MACROMEDIA FLASH 8-FLASH, Use Manual

Page: 138 / 678

138 Drawing
Drawing polygons and stars
Using the PolyStar tool you can draw polygons or stars. You can choose the number of sides of
the polygon or the number of points on the star, from 3 to 32. You can also choose the depth
of the star points.
To draw a polygon or star:
1. Click and hold the mouse button on the Rectangle tool and drag to select the PolyStar tool
from the pop-up menu.
2. Select Window > Properties to view the Property inspector.
3. Select stroke and fill attributes in the Property inspector. See “Using the Stroke Color and
Fill Color controls in the Property inspector” on page 115 .
4.
Click the Options button in the Property inspector.
5.
In the Tool Settings dialog box, do the following:
■
For Style, select Polygon or Star.
■
For Number of Sides, enter a number between 3 and 32.
■
For Star Point Size, enter a number between 0 and 1 to specify the depth of the star
points. A number closer to 0 creates deeper points (like needles). If you are drawing a
polygon, leave this setting unchanged. (It does not affect the polygon shape.)
6.
Click OK to close the Tool Settings dialog box.
7.
Drag on the Stage.
Using the Pen tool
To draw precise paths as straight lines or smooth, flowing curves, you can use the Pen tool.
You can create straight or curved line segments and adjust the angle and length of straight
segments and the slope of curved segments.
When you draw with the Pen tool, you click to create points on straight line segments, and
click and drag to create points on curved line segments. You can adjust straight and curved
line segments by adjusting points on the line. You can convert curves to straight lines and the
reverse. You can also display points on lines that you create with other Flash drawing tools,
such as the Pencil, Brush, Line, Oval, or Rectangle tools, to adjust those lines. See
“Reshaping
lines and shape outlines” on page 146 .