and options

Controlling snapping behavior

Aligning, scaling, and rotating artwork

Knowing the Edit menu commands

This chapter introduces the primary tools for creating and manipulating vector graphics in Flash, as well as some features of the Flash environment that affect how elements behave. The primary drawing tools have self-explanatory names: the Line, Oval, Rectangle, PolyStar, Pencil, Brush, and Eraser. However, these tools all have a variety of options and modifiers that make them more sophisticated than they may at first appear. In this chapter, you learn to apply the primary options of these tools to create shapes and line art.

The selection tools — Selection (arrow), Lasso, and Subselection — are found in the top section of the Tools panel and these work as your "hands" within the drawing space of Flash, enabling you to select elements or grab and adjust specific parts of a shape or line.

The Pen is a powerful tool that draws lines by laying down editable points. You use both the Pen and Subselection tools to manipulate the points; you can also use them to select and edit all lines and shapes to manually optimize artwork.

The built-in shape-creation tools of Flash and the adjustable shape-recognition settings make it easy even for people who "can't draw a straight line" to create usable elements for Flash interfaces.

In addition to drawing, in this chapter, you also learn to apply some of the terrific tools Flash provides to help you organize and align elements as you create layouts.

The primary drawing tools — Line, Oval, Rectangle, PolyStar, Pencil, Brush, and Eraser — can be divided into two groups: geometric shapes and freehand lines and strokes. Line, Oval, Rectangle, and PolyStar fall into the first category; Pencil, Brush, and Eraser fall into the second. The PolyStar tool was a valuable Flash MX 2004 addition to the default Tools panel. You can find it in the Rectangle tool submenu and use it to create a variety of shapes, from triangles to fancy starbursts.