Flash CS3 object transform tutorial

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The Free transform tool

This tools allows you to scale, rotate, skew and distort

The select tool

The select tool (arrow on top) strangely enough has two functions

• Select objects
• Distort objects

Default behavior of the select tool

If you click on an object or if you select it with a selection box you see this:

• A hooked cross icon
• A white circle in the middle of the selected object (or selected objects)

You then can move it around, but that's not what we are interested in right now.

A simple oval

Let's make a banana

Let's start with an oval drawn in object mode. See the picture above.

Make a rounded banana with the selection tool

• First, deselect everything (including the banana), e.g. click on the gray workspace area
• Select the select tool
• Then move it close to the stroke (outline).
• When the cursor turns into a curve, then hold down the mouse and drag

Select tool - curve icon

Here is a result, a nice banana:

A simple oval turned into a banana

Make sharper ends

• Copy the banana
• Again, deselect everything
• Then hold down the ALT key and slowly search around the ends of the banana.
• If you see the angle icon, then drag.

Select tool - curve icon

Result: two bananas of different shape:

A sharp and a round banana

The Subselection tool

Allows envelope transformations

The erase tool

The erase tool allows you to carve objects. In the options / controls in the tool panel, you can change the way the erasor works.

Erasing shapes (drawn in merge mode) and graphics objects (drawn in object mode) doesn't lead exactly to the same results. When you carve an object it remains an object. When you carve a (single) shape it will divide into other shapes.

We not explain much here, better try it out ...

• Draw three nice fat ovals with a fat stroke. Two of them overlapping
• Then, select the erasor mode. This works like the paint tool
• Use Ctrl-Z to undo what you have done .... so you can try other options.

Erasor modes

Here are the modes:

• Erase normal: Will erase as you paint
• Erase fill: Will only erase fills (paint)
• Erase lines: Will only erase strokes (lines, contours of objects)
• Erase selected fills: Will only erase fills that you have selected (hold down the SHIFT key to select several)
• Erase inside: Will erase fills inside an object if you start erasing inside the object.

The faucet

• Will kill any shape on which you click. It makes a distinction though between the stroke and the fill of an object.

Erasor shape

• You can select different sizes of circles and rectangles
• Use rectangles to carve off rectangles and circles to carve of round stuff.