Adobe Flash Professional CS6 Adobe Flash Professional CS6 Classroom In A Book | Page 62

Editing shapes
When drawing in Flash, you’ll often start with the Rectangle and Oval tools. But to
create more complex graphics, you’ll use other tools to modify those base shapes.
The Free Transform tool, the Copy and Paste commands, and the Selection tool can
help transform the plain cylinder into a coffee cup.
Using the Free transform tool
The coffee cup will look more realistic if you taper the bottom rim. You’ll use the
Free Transform tool to change its overall shape. With the Free Transform tool, you
can change an object’s scale, rotation, or skew (the way it is slanted), or distort an
object by dragging control points around a bounding box.
1 In the Tools panel, select the Free Transform tool (
).
2 Drag the Free Transform tool around the cylinder on the Stage
to select it.
Transformation handles appear on the cylinder.
3 Press Ctrl/Command+Shift as you drag one of the lower corners
inward. Holding these keys while dragging lets you move both
corners the same distance simultaneously.
4 Click outside the shape to deselect it.
 Note: If you press
Alt or Option while
moving one of the
control points, the
selected object is
scaled relative to
its transformation
point, represented
by the circle icon.
You can move the
transformation point
anywhere, even outside
the object. Press Shift
to constrain the object
proportions. Press Ctrl/
Command to deform
the object from a single
control point.
The bottom of the cylinder is narrow, and the top is wide. It now
looks more like a coffee cup.
Using copy and paste
Use Copy and Paste commands to easily duplicate shapes on the Stage. You’ll set
the surface level of the coffee by copying and pasting the top rim of the coffee cup.
1 Choose the Selection tool. Hold down the Shift key and select
the top arc and bottom arc of the coffee cup opening.
2 Choose Edit > Copy (Ctrl/Command+C). The top strokes of the
oval are copied.
3 Choose Edit > Paste in Center (Ctrl/Command+V).
A duplicate oval appears on the Stage.
4 In the Tools panel, if it’s not already selected, select the Free Transform tool.
Transformation handles appear on the oval.
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