Gradient transparancy

1

hi
well i have another problem that im sure someone can help me with…

i have a flash movie… on top of that movie i want to have a white gradient that is transparent… so that the far side will be white, while the closer side will show the original movie
does any one know how to do this?
am i making sense?

thanks

2

Easy enough.

Create a new layer above all the others.

Open the “fill” and “mixer” panels.

here is a pic of the two panels open from my rayoflight tutorial

Select the rectangle creation tool.

Deselect the stroke.

In the fill panel, from the pull down, select “linier gradient”.

You’ll see the panel apear like the one in my picture above, with two handles discribing the gradient.

Select the tab on the side of the gradient that you wish to be solid, and in the swatch, choose the color white.

Select the other tab and again, in the swatch, choose white.

With this tab still selected, select the “fill” swatch in the “mixer” panel. Take the “alpha” slider in the mixer panel and move it to 0%.

Now discribe your rectangle on the stage.

For more info on how these two panels work together to produce alpha gradients check out my tutorial, “rayoflight revisited” at www.centerspin.com.

3

wow that was easy… why didnt i think of that…
thanks

4

It’s tricky. I lost track of it numerous times when I first started with Flash 5.0. I know a lot of people who’ve gone through their whole first year with Flash and never noticed that you could do that.

One thing you’ll learn quickly is to use the options tab to save the gradients that you make. As soon as you click on almost anything else in your movie, you’re likely to lose all the work you put into it.

keep in mind: alpha gradients with things moving behind them, are one of the biggest hogs of processor resources. If you find your animation running slow… it might be the problem.

Good luck to you, and happy flashing.