Overview

In this Chapter

Applying Flash 8 Filters

Animating Filter effects with Motion tweens

Comparing the Adjust Color filter and Advanced Color Effects

Working with Blends

Setting and modifying Timeline Effects

Importing custom Timeline Effects

In this chapter, we'll introduce you to the tools that Macromedia has added to the authoring environment to support expressiveness — a key theme that guided feature development for Flash 8. After several Flash product cycles that favored developers with code-oriented updates, Flash 8 tips the scales toward visual designers with some great new effects. Aside from better bitmap smoothing, improved text rendering, and more robust support for imported graphic files, Flash 8 comes loaded with a new Filters panel and a Blend menu built into the Property inspector.

If you've worked with other graphics programs, you'll appreciate the creative potential of these additions to Flash. If you've never used a filter or heard of a blend mode, you'll be relieved to discover how easy it is to apply these features and will be amazed at how much they can do to enhance your projects.