Flash CS5: The Missing Manual

Drawing a Shape

Flash graphics are made up of two primary elements: strokes and fills. Strokes may vary in thickness, but they look like lines. A stroke may be a single straight line, a curved line, or a complex series of connected lines. Strokes can also be dotted or dashed lines. Fills are colored shapes or surface areas. A fill may take on a common shape, such as a rectangle or an oval, or a fill may be a complex shape, such as a cartoon character's head. When you're drawing, you can create strokes and fills independently or together. For example, using the Rectangle tool, you can create a rectangle that has a stroke outline and a fill that colors the surface. Here's how to do it:

1. With a new Flash document open, click the Rectangle tool in the Tools panel, or just press the shortcut key, R.

   When a tool is selected, the button in the Tools panel has a distinctive pushed-in look. The Properties panel changes to display Rectangle Tool properties, as shown in Figure 2-6. A subpanel displays Fill and Stroke properties.

   

   Figure 2-6. When you choose the Rectangle tool (R), the label at the top of the Properties panel says "Rectangle Tool," and the panel displays properties related to a rectangle, such as the color of the stroke and fill. Here, the color for the rectangle's stroke is being changed.

2. Click the color swatch next to the pencil.

   When you click the color swatch, a panel filled with ...