Lesson 3: Adding Objects to the Props Layer

Just as you imagine, you need some props for your scene. You need to make some mountains, a tree and the sun shining in the sky.

1. Select the Pencil tool and select dark green line and fill colors from the line and fill boxes in the Colors box under the Toolbox.

2. With the Props layer selected, use the Pencil tool to draw mountains covering the lower one third to one half of the stage. Be sure to connect the beginning and ending line. You must have a closed area to fill.

Note

Be careful to select the first frame in the layer you are working on. You can lock the layers you don’t want to change by clicking in the column headed by the lock icon on the layer name pane.

3. Select the Paint Bucket tool and click inside the mountains. If the area does not fill with the green color, you can select the Gap Size tool modifier (with the Paint Bucket selected) and choose to close large gaps. You will need to do this only if your lines don’t completely connect.

4. Select the Pencil tool again and draw a pine tree on the left side of the stage on top of the mountain. Select the Paint Bucket tool and select a lighter shade of green this time and use the Paint Bucket to fill the tree.

5. Select the Oval tool from the Toolbox and select a yellow fill and line color from the Colors boxes under the Toolbox. Draw a small circle in the upper left portion of the stage. When you finish your drawing should look something like that in Figure 2.

The airplane object must be created from shapes. It is probably easiest to use the Oval tool to create basic shapes and then morph then into wings and body.

1. Be sure to select the first frame on the Plane1 layer before creating objects.

2. Select the Oval tool and select a bright shade of pink (or whatever color you like for the plane) from the Fill palette. Draw two long ovals horizontally on the stage. You can also use Edit >Duplicate when the first oval is selected to create an additional oval.

3. Select one oval to be the wings and use the Arrow tool Rotate modifier to rotate it to a position that appears to be the correct angle for wings. Before you move the wings oval onto the body, you may want to use the Rotate modifier to skew it so that it appears to be slanted. Grab one of the round tags created by the Rotate modifier and push or pull to give a perspective slant to the wings.

Note

The Rotate modifier is found in the Options box below the Toolbox. It becomes active when the Arrow tool and an object are selected.

4. Use the Arrow tool to position the wings over the horizontal oval the represents the airplane body.

5. If you wish, you can morph the end of the plane body into a tail shape. Make sure neither the body’s line nor fill is selected. Select the Arrow tool and bring it very close to the back end of the plane. But, be careful not to select it. When you see the arc symbol form below the Arrow, you can click and drag to pull the shape upward to create a tail. If you find that the body oval moves its position instead of changing shape, that indicates that it was selected. Just select Undo from the Edit menu to return to the original shape.

Note

While the Arrow tool is touching a line, either a right angle symbol (it looks like a corner) or an arc symbol will appear below the cursor. The angle means that if you drag the line at that point, it will pull into a straight angle, and the arc signifies that any manipulating will give the line a curve.

6. Select the plane by double clicking the Arrow tool on the two ovals. You can hold down the shift key to select both. Be sure all parts of the plane are selected.

Note

When both line and fill are selected, the fill appears in a crosshatched pattern and the line becomes darker and thicker.

7. Select Insert >Convert to Symbol to create a symbol from the airplane object. This will allow you to move it around without distorting it. It will also allow you to reuse it. Symbols are visible in the Library window and on the Library list.

Figure 5

8. Now that the plane is a symbol it will be easy to move it, so move it over to the left edge of the screen near the sun.

You are going to reuse the plane symbol by using another Instance of it. You are also going to use the Library to access the new symbol.

1. Select Window >Library to view the Library list.

2. Select the first frame in the Plane2 layer. Select the Plane symbol name in the Library name pane. The Plane will become visible in the window.

3. Click and drag the plane onto the stage. Select Modify >Transform >Flip Horizontal to turn the plane toward the other plane. Position the new plane instance on the far right of the stage.

4. Select Window >Panels >Effect while the new plane is selected. Click the list box and select Tint. Select a bright blue from the Tint Color Palette or click in the mixer area at the bottom of the Effect window. The instance of the symbol is now a different color from the original.

Figure 6

Go on to Lesson 6 >>

Previous Page     Return to Beginning