Having trouble with shiny orbs tutorial [renamed]

programming flash
1

Hello all,

I’ve not long been playing with Flash, and have started trying out the shiny orbs tutorial (http://www.kirupa.com/developer/mx2004/shinyorbs.htm) and I can only get so far.

I do all the radial, alpha business, but when I put one of the circles over another, it just covers it; despite it being on alpha 0.

This is the angriest I’ve ever gotten and am about to storm out of the house in rage…

Any help would be ever so much appreciated. :frowning:

2

can we see your fla?

PS. I’m at school, and MX format (not 2004) would let me look at it.

3

Here ya go :slight_smile:

4

This requires doing a “Save As” and choosing “MX format”. Your file posted above is still MX2004.

:hr:

5

Eep, sorry.

6

If you place a shape (no matter what color/alpha) over top another shape (note shape ie fill NOT symbol) it will cut out the fill below it. You need to use seperate layers or symbols. I think that might be your problem.

7

Hey dude made one up for ya, hope this helps… hey a tip is to use a thick outline, and add a drop shadow. also as Jerez said if you draw a shape on another shape directly it cuts it out ( unless using groups or layers…) The highlight is made by using a linear gradient from like 60% alpha white to like 10% alpha)

any questions gimme a shout. Pix

8

OK, I’ve started again and it had improved, but still looks like a mess; not how it should do.

If anyone could point out what I’ve done wrong (again) and how to sort it, I would be ever so grateful.

Thanks for your replies and help as well :slight_smile:

9

U need to look at using the “transform fill” tool on the main toolbar - and experiment creating the exact gradient by using the eye-dropper tool and colour mixer pallette -

The gradient type - set it to linear
create a layer above the gradient … create a circle, and make a gradient from white to white, one side like 20% alpha and the other 0% alpha ( this gives you a highlight that fades into the bg), play with the circle highlight to get it to look like the one in the sample attached

  • Also when using a stroke around the edge of your orb, always use the colour of the darkest part of your main gradient, this will make the stroke and gradient bleed ihnto each other…

Its quite simple, if you meticulously descontruct each part of the orb and try to recreate it exactly- play as much with gradients , colours and shadows… as much as possible… flash is 99% fiddling and copying other peoples stuff till u got it waxed…

Hope this helps…?

10

Cheers everyone! Got it sorted now! :smiley:

Just… one more problem. my circle at the bottom goes points (hexagon like) and I was wondering if I’ve done something wrong again? it has done this a few times.

Just wondering if it’s a common thing and if there’s a way of sorting it.

Cheers. :slight_smile:

x

11

The omly thing I can think of is that you are using the direct select tool, rather use the black pointer toool to select / move your circles - the white pointer tool is for editing the points that make up the circle… other than that, I have no idea what youre on aobut… ?

12

Okay, sorted, just needed to make it a movie clip and it fixed it.

Cheers y’all. :smiley:

13

Arg. I’m trying to copy this orb into another flash file, but it’s not wanting to do it properly. The center of the orb goes when it’s pasted (the 20% alpha white and 0% alpha white).

Is this not possible? I’m trying to make it a shape tween, you see.

14

First select all the items that make up the orb.
Ctrl X to cut them all
CtrlV to paste them all on the same layer
CtrlG to group them as one
(F8 to make a symbol of them is you wish to use alpha tweens later)
This should allow you to copy the Orb to any swf file…

Otherwise off the top of my head…

You can only shape tween non-grouped items. eg you can make a triangle shape-tween to two squares etc… but shape tweens are almost never used… If you want to move the orb over time …eg across the screen from right to left - ( u can only mtion tween the same object to the same object one its own layer at one time) - place the grouped orb at eg frame 1, go to frame 40 and press F6 ( insert keyframe), move the orb in frame 40 across the screen, make it bigger, rotate it etc ( dont ungroup it), click between the two keyframes and set it to motion tween… you will see the results.

Read up on mtion tweens vs shape tweens to see what I mean … PS I havent used a shape tween for over 5 years ( since flash4).

ps if you are having difficulty copying the orb - remember that it is made of grouped objects sitting on top of each other ( like pages in a book), all these objects need to be separately grouped from the bottom up, before being copied… hope this helps

Reading a bit of the newbi help available regarding, grouping, breaking apart, creating symbols and moviw clips, motion tweens vs shape tweens, and gradients and fills will help a lot - ( No offense if you allready know about all of this)

Hope this helps. Caio Pixi